Show Me, Don't Tell Me

Visualizing Communication Strategy

Dave Holston

• Publisher: HOW Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781440339059
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Design General

A guide to strategic communication for stronger brands!

Powerful brands succeed because of the quality of the long-term relationships they establish with customers and stakeholders. At their foundation, these relationships are built upon consistent and meaningful strategic communications. These communications are developed around a framework that defines business goals, considers the audience's needs, surveys the competitive environment, identifies a unique value proposition and establishes a metric for success. Strategic communications are also integrated, bringing together marketing, public relations and internal communications. They are accountable through measurement, and they are accountable to their stakeholders, the various publics and their customers.

In this book, author David Holston takes the daunting task of smart communication and makes it manageable in just four steps. Holston has worked in the areas of marketing, advertising, communication planning, design management and public affairs for leading organizations for the past 25 years. He is also a national speaker and the author of two additional books, The Strategic Designer: Tools and Techniques for Managing the Design Process and Design for Online Engagement: SEO, Content and Design Optimization for Editors and Designers.

This indispensable guide provides you with a process for developing visual strategic communications that are sure to help your brands succeed.

1
Setting the Stage

In this chapter we are introduced to Bob and Barb, our guides through the strategic communication process. Through them we’ll learn the tools and techniques for managing a range of communication challenges. Bob and Barb will first walk us through the project initiation stage, showing us how to gather key information including scope, budget and schedule—as well as making sure that the client is aligned on the direction of the project.

A STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION JOURNEY

Bob and Barb’s strategic adventure

To provide some context for the exercises outlined in this book, I’ve created two characters, Bob and Barb. Bob and Barb own a small full-service communications firm with a specialization in communication planning, public relations and branding, as well as print and website design. Bob, a designer by training, manages both print- and web-design tasks and even does a little programming when needed. Barb has a background in marketing, public relations and content management. They both have a keen sense of good communication practices and are good strategists. They’ve paid their dues doing newsletters, logos and websites for clients ranging from local eateries to national computer manufacturers. The city where they work has a strong creative community; in fact, their particular city is swamped with communicators, designers, techies and web developers, which is both good and bad. Good in that there is a large and vibrant creative community; bad because the market for design jobs is small, so competition is fierce.

SCENARIO

Barb was thrilled when Table Tennis International (TTI) finally called. She and Bob had been pursuing the company for years, helping them with one-off projects and other odds and ends. But this call was different. This time they had a real project. TTI had hired Sarah as the new director of marketing, and she wanted to update their logo, collateral and website.

During the call with Sarah, Barb asked a few key questions: What was the general scope? Did they have budget? What were the deliverables? Who would have final sign-off on the project? With this information in hand, Barb conferred with Bob and decided that the project was right for them, and the couple set up a meeting with Sarah and her team.

It was a client meeting like so many before. After introductions were made, Sarah spoke up and provided an overview of the deliverables: updated logo, collateral and website. Focusing on tactics, Sarah gave detailed instructions about the size, colors, quantity and other specs; what the webpage should look like; and what corporate logos she liked.

Bob and Barb listened carefully, taking notes and asking clarifying questions, but after several minutes, they got a sense that something was missing in the conversation.

It was then that things took a decidedly different turn.

Barb waited for an opening in the conversation. She appreciated that Sarah had specifics about the project, but that wasn’t really what she was interested in at this stage of the project.

“So, why do you want to do this project?” Barb asked.

Sarah paused for second. “We’ve had these designs for a while now, and I think it’s time to freshen them up a bit.” Then she took a quick look around the table at her staff and added, “I’m not saying that our current design is bad; it just needs to be updated.”

Good save, Bob thought to himself.

Like most new managers, Sarah wanted to make her mark, impress her boss and show that she was able to bring new ideas to the table. But she needed to walk a fine line between honoring the work that her staff had done prior to her arrival and making significant changes.

“Did you get any feedback on your logo that would make you think that it needed updating?” asked Bob.

“Well, Dr. Wilson [TTI’s president and founder] told me that several of his VPs thought that the logo looked dated and that we should look at making some changes to it,” said Sarah.

“Plus, Mike in accounting hates it,” interjected Sue. This comment started a flurry of stories among the other staff at the table, recounting all the negative comments from internal staff about the mark.

“It’s so boring. I’ve been staring at this mark for the last ten years, and I just think it’s time for a change,” added Steve, TTI’s lead copywriter.

Then, cutting through the din, TTI’s art director, Will, spoke. Will had created the mark many years ago, and he said in terse voice, “The logo was approved by Dr. Wilson. He told me he liked it.”

Barb looked at Bob. They both looked at Sarah, and sensing that the conversation was going in a bad direction, Barb spoke up.

“Sarah, have you gotten any feedback from customers on their feelings?” Barb asked.

Will immediately rejoined, “Oh, customers, they’re so fickle. And you know, you can never trust customer focus groups to get real answers. Besides, it takes too long and costs too much for that kind of research. Besides, I’ve been working with the clients for ten years now; I know what they want.”

“I see,” said Barb diplomatically.

The meeting continued, and Bob and Barb dutifully reviewed the general project scope and promised to send an estimate within the next day.

Walking out of the meeting, Bob turned to Barb and said, “I’m afraid that these folks are heading down the wrong path on this project. I think we ought to be doing a better job of guiding them. We’ve been down this road before with clients who make knee-jerk changes to their communications, and it always ends the same way—another meaningless project that we would never even put in our portfolio. Our time wasted. Their money wasted.”

“You’re right, Bob,” said Barb. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I wish I knew a way to help them identify their real communication needs, so that we could make a real impact,” said Bob.

“Me, too,” said Barb. “I wish we could just start at the beginning with them.”

And so, our heroes st...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Setting the Stage
• 2 Defining the Situation
• 3 Vision and Mission
• 4 Goal Definition
• 5 The Competitive Environment
• 6 Audience Insight
• 7 Concept Development
• 8 Messaging Strategy
• 9 Messaging Tactics
• 10 Design Development
• 11 Concept Selection
• 12 Concept Testing
• 13 Presenting Concepts
• 14 Implementation
• 15 Evaluation
• 16 Process Improvement
• 17 Wrapping It Up
• About Dave Holston
• Copyright
• Tables