It is crucial for individual departments within a company to conform messages to a central positioning strategy and coordinate their activities with other departments that are interacting with the same stakeholders.
Brand equity is a multi-functional product. It is the result of all brand communications relating to your company and its brand.
Many different areas within a company send messages to the various stakeholder groups.
For example, business customers frequently interact with production, accounting, sales, research, customer service and also receive outbound messages through marketing communications.
Within the more traditional area of marketing communications in large companies, different messages are developed by different marketing services areas and their agencies, such as advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion and packaging.
With so many departments often operating independently, it is easy to see how mixed messages can evolve within one company.
When this happens, audiences must decipher brand positioning and evaluate the company and what it represents, given the different messages.
Building brand relationships requires managing the total "communications package" - everything it says and does. The delivery of all messages at various contact points must be monitored to make sure they are working in concert with your overall business and marketing strategy.
Consistency is Key
Strategic consistency is the coordination of all messages that create or cue brand images, positions, and reputations in the minds of customers and other stakeholders. Inconsistent brand messages created unfocused, diffused and fuzzy communication. From the customer's point of view, strategic consistency means "no negative surprises" as well as "easy brand recognition."
This does not mean, however, that every brand message should be the same. Messages need to vary by stakeholder and customer segment. From the customer's perspective, message integration exists when a brand does what it promises and this same message is reinforced from other "sources" that the brand delivers. Relationship problems arise when a brand does not deliver on its promises.
Matching Message and Performance
A simple assessment can identify inconsistency in a brand's communications and alert a company to potential relationship problems. In other words, the messages delivered by marketing communications about a product or service must "match up" and be consistent with what actually takes place. That is, how the products or services actually perform.
Strategic messages must map not only to the brand's positioning, heritage, performance and strengths, but also must be customized by audience.
Each prioritized stakeholder group is oriented toward the brand in a unique way and is motivated by different factors. Although core brand messages may remain consistent, they must be customized specifically for each target audience.
For example, what makes retailers tick is vastly different from shareholders or customers.
In addition, message delivery vehicles must be customized. Professional audiences (health care providers, lawyers, accountants and so on) rely on different communication channels than consumers-at-large or groups of consumers segmented by special interests.
First determine the most viable messages, then deliver them through the most viable channel - whether it's the Wall Street Journal, patient education seminars, Drug Store News, mall tours or MTV, to name just a few that are vastly different yet may all be appropriate for the delivery of a customized core message delivered to different stakeholder groups.
The advantage that public relations brings to the marketing communications mix is the capability to deliver highly customized messages to key audiences, cost-effectively and with credibility.
Barbara H. Hines is executive VP of brand marketing at Porter Novelli. She can be reached at 415/7420