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Monday, April 27, 2015

Stakeholder Relationships

Problem Based Learning (PBL). Trigger 9.

Stakeholder Relationships


Problem: How corporate image affects stakeholders’ relationships?

Learning objectives:

  • What is relationship management? (Definitions of relationship management? The importance of stakeholder relationship management with a company?)

  • How to create and maintain trust and loyalty with stakeholders through communication? (Communication plans/ strategies to create trust and loyalty with investors (employees/ customers)? Communication plans/ strategies to maintain trust and loyalty with investors (employees/ customers)?)
  • How to rebuild trust and loyalty with stakeholders through communication? Communication plans/ strategies to rebuild trust and loyalty with investors (employees/ customers) from crisis?

     Relationship Management-a strategy employed by an organisation in which a continuous level of engagement is maintained between the organisation and its audience. Relationship management can be between a business and its customers (customer relationship management) and between a business and other businesses (business relationship management).(Investopedia)

Stakeholder Relationship Management- the process of forming, monitoring and maintaining constructive relationships with anyone "who has an interest in your project or will be affected by its deliverables or output (Business Dictionary; Projectsmart.co)

Communication Plan with Stakeholders
Importance of stakeholders/ stakeholder management:

Stakeholder Salience Model (Cornelissen, 2011):
The central idea is that the more salient or prominent stakeholders have the priority and therefore need to be actively communicated with.

Three Key attributes:
Power- the power of the stakeholder group upon an organisation
Legitimacy- the legitimacy of the claim laid upon the organisation by the stakeholder group
Urgency- the degree to which stakeholder claims call for immediate action

Latent Stakeholder groups: (groups possessing only one attribute):
Dormant-those who have power to impose their will on others but because they do not have a legitimate relationship or urgent claim, their power remains dormant 
Discretionary-those who possess legitimate claims but have no power to influence the organisation and no urgent claims. (e.g. recipients of corporate charity)
Demanding-those who have urgent claims, but neither power or legitimacy  to enforce them. (e.g. lone demonstrator)

Expectant stakeholders: (possessing two attributes)
Dominant-have power and legitimate claims->strong influence on organisation (employees, customers, owners, investors)
Dangerous- have power and urgent claims, but lack legitimacy (wildcat strikes, employee sabotage, terrorism etc.)
Dependent-lack power but have urgent, legitimate claims; rely on others for the power (local residents of a community)
Definitive Stakeholder- those who have legitimacy, power and urgency. They are by definition needed to be communicated with.
(e.g. shareholders, customers, investors etc. depending on the organisation)

Communication with Stakeholders:
Public Relations provides some of the deliberate cues that enable stakeholders to develop images and perceptions through which they recognise, understand, select and converse with organisations. (Fill,2009).
Building credibility/trust/loyalty(Fill, 2009):
Communication with Stakeholders Model: (Cornelissen, 2011)



Maintaining credibility/trust/loyalty:

Corporate Advertising -a mean of communicating more effectively with stakeholders.; advertising on behalf of organisation; The main purpose of corporate advertising is to be the provision of cues(e.g. presenting personality of organisation) by which stakeholders can identify and understand an organisation. (Fill, 2009)
Corporate advertising can also be used to correct misunderstanding that stakeholders might have of corporate reality. (Reisman, 1989)
Goals of corporate advertising: 

Case Example: Starbucks (based on Cornelissen, 2011, case study 3.1)
Stakeholder Collaboration: 
Employees: Treating employees as "partners" (Mission Statement)
Customers: Customers Engagement (e.g. Social Media Campaign http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/)
Community: Supporting local community initiatives; collaborations with NGO, promoting production and consumption of the "fair trade" coffee.
Case #1: in 2007 Starbucks was criticised for blocking Ethiopia's desire to trademark some of its famous coffees. By using trademarks(3 trademarks were claimed), Ethiopian government  could charge licensing fee from distributors. The EU, Japan and Canada approves the trademark scheme, however Starbucks was pressuring via industry lobbyists the US patent office to turn down the Ethiopian patent claim. 2  of the trademarks were refused. Media campaign against Starbucks was launched accusing Starbucks of acting unethically towards one of the world's poorest countries, however, Starbucks responded by counter-offensive campaign. This situation led to a public relations crisis and Starbucks agreed a wide-ranging accord with Ethiopia to support and promote its coffee.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Message

Problem Based Learning (PBL). Trigger 9.

Message

Problem: How creative ideas become messages?
Learning objectives:
1. What is the process of creating a message?
·      How do advertising agencies turn their ideas into a clear message?
·      What factors do you need to think of when creating a message? 
2. How to make the message appealing?
·      How do advertisements reach people emotionally and nationally?
    How to get through the “clutter” of advertising
The process of creating a message:
Advertising Strategy->Creative Strategy-> Creative Brief (Idea)-> Implementation
Creative idea should remain constant while the way to deliver it and the message can vary.
 Factors to consider:
- How to capture attention of your target audience with a headline
-Identify the target audience's needs and wants
-Describe the benefits and value of your product
-Give your message credibility
-State the action you want the recipient of your message to take (e.g. "pick up the phone and call..")
Based on: http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/marketing-message.htm

How to make the message appealing:
-Indicating brand name, origin of the product, the features the customer is looking for
-Creating emotional message
-Making a contrast effect (e.g. with some other product)
-Endorsing a celebrity as a brand face
-Try to engage your customers with the message
Sources: Chris Fill, Marketing Communications: Interactivity, communities, and content. 5th edition 2009; 
"Visual Identity.Promoting and Protecting the Public Face of an Organization" by Susan Westcott Alessandri






Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Social Media

Problem Based Learning (PBL). Trigger 8.

