Use of corporate publishing in Swiss SMEs
In recent years, corporate publishing has become an essential component of corporate communications. By Prof. Dr. Michael Boenigk, Director of the Competence Center for Corporate Communications at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
More and more companies are using their own journalistic media, such as customer and employee magazines, newsletters and websites, to regularly communicate information and interact with their target groups. The fact that the corporate publishing sector has been growing continuously at double-digit rates for several years is due to various developments.
Differentiation in competition
On the one hand, alongside large companies, more and more SMEs are recognizing that systematic communication work can be a key factor in differentiating themselves from the competition, especially in times of increasingly homogeneous offers and exhausted price competition, and that the quality of communication determines the image of a company, the perception of its range of services and, last but not least, the identification of employees with their employer. In a study conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in 2006, almost 84% of the Swiss SMEs (up to 250 employees) surveyed from a sample of 684 companies stated that communication was important or very important for the company's success.
On the other hand, there is a growing realization that, above all, appealingly designed corporate media that offer the reader added value in terms of content and credibly convey information can create lasting relationships with customers without major wastage and at a manageable cost. A study by Herger of 261 large Swiss companies in 2002 showed that 91% of the companies surveyed were already carrying out corporate publishing at that time, 32% of which outsourced this to external service providers with the primary aim of purchasing specialized expertise more cost-effectively.
External communication service providers
The study conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland also confirmed these findings with regard to Swiss SMEs. Almost 55% of the companies surveyed use image brochures as part of their external communication, 41% rely on customer magazines, 30% use annual reports and almost 85% have a website. For dialog with employees, 31 percent use their own employee magazines and 40 percent rely on an intranet.
The subsequent analysis regarding responsibility for corporate publishing activities showed that 73% of the Swiss SMEs surveyed, and thus a higher proportion than in large companies, commission external communication service providers with the planning and realization of their print products. Just under 36 percent of companies have their website managed by an external communications service provider. The intranet is primarily managed by the companies themselves. Here, only just under 6 percent of companies use external providers.
Further information on the SME study by the Lucerne and Northwestern Switzerland Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts as well as opportunities to participate in the survey and create a communication benchmark can be found on the Kommunikationsaudit.ch website.
Michael Boenigk
Differentiation in competition
On the one hand, alongside large companies, more and more SMEs are recognizing that systematic communication work can be a key factor in differentiating themselves from the competition, especially in times of increasingly homogeneous offers and exhausted price competition, and that the quality of communication determines the image of a company, the perception of its range of services and, last but not least, the identification of employees with their employer. In a study conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in 2006, almost 84% of the Swiss SMEs (up to 250 employees) surveyed from a sample of 684 companies stated that communication was important or very important for the company's success.
On the other hand, there is a growing realization that, above all, appealingly designed corporate media that offer the reader added value in terms of content and credibly convey information can create lasting relationships with customers without major wastage and at a manageable cost. A study by Herger of 261 large Swiss companies in 2002 showed that 91% of the companies surveyed were already carrying out corporate publishing at that time, 32% of which outsourced this to external service providers with the primary aim of purchasing specialized expertise more cost-effectively.
External communication service providers
The study conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland also confirmed these findings with regard to Swiss SMEs. Almost 55% of the companies surveyed use image brochures as part of their external communication, 41% rely on customer magazines, 30% use annual reports and almost 85% have a website. For dialog with employees, 31 percent use their own employee magazines and 40 percent rely on an intranet.
The subsequent analysis regarding responsibility for corporate publishing activities showed that 73% of the Swiss SMEs surveyed, and thus a higher proportion than in large companies, commission external communication service providers with the planning and realization of their print products. Just under 36 percent of companies have their website managed by an external communications service provider. The intranet is primarily managed by the companies themselves. Here, only just under 6 percent of companies use external providers.
Further information on the SME study by the Lucerne and Northwestern Switzerland Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts as well as opportunities to participate in the survey and create a communication benchmark can be found on the Kommunikationsaudit.ch website.
Michael Boenigk
