Strategic Communication Strategy - Essay Example

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Strategic Communication Strategy Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Best Ideas in the Campaign 3 The Worst Ideas in the Campaign 5 The Central Approach of the Campaign 6 Lessons Learnt from the Campaign and their Application 7 Conclusion 8 Reference List 10 Introduction The main aim of the strategy is to evaluate the communication campaign. The case study to be considered for the analysis is that of IKEA, a Swedish furniture giant. The case study captures a moment when IKEA was surviving one of it difficult economic moments but still managed to rapidly expand its retail outlets in the Asia-Pacific region. The main reason for IKEA’s success was due to its innovative communication strategy and multichannel distribution (Greenland & Lunenburg). The case study illustrates on how IKEA makes the public to buy its products through using a “clever store design” (Greenland & Lunenburg, p. 27). The Best Ideas in the Campaign First, the communication strategy captures global market trend during the time. The trend helps put the company into context as it provides means to which the communication strategy fairly analyzed and criticized(Falkheimer & Heide 2014). The strategy also captures the economic climate in Australia which is experiencing fading consumer confidence due to looming carbon taxation and increasing interest rates (Greenland & Lunenburg). Furthermore, it compares the online and the street sales. It also captures the new trends in the market and the need for evolution or adoption in business. Second, the communication strategy illustrates on the distribution channel of IKEA. The explanation of the channel helps the readers understand the situation of the company (Greenland & Lunenburg). It shows that most of the IKEA markets and regions enjoy online shopping. The strategy also captures the rapid expansion of the business to the Asia-Pacific region to enter the new markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and China. Third, the communication strategy did a nice job in capturing the main objectives of the generic store design that IKEA is venturing. The objectives make it clear to the readers or consumers as to why the generic design project is important (Greenland & Lunenburg). It also enables the reader understand the relevance of the design to the business. Another best idea in the use of campaign is the use of ‘Brand Sweden’ to sell IKEA. Studies show that products from Sweden are based on social responsibility, user friendliness, technological innovation, and quality (White 2012). However, one might argue that the use of the ‘Brand Sweden’ might not work with other customers who would like to enhance their gross domestic products as opposed to promoting foreign businesses. The use of self-service as an item of campaign was one of the best ideas. Customers love self-service due to several of reasons that make them engage with the services (Greenland & Lunenburg). First, self-service is faster since it eliminates the time wasted on waiting that is commonly associated with assisted service (Davidge 2016). The ratios of workers to customers might cause unnecessary delays thus impatience. Second, self-service empowers the customers to take charge on how they make use of the services. As a result, customers are able to make effective and quicker changes to their experience as per their personal needs. Third, self service gives less room for error since it eliminates the errors associated with the workers in the business. In explanation, since most of the baristas try to serve the highest number of customers at the shortest time possible, orders can mix up in the process thus causing customer dissatisfaction. Self-service, therefore, shrinks the error of margin. Lastly, self-service creates a greater personal experience as customers are treated the same way during transactions. Another good idea to communicate the strategy is the use of diagrams to illustrate the concepts. The strategic communication used several diagrams to help reach the audience (Greenland & Lunenburg). The first diagram used is the one that captures the IKEA which is the main company to which the case study is based. Images also have been used to illustrate on how IKEA uses the Brand Sweden connotations and how the store facilitates self-service. According to More (2014), a picture communicates a thousand words and should always be used whenever possible to capture the attention of the audience. Effective visuals help power up the communication through boosting the engagement. It makes the audience retain the information as it helps boost the amount of data that the audience remembers and absorbs (Walden 2015). It is also crucial to constantly remind the customers on the values of the business. The aim of any business is to retain its customers at all cost as well as bring in more of them. IKEA applies the same concept through installing messages up the store on the elevators and walls. Since the customers are on self-service bases thus walking through the stores, they are able to locate the information and read (Greenland & Lunenburg). The flat pack furniture ensures that IKEA can distribute its resources effectively while the home-ware designs section gives the cost saving perception among the customers thus increase in sales. The Worst Ideas in the Campaign First, the campaign ought to focus not on the atmospheric and store designif it is not backed with enough scientific evidence on how it affects the customers. In explanation, it the campaign captures that consumers pay little attention to the atmospheric and store design, it becomes irrelevant to talks about it in a campaign (Greenland & Lunenburg). The focus of a business campaign is majorly to attract the customers, as a result, thing that mean less to the customers need not to be captured. Worse still, is capturing it in the communication strategy and acknowledging that it is irrelevant on part of the consumers(Dulek & Campbell 2015). It gives the perception that the consumers are ignorant and not aware of what is appropriate for them. Second, it is a worst idea when a strategic communication is based on scientific findings