Communication Strategy

Managerial Communication
Managerial communication is different from other
kinds of communication because a brilliant
message alone is not sufficient.

• You are successful only if your message

results in your desired RESPONSE from
your audience
Strategic Communication Model
Strategic Communication Variables
• Communicator Strategy
• Audience Strategy
• Message Strategy
• Channel Choice Strategy
• Culture Strategy
Communicator Strategy
• Objectives
• Style
• Credibility
Communicator Strategy - Objective
• General objective
▫ Broad overall objective
• Action objective
▫ Series of planned actions outcomes
• Communication objective
▫ Focus on result
Communicator Strategy - Style
• Tell/Sell (Use the tell/sell style when you want
• or explaining; you want your audience to understand something you
• your audience to learn from you. In the tell style, you are informing
• already know. In the sell style, you are persuading or advocating;
• you want your audience to change their thinking or behavior)

• sell situations:
▫ Sufficient information
▫ Do not want opinions
▫ Want to control message content
• Join/Consult (The consult style is somewhat collaborative (like a questionnaire); the join style is even more
collaborative (like a brain-storming session).
▫ Do not have sufficient information
▫ Want to understand others’ opinions
▫ Involve audience / gain buy-in
• Combination (Use the consult/join style,
• sometimes called the “inquiry style,” when you want to learn from
• the audience. The consult style is somewhat collaborative (like a
questionnaire); the join style is even more collaborative (like a brain-
• storming session).)

Join to brainstorm ideas, consult to choose one of those ideas, sell to persuade your boss to adopt that idea, and tell
to write up the idea once it becomes policy.
Tannenbaum and Schmidt
Communicator Strategy – Credibility
• Factors affecting credibility
▫ Rank
▫ Goodwill
▫ Experience
▫ Image
▫ Common ground
• To enhance credibility
▫ Stress upon initial credibility
▫ Increase acquired credibility
Audience Strategy
• Who are they?
▫ Primary audience (Known: Demographics, knowledge and beliefs and
Preferences, Unknown: Likes, dislikes, tendency to be challenging, typical
behavior)
▫ Key influencers: decision makers, opinion leaders, gatekeepers
▫ Secondary audience (Colleagues and clients, bosses, employees,
intermediaries and assistants)
• What do they know and expect?
▫ Empathize with the novices
▫ Deal with mixed background needs
▫ Consider format expectations
▫ Address second language issues
▫ Identify and define jargons
▫ Simplify information
Audience Strategy (cont)
• What do they feel?
▫ Emotions (Current emotions, emotions from message)
▫ Interest (Consult/join, tell/sell)
▫ Probable bias – Positive or Negative ?
▫ Desired action – Hard or Easy ?
• What will persuade them?
▫ Emphasize audience benefits
▫ Persuade with credibility (Rank, Goodwill, expertise, image,
common ground)
▫ Persuade with message structure (Opening/closing,
problem/solution, pros and cons, ascending/descding order etc)
Message Strategy
THOUGHT PROCESS (drafting) STRATEGIC PROCESS (writing)
ends with conclusion emphasizes the conclusion

Bad ideas Organized

ideas

Organized
Assumptions Reach State ideas
conclusion conclusion
Good ideas Data last first
(usually) Organized
ideas
Facts
Organized
ideas

TIME
Message Strategy
1. Harness the power of beginnings and ends
▫ Never “bury” important conclusions in middle of the message
▫ Keep your audience’s attention with persuasion techniques
(Persuade with audience benefits, persuade with credibility,
persuade with message structure)
▫ State your conclusion emphatically – Start & End
Message Strategy (cont)
2. State your conclusion prominently
▫ Direct approach – Bottom line up front {BLUP} (If
you mention the main point in starting)
▫ (1) improves audience comprehension and retention, because knowing the conclusion first
makes it much easier to follow the supporting ideas
▫ (2) Saves your audience time because they understand you better
▫ (3) Is audience-centered because it focuses on what they want to know, not on how you
figured it out

▫ Indirect approach (If you mention the main point

in the last)
▫ This approach very hardy comprehends and retain audience. Its like a mystery, people get to
know the real objective and the whole story in the last which loses audience interest.
3. Overcome retention dip in the middle
1. Chunking improves memory. Keep
in mind that psychology
experiments show most people
can’t remember more than about
five items at a time. When
conveying a lot of information,
help your audience by “chunking”
major sections into no more than
five smaller sections. Chunking
your content allows you to create
mini memory curves, increasing
overall audience retention
2. Repetition gets noticed
3. Flagging signals importance
4. The unexpected grabs
attention
5. Visuals provide reinforcement
4. Organizing Message Strategy (cont)
• Organize your message
▫ Informative message
 Key points, questions, process steps, alternatives
comparisons
▫ Persuasive message
 Recommendations, benefits, problem-solution

• Choose your design cascade

▫ Placement, Length, font, direction
4. Connect through stories
The strategic use of a story or a storytelling approach can allow you to
make emotional connections with your audience and increase
audience interest and retention

Following are the elements:

1. Inciting incident
2. A protagonist
3. Obstacles and conflict
4. Concrete vivid details
Channel Choice Strategy
• Medium through which message travels
Channels of Communication
Highly Moderately Minimally
interactive, interactive interactive,
always real never real
time time
Written Text, Instant Email, Hard copy,
Messaging blogs/mini-blogs, webpage
social networks
Oral Telephone, Voicemail,
conference call podcast
Blended One-to-one, Tell/sell Recorded
consult/join presentation, live webcast
meeting, web webcast
meeting
 Channel Choice Strategy - Written

Hard Email Blogs/Min IM/TM Wikis WebPages

copy i-blogs
Advantages Private, Quicker Interactive, Highly Collabor- Potentially
detailed, distribution creates interactive, ative huge
shred than hard community fastest writing audience
able copy response
Disadvantages Rigid, Unorganized, Relies on Overused, Hard to No control
delayed too blogger irritating control over who
response uninhibited, expertise content reads
permanent
Channel Choice Strategy - Oral
Telephone Voicemail Conference Podcast
call
Advantages Private Short items Multiple ‘Radio show’
quickly receivers at for anyone
same time with an MP3
player
Disadvantages Availability Delayed or Equal No call-in or
and Record no response interaction live feedback
difficult
Channel Choice
• Strategic questions
▫ Audience’s preference?
▫ Audience participation?
▫ Nonverbal?
▫ Time control?
▫ Permanent record?
▫ Detail?
Culture Strategy
• Attitudes towards
▫ Time
▫ Fate
▫ Communication style
Group or individual
▫ Credibility
▫ Audience selection
▫ Persuasion
▫ Gender Based tendencies
Culture Strategy (cont)
▫ Message structure
▫ Channel choice
▫ Nonverbal behavior
▫ Space and objects
▫ Greetings and hospitality