While communicating, it is important that an organisation is careful not to do the following:

a. Overcommunicate, or what is called information overload.

b. Redundancy or repetition.

Unfortunately, many organisations are not keen enough not to cross these lines. On the contrary, they think that the more information they push out to their customers, the more they connect with them. They keep repeating the same thing over and over again with the hope that it sticks in the minds of their customers and keeps them on top of the customers’ minds. An example of such communication is promotional messages sent by companies to our phones.

Just because a customer interacted with your product or service does not mean that they should be added to a mailing/texting list. It unfair to them because they neither signed up to it nor were they consulted before being added to it. What these organisations do not understand is that in mind of the customers, these messages are persistently irritating. When something is irritating, one automatically tries their best to avoid it. That is why we believe that promotional messages work against brands, and for the following reasons:

1. Noise – In the world we live in, noise has become a huge distraction in our lives. There are numerous attempts to reduce screen time, kill notifications, have a set time to check your phone etc. All these are aimed at increasing ones attention span in an increasingly distractive space. Therefore when a notification from a promotional message appears, it adds to the noise that your customers are vehemently trying to block.
2. Resentment – In business, there nothing as catastrophic as when customers begin to resent your product/service. One of the reasons why customers would end up resenting what you offer is when you consistently send them messages that have no value to their busy lives. This resentment begins to happen subconsciously and it becomes so ingrained in the mind that the customer that they deliberately choose not to associate with your brand anymore. Consumers are won when you appeal to their self-interests. Promotional messages don’t appeal to their self-interest. They actually work against the self-interest of time preservation.
3. Loss of customers – After resentment in comes withdrawal. Your customers begin to pull away from your annoyance, and immediately flag down anything that reminds them of it. They end up looking for alternatives in an attempt to get a similar service with fewer irritations.
4. Profit loss – Anyone in business knows that customers are a very important asset to any business. If you lose them, you lose revenue. When you lose revenue, you shut down. When customers no longer find your company ethical, then they don’t see the need for promoting your business.

It’s important that products and services adapt to the spirit of being rare while still being alive in the minds of their consumers.  It’s a tricky balance but it is achievable. Instead of bombarding customers with messages, organisations could try creating experiences that last. Find ways to entrench memorable experiences or stories in your client’s hearts and minds.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory and that tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat,” Sun Tzu.

In the highly competitive world that we live in, strategies and tactics are essential for anyone to survive and remain relevant. As recent as last week, we gathered around a table with one thing bugging our minds; where do we want to be in the next ten years? I kid you not, we took an entire day to crack the answer to that question.

We started off by asking ourselves where we currently are as a company. We discovered that we are excellent at content creation, especially audiovisual content. It is a thing we do without a hassle. For instance, while other companies run around asking for quotes, we don’t have to hire any equipment since we have everything in-house. We also don’t need external camera persons and editors since we have them and we don’t call designers and copywriters since we have our own. This, we evaluated, is a very strong position to be in and it gives us an edge over many of the rest.

Based on where we are, we asked ourselves where we want to be. We had to agree as a team on where we are going and why. And this was the hard part. This destination first has to a place that as a company we all want to go, and second, it has to be a place where the world is also going. We want to be visibility experts – storytellers; people who help any type of brand to not just communicate but also connect with its audience in a memorable fashion. Using technology, we want to help our clients remain relevant in the lives of their customers. We strongly believe that videography is the future of visibility. That is why youtube is the most visited website in the world, and Instagram has IGTV, and WhatsApp has status. Facebook has facebook live and Twitter has twitter live. Even the streets of our cities are full of large screens playing videos on them.

At this point, we were certain about where we are and where we intend to go. The next thing was to decide on the direction we would take, and the means of getting there i.e, how would we get to our destination? It is here where we arrived at a tactic. A method that we have been using (but we had not defined it) and that we shall continue to use as our vehicle. It is our secret source to great content and we call it the Penta-P Process.

PLAN

After listening to you explain your need, we quickly get into ‘find a solution’ mode. Our first step is creating a plan using a method we call Tripple S, i.e:

1. SEE –  Here is where we define and understand the problem at hand. It is here that sometimes we realize that what you thought was the problem is actually not it. Then, by immersing ourselves into this problem, we get an all-round understanding that puts us in a better position to tackle it and even spot more opportunities that you can take advantage of.
2. STRATEGIZE – After seeing, we devise a master plan that is not just to help us devise a way of confronting and solving the problem but also to help us define a means of execution for the solutions we will create for you.
3. SOLVE – We then apply strategic design & lateral thinking to tackle the problems identified in the SEE stage following the plan made in the strategize stage. This means we brainstorm and analyze the data we have in order to come up with tailor-made ideas that are a perfect fit for your needs.

PRODUCE

WIth a plan in place, we proceed to create informed & insightful solutions that, will solve the problem you have as well as create a great impact on your customers or the people you serve. These solutions may include PR/Targeted Communications, Media, Advertisements, Digital (Web and Social Media), Event management, Business Strategies, Content Production (videos, documentaries, still images etc).

PACKAGE

One might cook the tastiest dish but if they present it awfully, interest in it reduces drastically. At some point, we have all bought into products or services that were well presented but the details were trash. How anything is packaged influences greatly the interest that people will pick in it. Being a people-centric company, we understand this very well. That is why we put together your communication and present it in a simple, relatable, real and relevant manner – because we want you to rouse as much interest as you can.

PUBLISH

Once we are comfortable that your content has well been packaged, we present to the consumers/customers. This could be through tv and radio ads, videos, blogs, vlogs, OpEds, memes etc.

PROMOTE 

Serving your food to just the people who regularly visit your restaurant does not do much for growth. We take things a bit further. We know the value of as many eyeballs as possible on your communication. That is why we recommend not only pushing content online but offline as well; to facilitate increased engagement and conversations. It is from these conversations that conversion happens.

In summary, a strategy is simply answering the following questions and devising creative ways (tactics) of achieving your end result.

1. Where are you?
2. Where do you want to go?
3. How will you go there?

We understand that as with any long journey, there are hurdles that we shall encounter along the way. I dare say we are ready for them. Thellesi has not just the talent but also the technique and tools needed to get a good job done. We have done it in the past – there is no reason why we cannot do it now and again in the future.

Feature Image: Strategy session for a key client at the Thellesi Co. boardroom.