Communication Strategy: Components, Plan, Execution, and Theories

This paper provides a critical analysis on the corporate communication strategy by first focusing on the components and the process of the strategic communication. The subsequent section analyses the strategic plan and execution. The final part of the paper concentrates on the message and persuasion theories.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION STRTAEGY
Name
Communication Strategy: Components, Plan, Execution, and Theories
Date

Communication Strategy: Components, Plan, Execution, and Theories
Communication strategy is “a holistic approach to engaging brand’s audience to
ensure greater effectiveness1.” A good communication strategy is a vital to achieve marketing
goals. Developing an effective communication strategy is not a simple task, and requires new
mind-sets and adequate processes. An organization must have a sound communication
strategy to establish and maintain good public relations and promote its brand. This paper
provides a critical analysis on the corporate communication strategy by first focusing on the
components and the process of the strategic communication. The subsequent section analyses
the strategic plan and execution. The final part of the paper concentrates on the message and
persuasion theories. The paper identifies communications strategy as an integral part of the
organization that must be given special attention to achieve the overall strategy.
Process and Content of Communication Strategy
The main of components of communication strategy include objective, budget, target,
a guiding area, channel choices, integration, and measurement. Objective is the most
fundamental component of communication strategy. Due to media and content permutation,
planning a multi-content, multi-channel, and multi-market communication has become more
complex, which necessities development of a fixed-point objective2. Adopting the right kind
of objective enables the organization run things smoothly. The objective must be aligned with
the organizational commercial goals. For instance if Apple Inc. wants to justify its high
prices, it ensures that it builds a cachet appeal for its brand. Most organizations adjust their
prices upwards to improve revenue income3. Most importantly, the objective should not be
1 Richard Houghton, Graham Kemp, David Pattison, and Guy Murphy. "Communication Strategy: A
Best
Practice Guide to developing communication campaigns." The Good Pitch | Best Practice for
Clients & Agencies. Last modified 2015.
http://www.thegoodpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/CommunicationsStrategyGuide.p
df.,2
2 Houghton et al, 2015, 5
3 Androniki Kavoura, Damianos P. Sakas, and Petros Tomaras. Strategic Innovative Marketing

“too far down from decision-making tree4.” Communication is not a panacea to all business
problems; rather, it is meant imparting information, creating awareness, and creating
imagery. Aligning communication objective with business tools leverage the company’s
chances of accomplishing commercial success.
To underscore good communication strategy, budget must be consistent in
communicating the objectives and communication. Inextricability of the link between the two
components of communication is paramount to make the communication strategy effective5.
Astoundingly, most organizations harbour huge ambitions with disproportionately small
budgets. Brand communication is not as simple as it may look. Rather, an elaborate task
requires sufficient allocation of funds to be successful. The modern consumer is
quintessentially predisposed to hearing commercial messages and therefore the organization
must invest in methods that can make their mode of communication interesting. Some of the
techniques that an organization can employ to set budgets include “advertising-to-sales ratios
per market sector,” the cost per coverage of the content, matching share-of-voice to share
share-of-market, and frequency against the target audience6. Modern corporate organizations
link better communication strategy to effective advertising. Therefore, an organization must
have a budget for communication to facilitate communication strategy.
At minimum, the brand should have a well-defined target7. Prior to target
identification, the organization should conduct a quantitative and a qualitative research to
: 5th IC-SIM, 1st ed. Athens, Greece: Springer, 2017., 106
4 Houghton et al, 2015, 5
5 Caroline Kealey. The Results Map Handbook: The Essential Guide to Strategic Communications
Planning.
[Ottawa, Ont.]: [Ingenium Communications], 2012, 117
6 Houghton et al, 5
7 Laurie Wilson. Strategic Communications Planning for Public Relations and Marketing.:
KENDALL HUNT,
Kendall Hunt, 2016, 67

gain valuable information about the target audience. For instance, if a company wants to
introduce a new product, it must establish the potential of the existing and the potential
customers to accept the new product. Once the organization has gathered adequate
information about the consumer preference, it can use the data or strategic analysis to develop
effective communication strategy. The company can define audience in terms of
intermediaries, which include retailers, agents, wholesalers, brokers, and franchisees; user
types, which include loyal, promiscuous, frequent, or occasional; and lifestyle, for instance
individuals’ spending habits and their attitude towards brand labels8.
Guiding idea is at the central nerve of an ideal communication strategy9. A guiding
idea ensures that consumers concentrate on the content of the message. The idea also helps
the communication strategy team to select ideal channel or media. However, the
communication budget set should be integrated into the idea to enhance the effectiveness of
the communication strategy. Corporates should be able to draw a distinction between
communication idea and advertising idea to ensure that they have idea that can fit in all the
channels, and not confined to broadcast advertising10. To improve the outcome of
communication strategy, the organization must focus on “connection idea” instead of a
creative idea.
On channel choices, corporate organizations should take into consideration the
evolution of the media landscape, and should not rely on the assumptions to decide what
channel to use11. One of the mistakes that most organizations make is that they assume that
they only require paid-for media to connect with consumers. Unfortunately, they fail to
8 Juliana Raupp, and Olaf Hoffjann. "Understanding Strategy in Communication Management."
Journal of Communication Management 16, no. 2 (2012), 148
9 Percy, Larry. Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications, 2nd ed. New York City: Routledge,
2014, 83
10 Bogdan Nichifor. "Theoretical Framework of Advertising - Some Insights." Studies and Scientific
Researches Economic Edition.no. 19 (2014) :186
11 Larry, 2014, 92

