Strategic Communication Concepts

• Expressed sentiment is not a metric of changes in critical audience behavior.
• The purpose of promoting ideas in strategic communication is to enable an organization to fulfill its mission.
• A brand is a way for the communication executive (CE) to quickly communicate meaning and differentiate itself within a critical audience.
• Strategic communication (SC) takes a more holistic and all-encompassing approach than public relations (PR) and advertising
• The most common channels for feedback from critical audiences do not include SCS Task Force meetings.
• The letter "N" is used to describe the sample size in a study.
• The purpose of thought-leader interviews is to help communicators become informed about a specific field/target audience.

Encoding and Decoding in Strategic Communication

• Encoding refers to the communication executive/brand creating the message.
• Decoding refers to the interpretation of the message by the critical audience.

Five Rights of Media Strategy

• The "Five Rights" of media strategy and planning include:
  • The right audience.
  • Media mix.
  • Exposure level.
  • Timing.
  • Cost.
• Paid listings on internet searches are not considered owned media.
• Most ads are 5 seconds long.
• A rapidly growing ad length is 15 seconds.
• Only 1/3 of the audience sees an ad, 1/3 hears it, and 1/3 both sees and hears it.
• An example of a call to action (CTA) is Bruno Mars world tour announcement shown in the Super Bowl

Ways of Knowing

• "Method of influence" is not one of the four ways of knowing.
• The four ways of knowing are:
  • Method of tenacity (nothing ever changes).
  • Method of intuition (gut feeling).
  • Method of authority (trusted sources).
  • Scientific method (learning in a series of steps).

Fundamental Research

• Fundamental research is theoretical, scholarly, easily accessible, and conducted over a longer time frame
• When starting a research campaign, it is important to figure out:
  • Budget.
  • Timing.
  • Bias and credibility of information.
• Consumer sentiment analysis helps understand general and brand-specific market feelings.
• Campaign evaluation helps explain the ROI of a PR or advertising campaign.

Market Research Purposes

• The primary purposes of conducting market research in advertising:
  • Inform strategy (understand the audience).
  • Testing (see what resonates).
  • Generate buzz (survey to get stats and be known).
  • Measure campaign awareness.
• Research is useful for PR and advertising during every stage of the campaign cycle.
• Effective research helped one of their clients appear on North American Meat Institute/National Sausage and Hotdog Association (Prepared and processed food opinions).

PESO Model

• PESO stands for:
  • Paid Media.
  • Earned Media.
  • Shared Media.
  • Owned Media – salesforce, point-of-sale and in-store messaging.
• Communication vehicles under the PESO model:
  • Paid: Ads.
  • Earned: Media Coverage.
  • Shared: Social Media Engagement.
  • Owned: Company Blog
• Annual and quarterly reports, branded store design, and branded websites, are essential to Company Blogs

COPE

• COPE stands for "Create Once, Publish Everywhere".

AIDA Model

• AIDA stands for:
  • Attention.
  • Interest.
  • Desire.
  • Action.
• The four pieces of the content funnel:
  • Attract traffic.
  • Convert leads.
  • Close sales.
  • Retain loyalty.

Effective Communication Steps

• 10 steps for effective communication:
  • Source credibility.
  • Right info for right audience.
  • Nonverbal cues.
  • Verbal cues.
  • 2-Way communication.
  • Opinion leaders.
  • Group influence.
  • Selective exposure.
  • Audience participation.
  • Restaurant speak.
• Three types of statements help develop messaging for a client:
  • Vision statements (articulation the brand’s goal for the world).
  • Mission statements (articulates the organization’s purpose and actionable direction).
  • Value statements (guide rails that inform decisions, actions, and manners of thinking that should reflect the strengths of the organization’s culture).
• Eleven types of research techniques:
  • Group sessions.
  • Individual sessions.
  • Surveys.
  • Concept testing.
  • Observation.
  • Ethnographic immersion.
  • Analytics.
  • Data mining.
  • Feedback channels.
  • Pilot testing.
  • Benchmarking.
• Four stakeholders outside of the communications department play a role in strategic communication campaign development:
  • Advertising agency.
  • PR firm.
  • Communication consultant.

This lesson covers key concepts in strategic communication, including its purpose in fulfilling organizational missions, the role of branding, and its holistic approach compared to PR and advertising. It also discusses encoding/decoding process and the significance of thought-leader interviews.