Crisis Communication

This is my forth post about communication in a responsible business and all the things that involves this subject. It’s been a pleasure talk about it, because I believe it affects directly our lives. It’s not just about advertise, sell and buy a product or a service, but our company’s choices and what we use daily is affect by business communication.

It is important specially now days when we have so many medias and channels to receive and share information. We can access and learn about anything at anytime; in the same way companies can reach us (the audience) in different ways. I talked about this on my last post when I came with the concepts of Integrated Marketing Communication. However I didn’t give examples how an organization can use the IMC.

If you read the earlier posts you already know, but if you didn’t I’ve been using Mack Trucks as an example for all the concepts talked lately here. This is a big company and provides you reader to see better what I’m talking about. Going back to IMC and how a company can uses it, I’ll show how Mack Trucks uses it. Looking for communication web content I found that Mack uses different types of medias channels to reach it stakeholders.

Mack has a good web site where I could discover where they are sharing the message. The company has social network fan pages, youtube channels, flickr profile and has been doing a good on line jog. And off line? Mack also uses the traditional media channels to reach the audience, one good example of how to integrate the communication is that Mack is present in lots of events related to company’s market, this is a closer relation between company and audience. Futhermore, Mack produces videos about those events and share this message via TV, Youtube and their own web site.

So the message that Mack’s stakeholders receive at the event, is the same that people into their houses have access trough TV or Internet. This channels integration makes the same message goes further and reaches a higher number of company’s stakeholders.

Each organization’s stakeholders are and use different channels to receive and/or respond the message. This stakeholder selection is called segmentation and on Mack’s website each link has as its function reach a different segment. There are links for suppliers, commercial partners, consumers, media, investors, employees and future employees, etc. Splitting each segment make the task of spread and communicates the message easier and more efficient for Mack. And the stakeholder segmentation works and has to be done with the traditional media channels also.

The IMC and stakeholder segmentation are important in very different ways to an organization, on point that is really important is not to create a misunderstanding and lose stakeholders trust what can be an issue for the company. In business many external and internal aspects can influence for the beginning of an issue or even a crisis and communication is one of them.

Problems with factory, employees’ conditions, natural disasters, stock market, bad communication, global economy, etc, are points that can start a problem for the organization.  To manage a crisis each company should have a Crisis Communication Plan (CCP). This plan is essential in crisis times, the primarily function of communication n in those times is to containing the negatives stakeholders and media reaction to anything that went wrong with the organization and preserve the company’s reputation.

Crisis and issues communication is extremely related with ethics in communication. During difficult times, companies must be aware how they are going to respond to the public, stakeholders and media about what is going on. How the organization is going to communicate and care about it’s image has to be an ethical response, because the audience, media, stakeholders and even the market opponents will be watching and listening. There are a lot of people involved in this process and they depend on this crisis answer, with that said the organization must be open to the truth in crisis time, take the responsibility for what happened and walk the talk to fix the problem.

An issue or a crisis can happen with at any company in many situations, however the organization has to be ready to deal with those problems. Sometimes an image company can be better after a crisis if it communicates and acts wright.   

Ethics and Integrated Marketing Communication

 A question that has always puzzled my mind has been how does one define ethics? From my point of view, there are so many different interpretations of what defines ethics.  I would personally define an ethic as a value that is passed from generation to generation. Some might even say: ’Ethics are the actions we perform with no one around’’.  Ethics is a broad area in human knowledge and our actions are greatly shaped by the ethical code we adopt. Ethics are values that are instilled in our character and they become accustom to our human nature through habit and practice. We perform actions that resemble good ethics since it allows us to live a life of peace and purpose.

  In addition, Ethics go beyond just an individual though and also represent the values of a group. A company for instance, values good ethics through its communication with clients and partners.  A company must always be able to communicate the truth in order to develop a proper relationship with its stakeholders.  Through good communication, a trust can be built from various parties within the company and a code of ethics can be adopted. Sustainable businesses are founded on these principles of ethics and it is a method that should be followed by all companies.

I do not need to give examples about ethics and business during this post, since I have been using Mack Trucks as a role model for all subjects in the last two posts. However, it is evident in this a century a sustainable business must portray ethics in communication. If Mack Trucks had not developed a code of ethics in the way it conducts business, the company would not have been as successful as it is today.

