Internal Communications to Internal Marketing

Time was the responsibility for internal communications sat either within the individual lines of management or within the Corporate Public Affairs division.
Each campaign and or announcement was constructed almost entirely from the company’s point of view.

Problem was that when the Moses raised the cheer and announced each “bold” campaign or initiative as the key step towards the promised land – the organisation just looked on – there was no Mexican wave, the cynics sneering perceived a new shape to the old wheel and the agnostics chorused “what ever”.

The problem was that of “motivation” declared the consultants – “you cannot just announce things to the organisation – you have to motivate the organisation into a positive response”
Let’s care, let’s share, let’s be open, let’s be transparent, and let’s get cuddly!

And so the pendulum swung – from that of top down communication to that of all embracing communication. Communication became an end in itself. Paradigm shifts were integrated into all change management programmes and the path of the great masses from denial to depression and then onto greater glory was mapped and recorded.

Great ideals, great challenges, great possibilities – what a shame about the delivery!

Fundamentally for an organisation, a brand or an idea to be successful it has to “sell” itself to its target consumers, or in the case of internal communications, to its employees.

Without the buy-in or support of the staff, the life expectancy of most boards is limited to three years maximum.
When D-Day comes – look who’s right behind them – well, not the staff.

Faced with such a critical “marketing” challenge – is it possible that the revolutionary answer to effective internal communications is simply to place the role and the responsibility within the marketing department?

Seven key principles of Internal Marketing

• The market (the staff) is made up of different target segments whose “information and motivation” needs vary depending on their work location, their level of sophistication, and the direct impact or value they have in relation to the announcement. Consequently, different levels, different channels and different communications mechanisms might be required for each segment.

• Within the market for information there will be early adopters, the vast majority and the laggards.

• The consumer (the employee) will already be pre-disposed to or will be biased against based on historical events and attitudes.

• For any product (the announcement or initiative ) to be well received it must be positioned and packaged in a format which will appeal to the market (the staff).

• The communication needs to be strong enough to prevent the audience being distracted by channel noise (other concerns) and by the actions of the competition (the grapevine, the cynics, and maybe even the individual line management).

• The company has generated the communication. It therefore naturally “markets” the company line and the consumers (the employees) are fully aware that they are being sold a particular line. This does not mean that they will reject the information. However, claims of communications neutrality and a non-bias approach are not credible should be dropped before they undermine the programme.

• The “pitch” will convince not all consumers. The campaign needs to prioritise those segments that hold the most value (for example, those involved in the sales, distribution and customer service process) – rather than spend time trying to convince the entire population.

That’s all well and good for the big step-changes, but can a marketing department really be trusted to run an on-going communications programme?

Well, generally speaking the answer is no.

Marketers are project-orientated creatives. Their attention span, interest levels and motivation do not make them well disposed to running on-going or administration type programmes.

The ideal scenario for a growing number of organisations is to have a dedicated “internal communications” role within the marketing function which can be managed by a marketing ethos and which can plug into key communication tools and practices as and when required.

Internal Marketing is not yet a buzzword – but those without it seem to suffer unnecessarily.

Copyright - AMG Ltd