JOE FRESH AND LOBLAW LIMITED COMPANIES.

Name

Institution

Executive summary.

Joe fresh being a good factory dealing in garments had previously been doing well in the new garment industry until the collapse of a five-story building housing them. The current plan of reviving it is entire of its importance to the industry and users of the product. Before its fall it had a well laid down channels on how to communicate to its customers across the generations. The building claimed the life of over seven hundred people and the information was in media within few minutes of its occurrence. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001 )The manager of the firm knew that this would be a shock to the public since it houses so many people during the working hours. Joe Fresh was one of the leading companies in the Industry because of the quality and fair pricing. The marketing department was always full of orders to be processed, and delivery is done to the owner at their convenient places. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)

Canadians realized that the company they had depended upon had fallen, they did not believe based on how high and stable the building looked. The falling of the building was an issue that raised many questions and speculation alike on the possible causes of the collapse of such a magnificent house. This disbelief was boosted higher by the fact that it had never happened to any Canadian company. They believed that they were doing things in the most prescribed manner and it was not possible for their building to fall without some cause.Consumers always react differently to such an issue, but the immediate one is to put aside their desire to use or go near the firm which has caused the loss of several lives. In the long run, the company is expected to put its best foot forward and see how the situation can be corrected back to normal. The corrective measure is to find out the cause of the incident such that when dealing with the remedial measures such mistakes which might have been the cause of the accident are avoided. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)

Experts' engagement is vital at the investigative to try and dig out the facts about the incident and a recommendation of mitigation in the future. When such activities are on site, the customers will try to understand the happenings. The customers will be curious to know what might have been the reason behind it thus accepting that it was purely accidental and no false play or some form of security threat. This will build the confidence of the customers once more on the products and the building, but if nothing visible is done the customers always go for the next alternative as they would have lost trust to the management of the company. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)

The customers will always have trust in working systems and taking future precautionary measure is a necessity on its second-time rise. At this point, the management should take the initiative to invite media to cover the reconstruction measures. This will give light on the ways are taken to correct the mistakes and at the same time inform the customers of the progress of the project and giving them the home of the return of the normal operations. It's always a hard situation to come out of, but those who manage become stronger. The management must put open any measure being taken for faster confidence building and the image of the firm to rise to light again. Right things must be done to correct the mess for accompany to rise again.

Communication Goals

The information about the collapse reached far and because of the desire to regain its previous lost glory. The firm has to reach to different stakeholders and be told of the ongoing reconstruction of the company. Joe fresh company is going to enhance awareness of the issues that led to its collapse and precautionary measures put in place. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)The aim is to reduce chances of such a problem reoccurring and people losing their lives and the company losing billions of dollars. The company also is in touch with the relatives of the deceased and find out if the company could help in one way or another. Those who lost their loved ones the treatment they are accorded will determine whether they remain customers of the ill-fated firm or they are attached to a different business.

The firm will also take time to talk to the families of the deceased to assure them that whatever happened was purely accidental which could occur any firm and any country. This emotional support will go a long way to help the affected families recover faster and sell the image of the firm efficiently. Another organizational aim is to inform the investors of the move to reconstruct a new firm thus financial assistance will be welcomed. The other issue is to the banks on the loans. This is to assure them of the commitment to clearing the pending debts with the shortest time possible. With this promise, the financial sector will treat the firm as a genuine player in the economic development but not out to bring other firms and industries down. The last is to put all the information on the website on the progress of the firm to give the customers the opportunity to see the development.

Key messages

The first aim of construction is our old customers since they know the quality of the products we produce. This to ensure we retain all our previous customers to form our basis of revival. This will be achieved through the use of the last directory that we will use to alert them of the existence of our product once more in the market. A new desk will be set to deal with the new customers and bring them back to their demand power. Our second aim is to give an idea to the new customers so that they can accept to buy the products. The new customers will come on board when the old customers are already back. The former customers can be used to bring more new customers, to achieve this they can be given discounts whenever they come with new customers.

