Apple has a mighty job of corporate communications in the coming weeks. It is to be accused of doing a “sweetheart” deal with the Irish government to, in effect, avoid taxes in the rest of Europe. Will customers mind higher taxes? Amazon, Google, Fiat and Starbucks may also be under the cosh of the EU Read More
Month: September 2014
First impressions? Deep communication.
Life IS communications. Especially now, when instant democratic broadcast media is available to anyone with a “device”. Reading this interesting piece in this week’s Marketing Week underlines one effect of this. Snap judgements, made in a microsecond, and crucially, beyond our individual or rational control (that’s another story…) can brutally harm your intended message and Read More
How do you control your message?
When Mr Miliband spoke for over an hour – without notes! – he must have thought that this memory feat alone would secure positive support and endorsement for his personal brand. Now, he knows better. Let’s look briefly at the main components of his message: EXPECTATIONS This largely forms the “context” of the message, and Read More
Check and check again for writing mistakes
It’s not easy to spot your own mistakes when you write. Even the professionals get it wrong sometimes. Can you spot the error on the front page of The Observer? I had such faith in the paper that I looked inside to see if something new called a skycraper had been invented. It hadn’t. You Read More
Top Tip: get the bad news out soonest and make it personal
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis made the right choice today: admit publically bad things have gone on and talk about them. The lesson is: do not hide from the bad news in corporate communications and respond quickly and personally from the top. That’s your pension going down The profits may have been overstated by £250 million. Read More
Microsoft and Minecraft get their corporate communication wrong in acquisition
Mergers and acquisitions are daily and weekly. The largest this week is a poor example of corporate communications. Minecraft the target Microsoft has taken over a small Copenhagen-based games company Mojang for $2.5 billion. Mojang developed Minecraft which has become very popular since its launch in 2009. Players can build cities with Minecarft using Lego-like Read More
Make your websites accessible for the disabled — or break the law
Corporate communicators have a legal requirement to make their content accessible by disabled people. One in five of the population has some type of disability. If your website cannot be used by them then you are potentially missing out a good 20% of your potential market. 4 tests The World Wide Web Consortium, 3w.org, has Read More