Professional Communication: project an image, don't be creepy

How to create an image? How to communicate professionalism? Are there standards which can help us enhance the communication strategy?

Study Case

The answers to those questions are correlated and almost impossible to find separately. However, there are quite a lot of companies out there trying to cut down the communication costs while making efforts to score high on image rankings. I have in mind a recent experience from a big international corporation operating in the office space renting business. The experience included both online company research and visiting the local office. The research phase showed non-existing CSR policy, non-existing employee benefits, accusations of careless behavior in connection to the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center a few years back, and company-produced marketing videos. The visit at the local office revealed a high rate of employee turnover, very unusual hiring policy (hiring only for lowest hierarchy positions with no requirements for education and experience, on minimal wage), and deceiving job descriptions.

When walking through the door you are greeted way too eagerly by the staff which makes you almost uncomfortable. What they pride themselves for is great flexibility in services and high level of professional customer service. The only customer feedback is available through the corporate marketing videos though.

Communicational no go

What was observed at that company is an absolute communicational no go. The non existing CSR policy and the lack of personnel benefits in a country as Denmark where CSR is becoming more than a standard and employees are treated with special care as assets is a sign of unprofessional management. The smile of the receptionist is not enough to make up for corporate mismanagement or irresponsible behavior. It also needs to be in line with services, surroundings, corporate culture and needs to be rooted in a thorough policy. Otherwise it comes across as insincere and creepy. Smiling while doing your job needs to be just as professionally distanced as your work style. Are you flirting with the customer or servicing them? Make it clear.

Image: communication standards and guidelines

Image management, even though there is such a discipline, sounds very wrong as image management is nothing but the tip of the iceberg. Hiring a professional to work on your image does not make a lot of sense if you have not clarified what the company stays for and how it wants to be regarded by your stakeholders. Stakeholders are all individuals and groups that are or can be affected by the operating of your business and/or have an interest in your business.

You need therefore to start from identifying your business’ core characteristics and analyzing the strategic stars for your brand. After clarifying what is desired and what is possible you need to get very practical and analyze in what ways your vision and mission can be embedded in your culture and business operations.

While you make considerations about communication practices, image building and communicating your values outside of and inside the company you need to get acquainted with the professional communication standards which will be your guarantee that your communication strategy is not going to backfire by earning you critics or even lawsuits in connection to unethical behavior.

 

After you manage to create a thorough and working communication strategy completely aligned with your business operations you might want to go one step further and consider CSR. There are countless studies showing that a CSR policy is considered a plus and sometimes a definitive criterion for choosing your company as a partner, provider or employer. For the policy to work though, you once again need to be consequent. Just as you need to make sure that you have implemented a communication policy that fits your business profile you also need to do the same when engaging in CSR. If you are not careful about this you might end up being accused of using CSR as a promotional tool instead of as a sincere expression of your concern for your stakeholders and the environment. You might for example decide to fund poor children in Africa but you have to explain why it is the poor children in Africa getting your support and not the local caner organization, for example.

After completing your communication strategy you need to make sure that it covers as a minimum mission, vision, development strategy, internal communication and employee management, HR policy and benefits, corporate culture, online and traditional marketing activities, branding, crisis communication, media relations, external stakeholder management, customer relations specifically, community care and involvement, and CSR.

When you are ready you will find yourself under a stack of thick guidebooks addressing the separate topics. You will have to always make sure that they are aligned with strategy and updated regularly. Among those guidebooks you will find the one describing how you need to treat customers in order to communicate the desired corporate image.

Do you now understand why smiling a lot is not professional but creepy?

 

DIDI

Pricing: Marketing rules you cannot ignore

 Pricing: The necessity of following basic market rules in order to be successful

 

Study Case

In the last few months a lot of consumers in Denmark experienced a shock when the market leader in milk products Arla increased the prices of fresh milk, both ecological and regular, by correspondingly 14 % and 25 %.

 

Otherwise no mystery there, prices do go up more or less on a regular basis. However, the reasoning behind the decision becomes quite unclear when one looks at market rapports quoted by the Danish press showing that demand is falling and the reason seems to be the high price of milk.

Even more mystically, the price of regular milk jumped with 25 % as reported and reached almost the price level for ecological milk. All this despite the fact that other producers still keep prices of regular milk on a price level 33 % lower than the Arla’s prices even after the recent increase of their own prices.

 

The net result for the company is yet to be measured, however the trend is for grocery chains to periodically put Arla milk on offer in an attempt to sell it or bail on it completely (observed at Kvickly, Rema 1000 and Netto, Denmark, September and October 2013). As for the consumers there is little doubt that they will choose the lowest price of the same product class and thus ditch the pricy Arla milk which does not offer anything beyond what other brands are able to provide on a much lower price (see an article on the topic, in Danish!).

 

Pricing

Pricing is usually decided on by conducting marketing research, evaluating demand, and benchmarking with competitors. A company could employ different pricing strategies depending on market position, brand value, product value, availability of alternative products, demand and supply. A market leader can often put pressure on the market by increasing its prices if there is an indication that either competitors will follow or consumers will stay loyal to the brand. The other way around, which also seems to be the case more commonly, the market leader can win the battle with competitors by lowering its prices to levels unreachable for smaller companies.

However, either move has its risks and limitations. While the risks seem to be easier to identify, the limitations are hidden within the corporate policy and corporate marketing strategy. Lowering or increasing prices is not always an option, as for example, a low cost brand cannot out of the blue come up with pricy products marketed as top quality. Similarly, an expensive brand can seriously damage its image by lowering inexplicably its prices only to win customers over.

This is the reason why low cost brands committed to changing business profile to quality need to go a long way. And this is the reason why many regular or expensive brands employ countless discount tricks in order to sell or to attract new customers.

The marketing policy aside, prices need to be compatible with business logic. Increase in prices should mean increase in quality, higher costs along the supply chain, new taxes, or market monopoly. Most importantly, that logic needs to be translated to consumers. They need to understand why they are supposed to buy your brand and pay more for it now than before.

If you skip that simple step you risk losing your otherwise loyal customers. An example can once again be the Danish dairy queen Arla. When they increased their prices in a country still in crisis and with price conscious consumers the result just a month later is almost constant discounts and special offers putting the milk price below the level from before the increase. Would Arla do that if they were not losing too many customers?

The problem with the increase was that it did not make any sense. No higher quality, yet much higher than the average price of competitors and just few Euro cent under the price of ecological milk which traditionally is sold on much higher prices. Why buy it?

To be successful you need to remember that no matter which pricing policy you choose, it is essential to communicate and explain your policy to consumers so that it does make sense to them. Another bonus of communicating openly with your customer stakeholder group is getting important and timely feedback on planned business moves and thus protecting your business and your image from damage.

In two words: to be successful you need to follow clear business polices, to avoid the thrill of a quick win and to establish open communication with your stakeholders.

DIDI