Social Media 

Problem: How to benefit form social media?
Learning Objectives:
1. Social media channels?
How can we define social media and social media channel?
 What social media channels, platforms, tools do we have?
 What is important for selection? How to differentiate the ones for B2B? B2C?
2. Social media strategies?
·      How to implement social media strategy (plan) in the organisation? Which elements to focus on?
·      How to define/categorize target groups?
·      What we can achieve using social media?
·      Examples    
3. Measurement of social media ?
·      Is there any way to measure the importance of social media today?

·      How to measure the ROI of your social media marketing? Which variables can be controlled?

  Social Media- Internet-based software and interfaces that allow individuals to interact with one another, exchanging details about their lives such as biographical data, professional information, personal photos and up-to-the-minute thoughts.
Social media originated as strictly a personal tool that people used to interact with friends and family but were later adopted by businesses that wanted to take advantage of a popular new communication method to reach out to customers

  • Social Bookmarking
  • Social News
  • Social Networking

 Successful Social Media Campaign: WestJet Christmas Miracle:real-time giving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk
 Social media tools and their selection: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239538
Social Media Strategy: Article "Why Most Social Media Strategies Fail?" "Establishing a social media strategy is more than just posting an update informing people that a new product or service is on sale. It’s more than just sharing a piece of relevant information. A social media strategy is a success when you are able to engage and interact with your target audience."
 Social media strategy should:
  • Comply with company's values (e.g. when using content marketing-provide content relevant to the company's core values)
  • Be consistent (identify how often and when should you post information)
  • Using the right social media outlet
  • Different content
  • lLack of monitoring and measuring (What kind of response you get from your audience, if any? Does what you post intrigue your audience?.. )

Measuring ROI: "The best way to discover this information is through the use of tools like HootSuiteKloutSocial MentionTwitter AnalyticsFacebook Insights or Keyhole. Not only will these tools measure your social media success, but they will also increase your ROI. "

  Target audience: Use http://www.socialbro.com https://www.hashtags.org
"To make sure that you remain consistent, try using a tool that schedules and hosts all of your accounts in one place, like HootSuiteBuffer, or SproutSocial. I personally like Buffer.  And it wouldn’t hurt to create an editorial calendar, which you can do on a program like Excel. An editorial calendar keeps you organized and directed since it contains a deadline, target keywords, the format of the content, call to action, and status. And it has the ability to double your ROI."





Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Media

Problem Based Learning (PBL). Trigger 7.

Media 

Problem: How to use data in media planning?
Learning Objectives:
1. What is media planning?
 What is the definition of media planning?
Why do you need media planning? Why is it important for companies?
2. What are the characteristics of media?
·      What types of media do you have? For each type, what are the characteristics?
·      What factors are important to media selection? How does the media type depend on them?    
3. How is data used for media planning?
·      Why do you need to use data in media planning? Why is it important?
·      How do companies gather and use data to understand consumer behaviours and changing media landscape?
(Key words: Intermedia, intramedia, owned media,earned media, paid media etc.)
 What is media planning?
Media are the facilitators that make it possible to deliver advertising message. (the singular from media is medium).
Media vehicle- a single media outlet (e.g. a magazine, a radio station etc.)
The advertising unit- the specifications of the individual advertisement (e.g. full-page ad)
Four Basics of advertising: reach, frequency, impact, continuity.
Media Planning-An advertising strategy most commonly employed to target consumers using a variety of informational outlets. Media planning is generally conducted by a professional media planning or advertising agency and typically finds the most appropriate media outlets to reach the target market.
Media Planning-the process of establishing the exact media vehicles used for the advertising 
Media Planning (Online)


What are the characteristics of media?


3 main components  of media plan:

  1. Defining the marketing problem
  2. Translating the marketing requirements into attainable media objectives
  3. Defining a media solution by formulating media strategies

Advertising media generally include:
  • Television
  • Radio
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines (consumer and trade)
  • Outdoor billboards
  • Public transportation
  • Yellow Pages
  • Direct mail
  • Specialty advertising (on items such as matchbooks, pencils, calendars, telephone pads, shopping bags and so on)
  • Internet
  • Social Media 
  • Other media (catalogs, samples, handouts, brochures, newsletters and so on)
  • When comparing the cost and effectiveness of various advertising media, consider the following factors:
    • Reach. Expressed as a percentage, reach is the number of individuals (or homes) you want to expose your product to through specific media scheduled over a given period of time.
    • Frequency. Using specific media, how many times, on average, should the individuals in your target audience be exposed to your advertising message? It takes an average of three or more exposures to an advertising message before consumers take action.
    • Cost per thousand. How much will it cost to reach a thousand of your prospective customers (a method used in comparing print media)? To determine a publication's cost per thousand, also known as CPM, divide the cost of the advertising by the publication's circulation in thousands.
    • Cost per point. How much will it cost to buy one rating point for your target audience, a method used in comparing broadcast media. One rating point equals 1 percent of your target audience. Divide the cost of the schedule being considered by the number of rating points it delivers.
    • Impact. Does the medium in question offer full opportunities for appealing to the appropriate senses, such as sight and hearing, in its graphic design and production quality?
    • Selectivity. To what degree can the message be restricted to those people who are known to be the most logical prospects?
    • (Taken from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/media-planning)
    • Changes that affected media channels over the past 15-20 years:
    1. The advent of cable television (from 15 to 100+ channels,  meaning the  reduction of the audience for any of them )
    2. The spread of tv remote control (people do not have to get up to switch channels)
    3. The rise of the digital media and the Internet
How is data used for media planning?