Communications Assessment

Joe fresh limited company has had a very positive image since its inception and before the damage. The major problem is the shying away of investors and other groups surrounding the business. This was as a result of the problem is encountered after the collapse of the company. Another problem is the existence of competing rivals who took advantage of the absence of JOE and expand the business forum. Their lack led to the fast rise of other garment companies thus proving very difficult to be bulldozed out of the market.

The competitors have lowered the prices thus making it hard for the new business to launch into the market. Its reputation has been improved especially after helping the families of the deceased during the hard times. This gave the public confidence that the existence of the firm is for the good of the customers. Another strength was the act of being open when the construction was ongoing this served as a good strategy of bouncing back to the market. The coverage by media led to an improved reputation. The press covered all the progress of the construction this made the customers have the confidence based on the perfection of the work at hand. Some new investors have come on board has seen the progress and the commitment of the managers. The rapport with the environs has been excellent because of the employment and other social responsibility they play.

The support from the Canadian government to reconstruct has helped to build the firm this has been very important in the rebuilding of the firm to reclaiming the lost glory in the market. The commitment of the older generation and the loyalty has helped the firm to have where to begin in the market. The last area is to communicate to the stakeholders so that they can feel part of the business so that in case of need they can come to bail the business out of the financial crisis. Another system of communication shall be formed so that our products produced will be seen by everyone so whoever wants to get access will be free to get that.The last is setting website and forum for online sales this will ensure that all the goods are salable without physical contact.

Targeted Audiences

The main areas of our audience will be;

Customers.

To the customers, the communication shall be based on the products to be offered and the prices to pay for particular items. To reach for them, it will be an initiative of the firm to reach for them using different methods. The conventional method is the social networks like WhatsApp , Facebook and the rest this will help in achieving them at the right time. Most of the customers especially the old ones know where to get the products and the price at which they should go for in the market. This will be an advantage for it will not require extra resources to inform them of the available products and their prices. This will be an achievement. The target will be the youths who are always good in spreading information through their friends. The teenagers who have a significant influence on the market will extend the catch of the business.

The general public above 40years.

When targeting the youths, it is with the aim of expanding the market using a contemporary population. When dealing with the senior people, it is always a guarantee since their purchases never vary. Most adults have a specification on their wares thus it is straightforward to deal with them. The more prominent population targeting more wares are always the elderly who would prefer the more expensive thus bringing more profit to the Firm?

Children below 18years

This a very prime age where the utilization of products in the wares industry is very high. They always put pressure on the parents to continuously buying for them every time they come across them. To target a large group of people the price will be made fair so that most of the children are attracted to the area. The displayed will be made in strategic places with the aim of drawing the attention of the young generation. The larger the group being targeted, the better the incomes as a result of higher sales. When targeting the youths, it is with the aim of expanding the market using a contemporary population. When dealing with the senior people, it is always a guarantee since their purchases never vary. Most adults have a specification on their wares thus it is straightforward to deal with them. The more significant population targeting more wares are always the elderly who would prefer the more expensive thus bringing more profit to the firm?

Media

The usage of journals, blogs, and other online platforms are a good breeding grounds to enable the customers to get access to the information required. It is traceable to know what is in the market for a specified period. This is the same area where goods that are offered on discount and new products can be given to the buyers who follow the firm and its activities. This media will enable the current and future customers to have a look at the available offers and orders. Other media like radio will also enhance a more full coverage thus increasing the chances of getting more sales since the senior citizens use the audio media more commonly than print or visual media. (Oliver, 2010)

