The document summarizes a workshop on crafting communications strategies. It discusses assessing organizational brands through elements like logos, colors and sounds. Participants shared experiences with branding and developing communications strategies. They sought advice on starting new strategies, ensuring integration, measuring effectiveness, managing demands and learning from best practices. The workshop involved breakout groups for participants to discuss challenges, needs and lessons learned regarding brands and communications strategies.

1. Mission Critical: Crafting
Your Communications
Strategy Workshop
30 May 2012
#CommsStrategy

2. Assessing Your
Brand
Grant Imlach, Communications
Manager

3.  Bowel Cancer UK – We Can Save Lives:
 25th Anniversary
 Rebranded last September, new website launched in October
 Bowel Cancer second biggest cancer killer in the UK. The barrier is
no-one wants to talk about it. It’s not a breast or a testicular cancer.
 Main competitor – Beating Bowel Cancer.
 I have responsibility for brand, PR, media relations, website, social
media, print & design, merchandise, advertising, films and
photography.
 I’ve worked for in Comms for RNIB, Age UK, Action for Children,
NSPCC

4.  Our old logo

5.  Brand & Comms Strategy: Questions for you
 How many of you are directly responsible for the brand? (It’s part of
your work).
 How many of you are directly responsible for putting together the
comms strategy for your organisation?
 How many of you are involved in some way with the brand?
 How many of you deliver some or all of the day to day comms work in
your organisation?

6.  Brands typically are made up of various elements, such as:
 Name: The word or words used to identify a company, product,
service, or concept.
 Logo: The visual trademark that identifies the brand.
 Tagline or Catchphrase: "The Quicker Picker Upper" is associated
with Bounty paper towels. Or in our case ‘We Can’
 Graphics: The dynamic ribbon is a trademarked part of Coca-Cola's
brand.

7.  Shapes: The distinctive shapes of the Coca-Cola bottle.
 Colours: Owens-Corning is the only brand of fiberglass insulation that can be
pink.
 Sounds: A unique tune or set of notes can denote a brand. Intel processors.
 Scents: The rose-jasmine-musk scent of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked.
 Tastes: Kentucky Fried Chicken has trademarked its special recipe of eleven
herbs and spices for fried chicken.
 Movements: Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car
doors.

8.  Your Brand – What you’d like covered?
 Starting work on a brand positioning comms strategy ensuring
integration and buy-in from across the organisation
 To get a clearer picture of how to assess brand position
 Branding issues, importance of logos, celebs, good PR tips
 Any others?

9.  BREAK OUT SESSION ON BRAND
 Let’s get into groups and share our experiences
 What are your burning issues? What do you need help and support
with? What can you pass on?
 Come back and share with the room about what’s been talked
about, the successes, the challenges and any pearls of wisdom that
we can all take away.

10.  Your Communications Strategy
 Statement of intent
 Current situation – PEST, SWOT, Competitor analysis
 Organisational Objectives (inc. depts objectives) - SMART
 Communications Objectives
 Audiences & stakeholders
 Messages

11.  Your Communications Strategy
 Key communication methods - tools and activities (what’s the
messages and what tools are you going to use)
 Resources
 Overall timescales
 Evaluation and re-evaluation
 Work plan (with detailed activities and timings)

12.  Your Other Strategies (these flow from overall Comms strategy):
 Social media strategy
 Website strategy
 PR strategy
 Media relations strategy
 Marketing strategy

13.  What you’d like covered?
 Check I’m on track with it as it’s currently in development
 reflect and refine existing communications strategy - identify any gaps
/ weaknesses and develop plans to address. Learning from best
practice - particularly, practical tools that can be implemented within
my organisation.
 About to start developing or in the middle of developing the strategy
 Want a future proof and measurable strategy
 Training to support hospices in this area

14.  What you’d like covered?
 Hoping to improve our existing strategy
 To discover ways of making our organisation appear more appealing
to funders/general public
 Ensure integration of the comms strategy across the organisation and
how staff will implement it

15.  What you’d like covered?
 how to make a strategy 'live' so that it has a real effect on how you
and others work as so often they don't
 how to measure effectiveness/change resulting from it in a way that is
as low cost/resource as possible
 how to manage internal demand and get internal buy-in to what you
are doing because a good strategy should perhaps also be explicit in
terms of what you are going to do less of or better

16.  What you’d like covered?
 Recommended books for further reading
 How to communicate strategy with membership - especially when
they're so used to the 'he who shouts loudest wins' approach in the
past
 Measuring reach and outcomes on a small scale - evaluating and
adapting your strategy.

17.  BREAK OUT SESSION ON COMMS STRATEGY
 Let’s get into groups and share our experiences
 What are your burning issues? What do you need help and support
with? What can you pass on?
 Come back and share with the room about what’s been talked about,
the successes, the challenges and any pearls of wisdom that we can
all take away.