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Communications Strategy 115

message across. Another area of importance is the need for coordinating or
integrating the use of different media, and the messages that they carry, at least
throughout the period of the programme, to deliver the message in a consistent and
therefore effective manner.This means first of all that the communications programme
needs to specify not only which media are chosen (and the budget required), but also
how they complement each other towards the achievement of the communications
objectives, and when each is effectively put to use within the timeline of the pro-
gramme. Using a combination of media also requires collaboration between commu-
nications specialists, for which organizational arrangements need to be made.

3. Organizational arrangements. Once the communications programme has been filled
in – that is, when the objectives, message, media and audience are all specified – the
next step is to consider the organizational arrangements that need to be made to
carry out the programme and as such effectuate the communications strategy.What
budget is required for the envisaged plan? Who is to be responsible for carrying it
out? What changes in organizational structure and design are needed to support and
carry out the plan? What will different departments be held responsible for? What
are the key tasks to be carried out? Are the practitioners involved up to the task, or
is retraining necessary? These sorts of questions are important in working through
whether and how the organization is capable of effectuating the communications
strategy. One important area of concern is the fact that often practitioners from dif-
ferent functional areas (sales, marketing, public relations) need to work together, and
this requires the need for organizational mechanisms that support collaboration and
interaction.These mechanisms are likely to be concerned not only with organiza-
tional redesign, the subject of Chapter 5, but also with changing day-to-day routines,
and overcoming political blockages to collaboration or change. A related point is
to take into account whether the proposed communications strategy adapts or builds
on existing strategies – an incremental approach – or whether, because of the
inadequacy of existing strategies or because management sees the need to change
fundamentally the direction of the organization, a completely new communications
strategy is suggested.In the case of the latter,it may be that the organization,in terms
of the work processes and structures that support communications practitioners in
their work, needs to be rethought and, perhaps, transformed.

Stage 4: Tracking and Evaluation
The final element in any communications strategy should be the provision for effec-
tive evaluation of the results – in terms of how far the programme has contributed
to the achievement of the communications objectives set. Effectiveness of the pro-
gramme can be evaluated and assessed on the basis of process and communications
effects. Process effects concern the quality of the communications programme (in
terms of intelligence gathered, appropriateness of message content and organization,
etc.) and whether the programme has been carried through and implemented in
a cost-effective manner. Communications effects include the range of cognitive and
behavioural effects on stakeholder audiences that a set of communications tactics
produces. Here it is important to identify suitable impact measures (i.e. changes in