Communication Mechanisms

There shall be different ways of ensuring that the information reaches the entire area of jurisdiction of everyone participating. The mission and the vision of the business will have to be made known to all the stakeholders. We will need our dedicated volunteers to be divided into teams to create their way to send our key messages, mission, and vision to local, public elementary and high schools. They can compose a skit, lecture or different activities to explain our organization. The teams will have individuals who have tasted the goods of the garments to spread the news to all new customers to make a judgment in favour of the Joe Fresh Company products. There will also be a donation box set up so that enthusiastic individual can support the need of the business and in return give them the priority if goods are now produced. We will also be passing around flyers, information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the new business and the products in the market our organization. Every information package, flyer, newsletter, and brochure will have our logo and organization name on it so that we will be consistent with our image and branding. It will also include our mission, vision, values, and information on the new garments and their respective prices. (Oliver, 2010)

We will also need volunteers to set up booths all around the major malls in Bangladesh and the surrounding centers to extend its volume of sales to areas that were not previously covered. We will be passing out information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the disease and our organization. The printed newsletter will include inspiring stories from people who have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. This will target the general public, from young people to the older crowd. They will be able to donate funds for our research in a donation box set up at the booth. We will continue with the events we already have annually, Joe fresh open tournament and young talent development to bring all the groups on board and create more awareness.

The channels we will continue to use to communicate with all ages to enlighten them on our mission vision and business motto in the sector for it to be felt again in the market. The media will help in the interaction of the general public and the children to understand more about the value and quality of the products. The sites like social media, emails and our electronic newsletter will promote the products here. This will encourage individuals to be involved in two-way communication with our organization. It is essential to be consistent with our mission, values, and image in a bilateral interactive dialogue with external audiences.

Timeline and budgeting .

The prosperity of an organization must have timelines in all the activities they do. An event which is time-bound has high chances of success as opposed to open-ended activity. The time frames are important to both external and the entire business fraternity. The firm intends to finish the firm construction in the next one year to pave the way for the beginning of production. At the same time, the web developer has been contracted to furnish the firm with the web where all the information on the firm will be found. The web shall contain the mission, vision and the motto of the business. In addition to the website, the firm shall use other social media which will help in advertising the products and collaborate with other firms that will aid in the business prosperity. This will involve a two month period where our website designer and a group of research assistants will collaborate to create this new addition to our website. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)

The establishment of booths will take three months this will lead to the accessibility of our products in all the areas in and beyond Bangladesh and Canada. The firm will use all the departments and include a sector of designer clothes. The designer clothes department will deal with special occasions like weddings, and other special functions. Special offers shall be given in the last weekend of the month to anybody who buys goods above US$ 200 will be given a coupon which will be redeemable at the end of every year. This will increase the sales by attracting more customers. We will begin to set up our booths at the malls at the beginning of May and continue to occupy the malls the first weekend of every month, from Friday to Sunday. If this activity is sufficient, we will continue to set up booths at the malls for the next year. Each group will only need to sign up one day every month for four hours to accomplish this activity. The cost for the flyers, information packages, brochures, and newsletters is estimated around US$160-$270. The firm shall also built an exhibition at the heart of the town to create awareness of the new products on offer to bring information near to our customers. We will organize road shows at the end of every year to remind the customers of the continuous existence of the products in the market as well as using it to introduce the new products in the market. During the road shows the products shall be sold at a discount of 30% this will be with the aim of clearing stock every year. We will visit high schools in April to create a positive impact on 18 high schools located in Vancouver. (Di Luzio, Günthner & Orletti, 2001)

We will need approximately 18 groups of six to seven volunteers to create a presentation that will have a huge positive impact on high school students. We will hand out information packages, newsletters, flyers, and brochures, which will cost us an estimated US$400. I chose the month of April to visit the high school students because they will have time to think about volunteering for our organization during the upcoming summer. We will have the rest of the year of 2015 to find volunteers and execute our plans to visit local, public elementary and high schools in the year of 2017. (Oliver, 2010)

References

Di Luzio, A., Günthner, S., & Orletti, F. (2001). Culture in communication. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins.

Oliver, S. (2010). Public relations strategy. London: Kogan Page/CIPR.

Parente, D., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. (2015). Advertising Campaign Strategy. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Steyn, B., & Puth, G. (2000). Corporate communication strategy. Sandton: Heinemann.

