Reputation: 

Integrating messaging and training for successful media engagement

Published 2007

The reputation of an organisation is often dependent on how senior executives ‘perform’ in public, and especially to media.  It is the responsibility of the internal PR department, either through their own resources, or through using an external PR agency, to ensure that an organisation and its senior spokespersons are not only ‘on message’ but fully trained to effectively deliver them.

It is still not unusual to find organisations - through their senior executives - woefully equipped to effectively speak or present to external stakeholders and audiences. 

In fact a recent survey in the United States found that while 80 percent of advertising and in-house marketing professionals were aware of their brand’s positioning, only 25 percent could articulate it to clients, customers or prospective clients.

Communication to stakeholders as divergent as investors to community groups is important. But, typically, communication to these audiences is one-way, i.e. it delivers a message, but there’s no immediate verification as to whether the messages have been received or understood. Or whether they were even the correct messages for that audience!

It’s in dealing with the media where the real litmus test occurs. Executives soon have instant replay of what they’ve said. That’s because media reproduce what has been presented - and publish it for the world to see. If a senior executive is ‘off message’ it becomes painfully obvious.

So, how does an organisation prepare itself, and especially its key executives, to articulate better to all stakeholders, usually via a media interview.

1.      Prepare a Messaging Strategy

• Messaging is the key to any successful communication program. 
• A vision statement or an operational business model is not a substitute for the development of a messaging strategy.
• Messaging strategy is best developed and implemented through a technique and methodology called 'Message Mapping'.
• Messaging often has as its starting point the vision statement or the business model; however messages are usually framed from the perspective of stakeholders and the benefits the organisation offers them.
• The development of a messaging strategy needs to involve senior management.

2.      Prepare an Issues Response Plan

• Increasingly many multi-nationals prepare an Issues Response Plan
• This becomes a blueprint that provides standard positions and responses that serve as a guideline for their offices around the world.
• In effect it is an extension of the Messaging Strategy - ensuring that the agreed messaging is filtered down so it is used consistently across the organisation.
• The principle aim of the document is to provide messaging for spokespersons and senior executives in different geographies.
• A secondary aim is to outline areas of responsibilities and to outline who can speak on what to whom.
• While the principle was developed for worldwide use, it can easily be adapted to work for an Australian-only organisation so that different Departments, as well as operations in different States, all adhere to the same messaging.

3.      Develop a Q & A culture

• Many organisations will go into a Questions and Answers scenario when a major announcement is pending.
• This normally involves those closest to the deal thinking up ‘curly’ questions and developing the answers.
• The problem is that often the answers are developed specifically in relation to the deal in question, without going back to frame them within the organisation’s overall messaging structure and platform. This can result in inconsistencies in overall organisational messaging.
• An organisation that is serious about messaging and consistency in its communications will ensure that Q&A’s become an integral part of its operations.
• Every external speaking or presentation occasion should include a formal Q&A process - even for the CEO who thinks he/she knows it all.

4.      Media Training

• Any organisation that has any dealing with media should invest in media training for those who might represent the organisation.
• Media Training not only helps executives practice how to deliver the organisation’s messages - it also teaches them techniques to use in dealing with media interviewers.
• Media training also offers one substantial side benefit - it enables a group of senior managers to all ‘get on message’ at the same time.
• Many organisations think that a senior executive need only go through a media training course once.  Not so, most organisations that are in the public eye insist that key executives have regular media training refresher courses.

Increasingly what differentiates the real players from the pretenders is the CEO, COO, CFO or Marketing Director being able to articulate and deliver the organisation’s messages - often in a very competitive environment.

Many organisations indoctrinate their employees to espouse the corporate vision or the business model. But that’s often an inwards focussed communication that does not necessarily resonate well with external audiences.

They key to successful external communication is to link vision, business model, messages and senior executive delivery into a robust, well documented - and well rehearsed - process.