CorpComms Magazine

Nobody can doubt that this will be a challenging year and when times are tough it is tempting to batten down the hatches and reduce external communications. But I believe it becomes more important than ever for companies to keep communicating to their different stakeholders, whether employees, customers, suppliers, partners or shareholders. There may be difficult news to communicate but it is far easier to do this if you are open and transparent with the people that matter. It reassures them that you value their input and want to work with them to find solutions, creating trust and loyalty.

It is also easier to talk about complex issues when you have an ongoing, two-way dialogue with a particular audience - they already have an understanding of the issues and a relationship to build upon. If you don't provide relevant stakeholders with information, they will talk about you anyway and you risk speculation and rumours replacing facts.

This raises the question of the impact of new channels on communications. In today's world, people have very different assumptions about what is public and what is private. People can immediately post views on blogs, forums and review sites; Facebook groups are started by individuals frustrated by a particular organisation; and mainstream media encourage the public to provide their own content to supplement existing editorial. This provides even more opportunity for speculation if there is a communications gap.

The plus side, however, is that this gives brands an unprecedented source of feedback and insight into consumer trends and attitudes. It also enables brands to quickly spread positive news and engage with different stakeholders. Organisations must consider carefully how digital can support them, both in terms of spreading a message but also as a competitive intelligence tool.

The final trend prevalent this year is that we will continue to see brands consolidate their marketing services in an effort to achieve greater consistency, better value and a bigger impact. I think there will be more tenders for integrated marketing programmes. This means that agencies capable of taking a media-neutral approach and thinking of ideas that work across multiple creative executions will be successful.  

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