�Need to be more related to the paper

�This source is very old, please find more recent one

�Where are the key messages? There no clear sentence/key message. There whould be 2 key messages.

�Include the worker in the target audience. Especially the workers in JOE FRESH manufacturing in India and Bangladesh

�Whatsapp? Not efficient

�Need to be more realistic

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Communications Strategy for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC)

Student name,

Executive Summary

Given its size and resources, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC) has good external communications, but needs to reach a younger generation of external audiences. The organization’s website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts are well-organized and updated regularly, but it lacks a nutrition facts and advice webpage that is based on the extensive research done for patients with Crohn’s disease and their families to rely on. The organization uses a variety of channels, such as emails, newsletters and face-to-face interaction, to communicate with its stakeholders. CCFC’s mission and vision statements are always front and center, making it its first priority in all the events, newsletters and emails. Its consistency in its reputation, image and identity is very successful.

The purpose of this report is to improve CCFC’s external communications, and to create new strategies that would help the organization expand its external audiences, meet its objectives, live up to its values, and fulfill its mission statement.

Through attentive reading of the official Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada website (http://www.ccfc.ca), I found many hyperlinks that led to web pages of events, information on the organization and the disease, volunteer forms and information on how to mentally, emotionally and physically deal with a loved one diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. However, I noticed the only thing missing that CCFC has not acknowledged was the importance of creating a healthy diet for someone diagnosed with Crohn’s. By updating and using social networking sites, the organization is able to engage in a two-way interactive discourse with people who want to be involved with the organization and the members already involved with the organization. I came across many online journals and blogs that had positive coverage on past events and the incredible accomplished goal of millions of dollars that was raised for medical research. There is a ceremony held every year to honor dedicated volunteers with awards, so there is no doubt that the organization shows its appreciation to the members of the organization. With this being said, I noticed all the pictures posted on the website of past events, were of volunteers that range from 25 years old to an older crowd.

Recommendations to improve the organization’s external communications include setting up an information booth in the seven major malls in Vancouver the first weekend of every month and sending groups of volunteers to reach out to elementary and high school students from January to April. This will continue to raise awareness surrounding this issue and the organization, while also expanding to a younger generation of audiences and promoting the new addition to our website.

Communication Objectives/Goals

Due to the lack of knowledge that young people have about the issue surrounding Crohn’s disease and colitis, we are going to increase awareness and knowledge about Crohn’s disease, colitis and the CCFC. We are going to aim particularly at elementary and high school students. We want them to understand this disease, how to help someone that is diagnosed with this disease, mentally, physically and emotionally, and how to cope with a loved one that is going through the pain of this disease. Our goal is to visit 50 schools with our youth speakers within the next three months.

Our other communication goal is to provide patients with Crohn’s disease or colitis, their families and the general public with information and advice on healthy eating habits, nutrition facts and the types of food that can contribute to a healthy diet of someone diagnosed with this disease. We want them to be able to compose their own healthy diet by using the food and nutrition advice we give them and post them up for others to read. Our goal is to increase website visits by 50% within the first six months of our campaign.

Key Messages

Our first key message is aimed at young elementary and high school students from ages nine to 18: We need to learn more about Crohn’s disease and colitis, in order to prevent and help those around us that are unfairly diagnosed with it. We need to raise more awareness, in order to raise more funds for extensive research to find the cure. Key message: Do You Know Where Your Colon Is?

Our second key message is aimed at Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients, their families and the general public: We are providing a section on our website dedicated to educate nutrition facts and advice for a healthy diet for people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or colitis. Key message: Live Better, Longer with a Colon-Aware Diet.

