144 Inside-out marketing
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letters;
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noticeboards;
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ambient advertising;
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promotional gifts and other items such as mouse mats;
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entertainment, such as parties.
This is a lengthy list of potential media or channels for delivering messages but, as in the development of advertising plans, there is a need to obtain the greatest impact from the delivery of messages to target audiences as cost-effectively as possible. This may require a single or a multimedia approach. Internal communication, like any other business activity, has to be able to demonstrate that it delivers real business value. It is also necessary to consider the richness of particular media in relation to the target audience for communications. A global presentation by the CEO via television may deliver core messages to large numbers of people instantaneously (putting aside cultural, language and time zone issues). But as with all mass media, it will not be of value in communicating specific issues that exist at local, team or individual levels. Face-to-face discussion may be the most appropriate form of communication for answering the ‘what’s in it for me’ questions. The above list of media relates to formal networks of communication. But informal networks should not be forgotten. Every organization has informal networks of people and particularly influential people at nodes in those networks. Where possible, informal networks should be considered for the dissemination of messages and receiving feedback. Informal groups can include people who get together outside a building for a cigarette, groups with social ties resulting from companies that have previously been merged or acquired and people that have previously worked together in project teams. The following brief cases illustrate how some companies use different media for different messages at different times.
British Telecommunications (BT) – wired and wireless BT has developed a range of media to deliver communications to its employees, some of whom work remotely, such as engineers.The internal communication media