Marketing & Communications Briefs

Recognizing and appreciating the positive influence of great bosses can help you understand what you value in your career. Great bosses know how to cultivate loyalty for life from the people who work for them. They treat you as a trusted partner, make you feel smart, give you great work, serve as a mentor, and do the unexpected. Because working for a great boss can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it’s important for employees to notice when it’s happening and show some gratitude.

Digital transformation has created a faster-paced environment for business, compelling companies to improve quality throughout the organization. As a result, marketers and communicators need to consider their role in enhancing quality in the areas they shape. For instance, given the constant distraction of the digitally connected era, marketers and communicators should be advocating for quality in often overlooked areas that affect customer experience, like distribution or follow up.

PPG is a global supplier of paints, coatings and specialty materials. Its signature community program, Colorful Communities, is a ten-year commitment to bring the company’s paint and brushes, passion, and colorful commitment to the entire PPG footprint. In this Q&A, Bryan Iams, PPG vice president of corporate communications, marketing, and government and community affairs, discusses the company’s highly focused approach to corporate philanthropy.

70% of corporate change initiatives fail—and the cause is often attributed to poor communication. To save their companies from becoming a statistic, it's up to communicators to advance a holistic strategy for ensuring employee understanding and buy-in. In-depth interviews with 32 internal communications executives reveal a vast and varied arsenal of potential techniques—from information guides and talking points, to employee ambassadors and challenge teams, to staff road trips and videos.

Consider this premise: Every business problem in existence can be traced to a communication breakdown. Communication breakdowns might include lack of information, the wrong information, mixed messages, no response, slow-moving information, etc. I’ve tested this statement in my role as a corporate internal communicator and as a communications consultant to C-level executives. I’ve found it to be absolutely accurate.

The 2018 Excellence in New Communications Awards were presented at a dinner and gala in New York City in June. The full case studies are published in the latest SNCR 2020 paper. Here, we feature the winning case study from The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).

That’s because user engagement doesn’t just happen on its own. As a community manager, you’ve got to constantly encourage users to visit, participate, and add their wisdom to the community. The key to making that happen is knowing which stage of activity each user is in—and what prompts are likely to spur him or her to the next stage.

With all the positive economic indicators, consumer facing businesses are asking some important questions: How is this sunny picture reflected in the actual near-term spending decisions of US consumers? And looking ahead, is consumer spending more likely to be the fuel that keeps a soaring US economy aloft—or the drag that is going to bring it back down?