Communications Assessment

The Crohn’s Disease and Colitis Foundation of Canada has a great image, identity and reputation. The problem is that their demographic of volunteers, funders and donors seem to only range from 25 years old to an older crowd. Another problem is that there aren’t any nutrition facts on the website for IBD patients and their families to acknowledge and help them create and maintain a healthy diet. Its reputation is excellent, due to many volunteers and funders that come out for annual events and the result of millions of dollars raised for medical research. There is always positive media attention, usually in blogs, newspapers, online journals and a few news stations, surrounding the CCFC’s annual events, especially the GutsyWalk. CCFC is up to date with its current social and cultural trends by using social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. CCFC is great with consistently updating their social media networks with photos, events and videos and communicating with friends, subscribers and followers in a two-way interactive dialogue. As for its economic impact, the healthcare system has covered $753 million in the year of 2008 alone and an estimated cost of $1.8 billion has affected many individuals and families dealing with this disease. CCFC’s only competitor is the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, but they do not compete with each other, they are helping their own nation prevent Crohn’s Disease from spreading to more people. They are both helping the same cause, trying to find a cure. As I have mentioned above, the many supporters of the CCFC are usually part of the older crowd, which means we need to improve on our external communications to the younger crowd, as they are the people that are great with social media and will spread the word, make a difference and bring their values into adulthood. We also need to improve communicating healthy diets to all of our stakeholders, so that they know we are still trying to educate them and teach them new facts according to the new research done. We will use social media, face-to-face communication and our website to reach our current and potential stakeholders and direct our mission, vision, key messages and new additions to a wider range of external audiences.

Target Audiences

We are going to communicate our communication goals and key messages to the stakeholders listed below.

High school and Elementary school Students

We are going to communicate information about Crohn’s disease and colitis to young people, who ranges from nine years old to 18 years old. Many of them do not know what Crohn’s disease or colitis is. We need to have a face-to-face interaction with them at their schools to explain this disease to them, how to take care of someone that is diagnosed with it and the nutrition facts that are needed to make a healthy diet. We need to also explain our organization and our mission and vision. Besides face-to-face interaction, we will also use social media to communicate with these students. They are impressionable and are able to use social media to gain more attention for this organization. Young people are also very good at spreading the word to their friends, as long as they believe in our organization and what we do for diagnosed patients and the society.

IBD Patients & their Families

We need to continue our communication with IBD patients and their families and help them through this tough time. All the IBD patients and their families have a thorough knowledge of this disease and this organization. They are the volunteers and the people who attend the events and donate funds to our research. Besides giving information about the disease and how to cope with it, we want to promote our new webpage of information about creating and maintaining a healthy diet for an IBD patient. We will email all the members of the CCFC, post it up in our electronic newsletter “Talk about Guts!” and update our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube with the new addition.

General Public (Ages 25 and older)

Reaching young people means to expand our demographic of volunteers, funders and donors, but we are still grateful for the volunteers and funders we have now, who are part of the older demographic. Many of them are aware of this organization and what it does for the society. By reaching to young people, hopefully they will create a chain reaction and influence their older role models. By reaching to this older demographic of volunteers and funders, hopefully they will influence the younger generation to volunteer and donate. We will need to communicate our new addition to our website via email, our electronic newsletter, face-to-face interaction and social media.

Media

There have been a many online journals, blogs, newspapers, news stations and social media networks that have been keeping track of the many events we hold. Some of them know about this disease that is affecting many Canadians and what our organization stands for, but many of them still do not know what this disease is. We will use email and social media to reach our online bloggers and reporters. We will invite them to more of our events, so they can see our massive turnouts and the positive impact we have on society.

Communication Mechanisms

We will need our dedicated volunteers to be divided into teams to create their own way to send our key messages, mission and vision to local, public elementary and high schools. They can compose a skit, lecture or different activities to explain our organization and the disease we are raising money for. Every team will have a person that is diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, so they can share their own experiences and stories for the younger generation. There will also be a donation box set up, so that students and teachers can donate funds for our medical research. We will also be passing around flyers, information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the disease and our organization. Every information package, flyer, newsletter and brochure will have our logo and organization name on it, so we will be consistent with our image and branding. It will also include our mission, vision, values, information on Crohn’s disease, nutrition facts for people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and how to cope and help loved ones that are diagnosed.

