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communication strategy: simplifying the complex

There is no exact statistics on how many companies have closed in the last 5 years, but usually this number is not less than 50%. That means, even with the most optimistic forecasts, the chances of your company's doors being open in 5 years are 50/50. Especially now, as the crisis and sanctions situation has narrowed markets to the size of actual solvency and intensified competition.


Is your income too low? Online discounters taking away your customers? Advertising no longer works? Looking for external reasons is a common mistake of many business owners and marketers. Communication strategy adapts the company's communication to external changes and helps to survive the crisis with fewer losses.

Professionals always have a plan

Communication strategy is a complex impact of the company on the external environment (not vice versa!) with the aim of creating favorable conditions for stable and profitable market activity through communication with the customer. What does it look like in practice? In fact, it is a set of research and a creative advertising concept created on its basis. Imagine an archer shooting arrows into the fog, hoping to hit the target. Of course, by releasing many arrows in random directions, he may still hit it. And this is how many companies work. But any self-respecting marketer will consider this method reckless, because he may not have enough arrows (i.e. money) for such a quantity of shots at his audience, which will bring return on investment. If we are talking about serious brands, none of them can do without a thought-out communication strategy. None of them will tell you, "Who needs your plan? We'll figure it out!" Communication strategy is your plan.

Goals of communication strategy

When developing a communication strategy, it is important to see the ultimate goal and understand what you are doing it for - for example, to attract new customers, increase the average bill or increase profits.


Here are the most common goals set when developing a communication strategy:

  • — increase brand awareness
  • — expand the circle of potential customers
  • — increase audience awareness of the brand and its products
  • — establish partnerships
  • — neutralize negativity
  • Any goal should be measurable, which will make the strategy more grounded and precise.

    Promotion, positioning, advertising

    The tasks of a communication strategy are determined by business goals. What does this look like in practice? Agencies offering communication strategies may have different services with varying composition and duration:

    1. Emphasis on promotion, where the client receives a ready-made promotion plan as a result:

    • — market research
    • — identification of effective communication channels
    • — recommendations on promotion channels with a detailed media plan

    This communication strategy with an emphasis on promotion is used when creativity is not as important as where to place it, why these channels, and how many people will see it. For example, a cosmetic brand's frequent message is to give women a sense of their own beauty. Therefore, the company should focus on finding platforms to place its ads where more of the target audience will notice it.

    2. Emphasis on positioning, where the client receives the basis of communication that can be used to create advertising campaigns:

    • — conducting quantitative or qualitative research during the analysis and hypothesis testing stage
    • — creating a communication platform
    • — separate advertising campaigns targeting different audience segments
    • — building long-term communication that will form the basis of advertising for several years

    For a natural chocolate brand, a communication strategy with an emphasis on positioning could be built around promoting the idea of a healthy lifestyle by creating a community of people who support it together. This will allow the company to occupy a certain niche in the natural food market and form a vision of an eco-brand.

    3. Emphasis on advertising, when the client receives a concept and prepared materials for launching an advertising campaign:

    • - communication research: analysis of brand communication and competitors, impact of external factors on communication, basic audience research
    • - creation of advertising campaign ideas for a specific audience segment with relevant visual and creative solutions in channels

    Initially, Nike positioned itself as a brand offering sportswear and footwear. However, the company changed its strategy and focused on promotion through values and community building. The most famous advertising campaigns are "Just Do It" and "If You Have a Body, You Are an Athlete," which have contributed significantly to Nike's success. When choosing a service, it is worth first determining the goal and desired outcome. Then you will know exactly why you need a communication strategy or, at a minimum, be able to clearly articulate your expectations in a brief. As a second step, we recommend finding out what the agency you have chosen invests in developing a communication strategy. Then you will have a clear idea of the result you will get in the end.

    What if the strategy is wrong?

