Certain guiding principles can help to create a powerful, flexible
and appropriate communications package that works for your business.
10 Communications Basics
1. Everything communicates
From the corporate web site to its receptionist's greeting,
from paper choices to transaction processes to logo design, everything speaks volumes. Colors, words and images
identify a company to the world. Each element contributes to, or undermines, the message;
each is important and worthy of attention.
2. Respect your message
It takes time and careful thought to develop a business's strategic plan. But as a static
document, it is useless. All your corporate communications should be grounded in that plan. Invest the time, resources
and oversight needed to ensure that every project — large or small — somehow reinforces and advances the plan.
3. The message must be consistent
"Message" is, of course, much more than words on a page. In addition to the literal content
of a communication, its grammar, tone, design and more reveal much about the company's self image,
how it views its customers, its efficiency and trustworthiness. Design and writing style that are inconsistent, without purpose or that
do not have good focus weaken both the corporate voice and the confidence of the reader. Consistency enables all your
communications to work in concert, reinforcing the desired message and corporate image instead of eroding them.
4. Respect your audience
In the Information Age, this often translates into making it easier for people to make
quick, informed decisions.
- Careful "information architecture," both online and in print, organizes content in ways helpful to the reader.
- Good visual design improves readability, comprehension and retention.
- Clear, direct language informs and reveals.
- "Second tier" material provides details and resources.
5. Speak the lingua franca
All communications are interpreted in the context of the reader's background,
education and life experience. The words and images your target audience understands, in just the way you want them to,
will not always be the words and images you would otherwise choose.
6. Design supports message, brand and corporate identity
Design is not the same as ornamentation. It serves a real purpose and has
measurable impact. It also has an aesthetic, but one that is finely tuned to a specific goal. Many good designs
are quite discreet, while others are memorable — but in no case should design overshadow the message or
desired action.
7. Adapt to the medium
Delivering your message on the internet requires different design decisions than
conveying it in traditional printed forms, and vice versa. Example: A 300-page catalog or book translated directly
to the web would be unwieldy — perhaps even unuseable, in any practical sense — if it weren't adapted
with due consideration for the medium. Navigation, hyperlinks, page-size, typography and image considerations all demonstrate
how the medium influences the optimal design choices for the message.
8. Does it work?
There is rarely one "correct" approach with all others wrong, so evaluate each of your
corporate communications in terms of, simply, whether it works. Does it further the goals and implement the strategies
you have targeted? Innovative or unusual solutions can rouse the market and distinguish you from the competition, but must be
handled with expertise. More-conservative approaches, although easier both to propose and to approve,
might miss new opportunities or fail to challenge the corporate self-image enough to move it to a higher level of performance.
We can help you to weigh the pros and cons of various approaches.
9. External communications affect internal staff
Effective communications aimed at the outside world also affect personnel
within the company. Corporate image "makeovers" based on solid business tactics can boost internal morale and
influence the corporate mindset (as well as articulating it). This affects how staff feel about their jobs and how they interact
with the outside world.
10. Support your message — in every way
Again, everything communicates. An effective marketing campaign is not more powerful than
a disorganized front office or a product that is poorly packaged and branded. Every customer contact, from
beginning to end, should be evaluated carefully for consistency with the rest of your company's marketing communications.
