Corporations have several structural features in common despite their varied services and products. This chapter describes each of these primary structural features and briefly explains why understanding them, their function and power is important for designing effective campaigns targeting specific elements of the organization’s structure to change its behavior.
Once the problem is identified, the most important decision in a corporate campaign is selecting what company(s) to target. This usually requires research, which this chapter describes how to do. It also describes the different factors that should be considered ranging from their market share, brand visibility and image, to their CEO, Board of Directors, their employees, company locations and nature of their customers. This decision and the research findings on the corporate target will have major impact on the campaign strategy.
This chapter outlines the steps and provides examples of campaign “power-mapping.” This is a process of translating the research findings involved in selecting the target as well as additional research into company specific details into a campaign plan. Power mapping reverse engineers the campaign starting with the key decision-maker(s), their most influential constituencies, the most effective channels for reaching them, and the most persuasive messaging to enlist their support in achieving a victory. It then overlays the strengths and weaknesses of the advocacy groups to determine the strategic priorities of the campaign.
Corporate campaigns are real-world dramas with victims, villains, and heroes. This chapter discusses the importance of the stories and resulting narrative, framing, and talking points. It provides lessons from successful campaigns on how to shape these critical communication components, and on how to use them to shape the initial campaign strategy, identify potential allies, and craft communications. It also provides an introduction to the use of polling and focus groups as a way to make the story more compelling for particular campaign audiences.