    More often than not, businesses make mistakes when reflecting a communication strategy in an advertising campaign. The mishap occurs when you need to decide:

    • - where to place the advertisement
    • - what to write in the advertisement

    Surprisingly, "where" is often what companies focus on, as "what" seems to be self-explanatory. What does this lead to? The company develops an ideology, thinks about its positioning, wants to convey its main idea to people, but when it launches the ad, we see only price promotions and a few factual advantages that all competitors operate on.

    Will such advertising bring results? Definitely, having advertising is more effective than not having it, especially when promoted correctly. However, in the end, such an advertising campaign will be just another arrow of the archer in the mist - it will not help you build a brand image, it will be difficult for you to be remembered by the audience, and ultimately, you will attract the wrong customers who may not become loyal or even advocates of the brand.

    If a communication strategy is a way of developing an advertising campaign, then to make it effective, you should clearly know what it should lead to, which people to attract, and what to say to them to make them come. To do this, both the message and the promotion must be well thought out.

    How to make an advertising campaign effective?

    At ICU agency, we consider the development of a communication strategy to be a mandatory step in launching a successful advertising campaign, and we make it comprehensive:

    • — We study the product, market, competitors, audience, form insights, and a communication message
    • — We create a creative concept from a big idea, visual concept, and creative mechanics
    • — We include an ecosystem of channels and media planning in promotion

    Unfortunately or fortunately, a really good strategy remains a "unique" product. There are no universal solutions that can help novice strategists in every specific situation.

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1. General Provisions

This Personal Data Processing Policy is drafted in accordance with the requirements of Federal Law No. 152-FZ dated July 27, 2006, “On Personal Data” (hereinafter referred to as the Personal Data Law) and defines the procedure for processing personal data and the measures taken to ensure the security of personal data by LLC “AISIU+” (hereinafter referred to as the Operator).

1.1. The Operator considers the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms during the processing of personal data, including the protection of the right to privacy, personal and family confidentiality, to be its primary objective and essential condition for carrying out its activities.

1.2. This Policy of the Operator regarding the processing of personal data (hereinafter – the Policy) applies to all information that the Operator may receive about visitors to the website .

2.9. Personal data made publicly available by the subject of personal data – personal data to which the subject has granted access to an unlimited number of persons by giving consent to the processing of personal data made publicly available, in accordance with the procedure established by the Personal Data Law (hereinafter – personal data made publicly available).

2.10. User – any visitor of the website.

7.2. The Operator is also entitled to send the User notifications about new products and services, special offers, and various events. The User may at any time opt out of receiving such informational messages by sending an email to the Operator at hello@icu.agency with the subject “Unsubscribe from notifications about new products, services, and special offers.”

7.3. Anonymized data of Users collected through web analytics services is used to gather information about User behavior on the website, improve the quality of the website, and enhance its content.

8. Legal Grounds for Personal Data Processing

8.1. The legal grounds for the processing of personal data by the Operator are:
– Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” No. 149-FZ dated July 27, 2006;
– federal laws and other regulatory legal acts in the field of personal data protection;
– the Users’ consent to the processing of their personal data, including the processing of personal data permitted for distribution.

8.2. The Operator processes the User’s personal data only if it is provided and/or submitted by the User voluntarily through special forms available on the website . By filling out the relevant forms and/or sending their personal data to the Operator, the User consents to this Policy.

8.3. The Operator processes anonymized data about the User if this is permitted in the User’s browser settings (such as enabling the storage of cookies and the use of JavaScript technology).

8.4. The personal data subject independently decides to provide their personal data and gives consent freely, by their own will, and in their own interest.

9. Conditions for Personal Data Processing

9.1. Personal data is processed with the consent of the personal data subject to the processing of their personal data.

9.2. The processing of personal data is necessary to achieve the purposes provided for by an international treaty of the Russian Federation or by law, as well as to fulfill the functions, powers, and duties imposed on the Operator by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

9.3. The processing of personal data is necessary for the administration of justice, the execution of a court decision, or the decision of another authority or official subject to execution in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on enforcement proceedings.

