DRIVERS FOR INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION

In short, marketing and public relations disciplines are not merged or

reduced within organizations to one and the same function. This may

not be feasible in practice given the important differences in activities

and audiences addressed by each. However, both disciplines, while

existing separately, are balanced against each other and managed together from

within the overarching management framework of corporate communication.

The importance of ‘integrating’ marketing communications and public relations in

this way has resulted from a variety of factors or ‘drivers’, as these can be more aptly

called. Generally, these ‘drivers’ can be grouped into three main categories: those

drivers that are

v  market and environment based drivers, those that arise from the communication

mix and communication technologies, and those that are driven by opportunities,

changes and needs from within the organization itself.

This integration is also important when one considers the multiple stakeholder roles

that any one individual may have, and the potential pitfalls that may occur when

conflicting messages are sent out. Organizations are also facing increased demands

for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and for transparency about their operations.

In their efforts to respond to these social expectations and to present themselves as

coherent, reliable and trustworthy institutions with nothing to hide, organizations

across sectors increasingly embrace measures of integration. Organizations often

adapt to the growing demand for information and stakeholder insight through policies

of consistency, that is, by formalizing all communications and pursuing uniformity

in everything they say and do. Stakeholder groups have also become more fragmented

and less homogeneous than before. Customers, for example, have become

much more individual in their consumption. Similarly, when organizations want to

communicate to the news media, they are faced with a huge and diverse range of

media organizations and outlets, including, these days, social media on the web. This

greater fragmentation of stakeholder groups means that when organizations want to

communicate with any one stakeholder group they have to use more channels and

different media to reach them.

v  Communication based drivers

In today’s environment, it is more difficult for an organization to be heard and to

stand out from its rivals. Through consistent messages an organization is more likely to be known and looked upon favorably by key stakeholder groups. Organizations have therefore increasingly put considerable effort into

protecting their corporate image by rigorously aligning and controlling all communication

campaigns and all other contact points with stakeholders.

Organizations also realized that messages in various media can complement one

another, leading to a greater communication impact than any one single message can

achieve. Because of the increasing costs of traditional mass media advertising and the

opportunities afforded by the internet, many organizations have therefore re-examined

their media presence and how to control it. As a result of these two developments,

organizations now tend to look at media in a much broader sense and across the

disciplines of marketing and public relations. Organizations have also become more

creative in looking beyond corporate and product advertising to other media for

communicating with stakeholders.

v  Organizing drivers

One of the main organizational drivers for integration has been the need to

become more efficient. By using management time more productively and by driving

down the cost base  as research and communication materials are more.

 BY KYEJU DIANA