Communication Strategy

Developing a good product with good facilities will encourage consistent business, but appropriate communication activities are just as indispensable. This section presents a communication strategy that helps instigate change and encourages action for a product that is chargeable free but requires effort.

It is divided into four legs:

A profiling strategy, branding the programme and raising awareness of the product benefits;

A pull strategy, making the company/product attractive to potential buyers.

A push strategy, reinforcing a positive attitude and encouraging conditions that make doing business with you an attractive option; and

A consultation strategy, seeking to establish two-way communication and the involvement of the target audience.

Profiling Strategy

A profiling strategy is about convincing the consumer of the benefits of the company/product and the usefulness of the product. Consumers become aware and adopt a more positive attitude towards it. The use of independent media, public relations (PR), brochures, newsletters and Web sites are all appropriate to this type of strategy.

A profiling strategy may comprise information as to why a company/product is useful and on the trends in the marketplace.

Pull Strategy, through a pull strategy, consumers are attracted, rewarded and encouraged to doing business with you. The strategy encourages their engagement by offering immediate rewards. Examples could be a free gadget or a quid pro quo, e.g. a free service, or even an invitation to lunch. Such 'carrots' are useful for specific initiatives with a clear goal and a specific timeline.

The challenge for this, however, is to find the right sort of incentive that will effectively generate more interest and engagement. Incentives have to reflect the consumers' interests, and fit their work schedules.

Push Strategy, the push strategy reinforces a positive attitude towards the company/product and shows the positive effect once the product has been bought. This is either done in advance of the action, by informing potential users and thus stimulating them to deposit the material, or it is done afterwards, by giving actual information on the work deposited. In that case the scientist's action is affirmed. Examples of such a push strategy would include communication about the ease of deposit, reports on the current average time it takes people to deposit materials, the number of citations or hits one's work has received after 6 months, the total number of documents in the Marketing Repository, their quality, or the number of search engines that pick up such resources.

A push strategy can also focus on lowering barriers that are perceived by potential users, such as a poor image of a Marketing Repository, unclear copyright issues, an unclear location, or unclear or inaccessible instructions. This can be done by effective communication of the benefits and by clear information refuting misperceptions.

Consultation Strategy

Instead of sending one-way messages to consumers, a two-way communication is important. Their feedback will provide the right arguments to send out convincing messages, appealing to their own interests and in their own language. Two-way communication can be achieved through surveys, meetings, informal conversations, by holding panels, and by including consumers in projects and working groups.

Secondly, it is important to encourage consumers to promote the Marketing Repository to their peers as an effective means of communication, (e.g., testimonials, word-of-mouth, or 'viral marketing'. The message will get dispersed more widely and more quickly and will have more impact when spread by colleagues