There must be a major emphasis   in business communication that is related to communication ethics, which is known as  “Integrated Marketing Communication”. IMC has a vision, which is to build a stakeholder’s goodwill through the interconnection of a unified message by different medias. It is important to reach different types of stakeholders via different medias channels, and at the same time transmit the same message and content.

However, beyond just IMC, there are internal and external issues in every organization that must be addressed. Those issues can disorder the IMC and distort   ethics. The IMC must think as a work force and all departments in the company must   create and share information to work together around the same theme and aspire to attain the same goal. It is not good if each department starts to implement their own way of thinking or else the core message will never be understood.

An Organization must spread its information precisely and be careful at the same time of messages being duplicated. Sometimes duplication can lead to the    audience misunderstanding  the content and at the same time it can cause division between the clients and stakeholders. This will in turn affect the straight trust relation and business inside the company.

 Therefore, IMC is the key for a successful business communication, specially now days when we have so many channels and medias. The message must be adapted for each different type of channel and audience. A company has different types of stakeholders like: Employees; Costumers; Suppliers; Communities; Government; NGOs; Owners; Competitors.  Each kind of stakeholder is a segment that affects the organization directly or indirectly. The stakeholder segmentation serves to identify stakeholders groups of interests and manage these groups. In terms of communication, the segmentation helps to shape the message, find the right channel to transmit and set the tone of the message to each group of stakeholders.

As I have pointed out about IMC and stakeholder segmentation, the time has come to put those two things together and finish this post with Integrated Stakeholder Communication.  The two need become compatible and through a five-way method of working, a success can be had.

The first topic that I will address about the communication channels is that the organization has to find which is the best channel to send the message of each kind of stakeholder. After this communication the department must be aware about the stakeholders groups and what each message means in order to customize each segment.  Also Inside the company each department must work together on the same content. After those three actions, the organization must illustrate its values to gain stakeholders credibility and finish with a strong message.

 In closure, this post shows the importance of appealing to an audience when working in business. By the next post, you will come to see what Mack Trucks does as IMC and how they segment their stakeholders.  Furthermore I will bring new communication topics for debate and will engage you to learn the practices that must be taken in order to appeal to the stakeholders.

Sustainable Business

The last post I previously discussed dealt with several important issues. I addressed many key areas that are mentioned in “Communication in Responsible Business: Strategies, Concepts, and Cases (Kindle Locations 289-292). Business Expert Press. Kindle Edition.’’ Like: 1) What is a Responsible Business?  2) What are the ways for a business to be considered responsible? 3) And lastly is Mack Trucks communicating this information on a good way? As evident from the reading on the text, the company has been succeeding in these three points and has even called upon me to ponder into great curiosity. Is Mack Trucks a Sustainable Business? And does the company’s word reflect its actions?

The answer is yes for both questions. To be considered a S.B. according to the book any company must have a positive or neutral environmental footprint, and at the same token be economically viable or profitable.  However, it’s simply not enough to just  be a SB, a company must be a RB and have Responsible Management.

For this to occur, management must define the company’s vision and communicate it to fellow stakeholders. Then, a company must implement and support the transformation from a RB to a SB and share the message about what the company is doing in order to become a SB. A company must always be clear and articulate with its motive communicate, otherwise it will not have the stakeholders support and will eventually lose the vantage of being a SB.

It is crucial to transmit the vision that represents how a company is a SB. Mack, for instance is a SB because the stakeholder can  have access to   information about what the long term goals are for the company. Mack’s words are reflective of the actions of the company and this is why it is such a great business. Communication and marketing process are crucial to the welfare of a company since these two areas allow companies to act on intelligence instead of blindness.

Mack can also be considered a High Balanced company because of its  sustainable performance and communication. The company has strong   communication about social and environmental actions. The Mack website says enough about the values and moral of the company. On the website, you can find important information like info adapted for its stakeholders, messages with transparency and based on real studies and with complete content.

Getting the trust and goodwill of it’s clients is important for big companies and Mack has developed a trust relationship amongst its fellow men. Mack’s stakeholders are crucial for company’s development and growing.  For this reason, communication and marketing have to be effective, using different channels without leaving gaps or different messages to company’s stakeholders. Through analyzing the company’s website and how it communicates to different audiences, I have learned so much on how companies work to become effective business. Regular consumers, media, investors and employees, all have their own pages on the website so they can receive and send information to Mack Trucks making the company a two-way line of communication. This two-way is a crucial in order to gain the stakeholders goodwill and trust.

