Why are internal comms so ineffective?

Why is it that when brands are communicating with external audiences they engage agencies, planners, media agencies and the finest brains in their organisation, but when they are communicating internally they think that they can send the same email or memo to everyone in the company and everyone will read it?

Do they really believe that their staff have so much commitment to the company that they will read and act on everything that is sent to them and that they will have sufficient time & energy to do so? How many emails do you get every day? 50? 100? or more?

....even when the content may not immediately grip them - a new security procedure.....a change to your pension plan.....a reminder to change your password every 30 days....yawn....

Internal comms are not that hard. Just take the same care as you would over external comms. Segment your audiences...develop propositions based on audience insight (what is stopping them ebhaving as you'd like them to now?) ...think of media that will reach each segment at the right time, when they have time to read it and then do something about it...make them think of the consequences of not doing it...

We know a little about this at Chemistry, as we have been doing this type of thing for Diageo on a global basis for a while. You can read more about that here

Nick

Welcome to 2007...

Another year and there are still only 16 posts on this blogsite!! Must do better this year...

Predictions for some internal comms themes we'll see during the year:

1. Tone of voice - we'll finally get some "real" language from those communicating to the troops
2. Blogs - and...
3. Podcasts - delivered on CDs / USBs / MP3 players / computers / websites / intranets
4. "Rich media" - think youTube, think video - but without the high associated costs!
5. Work/life balance
6. "intranet 2.0" - turning off all the stuff that nobody accesses - revisiting the question - "What's Our Intranet For?"
7. Generation Y - how do you communicate with the wired generation - what new channels do we need?
8. The Environment - why do we still have a printed newsletter / poster / collateral in general
9. Corporate Social Responsibility - more whistle-blowing... people care and they're not as frightened about losing thir jobs - especially if they're in the right.
10. Flat flat flat - organisations need to make quick decisions in today's economy - things are going to get flat.

I may come and amend this in the next few weeks - but it's a start!

Happy New Year

davidcoe...