Corporate publishing: Online comes, offline stays

This article by Anne-Friederike Heinrich comes from the current print edition of Werbewoche.

WW: Four of you have launched the label "Medien-Macher" (Media Makers), under which you bundle and pass on your CP knowledge. What do you want to achieve with it?
Roland Kaufmann: Digital media present us with new challenges, not only for companies but also for print shops and PR and CP agencies. We want to help our customers serve the increasingly diverse communication channels and manage their content in an uncomplicated way. To this end, Binkert Druck works with the Woodwing editorial system, from which print, online, social media, and apps can be fed with content. Content is created centrally in the Content Station and used individually for publication in the various media channels. We have sought competent partners for the content, with whom we now offer very professional solutions for CP on all channels under the label "Media Makers".

You will present yourself as the new "CP competence team" at an after-work talk in Zurich on January 27.* Is there a great need for support in dealing with digital media?
Thomas Heusser: Oh yes. We had expected about 30 registrations, but in the meantime there have long since been more than 100. It is mainly communications managers from companies who are taking part.
Christoph Kohler: In our day-to-day work, we notice time and again how great our customers' need for clarification is. They are overwhelmed by the new digital realities. The technical possibilities are there. But there is a lack of strategies for how to use the various media creatively, efficiently, and in the interests of the brand.

Many publications can already be read on the iPad, and many media makers are using Kooaba or experimenting with augmented reality. How can customer and employee magazines benefit from the new technologies?
Gotsch: In the same way. When content is pushed to more channels at the push of a button, it can be very interesting for a company if done strategically right: It reaches more customers and generates more customer leads. The more channels available, the greater the chance of reaching target groups. So far, one team has done print, another web, and then Twitter people have been built up. That doesn't work. We need a central office from which all channels are managed. We have the right tool for that.

CP publications are usually aimed at existing customers and are free of charge. If a company then sets up Twitter and Facebook accounts to go with them, it's all about customer loyalty. That's good - but can social media also be used to acquire new customers, and can Kooaba and augmented reality be used to increase sales?
Gotsch: For example, as soon as a company provides content on Twitter that interests people, they will follow it. Then the company stays in people's minds. The goal is achieved as soon as a potential customer contacts the company. At that moment, of course, the company has to be ready and respond in a customer-oriented way. The same applies to the web: If the web presence is constructed in such a way that customer inquiries arise, the goal has been achieved.

What is your recommendation? Should every company that publishes a customer magazine provide an online version of it, and preferably also an app, cooabize the print version, and be active on Twitter and Facebook? For whom is what recommended?
Kohler: There is no blanket answer to this. The solution varies from customer to customer. One thing is certain: The communication habits of consumers, readers and users have already changed, and they will continue to change in the future. Ninety-eight percent of twelve- to nineteen-year-olds have a cell phone, and three-quarters of them use social networks more than four times a day. These are the customers of tomorrow, and I'm not sure they'll ever pick up a newspaper again. Neither our customers nor we can do anything about this development. We have to go along with it.

Then you are concerned about the customers of tomorrow?
Kohler: Not only. In Switzerland, IT expertise is generally high. So, depending on the target market, it's already a question of customer loyalty. This is particularly important in markets where the USP is not as strong. For example, in the case of health insurance companies, which today people change quickly with an eye to costs. In this context, a relevant customer magazine or a credible presence in social media can be crucial. After all, corporate publishing allows the company to actually reach customers - provided the customer expects added value from the corporate publishing product. An unattractive magazine, a loveless newsletter, these are very likely to end up in the trash box. A Facebook account that is simply opened without anything happening there will soon be dead. But if you want to emotionalize your brand, you have to use the diversity of the media in line with the market. The media maker of tomorrow is no longer a soloist, but a conductor who coordinates various instruments with each other - without necessarily having to play them himself.

Often, not even expensively produced customer magazines succeed in retaining consumers. How does a company have to behave on Twitter and Facebook in order to be successful? What could strategic CP in digital media look like?
Heusser: That has a lot to do with the positioning of the magazine, because that's where it's determined who is to be addressed with what and what the benefit is for the target group. This must also be expressed in the shortest version, for example on Twitter. Without a benefit, users will jump off again immediately.
Gotsch: No matter on which channel the company communicates: The reader must have added value. Today, messages are quickly clicked away. That's why a company has to ask itself two questions: First, whether it has content that adds value to a particular target audience, and second, on which platform it can best reach its target audience. Highly technical content, for example, doesn't lend itself well to Facebook, but perhaps some articles can be tweeted. Or make an app out of it.
Kohler: Not everything makes sense for everyone. A construction company, where employees are mostly on site, doesn't need an employee magazine that only runs on the intranet. A bank that is concerned about discretion will think twice about a Facebook presence.

Communicating via social media can also backfire - Twitter and Facebook are difficult to control ...
Kohler: Correct. You have to expect that criticism will come, that a customer will complain about the poor service, for example. And that's legible for everyone. But today's customers are networked with each other anyway and exchange information. If they do so directly with the company, then the latter at least has the chance to defuse the conflict by responding quickly.

