Decision making in corporate communication is as important as in any part of the business.  Bad decisions can frustrate even the best intentions and demoralize the most energized team. Without a structured attempt at aligning objectives and outcomes placing your bet on any communication ‘property’ is a shot in the dark. Just as how Lina and her team discovered in a case study – ‘Shall We Brand An Athletics Meet?’ I shared recently.
Often communicators, branding experts or event management professionals are expected to define, create and invest in events that will enhance the brand image and reputation of their organization. They need to consider many questions. Those include:
- Which branding exercise makes the most sense for the organization?
- Do you sponsor an existing event or focus on a ‘not so well-known’ theme?
- Will you gain from a ‘first mover advantage’ or does it really matter?
- Is it wise to create your own event and brand it?
- How do you manage the engagement? Internally with a handful of employees or outsourced to an agency?
Such decisions can be vexing for even the most seasoned communication leader. Very often internal stakeholders have a say in such decisions and are called to align internal priorities with what will work outside for the brand. Bias can creep in and heavily impact final decisions. Such decisions are saddled with many challenges; they are often poorly thought through, lack clarity, and are unable to generate pride and excitement. Sometimes, a recent trend can become the wave your leadership team may want to ride.
How do you navigate through these discussions and what will guide communication professionals in arriving at a pragmatic approach for their event or brand strategy?
In this post I am sharing perspectives that can help communicators make an informed decision and steer conversations towards a meaningful outcome.
- Taking stock of your goals: Many organizations have a great event going year on year – either funding a sporting program or a technology forum. This can in partnership with an agency or in tandem with an industry body or a series of collaborators. Other companies look to this engagement and wonder if they need to join the bandwagon or do something that works in their interest. To arrive at that decision, the communicator must first understand what makes the most sense for the business, who are the stakeholders are and how do they perceive what the company stands for and will there be merit and appetite to pick something new. Triggers for event branding can be an output of an internal need – a new strategic direction, a need to increase the customer base, connect (or, reconnect) with customers, builds loyalty and recall. Outcomes expected from such events include more customer leads, proud employees, improved sales prospects, better brand recall and enhanced customer experience.
- Gauging your organization’s ‘branding’ readiness: Not every organization needs to be funding an event or creating one. Understand the motivators for getting into the event branding league and take a hard call if your organization is really keen to be in the game. Beginning a branding journey is easy but staying the course is much harder. Unless you have the resources and the inclination such events soon die a natural death. Your first port of call must be your employees – seek their inputs on what they expect from their brand internally and externally. It can even be that the organization needs to be more active as a corporate citizen and ‘own’ a social responsibility property.
- Arriving at your event ‘property’: It is never an easy task to nail the right theme to link your business goals.  If you are in the healthcare sector it may be relevant for the organization to focus on improving a specific health area or lead in a certain challenge that is impacting society globally or locally. Research what is already out there in terms of organized and sustained brand initiatives. Are they one-off exercises? Can you think of any specific brand in your sector that stands out in your mind? If there is an immediate recall the chances are that the brand is doing something which works!
- What does the organization stand for? Are you known as knowledgeable, trusting, caring, and supportive or any other key attribute that defines your core? If yes, begin from within to identify branding themes that relate to these attributes.
- What do your stakeholders care about? Not just customers, it is also your employees who need to have a say.
- Where does your organization’s brand need to go? Is it known as old-world and archaic? Has the organization’s purpose evolved over the years? Does it need to now be seen as young and vibrant? Does your organization want to be known for being innovative? It needs to first demonstrate over time that there is merit in taking the ‘innovation’ space otherwise the branding effort will not be viewed as credible.
- How does it link to your organization’s business goals? Consider what is logical first – is you are in the sports business funding a athletics meet or a marathon makes sense. A bank funding a marathon can be a stretch even though initially it may be seen as good for the brand. To establish the connection you will need to invest heavily in terms of time, effort and funds.
- Is your organization taking an unique position? Think how the branding can differentiate you from others. What is that your stakeholders and employees will be proud to share with others? If there is an immediate recall you are closer to arriving at your branded event focus.
- Event branding approach: Consider a few approaches that resonate. Begin small. Consider seeding the initiative with your employees first. If possible, extend the initiative to their families and gauge the response. Focus on initiatives that are:
- Aligned with business objectives
- In line with stakeholder/societal needs
- Focus on long term relationships
- Test the idea and theme with stakeholders through a structured survey or by running focus groups. Improve and refine the approach based on feedback you receive. Consider if there is a team you can organize internally to own and drive the brand event engagement. If not, you will need to look up an agency that runs it for your organization. Budgets and other factors will decide if the latter approach is viable or not. Focus on a branding initiative that can be extended beyond the initial years, has a future potential and which can be sustained over time.
Communicate the progress on the branding decision making while you are moving forward. Keep refining the idea till you are confident you have arrived at what the brand’s stakeholders will value. Nothing works like going back to the core of your existence and seek answers within.
