Twenty first century leaders in all sectors, private, public and not-profit, are declaring and emphasizing the role of effective and strategic internal communication to the success of the organization. This paper briefly positions internal communication and within its scope, analyses the marketing, advertising and public relations components of marketing communication towards an integrated framework for strategic internal marketing communication. The paper reviews strategy frameworks in marketing, advertising and public relations and chooses a combination of relevant aspects towards the design of a marketing communication strategy. The following are considered in the development of the structure: analyzing the situation (formative evaluative research), setting the aim, goals (process and outcome goals) and objectives (informational and motivational objectives) and identifying the target groups (primary, secondary and tertiary groups), designing the message, managing the resources and implementing and evaluating the strategy (summative evaluative research). The considerations in each step are not exhaustive, but give an indication what may be included in the considerations under each.
[...] Smith (2002:72-73) maintains that objectives should be “goal-rooted, public focused, impact oriented, linked to research, explicit, measurable, time-definite, singular, challenging, attainable and acceptable.” Figure 5 summarises the marketing communication strategy framework and considerations to Step 4. Step Analysing the situation (formative evaluative research) Step Setting the aim of the marketing communication strategy Step Setting the goals of the communication strategy Step Setting the objectives of the marketing communication strategy Measurable Time bound Specific Target group focused Realistic and achievable Aim and goal rooted Informational or motivational Awareness or action-oriented Impact oriented Attainable Fig Considerations in setting the objectives (Amended from Smith 2005:72-73) In the example, an informational goal could be to inform 100% of staff on the impact of the current situation by December; the motivational goal could be to have eighty percent of staff commits to rectifying the situation by July of the following year. [...]
[...] Internal Marketing Communication. The Advertiser, October 1999 Keller, Kevin Lane (2003). Strategic Brand Management. Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall-Pearson Education Keller, Kevin Lane (1993), “Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity, Journal of Marketing January, 1-22 Kitchen, P. J. (1999). Marketing communications: Principles and Practice. London: International Thomson Business Press Kotler, Philip., Brown, Adam and Armstrong, Gary (2006), Principles of Marketing, 7ed. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Kotler, Philip (1994). Marketing Management. Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control. [...]
[...] There are many 4 considerations in undertaking research towards the development of a marketing communication strategy; one is about the type of research that is needed for the problem at hand; another is about how the research is undertaken, and yet another is how the findings of research may be used to solve the problem. Exploratory research offers details on the situation and may proffer answers to questions that the organisation may have at the time. Generally, exploratory research will inform the organisation on what research has been undertaken or what information or data has already been collected, recorded or published on the issue (secondary research). [...]
[...] Marketing Communication Management. Concepts and theories, cases and practices. New York: Elsevier Cornelissen J.P. and A.R. Lock, (2000) “Theoretical Concept or Management Fad? Examining the Significance of Journal of Advertising Research 7-15 Duncan, Tom and Moriarty, Sandra, E. (1998). Communication-Based Marketing Model for Managing Relationships”. Journal of Marketing. Vol No April, pp 1-13 Duncan, Tom. (2005) IMC: Using Advertising and Promotion to Build Brands, 2nded, New York, NY: McGraw HillIrwin Duncan, Tom. (2002) IMC: Using Advertising and Promotion to Build Brands, New York, NY: McGraw Hill-Irwin Ewing, Michael, T., Pitt, F. [...]
[...] It is obviously trying to do more than simply find a suitable personal assistant .Recruitment advertising no longer is as simple as promoting available openings to job seekers.” Further, he quotes Martinez (2002) who state that “today recruitment ads sell the company's image, promote its benefits and often bear more resemblance to ads for products than ads for jobs.” Kaye (1999) maintains that organisations should “communicate the company's marketing messages to the internal audience, and assure there is company-wide understanding of the concepts; assist the company's sales force and other sales channel members in effectively delivering the marketing messages to customers and prospects on a personal level, concurrent with the delivery of the same messages through non-personal communications; and help others in the organisation deliver the marketing messages in the course of their own interactions with customers or prospects.” He further states that internal marketing communication demands a strong commitment from management and other areas of business; . [...]
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