recognize the presence and significance of PR and promotional paths as well as existing
opportunities in user-generated content, live branding experience, and advertiser-funded
programming. Corporates should not just focus on mass coverage, but should narrow down to
specific target by intensifying engagements on small groups to promote interaction with the
brand. The organization should also select channels that foster consumer feedback, for
instance social media platforms.
The organization should ensure that the channels it has chosen integrate with each
other to produce multiplier effect12. For instance, the organization can create matching
luggage to consolidate imagery appearance in all channels by using celebrity appearance in
PR and adverts. The last component is measurement, which is “one of the most
underdeveloped areas of communication strategy13.” Analysing the effectiveness of
communication in terms of the selected channels and integration is difficult due to lack of
standard definition of constituents of effectiveness. Another reason for this backlash is that
most research have concentrated on how to conduct efficient advertising and select the best
advertising channel but they have neglected findings on how to establish effectiveness of the
channels.
Planning and Executing Communication Strategy
The first step towards planning for corporate strategy is conducting environmental
assessment14. The environmental scan should focus on the external factors and the media in
particular. Some of the techniques that can be employed in this task include SWOT
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis and PESTEL (Political,
12 Houghton et al, 2015, 10
13 Houghton et al, 2015, 10
14 Dave Fleet. Exploring the Intersection of Communications, Marketing and Digital with PR
Professional Dave
Fleet. Last modified 2015, 4 http://davefleet.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/comm-
plaebook.pdf

Economic, Social, Environmental, and Legal) analysis15. These two strategic analysis
approaches enables the strategic management team to conceptualize the competitors’ actions,
political dynamics, legislative context, economic trajectories, and consumer behaviours.
After conducting the external environmental analysis, the strategic communication
management narrow down to stakeholder analysis. This involves assessing the individuals
who are directly linked to the initiative. The stakeholder analysis should encompass their
perception, their experiences with the previous strategy as well as their expectations.16
Stakeholder analysis enables the communication strategic team to acquire valuable support in
terms what media materials are effective, attendance on various media events, and
consumers’ perception about the announcement. Consulting with stakeholders also enables
the strategic to mitigate potential challenges.
Most importantly, planning communication strategy should be accompanied by
objectives17. Well-defined objectives enable corporate strategic team to establish the role of
the communication and what type of media to choose for the function. In addition, objectives
act as a blueprint create or build support on demand, improve the company’s image, and
generate offline or online coverage. A sound objective should be realistic, time-focused,
specific, achievable, and measurable18. The objectives should also have lasting impression—
the main thing that the organization wants customers to remember about the initiative.
Once the strategic team has formulated communication objectives, it defines the
communication strategy. Strategy defines how to achieve the identified objectives. Adequate
external environment analysis and well-defined feasible objectives pave way for the
communication strategy to flow smoothly19. However, if the strategy does not meet the
15 Dave, 2015, 8
16 Paul A Argenti. Corporate Communication. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2013, 83
17 Argenti, 2013, 134
18 Dave, 2015, 12
19 Dave, 2015, 1

intended objective, the strategic team should go back to the drawing board and re-establish if
the communication objectives meet the aforementioned features of an ideal objective.
Essentially, the strategy should contain the profile to define the degree of coverage
that the strategic team intends to achieve— low-profile communication or high-profile
communication. The strategy can be either proactive or reactive depending on the degree of
coverage20. Ideally, high-profile strategy robustly works with proactive approach while low-
profile strategy produces effectual results when it aligned with reactive approach. The
strategy should also constitute the medium that the organization will use to achieve the
communication strategy. It it is imperative the strategic team re-examine if the strategy is
consistent with objectives and ensure there is no confusion between strategy and tactics. The
former helps to formulate and frame future decision while the latter involve “specific
activities and outputs through which strategies are implemented21.”
Once the strategic team has settled on what strategies to employ, it should now focus
on the audiences. The strategic team should think back and focus on whom it wants the
information to reach. This includes analysing the customers’ needs and what initiatives to
undertake to accomplish the strategy. The strategic team should be thorough and take
adequate measures to ensure that there are no gaps in the target audience. Some of the
sources that organization can use as ideal sources of audience include media, internal
employees, industry analysts, business groups, and online audiences22. The communication
content should be precise, and if possible, the strategic team should break it down to
accentuate specific niches. For instance if the target is to attract shareholders, the company
should focus on publicizing information about the company’s financial health on business
journals and articles.
20 Argenti, 2013, 148
21 Kim, Soojin. "Strategic Predisposition in Communication Management." Journal of Communication
Management 20, no. 3 (2016),241
22 Nichifor (2014), 186

