Interrogating Strategic Communication by Arthur-Martins Aginam, PhD
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Marketing communication has evolved substantially since its emergence as a tool of persuasion about a century ago. While Public Relations and Advertising are two of the better-known sub-disciplines in the field, Strategic Communication has, in about the past two decades, become something of a fad in marketing communications theory and practice. Yet, Strategic Communication is sometimes imprecisely defined leaving questions about the difference, if any, between it and traditional Public Relations and other marketing communications, for that matter.
One thing is clear though, as a fast-emerging field of practice, Strategic Communication is somewhat wide in scope, drawing from a diverse range of traditional marketing communication fields. These include, but are not limited to, Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Lobbying, and Management, among others. While the specific activities and approaches of these disciplines may differ, they are all geared towards communicating purposefully to advance the mission and interests of an organization. Such an organization could be a profit-driven company, a non-profit entity, a public sector (governmental) organization, a political party, an activist group (social movement) etc. Everyone organization, even individuals need communication to thrive.
Each of these organizations, relative to their mandate and objectives, is desirous of effectively engaging their stakeholders (primary, secondary or tertiary), employees, customers, investors, and in some cases, the public at large. In such an effort, a broad range of communication activities becomes critical. However, the absence of an overarching or unified approach to such communication activities, as is often the case, informed the need for a more strategic, integrated and even proactive approach to communication. In corporate governance, this is broadly referred to as Silo Mentality- a situation where departments or teams in an organization fail to share knowledge or collaborate with one another, leading to difficulties in achieving long-term goals.
The imperative of a major paradigm shift in organizational communication is further driven by new technologies that have resulted in a converging media landscape and the blurring of communication genres. This has led to growing awareness among organizations that hitherto traditional fields not only share common purposes, but also a great deal of similarity in the strategies for achieving their communication objectives, which if well managed, will not only enhance efficiency but also reduce redundancy.
As I observed in this column last week, despite its salience, Strategic Communication is still largely an emerging field of theory and practice, which understandably suffers from conceptual clarity. For example, a cursory internet search of the term Strategic Communications throws up numerous postulations most of which converge around the following elements- Communication that is planned, with well-defined goals and messaging, targeting specified publics and audiences to advance the interests of the organization or person doing the communication.
Well, every good PR plan does all of the above and more with the exception of bad practitioners who not only fail to plan but often indulge in reactive PR which I liken to firefighting. As we know, firefighters are never able to salvage everything from a burning building, same way hitchhikers may get to their destinations but almost never on their own terms.
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So it all begs the question: if Strategic Communication is basically Public Relations, why then the need for a distinct new term? This problem is further compounded by the fact that many prominent organizations, including some of the world’s leading multilateral agencies, deploy the term Strategic Communication with little to no effort at clearly conceptualizing it.
As an emerging field of practice, Strategic Communication embraces an integrated and cross-disciplinary approach that not only refines but also creatively draws from traditional communication fields and even the social sciences to address the complexity of 21st-century organizational media and communication realities. To do this effectively, it has to be holistic, uber-creative and adaptable to the ever-changing technologies that continue to radically transform the communications landscape of today; top among which are fragmented audiences and delivery platforms. Just as most things in our 21st-century postmodernist world, this is arguably as much of a consensus as we can get about Strategic Communication.
This is because even the notion of strategic communication as integrated marketing communication remains disputed. For some, while integrated marketing communications, (also sometimes referred to as convergent communications) is narrowly concerned with the ‘strategic’ coordination of audience/customer needs, concerns and interests; Strategic Communications is much broader in scope dealing with how an organization communicates holistically across its various endeavours to advance its mission. In this context, the organization is viewed as a ‘social actor’ perennially engaged with diverse range of actors- employees, government, communities, customers, investors, among other stakeholders, with the overarching objectives of advancing its interests.
Notwithstanding the persisting conceptual fuzziness, Strategic Communication is arguably the most extensive in scope of all existing fields in marketing communications. It is a large canopy that encompasses almost every field of communications practice from traditional marketing to Public Relations, Advertising, Political Communication, Social Marketing and Behavioural Change Communications, among others. It is not only integrative but also a medley of hitherto distinct marketing communication activities in a digital world where traditional media walls have collapsed and disciplinary boundaries increasingly blurred.
For example, universities across the world are now replacing Advertising and Public Relations courses with Strategic Communication in an effort to integrate the common strategies of both disciplines to enhance their complementarity. It is expected that students will students emerge from such interdisciplinary programs armed with the comprehensive skills and knowledge required for the communication challenges of the 21st century.
The same applies to journalism programs where increasingly traditional journalism courses are being replaced with courses on Multimedia journalism to prepare future journalists for career opportunities in converged media environments.
As an emergent unifying framework, Strategic Communication is not only holistic but also strives to be innovative by adapting to a changing world. In light of ever-converging communication channels, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between advertising, sales promotion, public relations, sales promotion, advertorials, e-commerce, and sponsorships, among others.
Despite concerns by critics of strategic communication that it is largely top-down and exploitative by privileging top management interests over everything else, the new era of digital communications has made such total control of the means of communication difficult, if not impossible. In such a ‘democratized’ media environment, Strategic Communication remains an important option from all organizations- governmental, corporate and non-profit.
**Next week’s topic will focus on Locating the ‘Strategic’ in Strategic Communication drawing as much as possible from the Nigerian context.
*Arthur-Martins Aginam, PhD, is a communication scholar and PR specialist
