1. What does context mean in terms of knowing how, when, where and why an organisation is communicating?

2. Can you think of some ways to use media monitoring to help inform information about your organisation and/or the key issues they are facing or are interested in?

3. Why might a communication strategist working long-term for an organisation keep an Issues Database? Can you think of some scenarios where that might apply for your current project?

4. How could you apply environmental scanning to your needs analysis process?

1. The social, governance, economic/funding, regulatory and environmental context that my chosen business operates in is important to understand in relation to clients in order to make sure that communication content is relevant in the first instance. Timely follows that, followed by how (channel).

2. Media monitoring could be useful to keep our business focused on issues of importance to our buyers.

3. Again, keeping an issues folder is useful as once you have identified issues (content areas) of relevance to buyers, you can contribute to the discussion around those relevant issues. These things always evolve over time, and come in and out of focus.

4. Scanning in relation to my chosen business: need to think about this.

1. Why do the executive summary and the introduction reveal the end of the report at the beginning?

2. If there is no market research available, what should be used to inform the needs analysis?

3. What sorts of materials are useful to inform your initial strategy statement?

1. A precis is necessary as senior decision makers are time poor, and require only overview and summary. Further down the executive chain are others who interrogate detail more thoroughly, and enforce probity/compliance etc. This is a standard method (the end at the beginning) for much business communication and reporting.

2. Research:

market research in relation to the client and their products and services or the objectives

Information about a client, their products, their services and an understanding of their objectives can be drawn from multiple published sources from blogs to actual data sets, noting that most industries have a proliferation of data available online if you dig a bit. SUMMARISE with actual data in Appendix if available.

3. Scholarly articles, studies and research papers in aligned industries/comparable client situations, published guides to good practice, industry publications

1. What do you think strategic communications is?

2. How are issues analysis and strategic communication linked?

3. Why does strategic communication improve outcomes?

ITEM 1

Paul Argenti and Colleagues (2005):

They define strategic communication as ‘aligned with the company’s overall strategy, to enhance its strategic positioning’. They say that, although strategic communication has a long-​ term orientation, practitioners must ‘meet short-​ term needs but stay focused on the long-​ term issues’ facing organisations.

The article offers several definitions, but the above resonated most. In the module, the definition of strategic communication is an activity that has three purposes (why communicate?)

• Raise awareness

• Educate/increase understanding

• Change behaviour

I think one purpose is missing from this list, and that is the purpose of establishing and building relationships. This relates directly to the operation of professions that sell ephemeral services, such as I am focused on, as opposed to products, in a way that I will come back to later.

2. the link between issues analysis and strategic comms

If you are to operate on the three time horizons noted in the text (Baghai et al., 2000, Mahoney, James. Strategic Communication, Oxford University Press, 2016) you must be concerned with an understanding of how issues can emerge and affect complex systems. Analysis allows you to do this.

That is, seeming small and insignificant emerging elements can have disproportionately large impacts on reputation, relationships between the organisation and stakeholders, and the reception of core messages used to build and maintain essential relationships. There is also a relationship between issues and values in the sense that if the organisation’s response to an issue is not aligned or consistent with stated and communicated values, the issue will become increasingly problematic.

Strategic communication is the process of taking the tactical (short term) and strategic (longer term) steps required to successfully mediate between orgnisation and stakeholder to actively address issues.

3. Why does strategic communication improve outcomes

It stands to reason that strategic, compared to tactical, communication is referenced back to a broader, longer-term framework. This broader framework enables consistency from top to bottom around emerging issues, positive or negative - that is, from values (top) across the spectrum to mundane remedial or constructive actions (messages) impacting directly on, or speaking directly to, stakeholders (bottom). IT seems logical that this is a better approach that will give better outcomes.