After re-evaluating the audience behaviours, the strategic team now shifts attention to
announcement. Announcement represents the executive summary of the communication
strategy. The team first highlights the type of announcement they plant to undertake by
accentuating important messages and tactics. The announcement should be simple to so that
the executive can easily conceptualize and approve the plan23. To underscore simplicity, the
strategic team should concentrate on identification of announcement they are drafting and the
reason behind making the announcement. The strategic team should be honest and elaborate
how the announcement fits the organization’s overall strategy.
After making the announcement and subsequently receiving the executive approval,
the strategic management team now focus on designing messages to execute communication
plan. The message is very critical element in communication strategy since it influences the
audience behaviour to make decisions. The key elements of messages should be consistent
with the objectives, communicate the objectives, communicate what is new, and reach the
target audience. Messages should be precise and concise. The strategic team considers the set
objectives to ensure it does not deviate from the intended plan. Considerably, the team should
engage the audience to produce desirable effect.
Once the strategic management team is ascertained that the messages are properly
designed, it employs tactics to actualize the strategy. Tactics may vary depending on the type
of communication profile, environmental scan, and medium of communication the
organization adopts24. Flowing communication plan facilitates the effectiveness of the
selected tactics. A sound communication tactic should be comprehensive to address the
audience needs. Some of the tactical options include media events, brochures, blogger
relations, social media outreach, email newsletters, and advertising.
23 Dave (2015), 18
24 Mária Mišanková, and Katarína Kočišová. "Strategic Implementation as a Part of Strategic
Management” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 110 (2014), 872

The next step is to identify issues before they culminate to crisis. This includes social
dynamics, controversies, preferences, rumours, and emotional impact. After issue
identification, the strategic team— with help of the executive— should establish techniques
of mitigating them25. As already mentioned in the components of the communication strategy,
adequate budget is paramount to ensure the communication is effective. However, this
section emphasizes on budget proposal. Low profile and reactive communications requires
lower expenditure compared to the high profile and proactive communication.
The final stage is evaluation. During this phase, the strategic team accounts for the
tactics employed in PR campaign. The team also review the consumer response and the role
of the media in facilitating the communication.
An ideal strategic plan enhances strategy execution. Some of the factors that facilitate
strategic plan implementation are communication of the strategy through the whole
organization, employees’ engagement during implementation, organizational culture, and
management of effective controls26. To promote implementation of strategy, the executive
should avail adequate resources in terms of funds and expertise. Besides, the strategic
management team should consistently communicate the progress to stakeholders. The
feedback enables the organization to help with monitoring the progress through quality
management and provision of additional resources. In addition, the management should
consider the implantation of the strategy as a top priority. Essentially, the strategic team
management should identify common threats without engendering fear. High performing
organizations use threats to motivate employees by providing platform for innovation and
idea sharing27.
25 Dave (2015), 23
26 Abdullah Alharthy H., Hamad Rashid, and Romano Pagliari. "Identification of Strategy
Implementation Influencing Factors and Their Effects on the Performance." International Journal of
Business and Social Scienc e 8, no. 1 (January 2017), 38
27 Alharthy (January 2017), 40

Message and Persuasion Theory
One of the common theory in effective message and persuasion is market response
theory28. The theory postulates that there is a direct connection between consumer spending
behaviour, advertising, volume of sales, brand choice, market share. The theory is
dichotomously dimensional: individual and aggregate. Individual dimension focuses on the
consumer’s choice of brand and the degree of exposure that is sufficient to alter the
consumer’s behaviour. On the other hand, aggregate dimension emphasizes on the
relationship between the market share and brand sales on one wing and market data on
spending habits on the other wing.
Another theory of persuasion is cognitive response theory29. The theory is based on
the assumption that advertising has great influence on the consumers’ rational decision about
a product. The fundamental objective of the advertising message is to address the issues of
search and information cost. The theory assumes that in there two types of goods in the
market: those that consumer has experience and those that the consumer has to search about
them. Consumer also evaluates price and relate it with quality and quantity to make decisions.
Affective response theory states that consumers’ preferences based on the pleasure or
feeling they derive from the “exposure to the message” has little dismal effect on the choices
they make30. Advertisements should be conducted repeatedly to produce the desired effect.
However, too much exposure to the message loses the effectiveness of the advertisement.
28 Nichifor no. 19 (2014), 185
29 Nichifor no. 19 (2014), 185
30 Nichifor no. 19 (2014), 186

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