Most enterprises treat their communications as a series of discreet, unrelated steps or events.
More often than not we focus on the medium at the expense of the message. This leads to miscommunication, frustration and wasting money for no good reason.
Sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand in doing. In the eyes of customers and clients, we’re tickling them with one hand and slapping them across the face with the other. Conflicting communications confuses customers and clients at first. Then repels them.
Most advertising agencies, design studios and communications firms have a nice diagram that illustrates how the idea they create is like a hub at the center of a wheel with the various media it can be delivered through extending out like spokes. Variations of this will be presented to us by our design firm, PR company or latest social media expert. Maybe the wheels expand. Maybe the wheels interconnect.
Different strokes for different folks. But ultimately the illustrations are used to sell whatever products and services our suppliers have on hand. This focus on how at the expense of what leads us to some fairly myopic thinking. (Not to mention tail chasing. Funny in a puppy. Not so funny - or profitable - in an enterprise.)