Analysis of Corporate Communication Strategy for Barclays

This report delves into the multifaceted world of corporate communication, emphasizing the importance of a well-defined strategy for business success. It outlines key elements essential for crafting effective communication plans, including identifying the purpose of communication, understanding the target audience, designing the message, selecting appropriate channels, and allocating resources. The report stresses the need for a strong strategic foundation, the development of effective tools, a streamlined development process, and a skilled team. It also highlights the significance of building a strategic communications capability, which requires a communication plan, and the understanding that corporate communication is critical for an organization's health, often overlooked in favor of other departments like finance, sales, HR, and marketing. The report emphasizes the necessity of a well-thought-out communication plan for every business, brand, or project, and the importance of anticipating issues and obstacles.

Business Communication
Corporate communication for Barclays
Introduction
A communication plan or strategy: every
business, specific brand or project needs one. It
doesn’t have to be ultra professional, neither
exhaustive nor very detailed. But it should
somehow be thought-through. Corporate
communication is a discipline often neglected in
an organization. The focus lays on other
departments that have their direct impact on a
company’s health: finances, sales, HR and
marketing (although the latter is also cutting
budgets). Although these specialties are indeed
key for an organization to stay alive, a lack of
corporate communication might be as fatal and
sudden as a heart attack.
Communication Plan
A communication plan or strategy: every
business, specific brand or project needs
one. It doesn’t have to be ultra
professional, neither exhaustive nor very
detailed. But it should somehow be
thought-through.
Key elements
1. Check your resources: do you have the
budget and the (right) people in place for your
communication campaign?
2. Anticipate issues and obstacles: draft a crisis
plan so you’ll know exactly what to do when
a crisis occurs. Who takes responsibility for
what?
3. Identify your relations with media,
consumers, clients, suppliers and other
stakeholders: who will help you spread your
message?
4. Create an action plan: bring all previous steps
together, and take action.
5. Evaluate your corporate communication
strategy: make it more effective every time
you implement it. What went wrong, what did
you overlook and what was effective?
Process of drawing communication
strategy
There are many techniques and
possibilities for drawing up a
corporate communication strategy,
and all of them probably prove their
effectiveness. The most important
thing is to have some kind of
communication guidelines in place,
and keeping in mind the following key
elements in the process of drawing up
your strategy.
1. Identify the purpose of your
communication: why do you
want to communicate and what
do you expect to get out of it for
your business?
2. Identify your target audience: to
whom do you want to
communicate? Which target
audience might benefit the most
from your information?
3. Design your message: what do
you want to talk about? What are
the content, mood and language
of your message?
4. Identify the channels: reach your
audience by placing your
message where they will read it.
Steps to Building a Strategic Communications
Capability
 A strong strategic foundation: Many organizations view their
communication teams as a service resource or as process enablers. Instead,
communications should be viewed as a strategic imperative for high
performance and growth.
 The right set of tools: The next step is to develop a set of tools that guide
the planning and creative efforts of your internal team and their external
partners, using a What/How/Who model, described below. I recommend
starting with a mapping tool and a model that defines the messages and
experiences you want to create (What), the means of communication you
use to create them (How), and the people you need to reach to successfully
do business (Who).
 A development process: Planning and tools alone will not ensure the best
results. A process that is embraced company-wide will be needed to make
sure that each initiative is on target, gets off to a good start, and is reviewed
at key points in its development.
 A team of people with the right spirit and skill set: This brings me to the
final and most important requirement — assembling the right team with
the knowledge and passion to do the job in an exemplary way. More often
than not, I come into contact with communications leaders and team
members who are miscast.