Communication managers, especially new hires, may find they have to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s communication program. One of the first activities is to determine if the organization’s brand identity is aligned with the public’s perception (brand image). As I revealed in the article, there are 3-5 of steps to rescuing your brand.
- (1) Find the disconnect.
Determine who is interfering with the organization’s message hitting its target audience. I found there were a few naysayers who had the ear of the media and painted an unflattering picture of the organization.
- (2) Solve for Y
Determine why would someone interfere with the organization’s message. In this case, if the organization lost its funding, the neighborhood would remain in disrepair, which would allow it to be in perfect condition for criminal activity.
- (3) Arm and Dispatch
I armed senior management with 4 organizational talking points (soundbites) to use whenever they were in front of a microphone. Some would say we sounded like a broken record but to kill the lousy press quickly- repetition became our friend.
The strategy worked so well, officials from the Office of Justice Programs (USDOJ) asked me to share it with other program sites. (Read: OJP )
Mel Hopkins 