Last time we looked at the importance of strategic
differentiation as the key ingredient in developing an overall
communications strategy to the media, and, by extension, to all of your
key audiences -� customers, business partners, employees, stakeholders and
both industry and financial analysts. The key to this strategic
differentiation was to focus our thinking on those determinant attributes
that clearly set your company apart from the competition
As you remember, determinant attributes are the
characteristics that are important to your customers, yet distinguish your
products or services from competing products or services. By identifying
the product or service attributes that your customers use to differentiate
among competing products or services, we learn why your customers purchase
from you and begin to understand what makes your company unique.
A list of your determinant attributes may look like
this:
- Technological innovator
- Strong partners
- Wide distribution network
- Strong after sales support
- Wide range of products
- Products are good value for price
From this list, it is then extremely important to
determine how strongly your differentiation is on each attribute as
compared to your competition. This discussion more than likely will result
in a reordering of the list based on these comparable strengths. For
example, your company may be seen as a technical innovator with a slight
advantage over your competitors when it comes to technology, but with a
clear and overwhelming advantage over all of your competition when it
comes to after sales support. The other attribute that sets you apart from
your competition is your pricing, which for a technological innovator is
perceived to be a good value, rather than premium pricing. The remaining
attributes do not resonate strongly with your key audiences, and you rank
them in decreasing order of importance based on your analysis.
Your reordered list of determinant attributes would
then look this:
- Technological innovator
- Strong after sales support
- Products are good value for price
- Strong partners
- Wide distribution network
- Wide range of products
PUTTING WORDS INTO ACTION
Once your determinant attributes have been quantified and qualified in
this manner, the next step begins the process of putting strategic
differentiation to work for you -- the process of defining your company�s
�key messages� or �communications pillars� (picture a Greek or Roman
temple and how the pillars give the structure its strength).
The primary goal of this step is to formalize a core
group of concise, clearly defined key messages that will guide all of your
communications initiatives -- both internal and external. Developed in
close harmony with your company�s key management and communications teams,
these key messages serve as a framework to convey your company�s mission
and business objectives in all facets of the marketing and communications
process. This would include, for example, media interviews, analysts
briefings, executive speeches, news releases, bylined articles, company
presentations and other communications tools such as your Web site, direct
mail, employee newsletters and even your �on hold� message.
By creating a defined set of messages that are
closely aligned with your company�s business goals and using them as a
foundation for all your communications activities, you have taken the
first step toward creating your own distinctive brand. The consistent and
thoughtful implementation of these messages across all of your key
audiences will help ensure a clearly articulated market position for your
company in the business, consumer and technology communities. Depending
on your company�s mission and business goals, these key messages may
remain consistent over a long period of time or may be revised as you
introduce new products and services or as the competitive landscape
changes.
FINGERS ON A HAND
As you saw earlier with determinant attributes, it is important to create
a list of key messages, which may be as short as one or as long as a dozen
items. Our recommendation is that the list contain between three and five
items. Why? It�s like going shopping at the food store. If you have a list
of three to five items (milk, bread, eggs, cheese, orange juice), you will
most likely remember them without writing them down. (This is the �fingers
on a hand� rule -- one finger for each item, so five fingers for five
items). If the list grows larger than five items, it becomes very hard to
remember every item without writing all of them down (now add soup,
coffee, tomatoes, grapes and crackers to the original list -- see what I
mean)? And since we are defining these key messages to use them, it�s
easier if you don�t have more than five to remember.
To summarize, developing a list of key messages will
enable you to more consistently:
- Communicate better with your key audiences in
terms they will understand and embrace;
- Create highly effective communications quickly and
easily by following an approved �roadmap�;
- Gain executive buy-in and their commitment to
participate in communications initiatives more readily;
- Ensure that all company personnel communicate
clear and consistent information about your company (the �all singing
from the same hymnbook� analogy; and
- Leverage a strong marketing and communications
strategy as a key component of your overall business plan.
In the next column, we�ll take our list of three to
five key messages and explore how we refine them with factual support
points that bring them to life and make them real for all of your key
audiences.
With his
unique "both sides of the editor's desk" perspective, Randy Savicky�s
advice and counsel on public relations and marketing has been sought after
by some of America�s largest corporations and best-known brands. He has
designed strategic plans, managed communications programs and obtained
major news coverage for such Fortune 500 companies as IBM, Fujifilm,
Motorola and Sony, early stage companies like Arbinet, Dialogic and Juno
as well as startups like Barnesandnoble.com, ClubMom.com, New Paradigm
Software and Viaweb. As President of
Strategy +
Communications Worldwide, he helps companies gain mindshare and
win market share by improving their communications to their key audiences
through the use of outside experts. He welcomes your comments and
questions on how to put his ideas to work and can be reached at (516)
467-4122 or
[email protected].
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