9.4. The processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the personal data subject is a party, a beneficiary, or a guarantor, or for the conclusion of a contract at the initiative of the personal data subject or a contract under which the personal data subject will be a beneficiary or a guarantor.

9.5. The processing of personal data is necessary for the exercise of the rights and legitimate interests of the Operator or third parties, or for the achievement of socially significant goals, provided that this does not violate the rights and freedoms of the personal data subject.

9.6. Personal data is processed that has been made publicly available by the personal data subject or at their request (hereinafter – publicly available personal data).

9.7. Personal data is processed that is subject to publication or mandatory disclosure in accordance with federal law.
10. Procedure for the Collection, Storage, Transfer, and Other Types of Personal Data Processing

The security of personal data processed by the Operator is ensured through the implementation of legal, organizational, and technical measures necessary to fully comply with the requirements of current legislation in the field of personal data protection.

10.1. The Operator ensures the safekeeping of personal data and takes all possible measures to prevent unauthorized access to personal data.

10.2. The User’s personal data will never, under any circumstances, be transferred to third parties, except in cases related to the fulfillment of applicable legislation or if the personal data subject has given the Operator consent to transfer the data to a third party for the purpose of fulfilling obligations under a civil law contract.

10.3. If any inaccuracies in the personal data are identified, the User may update them independently by sending a notification to the Operator at the email address hello@icu.agency with the subject line “Personal Data Update.”

10.4. The period of personal data processing is determined by the achievement of the purposes for which the personal data was collected, unless a different period is specified by contract or applicable law. The User may withdraw their consent to the processing of personal data at any time by sending a notification to the Operator via email at hello@icu.agency with the subject line “Withdrawal of Consent to Personal Data Processing.”

10.5. All information collected by third-party services, including payment systems, communication tools, and other service providers, is stored and processed by those parties (Operators) in accordance with their own User Agreements and Privacy Policies. The personal data subject and/or User is solely responsible for reviewing such documents in a timely manner. The Operator is not responsible for the actions of third parties, including the service providers mentioned in this clause.

10.6. Any restrictions established by the personal data subject on the transfer (except access), processing, or conditions of processing (except access) of personal data permitted for distribution do not apply in cases where personal data is processed for state, public, or other socially significant interests as defined by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
10.7. The Operator ensures the confidentiality of personal data during processing.

10.8. The Operator stores personal data in a form that allows identification of the personal data subject for no longer than is necessary to achieve the purposes of personal data processing, unless a longer storage period is established by federal law or a contract to which the personal data subject is a party, beneficiary, or guarantor.

10.9. The grounds for termination of personal data processing may include the achievement of the processing purposes, the expiration of the data subject’s consent, the withdrawal of consent by the personal data subject, or the identification of unlawful processing of personal data.

11. List of Actions Performed by the Operator with Collected Personal Data

11.1. The Operator carries out the collection, recording, systematization, accumulation, storage, clarification (updating, modification), retrieval, use, transfer (distribution, provision, access), depersonalization, blocking, deletion, and destruction of personal data.

11.2. The Operator performs automated processing of personal data with the receipt and/or transfer of the obtained information via information and telecommunication networks or without such transfer.

12. Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Data

12.1. Before initiating the cross-border transfer of personal data, the Operator must ensure that the foreign country to which the data is to be transferred provides reliable protection of the rights of personal data subjects.

12.2. Cross-border transfer of personal data to foreign countries that do not meet the above requirements may only occur if there is written consent from the personal data subject for the cross-border transfer of their personal data and/or for the execution of a contract to which the personal data subject is a party.

13. Confidentiality of Personal Data

The Operator and other individuals who have access to personal data are obligated not to disclose or distribute personal data to third parties without the consent of the personal data subject, unless otherwise required by federal law.

14. Final Provisions

14.1. The User can obtain any clarifications regarding the processing of their personal data by contacting the Operator via email at hello@icu.agency.

14.2. Any changes to the Operator’s personal data processing policy will be reflected in this document. The Policy is valid indefinitely until replaced by a new version.

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