that are not yet proven. In explanation, such a venture is a non-strategic and illogical (Wickham 2007). The communication strategy in the case study focuses atmospheric design yet goes ahead to acknowledge that the knowledge on the same is inadequate (Greenland & Lunenburg). The Central Approach of the Campaign The central approach of the campaign is acceptable. The main goal of the campaign is to communicate on how IKEA is using its store design to capture more customers. The approach, therefore, focuses mainly on the store design and atmospherics(Greenland & Lunenburg). It goes ahead to capture the store design objectives which includes: communicate the image of the corporate and differentiate it from that of the competitor; complement channels of distribution; complement channels of communication; attract new and existing customers visually; communicate a range of products and services on offer; maximise impulse purchase opportunities through controlling of the customer movements; create appeal to specific target groups; provide a comfortable shopping experience; and build the relationship with the customers. The campaign is also based on studies thus making it sound to the customers (Rouse & Rouse 2001). A campaign based on scientific finding is not only viable but logical. The campaign targets at the maximisation of the profits through maximising the stock turnover which is a dream for every business. It also aims at ensuring that the IKEA outlet design keeps the customers at the maximum time in the store so as to ensure impulse purchase. It takes care of the basic needs of the customers through offering restaurant, rest-room, and child-care facilities. The approach is ethical since it is based on true features of the stores. It does not compel any of the customers to buy its products through false advertisement but just through making a suitable environment (Greenland & Lunenburg). The busying of the products is based on the individuals will while the business only makes efforts to ensure that the chances of maximising the sales are increased. Lessons Learnt from the Campaign and their Application A good strategic communication campaign should have a statement of purpose. It is important that the statement of purpose comes upfront articulating the reason to why the strategy is developed and what it hopes to achieve (Reeder 1998). The statement of purpose need not to be so detailed since the rest of the strategy will focus on explaining it. A good strategic communication campaign should show the current situation of the business or the trend. The current situation should be captured in the introductory part of the campaign (Deng 2009). It is important that it captures what the organisation does, its main roles, and where it operates. It ought to capture also the communication strengths of the organisation, its success and failures in the past years. The current situation of the business can be determined using tools such as PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, or competitor analysis. Communication strategy campaigns should reflect on the plan of the organisation. It should capture the core objectives and aims of the business. The campaign should, therefore, be used to determine how communication can help in the delivering of the set goals (Lymer & Carney 2015). The objectives should stipulate the communication principles that underpin the strategy and the main messages that the business wants to pass through to its audience. The objectives of the communication need to contribute to the achievement of the company’s objectives. The strategic communication campaigns should be able to identify its stakeholders. It should give a detailed description of its main internal and external audiences (Allen 2015). It can also capture the audiences that the business is willing to connect with in the future. Several businesses will find that have several audiences to interact with hence need to accommodate them in the strategy. However, it is important to categorise each of the audiences as per the activities that interest them. Understanding the audiences make it easier to develop and prioritise the communication framework. Upon identification of the audiences, the messages should be tailor-made to address their needs. The messages should be based on what they expect thus different depending of the features of the customers such as gender, religion, age, and race(Khan & Khan 2011). However, the message must link back to the values and objectives of the business. The key communication methods of the strategy vary depending with the audience. It can be in the form of text messages, posters, event, press release, leaflet, workshop, conference, website, social media, or e-bulletin(Khan & Khan 2011). Each of the channels has their share of advantages and disadvantages. Upon considering the present channels, one can begin to develop a communication plan that links the channels to the messages and audience(Hutt 2015). Conclusion IKEA is a good case study that stipulates on how a successful communication campaign can be launched. Some of the best ideas of the campaign are that it captures the market trend of the business and illustrated its distribution channel. It also captured the main objective of the generic store design and the use of ‘Brand Sweden’ to sell IKEA. The campaign went ahead to explain the importance of some of the concepts such as self-service and used diagrams to illustrate the message to audience. Furthermore, the communication campaign kept reminding the audience on the values of the business. However, there were also some of the worst elements of the campaign. For example, it focuses on project designs that have no enough scientific evidence on their viability to the customers while some are not yet proven. There was so much to learn and apply from the case study. Reference List Allen, M 2015, Strategic communication for sustainable organizations: Theory and practice, Springer, Cham. Davidge, D 2016, 4 reasons why self-service enhances customer experience. Available from: < http://www.answerdash.com/blog/4-reasons-why-self-service-enhances-the-way- customers-engage-with-your-services>. [26 Oct 2016]. 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