We will also need volunteers to set up booths all around the major malls in Vancouver, such as Metrotown and Park Royal, to promote the new addition to our website and to raise awareness about the disease and our organization. We will be passing out information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the disease and our organization. The printed newsletter will include inspiring stories from people who have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. This will target the general public, from young people to the older crowd. They will be able to donate funds for our research in a donation box set up at the booth. We will continue with the events we already have annually, such as the GutsyWalk and the All That Glitters Gala, to continue to raise awareness and funds, as it always has the biggest turnouts.

The channels we will continue to use to communicate with elementary and high school students, IBD patients and their families, the media and the general public (ages 25 and older) are face-to-face interactions, social media, emails and our electronic newsletter. This will encourage individuals to be involved in a two-way communication with our organization. It is important to be consistent with our mission, values and image in a two-way interactive dialogue with external audiences.

Timeline and Budget

The estimated time frame to execute our External Communication Strategy is one year. Starting in May to the end of June, we will finish our new webpage of nutrition facts and advice. This will involve a two month period where our website designer and a group of research assistants will collaborate to create this new addition to our website.

We will begin to set up our booths at the malls in the beginning of May (2012) and continue to occupy the malls the first weekend of every month, from Friday to Sunday. If this activity is effective, we will continue to set up booths at the malls for the next year. We will need 21 groups of six to seven volunteers to set up booths in seven major malls in Vancouver. Each group will only need to sign up one day every month for four hours to accomplish this activity. The cost for the flyers, information packages, brochures and newsletters is estimated around $300-$500. I purposed this timeline because our events only occupy the months of April, May, June, September and November. This activity is planned to take place every month for one weekend because we need more ongoing, monthly activities, so that we can be consistent and continue to raise awareness without wasting any time. We will have two weeks to plan our first weekend at the major malls.

We will begin to visit elementary schools in the months of January, February and March, in order to accomplish positive influence in 50 chosen elementary schools located in Vancouver. Approximately 16 to 17 presentations a month will accomplish our goal to create a positive influence on the children. Approximately 30 groups of six to seven volunteers will perform their presentation to elementary school students. Each group is highly encouraged to present at least two presentations in the months of January, February and March. The estimated cost of the flyers, brochures, newsletters and information packages range from $300 to 500. I have chosen this timeline because we do not have many events early in the year.

We will visit high schools in the month of April to create a positive impact on 18 high schools located in Vancouver. We will need approximately 18 groups of six to seven volunteers to create a presentation that will have a huge positive impact on high school students. We will hand out information packages, newsletters, flyers and brochures, which will cost us an estimated $300-500. I chose the month of April to visit the high school students because they will have time to think about volunteering for our organization during the upcoming summer. We will have the rest of the year of 2012 to find volunteers and execute our plans to visit local, public elementary and high schools in the year of 2013.

Evaluation

We will evaluate our success by keeping track of all the new volunteers and their age range after we have started our information booth at the malls and the visits at the local schools. We will also keep track of the number of new followers, subscribers and friends we have made on our social media accounts. Both of these tactics will be recorded monthly and will be compared to Crohn’s disease Awareness Month (November) and the months with our regular events to see the progress we have made with our new events. We will also assess our success by keeping track on the number of ‘hits’ we get when someone clicks on the hyperlink for our nutrition facts and advice page. This will show us how popular and successful we were at promoting our new webpage. Feedback on our information booth at the mall and visits to the public elementary and high schools will be suggested on our social media networks, through emails, newsletters and various tawo-way interactive communication practices, such as face-to-face interaction.

This assignment for communication course “communication strategies”

The company I choose is “Joe Fresh” one of Loblaw limited companies. I want the main focus in the assignment to be about the collapse of the manufactor in banghladish and the people who were kiiled there.

The assignment should talk about how “JOE FRESH” AND “LOBLAWS” can move on and rebuild their reputation and public image.