A company has a print and online magazine, an app, broadcasts web TV and is active on Twitter and Facebook. Should the way recipients are addressed always follow the corporate wording, or can and must it vary depending on the medium?
Kohler: How a company speaks is part of its identity. Therefore, a company should distinguish itself from the spontaneous by a uniform language standard,
heterogeneous comments of its readers.
Gotsch: And in the case of web sites, of course, it is necessary to work with the keywords so that the site can be found by searchers using search engines.

How central is social media for brand management?
Kohler: It depends on the industry in which the company operates. For lifestyle companies that appeal to a young target group, social media are
very interesting. Because in the future, the brand core will be defined less and less on the drawing board in the executive suite, but will develop interactively in dialog with fans and communities. Nike, for example, doesn't just decide what the next sneaker will look like, but discusses it with its customers. In this way, the company learns a lot about the needs of its clientele. If a company has a well-functioning Facebook page for a lifestyle product, there is no need for market research. You just have to look at what is being discussed, what is being clicked on the most, and who or what is being most
has the most friends. And then you can align your brand with that.

You emphasize the importance of benefits and added value. Can a company then also decide not to get involved in social media or offer an app or an online presence, while its competitors focus on being there?
Heusser: Yes, "wanting to be everywhere" without a strategy is even dangerous. Companies should not think that they can use all channels for the same money just because it is free to set up an account or send out a newsletter. Social media activities in particular are counterproductive if they are not properly maintained. There is nothing sadder than an orphaned Facebook page where the company places a message every three weeks. An interactive page needs someone to respond to criticism and questions every day. That's the only way to create interaction. If you really want to use Facebook and Twitter for brand management, they are not free, but costly to maintain and develop creative concepts.

You state that corporate communications will have to become more journalistic in the future if they want to hold their own with consumers. Why?
Kohler: Because the media noise is very great. The variety of media and the amount of data that individuals have to process every day are constantly increasing. In this environment, you have to make yourself heard: through precise, emotional language, through sustained quality that creates reading expectations. That is one thing. The other is that today's consumer can no longer be taken for a fool. He has access to a wide range of knowledge and exchanges ideas. That's why they want authentic, honest information. Marketing texts full of sunshine are untrustworthy and interchangeable. In the future, there will perhaps be less writing, but better: I would also recommend this goal to companies: "few but roses. Since the crisis, there have been a few journalists on the market who can write well.

Do you recommend that companies employ their own staff for their CP activities in social networks? Or can the communications department still take care of this - when there are already editorial systems that simplify the work so much?
Gotsch: If a company has a serious goal with CP, then it must also employ people who care about it in full value. Saving the editor just because the reader pays nothing for CP is not a good idea.

What opportunities does CP have through digital media?
Heusser: I am convinced that CP in general will become more and more important in the future, especially compared to advertising. Most of us are already quite unreceptive to classic advertising messages today. CP offers an interesting alternative because it meets the consumer's need for information. CP delivers relevant insights and in-depth information in an unobtrusive way. Digital media now make it possible to provide this information in a tailored and individualized way.

You emphasize that you have to understand digital media in order to be able to use them in a targeted way. What have you understood that has not yet reached many companies and agencies?
Merchant: CEOs and communications managers are inundated with new communications opportunities, but don't yet know whether they should use them for themselves, and if so, how. Of course, we don't have a ready-made strategy either, we are also entering new territory. But we combine a lot of know-how from PR, CP, design and technical implementation and can thus offer joint assistance.

Do you think digital media will one day replace printed customer and employee communications?
Heusser: Certainly in parts, but it depends on the goals of the company. What is clear is that in the future, every annual report will also have to be offered digitally. It makes sense to produce an annual report only online if the main focus is on the figures, quick access and distributing the data to many people. For Migros, this was definitely the right decision; it saves the company a lot of money. But if you use your annual report as an image tool, you should continue to publish a print product. There will continue to be annual reports whose image section comes in the form of printed reading books, such as the one from Swisscom. The figures section can be accessed online. Separating the image and figures sections is a very intelligent way of doing things. Then you can serve the needs of your target group in a customized way.
Merchant: In the print shop, we haven't noticed any big changes yet. A lot of money is still spent on printed annual reports. But we are curious to see how this will change in the next few years.
Kohler: Companies and corporate publishers are in a learning process. There has been a lot of change in recent years. It's not so common to work in a profession where magazines were produced in the same way for 50 or 100 years. And now publishing has taken on other dimensions in a very short time. Even professionals have to make extreme changes if they want to still be around in five years. Those who stand still will soon no longer exist.

Interview: Anne-Friederike Heinrich

*Tip: free after-work talk
Six months ago, the four interviewees developed the "Medien-Macher" label. Under this umbrella, they pool their CP knowledge and pass it on. On the topic of "Strategies for Print, Web and Apps in Corporate Publishing," they are holding a free after-work talk. It will take place on January 27 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Zurich's Restaurant zum Grünen Glass. Registration at

www.medien-macher.ch
www.binkert.ch
www.brandaffairs.ch
www.heussercom.ch
www.zmartcom.ch