How to develop a communication plan?

A communication plan is a road map for getting your message across to your audience. The plan is an essential tool of marketing as it will improve your ability to achieve the desired outcome.

Different ways to communicate your message are:

• Word of mouth
• News stories in both print and broadcast media
• Press releases and press conferences
• Posters, brochures, and fliers
• Outreach and presentations to other health and community service providers and to community groups and organizations
• Special events and open houses that your organization holds

You need to consider the following questions when developing the communication plan:

• Why do you want to communicate with the community?  (What’s your purpose?)
• Whom do you want to communicate it to?  (Who’s your audience?)
• What do you want to communicate?  (What’s your message?)
• How do you want to communicate it?  (What communication channels will you use?)
• Whom should you contact and what should you do in order to use those channels?  (How will you actually distribute your message?)

The steps to creating the plan are:

1. Identify the purpose of your communication
2. Identify your audience
3. Plan and design your message
4. Consider your resources
5. Plan for obstacles and emergencies
6. Strategize how you’ll connect with the media and others who can help you spread your message
7. Create an action plan
8. Decide how you’ll evaluate your plan and adjust it, based on the results of carrying it out

Why is the communications plan important for a company?

• A plan will make it possible to target your communication accurately. It gives you a structure to determine whom you need to reach and how.
• A plan can be long-term, helping you map out how to raise your profile and refine your image in the community over time.
• A plan will make your communication efforts more efficient, effective, and lasting.
• A plan makes everything easier. If you spend some time planning at the beginning of an effort, you can save a great deal of time later on, because you know exactly what you should be doing at any point in the process.

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A brand strategy should be well executed and affect all aspects of the business as everything the business is engaged with can affect the brand. The brand strategy should be directly connected to consumer needs, emotions and competitive environments.

Your brand strategy should implement what your company wants or what its goal is. A company that is gaining a new audience will have a different brand strategy to a company that is entering a competitive market.

Value of Brand Strategy

Branding will help you stand out from your competition. Creating a strong brand image will automatically have an effect on your consumer, whether it is a business or an end consumer. The image that the consumer gets from interacting with your business is very important, as they say "first impressions are crucial!" This first impression or the "image" that the consumer gains when interacting with your company will be one that they carry with them through the entirety of your business together. It is easy to give a bad impression but difficult to change that into a positive one, alternatively a good brand image can give a lot of leeway and give the consumer the impression that a mistake made is just a one-off thing.

Different Brand Strategy

Brand extension is a branding strategy that uses an existing brand name to promote a new or improved product. This can be a risky strategy, people are aware of what the brand offers with their original product but if you continue to dilute the brand name with a wide array of products then the consumers may not be aware of your purpose anymore.

Brand licensing is a legal licensing agreements that allows companies to use the brand of others in their products or services. The party giving out the rights to use the logo or brand will usually be paid in royalties. This can be risk if you license to companies that don't have the same values as your company. Take Rovio for example, they are the licensing kings of Finland at the moment but it would be very unlikely to be able to purchase Angry Bird condoms because safe sex doesn't relate to the children's game and cartoon characters.

Co-branding combines one or more brands in the creation of a product or service. Kolmen kaverin jäätelö for example have joined in with Paulig to co-brand their new coffee flavored ice cream.

Importance

Using the different strategies is fine and great IF it correlates to the earlier mentioned aspects of the brand strategy creation. Your company has to stand for something, have a goal toward something and all things that the company does have to be a part of it.

A good brand can achieve:

- Clear message to consumers

- Credibility

- Connects to your target groups emotionally

- Motivates buyer

- Concretes user loyalty

Outside-In Strategy

Outside-In strategy has been used since the creation of brands or probably the creation of products. It is where the entity making the products listens to the consumers wants and needs and then tries their best to cater to these. The best brand is then, the one that caters to all the needs of the consumer.

This is a very old school way of thinking and personally I think it's outdated. If you get people from all walks of life telling you how your brand should be then there will never be a clear vision of what the owners of the company want and in which direction they want to go, instead it is just pleasing a bunch of people on the surface so that they would purchase a product.

There is the risk that you cannot deliver on the promise which you make the consumer. This would just make the consumer more agitated that you listened to their need and now you cannot fulfill this need.

Inside-Out Strategy

 Inside-Out is a more modern, long-term and concrete brand strategy. The creators of the brand identify where the company wants to go with the brand and what their values are. This then correlates in all their products and services that they provide.

This form of strategy is much more sincere and people love honesty and sincerity. If you change your mind just to please someone else it may work for a while but overall you will be seen as a weaker person for it. 

People can strand behind a company that has a clear vision in where they are going that is driven by their passion.