Advertising Week wanted to know how this is supposed to work. The entire three-page interview can be found in the current print edition 7/16.
The company, the brand and me - leading companies through brands
The two authors have combined their knowledge of communication and brand management, brand management and journalism and have further developed, tested and applied it in research and practice. The result is "Strategic brand management with an editorial character". Companies can lead through their brand and stay in close contact with their target group. Reputation is built and maintained - as a sustainable value. Editorially managed brands are already successful on the market and can fulfill the requirements of modern communication effectively and authentically. This book shows how. 1st edition 2016, 256 pages, hardcover, Haupt-Verlag, CHF 44.00, ISBN: 978-3-258-07975-2.
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Heiner Butz and Ruedi Alexander Müller-Beyeler (Photo: Lauschsicht)
Werbewoche: Ruedi Müller-Beyeler, corporate communication and brand management used to be enemies of journalism and editorial work; both communication disciplines have traditionally tried their hardest to distinguish themselves from each other. This has changed dramatically, you state in your recently published book. In what way?
Heiner Butz: Actually, it has always been a kind of love-hate relationship. Journalists have changed fronts since time immemorial, but today both use the same tools. And above all, communication has changed a lot for both sides in a digitalized world. Today, companies are in direct contact with their target group. A while ago, interns took care of this communication - a highly dangerous time.
Ruedi Alexander Müller-Beyeler: In the meantime, many companies have realized that communication experts need to take over the task of talking to their target group. I know several large companies that have recently started communicating directly with their customers in many areas, no longer campaign-based, but in an editorial flow and linked to topics, with storytelling. I can't present any best practices yet, but the topic has arrived at the companies.
What impact does this development have on corporate management?
Müller-Beyeler: Most companies start by setting up a newsroom with a large screen on the wall and furniture reminiscent of a creative environment. But the creative environment alone is of course not enough, a change in attitude is particularly important. A profound change in attitude that no longer allows the boss to control everything top-down. Instead, you have to find a framework in which everyone shares a certain basic attitude, but otherwise works freely.
Butz: The entrepreneur, the management leads through values and guidelines and the new freedom in communication is used by the most diverse talents. Editorial working methods and structures help here.
You're not talking about a journalistic newsroom, but about newsrooms in commercial enterprises, are you?
Müller-Beyeler: Exactly. The newsrooms of media companies are something else, but companies often call their place of communication the newsroom. Even in media companies, the title is the brand, so to speak, and thus sets the tone. This must also be the case in corporate newsrooms, which is a fundamental change for companies. Today, if you are working on something communicative for a company, for example for a company magazine, you buy in texts and images and lots of people have a say before the product is finished. First of all, there are the experts who know something about the subject, but usually little about communication. Then representatives from various levels of the hierarchy come and talk you through it. Finally, the CEO looks at it - and then everything dies. We need a change of attitude here: an editorial team is established within the company that is required to research internal and external topics with the brand and shared values in the background and then produce and publish a gripping, multimedia story. Without the client being allowed to influence it again. Otherwise, the result is simply flat products, not interesting stories.
Is it realistic, for example, for a manufacturing company that has so far devoted most of its energy to the production and optimization of its goods to set up an editorial department at the same time?
Müller-Beyeler: The vast majority of companies are not yet aware that this will be necessary and how costly it will be. Agencies are also starting to tremble, because traditional supplier functions are changing and it is quite possible that some of them will disappear. Perhaps new ones will also emerge, which would open up new opportunities. Nevertheless, agencies logically do not want the established flow of income to come to a standstill. Another stumbling block is power struggles between corporate communications and marketing. Up to now, marketing has always had the big budget, which has been passed on to the agencies. And corporate communications received a very modest budget. That has to change. The only way to do this is to bring marketing and corporate communications much closer together, in the aforementioned newsroom.
Do companies have to build up new resources for this? I don't think that's feasible.
Müller-Beyeler: With the teams working in corporate communications today, they cannot accomplish this task. And most companies cannot afford to set up an additional editorial team either. So there will be shifts: If a company spends a few million less on an agency, it can invest the money in an editorial team. However, these are decisions that have to be made at the very top management level. The development is new, so there are no best practices yet. But there will have to be a new approach. We have so many corporate brochures today that nobody can read them. And if everyone is telling hero stories, you can no longer stand out with them. The battle for consumer attention is fierce. That's why it's important to tell really good stories.
... in Germany, a large retailer has just set up a large internal editorial department ...
Müller-Beyeler: That is certainly the right step.
How is such a brand editorial office structured? And how many people work there?
Butz: There is no general answer to this question. There are editorial offices in the media sector with 5 or 500 employees. The range in a brand editorial office will certainly not be quite that wide. We think that it can start with as few as 7 employees. A lot depends on the tasks. Should the editorial team currently be working on social media? - Then you certainly need more staff. Should good media articles be produced here as a background without too much pressure to keep up to date? - Then you need fewer, but also differently qualified staff.
Freedom is absolutely essential in an editorial structure. Many functions will probably not be permanently assigned, but will be filled by changing personnel. This is a very fundamental change, but it will result in a very flat hierarchy. Hierarchy in an editorial office is usually derived from the respective function and is not permanent. This is very different in most corporate communications departments.
Is marketing, i.e. tactical and short-term product advertising, becoming less important in the age of open communication between everyone?
Müller-Beyeler: I wouldn't presume to say that. Marketing knows functions and mechanisms that can be used to sell directly and publicize something in the short term. And we will always need this option. What marketing does not usually do is create a brand, build a brand and bind customers to it. And many really successful companies often don't sell the product directly, but rather sell themselves as a company, say why they exist and the customer buys them on the basis of precisely this argument, because what the company does matches the consumer's attitude. Of course, the product also has to fit, but I think long-term brand thinking is becoming increasingly important. Take health insurance, for example: I would argue that no one chooses a health insurance product first and then looks to see which insurer is behind it. First you choose the insurer with which you have an affinity. And then you check whether they have the right product. You might then do a price comparison, but very few people only look for the cheapest product on Comparis. That's a brand.
...read more in the current print edition of Werbewoche.
Interview: Anne-Friederike Heinrich
