The number of businesses that have closed in the previous five years is unknown, although it is often at least 50%. That indicates a 50/50 chance that your business will still be operating in five years, even the most optimistic projections, particularly now that the crisis and sanctions environment have reduced markets to the scale of actual solvency and heightened rivalry.
Is your salary too little? Are online discounters stealing your clients? Does advertising no longer have any effect? A typical error made by many marketers and company owners is to search for outside causes. A communication strategy lets a business adjust its messaging to changes in the outside world and weather a crisis with fewer losses.
Experts always have a strategy.
The goal of communication strategy is to create favorable conditions for steady and lucrative market activity using the company's complicated influence on the external environment (not the other way around!). How does it seem in real life? It is a collection of studies upon which an original advertising concept was built. Picture an archer attempting to strike his target by launching arrows into the mist. Of course, he could still strike it if he fired many arrows in different directions. And this is how a lot of businesses operate. However, this strategy will be considered irresponsible by any self-respecting marketer, since he might not have enough arrows or cash to take so many shots at his target market, which will result in a profit. Any severe brand worth its salt needs to have a well-thought-out communication plan. You won't hear from any of them saying, "Who needs your plan? We'll work things out." Your plan is your communication approach.
The communication strategy's objectives
It's critical to recognize your end objective and know why you're pursuing a specific communication approach, such as bringing in more business, raising average bill amounts, or boosting profitability.
When creating a communication strategy, the following objectives are frequently set:
· create collaborations
· build audience knowledge of the business and its goods
· broaden the pool of possible buyers
· counter negativity
Any objective needs to be quantifiable, giving the plan greater context and accuracy.
Advertising, positioning, and promotion
Business objectives define a communication strategy's tasks. How does this seem in real life? Organizations providing communication strategies might offer a range of services that vary in terms of content and length:
- A focus on promotion, with the outcome being the customer receiving a pre-made promotion plan:
· Market research
· Finding efficient communication channels
· Suggesting avenues for marketing with a thorough media strategy
This promotion-focused communication approach is utilized when factors like placement, purpose, and viewership outweigh the importance of originality. For instance, a cosmetic business often conveys to women that they should feel confident in their beauty. As a result, the business should concentrate on locating venues where a more significant proportion of the intended audience will see its advertisements.
- A focus on positioning, wherein the customer is provided with the foundation for communication that may be utilized to develop marketing campaigns:
· Developing a communication platform
· Carrying out quantitative or qualitative research while the analysis and hypothesis testing phases are underway
· Launching distinct advertising campaigns aimed at various audience segments
· Establishing enduring contact that will serve as the foundation for years of advertising
Establishing a community of individuals who support a healthy lifestyle might be the cornerstone of a positioning-focused communication strategy for a natural chocolate company. This will enable the business to carve out its position in the natural food sector and establish an eco-brand identity.
- A focus on advertising, when the customer is given an idea and ready-made resources to start a campaign:
· Communication research: examination of rivals' and brands' communications, effects of outside variables on communication, and fundamental audience research
· Coming up with concepts for advertising campaigns that target particular demographics and include innovative and visually appealing solutions across media.
Nike first presented itself as a company that sold athletic apparel and footwear. However, the business shifted course, emphasizing community development and values-based advertising. Nike's most well-known marketing efforts, "Just Do It" and "If You Have a Body, You Are an Athlete," greatly aided its success. It's important to decide on the purpose and expected result before selecting a service. Then, you will be able to properly state your expectations in a brief or, at the very least, understand why you require a communication plan. We advise you to take a second step and see how much the agency of your choice invests in creating a communication plan. After that, you'll know exactly what kind of outcome you will obtain.
What happens if the plan is flawed?
Businesses rarely make the same mistakes when incorporating a communication strategy into an advertising campaign. The error happens when you have to make a decision:
· Where should the advertising be placed?
· What should be included in the advertising?
Remarkably, businesses tend to concentrate more on "where" than "what," as "what" should be obvious. What is the result of this? The corporation creates an ideology, considers positioning, and wishes to communicate its core idea to the public. However, when the advertisement is out, we only notice price discounts and a few tangible benefits that rivals rely on.
Will this kind of advertising provide results? Advertising is unquestionably more effective than nothing at all, especially when it is properly advertised. Ultimately, such an advertising campaign will be just another misfired arrow from the archer; it won't help you establish a reputation for yourself, it won't be easy for the public to remember you, and in the end, it will draw in the wrong kind of customers who might not stick with you or even recommend you to others.
If a communication strategy is a means of creating an advertising campaign, knowing exactly where you want the campaign to go, who you want to attract, and what to say to them can help you succeed.
How can a marketing effort be successful?
At ICU agency, we believe creating a complete communication strategy is essential to starting a successful advertising campaign. Our approach includes the following:
· We research the audience, competition, market, and product to provide insights and a communication message.
· We combine a creative mechanism, a visual concept, and a significant idea to generate an innovative concept.
We use media strategy and an ecosystem of channels for promotion.
Sadly, or luckily, a genuinely effective strategy is still a "unique" offering. There are no all-encompassing answers that can support inexperienced strategists in every unique circumstance.