Who remembers the Burger King “two equal buns” for Pride month last year? The marketing effort in Austria was meant to represent “equal love and equal rights.” However, they missed the mark terribly as the members of the LGBTQ community felt offended as it gestured a sexual innuendo. The German agency behind the idea had to act fast in response to the backlash and apologized. They promised to do a better job in the future of consulting the LGBTQ community when promoting their equal rights campaigns. This situation is a prime example of an emergency communication plan and while as we all hope this situation never arises for our company, it never hurts to be prepared.
No matter which communication plan objective you’re looking at they all have one goal in mind and that is to deliver information to the appropriate audience. Your plan should have a clear objective. A goal with a message designed to achieve your desired outcome through a customized message to your audience. Communication plans are not only needed in times of crisis, they’re also important when launching new products/services or pitching new ideas within the company. Every communication plan should include the channels used to convey the message, when it will be communicated, how it will be delivered, the purpose of the communication and most importantly, the message of your communication. Here are some important points to start developing a plan for your communication.
1. What is the purpose of the communication? Identify the purpose. Are you putting out a PR fire or are you educating the public about a new product/service?
2. Who is your audience? Chances are, you will need different messages for different groups. You probably already know this answer if you’re a successful brand.
3. What is your message? You need to consider content of the message. What you create will attract different groups. You also need to consider the mood. Decide what emotions you want to appeal to. Language is important here. Does it need to be in one or more. This will depend on your audience.
4. What channels? Social media, television, streaming ads, online ads, billboards, blogs, etc. You need to put the message where your audience will see it so knowing where they hang out is crucial.
5. Create an outline and write the plan. Once you have answered all these questions, it’s time to make your communication plan a reality. This will include the message, frequency, channels, audience, roles and responsibilities of each employee that’s in charge of sending.
Now that we’ve talked about how to create a communication plan let’s talk about what we’re here for: the types of communication plans.
1. Emergency. We talked about this one in the intro. This is in response to unforeseen events.
2. Informative. As it sounds, this type is to provide people with information. It could be a new product or service.
3. Persuasive. This is to try to change people’s minds about something. Perhaps this one could be used within the office for pitching a new idea. You need strong arguments and connection on an emotional level in order to avoid negative backlash.
4. Collaborative. This can be where two brands are working together toward a common goal.
No matter which type of communication plan you need to create, it must be done strategically. The four styles listed above are a general view of plans and can be broken down even further, such as branding communication plans, PR communication plans, marketing communication plans and issue management plans. It’s important that your brand choose the correct type of plan for you are trying to achieve. We know, we know… this seems like a complex process but we assure you that it’s essential for your brand’s success.
