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Global Communication
July 2010 | Volume 8 Issue 7
As more and more companies look to operate globally, business communicators are faced with the unique challenges involved in communicating with a global audience. In this issue of CW Bulletin our experts offer global communication strategies, including how to effectively run a global branding campaign and how to engage employees around the world.
Natasha Nicholson
Executive Editor
Amanda Aiello Beck
Associate Editor
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Features
NEW TECHNOLOGY
by Harjiv Singh
The Internet has both liberated and complicated the role of global corporate communication. Anyone with Internet access, not just organizations with large marketing budgets, now has a global broadcast platform. Today companies can talk to a practically infinite range of customers—in any location—and those customers can talk back. Organizations that want to communicate globally should be aware of the new rules governing emerging communication channels in emerging markets.
GLOBAL CONTEXT
by Sheila Mooney
Consumers everywhere welcome content—as long as it’s relevant and connects with them on a personal level. That’s why a global content strategy needs to be a context strategy too. Today’s interactive content marketing efforts need to be local, personal and focused on the consumer’s context, taking into account everything from local speech patterns to humor to weather conditions.
LAUNCHING A GLOBAL BRAND
by Christian Schubert
In 2003 chemical company BASF relaunched its corporate brand and found itself running—for the first time—a global image campaign. As the world’s largest global company, BASF needed to ensure that its new imaging resonated with regions around the world, including the Asia/Pacific region.
EFFECTIVE GLOBAL COMMUNICATION
by Gary Muddyman
An important lesson for internal communicators with a global audience is that no matter how great you are at your job, no matter how embedded you believe your corporate values are into the global workforce, one message will never fit all.
There are three simple steps communicators can take to ensure they get their intended message across to a global audience while being sensitive to cultural differences.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
by Helene Bradley-Ritt
Casting my eye across the map of our region, which stretches from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, through Russia and Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, to China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Australia, I ponder how best to engage Unilever’s 70,000 employees, to help double the size of the business by 2020, without increasing our environmental impact.
Columns
An Inc. Columnist Asks:
Why Is Business Writing So Awful?
by Natalie Canavor
Periodically, this column has raised questions about business writing including, Why is so much business writing so darned bad?
And does anyone care?
Since “Working Words” addresses professional communicators, our criticism has remained “in the family.” Now similar questions have been raised in a public forum—no less than the online business magazine Inc.
It Doesn’t Take a Superhero: But it does take priority-setting and organization to do it all
by Daria Steigman
This column is about time: how we claim it as business owners, and how we can manage it to keep ourselves from being overwhelmed or letting critical tasks and projects slip through the cracks. And it can be a challenge for even the most organized. I wish I had a time turner, like Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter books, but I live in a world where the wizardry is really just a product of hard work.
BP’s Crisis Communication Efforts Are Not Too Bad
by Dan Hicks, ABC
I seem to be in the minority (or perhaps the silent majority) when it comes to bashing BP over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I have praised BP’s communication efforts several times in my crisis communication blog. I remain a fan of BP’s crisis communications, but with a caveat or two.
- “Exploring Your Options,” International Monetary Fund
- “MAGNET: Migrant Attraction Programme,”Immigration New Zealand
- “Unlock the Value,” Barrick Gold Corp.
Communication in the News
Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month’s topic of global communication. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:
- “10 Tips for Global Communicators,” by Dave Gray
- “Communicating with Your Global Workforce,” by Craig E. Bentley
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