Learning
Objective1: How to select the proper communication plan?
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5 common mistakes in communication planning by Nick Durutta
1. Not identifying an effective goal - an effective goal defines the desired result.
2. Not trusting your research. Conduct research to identify your goal, understand your audience, situation and environment.
3. Not understanding the organization. A situational analysis is useful: what does organization do? where is it going? what does it want to achieve? Resources should support company's strategic goals.
4. Setting poor objectives. As with goals, they should describe the desired outcome.
5. Omitting audience from planning. Involve the audience and act upon their responses.
Mandese J. (2004, P&G review could be far-reaching. Television Week): Communication Planning is a multidimensional view of the marketing mix that includes any advertisement or communication that touches the consumer .
Karen E. Mckenzie and Marla B. Royne (from the artcile "Defining and Understanding Communications Planning): CP is about creating one-to-one, integrated customer experiences that enhance greater consumer interaction to attract new customers and retain loyal ones by strategically delivering a highly targeted marketing message.
Slide share on Marketing Communication Planning process
Elements of the plan
- context analysis
- marketing communication objectives
- marketing communication strategy
- communication methods
- scheduling
- resources
- control and evaluation
- feedback
Targeting (source: Chris Fill, Essentials of marketing communications, 2011, p.95)
The following criteria need to be present:
All segments should be
- measurable (is the segment easy to identify and measure?)
- substantial ( is the segment large enough to provide the profit?)
- accessible ( can the buyers be reached with promotional programmes?)
- differentiable ( is each segment clearly different from another so that diffrent marketing mixes are necessary?)
- actionable ( has the organization the capability to reach the segment?)
Learning
Objective2: How
to implement communication plan successfully?
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Case study (from the article Strategic Communication Planning: Why the basics matter more than ever. by Durutta Nick, Communication World Aug2014, p1-1)
In 2006, British supermarket giant Tesco announced its entry into the competitive U.S. market with the opening of hundreds of Fresh & Easy grocery stores in California and Nevada.
The firm conducted research -- a lot of it. It spent years profiling the market. It sent executives to live with families in California to observe how they shop. It built secret test stores and randomly investigated the contents of Americans' refrigerators.
Last year, after six years of struggling to make its venture a success, Tesco announced it was selling Fresh & Easy. It was giving up.
What went wrong?
Timing, for one thing. Tesco launched Fresh & Easy just before a crippling recession hit. But it also ignored its own research, relying on what worked in the U.K., a very different environment from the U.S.
Tesco made its U.S. stores entirely self-service, which American shoppers found off-putting. It sold food in small packages, while U.S. shoppers like buying in bulk to save money. Its stores sold Tesco's unknown private brands in a market that is famously brand-conscious.
Basically, Tesco believed it knew better than its research, and the result was a marketing disaster.
Typical mistakes were made: unrealistic objectives, wrong timing, wrong target audience, wrong tools, unclear messages.
Typical mistakes were made: unrealistic objectives, wrong timing, wrong target audience, wrong tools, unclear messages.
Learning
Objective3: Measuring
and monitoring
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Karen E. Mckenzie and Marla B. Royne (from the artcile "Defining and Understanding Communications Planning):
The basic application of ROI shows how much a campaign costs as compared to the profit it returns.
Company-specific definitions for ROI may include measuring the number of leads, the ratio of ad cost to ad revenue, the cost per lead, reach/frequency, cost per sale, media post buy analysis, financial value of brand equity, and customer lifetime value.
The basic question is: Are we providing the right communication means and products to the right people through the right channel at the right moment?
If the answer is yes to all of these questions, it is quite likely that you are having an impact in terms of communication (Source: DG Communication, European Commission)
Article 4(3) of implementing Regulation EC 1828/2006: “The means used for implementing monitoring and evaluating the communication plan shall be proportional to the information and publicity measures identified in the communication plan.”
Which impact are you expecting?
-Outcome I Awareness/knowledge: impact can be assessed in terms of knowledge gains that can be traced to com activities problem: awareness raising is often too vague
-Outcome II Attitude/perception:(Positive) perception of a project or your programme and EU funding in general difficulty: often evaluations of attitudes lack clear objectives; changes cannot be traced back to communication measures
-Outcome III Behaviour:E.g. influence on regional policy (regulations..) Most obvious when things have gone wrong (protests, complaints…) However, behavioural communication impacts can hardly be isolated validly.
Monitoring your communication activities
Events:
- Keep track of participants’lists and contacts (including journalists!)
- Prepare a questionnaire for feedback or conduct a brief online survey after your event
Online tools:
-Monitor your website hits in connection with certain events, after having sent out a press release etc…
-Social media activities
Publications:
- Keep track of who received your publications (distribution lists) and the number of publications disseminated.
- Get feedback through surveys or focus groups.
MEDIA MONITORING
Media Monitoring and evaluation of media impact
Step 1 -Compile an archive including press clippings and screenshots of websites that mentioned your programme
-If you cover a large programme area (e.g. transnational programmes) you may also think about hiring a professional media monitoring service, although this can be costly
-Keep also a media archive of radio and TV programmes that mentioned your programme
-Set up a library/archive with your projects’ publications
Step 2 -Evaluate the content of the media and its effectiveness (content analysis)
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