Three things critical to building a communication strategy

In the age of mushrooming startups, the difference between a business strategy and a communication strategy is often overlooked. You've got a fantastic business idea that you successfully managed to sell to an investor. Now what is your communication strategy? The investor bought your business strategy (not your communication strategy) seeing its potential to be a money-spinner. But with all the competition around, you need to have a unique communication strategy to make your product stand out. Otherwise the potential your investor saw in your product may never be realised. A smart communication strategy is a must for your business to succeed. Here are three critical factors that form the basis of a powerful communication strategy.

Image : shutterstock

Your product's personality a.k.a brand image

Lego, one of the world's toymaker, promotes innovation, creative activity, making interesting connections, building, and as a whole for intelligence. That's the nature of the product which has been cleverly harnessed by the brand Lego. What is the nature of your product? Target audience? Pricing strategy? Being able to clearly articulate will help in assigning a personality to your brand. And this, in turn, will decide the course your brand communication strategy will take.

Relevance

Your product may have offer critical relevance to people, but without the right marketing steps it might never be able to see the light of day. Amidst the din of the competitive marketplace, what you need is insight-driven relevancy, and an interesting way to get people's attention - for example, the Ola boats campaign during the Chennai floods in 2015.

Leaving an impression An interesting whacky communication strategy will bring more value for your marketing spends than a regular or safe strategy. This can be the case for adverts from the eighties and nineties, which made it big in their time, and managed to remain in mainstream consciousness. This phenomena is described by marketing and advertisement experts as "sticky", because they leave a lasting impression. For example, the 'I love you, Rasna' tagline, or the Cadbury's Dairy Milk commercial where a tall lassie crashes a game of cricket game to celebrate a moment , or the wit in the old Stella Artois commercials will forever be hallmarks of advertising and marketing communication.

The digital age has multiplied options that brands can use in order to spread their marketing message across the world. But if the message is dull and boring, the overall strategy can do little or nothing to justify your spends.