In closure, I think it can be stated without about   that Mack Trucks is a SB and is transmitting the message in a good way to its stakeholders. In the next post that I will discuss about ethics, integrated marketing and other points of communication in responsible business, I’ll be sure to use Mack Trucks as example to convey the topics I encountered.

Communication in Responsible Business: Strategies, Concepts, and Cases - First Post

Mack Trucks - Responsible Business

This is my first post about this new study line. I chose a company called Mack Trucks, which is an American symbol as well as being related to the last company that I’ve posted about, Volvo Group.

Mack Trucks was founded in 1900 by Jack and Gus Mack in Brooklyn, NY and was first known by Mack Brothers Company. Now days, Mack Trucks is part of the Volvo Group, which employs more than 90,000 people, has production facilities in 19 countries and sells their products in more than 180 markets.

All this information can be found at www.macktrucks.com , the visitor has just to click on the link ‘’CORPORATE’’ which will lead to an institutional page about Mack. Why am I saying all of this? Because this is my study line on this post. I’m going to analyze if Mack Trucks can be considered a Responsible Business according to the topics proposed by Roger N. Conaway and Oliver Laasch in the book ‘’ Communication in responsible business – Strategies, concepts and cases.’’

According to Roger and Oliver a responsible business is ‘’ A responsible business (committed company) is a company that has made a credible commitment and taken action to tackle its immediate responsibilities toward a broad set of stakeholders, and progressed toward its long-term responsibility to become a sustainable business. Conaway, Roger N.; Laasch, Oliver (2012-08-12). Communication in Responsible Business: Strategies, Concepts, and Cases (Kindle Locations 289-292). Business Expert Press. Kindle Edition.’’

From this concept I went to Mack’s website to find out information about the company, because it’s not enough to just be a responsible business The company has to communicate their initiatives and what they have done for society and  the environment to company’s stakeholders. So once I was surfing on the website, I clearly saw the link ‘’CORPORATE’’ and clicked on it and this link took me to another page full of info about the brand and the company.

what I'm trying to say is that before I know if Mack is or isn’t a Responsible Business, the communication on it was already working. It was organized, with good content on the website which allowed me do my research about this topic and about the company. To see if Mack is or not a Responsible Business I used as a parameter six topics the book says every company has to have to be a R.B.  They are: Ethics, Philanthropy, Responsibility, Sustainability, Citizenship and Entrepreneurship.

On Mack’s website, I easily found on the ‘’Corporate’’ page information about Sustainability, what Mack is doing and as a truck company is trying to help the environment, even being directly and not directly responsible for pollution. On the left side there’s another link ‘’Corporate Social Responsibility’’ which has reports and the info about what Mack Trucks is doing about ‘’ Contributions, Disaster Relief, Environmental Care, Ethics, Partnerships, Public Policy and Safety’’.

After analyzing what Mack Trucks have been doing as a R.B. and how the company is communicating these actions, I asked myself, "is Mack Trucks a Sustainable Business?" And, or are they ‘’Walking the talk’’ or ‘’Talking the walk’’?  I’ll talk about these and more topics in the next post about Mack Trucks and how communication should be used in a responsible business.

Video game é coisa de criança?

Quem disse que vídeo game é coisa de criança? Eu, assim como muitos amigos, sou um apaixonado pelos games. Tive todos os consoles desde o aclamado e respeitado ‘’Super-Nintendo’’ e nascido no país do futebol, o meu jogo preferido não poderia ser outro se não FIFA ou PES.

Durante anos joguei o Pro Evolution Soccer ‘’PES’’, mas a partir do ano passado com a evolução da jogabilidade do Fifa 2012, tive que me render ao jogo da EA Sports e trocar depois de anos de um relacionamento bem sucedido o PES pelo FIFA 2012.

Sei que vou para o meu segundo ano de namoro com esse jogo que vem surpreendendo a cada versão. No Fifa 2013 os narradores na língua portuguesa Brasil mudarão. Thiago Liefert e Caio Ribeiro, dois jornalistas que são reconhecidos como revelações da nova geração do jornalismo esportivo no país, serão narrador e comentarista ( respectivamente) na próxima versão do game.

Dêem uma olhada no depoimento “emocionado’’ dos dois para a Fan Page da EA Sports Fifa Brasil sobre a honra de participar da versão do Fifa 2013.