I attached the outline of the assignment and a sample of it.

These are suggested plan for the main points

· Communication Objectives

Should be measurable

Eg. Increase the positive reputation between workers and employees in india and bangladish by doing surveys

· Key Messages

Safe environment …. “need to improve”

Key Audiences

Workers and customers

investors

Activities

Csr activities

Include 2 stories about csr

Timeline/budget

One year

Evaluation

Measure success by survyes and csr stories

1. Communications Strategy For The Organization Of Your Choice (25%)

Prepare a complex communications strategy for a real-life organization from a sector you have not used for Assignments 1 or 2. The emphasis in this assignment is on external communications and integrating the skills you have learned into a comprehensive plan.

The communications strategy must include, but need not be limited to the following elements:

· Executive Summary

· Communications Assessment (situational analysis)

· The present situation in which the organization finds itself. What is its reputation, has it received positive/negative media attention, who are its supporters and who are its critics? What needs improvement in its external communications?

· Communication Objectives

· Key Messages

· Key Audiences/target groups/stakeholders

· Who are you communicating with? What do they already know about the issue and/or the organization, and how do you intend to reach them? This list will obviously include the media, among others.

· Activities/tools/tactics for delivering your message(s)

· What materials will need to be developed?

· What events will you hold? Open houses, press conferences, opinion-gathering?

· How you will communicate with each important target group? Identify at least three channels you will use.

· Timeline/budget for implementation

· When will each activity in your plan take place? Next month, next year? In what sequence will you organize these activities and why?

· Include an estimate of the resources (human, financial, time) needed to create your communication materials or carry out your activities.

· Evaluation -- how will you measure your success?

The plan should be appropriate for your sector and organization. This is NOT a budgeting exercise. In the Budget section, provide a ballpark estimation of the cost of putting your communications plan into action, and remember to take your organization’s resources into consideration.

Helpful Tips for Writing Assignment #3

1. You are writing this plan for a real organization, and in the real world it would be read by the owners/managers/CEO of that organization. These people obviously know how the organization works – don’t waste time describing it for them (location, number of employees, etc.). Concentrate on what you will do for them as a communications strategy, and why. Do not suggest operational changes, such as hiring more salespeople or reducing prices or training servers to ride unicycles.

2. Write the Executive Summary after you have completed the report. Use entire sentences you wrote elsewhere in your plan, if you choose. Ask a friend or family member to read the Executive Summary ONLY, not the whole plan. If they can read it, and then tell you what your main strategy is to improve the organization’s communications and why you choose that strategy, then your Executive Summary is successful.

3. Focus on the communications aspects. Your role is to examine how an organization communicates to its audiences, and suggest ways in which those communication activities should improve or change. The client already knows how to handle the business side (making money, serving customers, etc.) – you have been contracted to help him/her establish communication goals, craft key messages, and reach target audiences.

4. Please include at least two concrete, well-defined and measurable communication goals in the written report. Example: your goal is to increase your organization’s Twitter followers by 100% within six months. Each goal should be accompanied by one key message. Example for a non-profit/NGO: “We’re stronger together. Let your voice be heard as we advocate for Vancouver’s homeless and push for affordable housing. Join us in promoting #homesforthehomeless.”

Do not confuse goals with messages. See your instructor for clarification on this.

5. Evaluating your success means you have considered the ways in which the client will be able to determine if your communication goals have actually been met. This could include measuring the amount of media coverage generated after your plan is put into action (your strategy generates a certain number of articles in local newspapers or magazines, or 60 minutes of air time on local radio or TV programs). It might include measuring the increase in product sales or donations after the message has been sent out. It could involve counting the number of people who attend an open house or the number of new client names added to your email data base. You could suggest monitoring the number of “hits” on the company’s website, the number of likes on its Facebook site, or the number of followers added to its Twitter or Instagram accounts. Success might be immediate, or could be something you will measure over six months or longer.

Grading Sheet for Assignment #3

Written Communications Strategy