I have resumed following a particular domain that I have worked on, after a couple of years through press reports. I did a a fair bit of reading and one glaring point seems to emerge. That is the lack of Key messaging.
Companies and people have been written about and interviews galore. Results declaration are happening and celebrations of successes figure too. However, while I see a varierty of issues being discussed and various conclusions being drawn, I am unable to see how they connect. The real reason seems to be the lack of Key Messaging strategy. What is key messaging? Why is it so critical? Key Messaging is that which the leaders of the company determine when they decide on their goals for the year. This is reflected in all of their business approaches but communicated most in their PR/ communication strategy. This helps in being consistent to the press in your communication, when the entire organisation goes about saying the same messages there is greater impact - beyond the growth of genuine belief in them. Each and every opportunity that the organisation and its leaders get to present their pubic face, they are perceived through the key messages . Eventually the reporters start believing and the share holders too.- thus they spiral effect of the key messages - the objective, the progress, the results, all of these are written about through the period of the messaging strategy : ALL OF THEM LINK UP.
Key messages can be on your target market, technology adoption, austerity measures, people orientation, customer satisfaction etc. It is also in parallel important to keep the no of items in key messaging limited to 2 at best 3. Else it is possible not to prioritise. Key Messaging helps in communicating consistently, helps keep the focus on the communication when multiple faces of the organisation starts speaking etc. It helps in the press writing what you would like them to write about.
Most importantly, it builds a believable PR image for your organisation.
A very interesting post. I believe that most mature organizations do set out a key message - usually in the Chairman's report, which serves as a beacon to guide the strategy. For instance, Infosys talks about Infosys 3.0, Wipro about becoming leaner, Tata Steel about remaining the most cost-efficient steel company, and so on. Whether this is carried forward in all subsequent public pronouncements would be interesting to tag. As would be an exercise in looking at hard data to see if this is actually reflected in their performance. Food for thought.
ReplyDelete