Marketing and Communications
The marketing trifecta?
Can we call brand, marketing and communications the trifecta of marketing? They are all delicately intertwined and mutually dependent, but each requires a detailed and individual approach that is an art in itself. A little while ago I was driving down Sheik Zayed Road here in Dubai and noticed some out-of-home (OOH) placements whirling by, and I thought to myself, how odd that Lonely Planet is doing OOH advertising and at such a frequency. Only after slowing down did I realise it was actually Nissan, the ‘thin, light and flexible’ new logo as described by Nissan’s Senior Vice President of Global Design Alfonso Albaisa.
Now, clearly I’m late to the Nissan party (silver lining: I can spot the logo miles away after this short little piece of investigative research) but it’s a good example of the importance of branding and how you grow awareness over time. Brand is always going to be your legacy, it is your identity that audiences recognise and associate with your offering, and therefore it is what you invest in through your marketing. You need to build a brand that reflects your business personality, delves into the how and why of your business, what your mission is and it needs to be something you can execute cross channel.
Beyond the 4Ps
Against this backdrop we delve into the world of marketing and communications. Marketing is all about creating the consideration and demand for your product or services, and I personally believe that you need to find the perfect balance between strategic thinking and tactical promotion to make it work efficiently. At a theoretical level we hear about the four Ps – product, price, place and promotion (Chartered Institute of Marketing alum speaking over here!) but in the digital age, these areas have more depth than ever before.
Omni-channel marketing: the convergence of online and offline
From understanding new product launches (re-visit what we talked about for go-to-market and the marketing dependency becomes clearer now, no?) and product development cycles to dissecting the online and offline spaces through an omni-channel marketing mix, the marketing funnel is a canvas of opportunities.
The key to success is first and foremost understanding your audience and their affinity with your product or service, and overlaying this onto your messaging framework (cue communications…) and their media consumption habits to build an end-to-end funnel where you are clear on your customer touch-points, and can measure the efficacy of this model you have built.
We could go into much more detail here, but let’s save that for a conversation, or a one-day blog article.
Dissecting communications
The final piece, communications. When someone says communications, it’s hard to decipher what that exactly means. Are we talking about internal, external? What about PR or crisis communications? And where do public affairs or policy come into play? Arguably, under this broad and beautiful term lie all of these different elements of communications with the intent of sharing information effectively with the intended audience, while delivering the key messages.
On a personal level, communications is the lens through which I view the world. My team knows that whenever they hand me a presentation, talking points, a press release… anything really (but especially the first two) they will get it back with 80-85% redlined mark-up. Why?
Because I’m meticulous about landing the right message and transferring knowledge to my audience.
Twenty questions to tell a story
If there are statistics or numbers in the document, how do they weave together to tell a story, does the flow make sense? What about the relevancy of the information we are sharing, are we tying it to a topic on the current public agenda, will the audience care? When it comes to risk management and tough, really tough questions, are our answers solid enough? Have we created a stakeholder a Question and Answer (Q&A) document for this media briefing, product launch, crisis or anything else?
Strategic thinking should be your foundation
As a brand you need to understand the macro-and-micro socio-economic environment within which you are executing. You need to consider networking with media and new forms of citizen journalists and media types… your copy should include SEO considerations and the format in which you write match the target media. One thing I like to understand is how to perfect the art of ‘talking about your brand without talking about your brand’ which forces you consider the audience and relevancy of your message and how to be smarter in developing your messaging structure
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Why is this preparation and strategic thinking necessary? Over the course of my career I’ve deflected questions about fatal workplace accidents, placated a room full of environmentalists and concerned locals by talking about the design engineering of a marina breakwater (I can still recite the design considerations to this day), kept the New York Times at bay after what could be termed a political crisis, written several diplomatic letters to different heads of state and influenced the revision of a large brand’s policy communications and community guidelines… to name a few. Each of these was a challenge in itself, but being prepared and knowing my content has always meant that in the moment, I am able to command my audience.
Of course, having sat on both sides of the table, the communications input and output, means that I’m more rehearsed on what to and what not to say under pressure, but it’s all too common for us to see the negative impact of failed communications on business or brand reputation.