Ch04
- 2. Chapter 4 The Communication Planning Process
- 3. Learning Objectives • Identify and describe steps in the communication planning process, including: – Discovery – Objectives – Strategy – Creative development – Measurement • Describe and use tools and resources within each step of the planning process.
- 4. Planning • Before embarking on a campaign, the communicator needs to be able to answer several essential questions: – What is driving the need for communication? – What are the objectives of the effort? – What does success look like; how will it be measured? – Who are the target audiences; why should they care about the communication? – How will the communication reach them?
- 5. Planning • Planning processes developed by communication firms and advertising agencies tend to have five essential steps – Discovery – Objectives – Strategy – Creative Development – Measurement
- 6. Planning • The planning process developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), contains four steps: – Planning and strategy development – Developing and pretesting concepts, messages, and materials – Implementing the program – Assessing effectiveness and making refinements
- 7. Discovery • Focuses on conducting research to understand the environment in which the communication effort will be implemented – Legislative context – Media landscape – Competitive environment, – Economic factors – Relevant upcoming events – Cultural background – Target audiences’ attitudes, actions, and preferences
- 8. Assessing the Challenge • Description: considers what is needed to solve the problem or leverage the opportunity to its fullest potential • Resources: for obtaining information about businesses and business challenges – Hoovers – SEC filings – Business publications – Analyst reports
- 9. Assessing the Challenge • The US HHS provides information about diseases and health conditions, including prevalence and incidence data for the US population at no cost online – National Center for Health Statistics – Healthfinder – HRSA Community Health Status Indicators – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) – Child Health USA
- 10. Assessing the Challenge • Information about treatments for various diseases and health conditions can be found in the following resources – National Guidelines Clearinghouse – The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library – WebMD
- 11. Competitive Analysis • Description: examines the marketplace position of the product and the concept or behavior the communicator is attempting to promote, including its status relative to its competitors and how it fits in the overall environment of its target audiences
- 12. Competitive Analysis • Resources – Hoovers – Analyst reports – PubMed – PRSA Anvil Awards Database – Physicians’ Desk Reference – PhRMA New Medicines Database – ClinicalTrials.gov
- 13. Media Analysis • Description: examines the media environment of the communicator’s product, concept, or behavior relative to its competitors. • Resources – Factiva – LexisNexis – Google News
- 14. Legislative and Policy Analysis • Description: examines existing laws and regulations affecting the communicator’s product, concept, or behavior, as well as bills and proposed regulation that may have a future effect
- 15. Legislative and Policy Analysis • Resources – Trade associations – THOMAS – State Net – Google News – LexisNexis – Policy-related media – Foundations, policy organizations, and think tanks – Institute of Medicine (IOM)
- 16. Target Audience Analysis • Description: examines primary and secondary audiences as well as secondary audiences • Resources – Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. – PERQ/HCI Focus Journal Readership Studies – US Census – PubMed – The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys – GfK MRI – Teenmark
- 17. Target Audience Analysis • Resources – Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. – PERQ/HCI Focus Journal Readership Studies – US Census – PubMed – The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys – GfK MRI – Teenmark – Scarborough Research
- 18. Objectives • As each program objective is determined, it should be linked directly to a measurement methodology
- 19. Strategy • A well-stated communication strategy should fit neatly into a single statement • The four essential Ms of communication – Develop a message that resonates with a defined target audience. – Determine the most credible and persuasive messenger. – Drive the message through the most effective media or channels. – Deliver the message at the moment when the audience will be most receptive to it.
- 20. Strategy • The four essential Ps of communication – Product is the product, concept, or behavior being promoted in the communication program. – Price is what the product, concept, or behavior will cost the target audience – Place refers to where the audience will purchase the product, encounter the concept, or do the behavior – Promotion considers many of the factors explored in the four Ms of communication
- 21. Creative Development • Message and Materials Testing – Early formative phase – Qualitative testing of messages and materials – Quantitative test through a survey methodology
- 22. Measurement • Intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of the communication effort and suggest ways to improve it moving forward • Links back to the measurable objectives developed in the second step of the planning process – Outcomes measures – Process measures