Strategic Communication: Principles and Practice deals with the principles behind strategic communication planning and the professional practice involved in researching, writing and implementing a communication strategy. The framework followed here can be used for planning specific strategies for a range of specialisations including corporate communication; community relations; financial and investor relations; government relations and lobbying; internal communication; marketing communication and public relations.
The book is grounded in the concept that strategic communication goes beyond the immediate bottom-line profit aims of integrated marketing communication, to deal with longer term issues. The book explores this idea through a framework that suggests communication strategy should be linked to the way in which organisations' plan their business activities in three time 'horizons': what they need to do now, in the mid-term, and in the long-term. This approach links communication strategy to how organisations deal with issues. It does not ignore the need for integrated communication, but it does suggest that how organisations deal with public policy issues influences their market-related communication. Working out how issues influence organisational communication involves strategic thinking and analysis.