EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION PRACTICAL

QUESTIONS

Case Study 1

Communication in a Crisis ICICI Bank

In September 2008, there were reports of several US-based investment banks
filing for bankruptcy due to their exposure to subprime mortgage loans. On
September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers declared chapter 11 bankruptcy soon
after it reported a loss of US$ 2.8 billion in the second quarter ended May 2008.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers and other US investment banking majors was
widely covered by the media. Subsequently, trouble started brewing for ICICI
Bank when analysts said that ICICI Bank had huge exposure to Lehman
Brothers. Soon after the news broke out, investors rushed to sell their shares of
ICICI Bank, dragging the bank’s stock down by 10 percent.

As the rumors about ICICI Bank’s Financial Position refused to die down, the
bank started a massive email ans messaging campaign. It sent message and
emails to its 27 million customers stating. Dear customers, your deposits with
ICICI Bank are safe. Your bank is well capitalized with good liquidity. Please
do not listen to baseless rumors

Despite communicating through various media channels, customers continued

to flock to ATMs and the bank’s branches fearing that they could lose their
deposits. Kochhar then requested the Finance Ministry to intervene. On
September 30, 2008, the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, said, “All our
banks are well capitalized, well regulated. No Indian depositor need be
apprehensive. We’re watching the situation carefully

Industry watchers felt that it was ICICI Bank’s efforts at communicating during
the crisis that helped it restore its brand value. According to the Brand Finance
Global Banking 500 Report for 2011, ICICI Bank’s brand value had reached a
figure of US$ 2.5 billion. In addition to this, the bank was ranked 70 in 2011
from 108 in 2009 in the same list

Having tackled the crisis by effectively communicating to its customers through

email, messaging, and print and television campaigns to have faith in the bank,
ICICI Bank tweaked its marketing strategies in February 2009 and focused on
the consumer’s security and belief first. The year marked the bank’s 15th
anniversary. Making all its communication subtle, the bank shifted from its
previous ‘know all’ approach to relationship building with its customers

1. What are the Communication channels used by ICICI Bank ?

2. How important is Communication in an Organization?

Case Study 2

Facebook Messages: Changing the Face of Online Communication?

By the end of 2010, Facebook, a social networking company with more than
500 million subscribers, launched a new product 'Facebook Messages',
integrating online chat and text messages (from mobiles) with traditional e-mail
services. The new service allowed subscribers to use text messages, instant
messages, online chat, and email through a single feed known as a 'social
inbox'. Observers opined that Facebook aimed to make the new product a one-
stop-shop for all Internet-based communication related services, and that this
would pose stiff competition to free Internet e-mail providers particularly
Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

At a time when the four biggest players on the Internet were battling out for
every minute spent on the Internet by users, Facebook announced the launch of
its Messages service in November 2010. The company said that the service
would be launched gradually on an invite-only basis, i.e., a new member would
be allowed to join only on accepting the invitation sent by an existing member...

While Facebook had been building Messages from early 2009, the traditional e-
mail providers had been rolling out services synchronized with social
networking from mid-2010. Targeting the needs of younger generation Internet
users, the major players started offering integrated and easy-to-use services
(similar to social networking sites) on existing e-mail platforms using cloud
computing technology.

Questions

1. Understand the trends in digital communications and how social

media has emerged as a potent communication tool.
 2. Understand the changing competitive landscape of digital
communications.

3. Discuss and debate how the launch of ‘Facebook Messages’ could impact
leaders such as Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

Case Study 3

Leveraging Information and communication Technology for Sales Training

Nike, Inc. (Nike), one of the world’s leading footwear and apparel companies,
designed an e-learning program in 2003 for the thousands of sales associates
stationed in the stores that sold its products. The interactive web-based training
program, called ‘Sports Knowledge Underground’ (SKU), closely resembled a
video game, and immediately caught the attention of industry observers. With
revenues of US$ 25.33 billion for the year ended May 31, 2013, Nike was the
world’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel. Its global headquarters
were located at Beaverton, Oregon, Portland. It employed more than 40,000
people worldwide. Over the years, Nike had earned a name for itself for its
innovative products. But the company also realized that bringing out innovative
products alone and advertising them effectively would not suffice; it would also
have to ensure that the sales associates at the stores had good product
knowledge and were able to pitch the benefits of the products to the
customer......

According to Mike Donahue (Donahue), Program Director / E-Learning

Manager, Nike, “We knew that we did a great job of advertising and that we
could drive people into the stores, but ultimately the person that is talking to the
customer is a 16- to 22-year-old kid… We wanted them to have a better
dialogue with the consumer.” In addition to providing training to its employees,
the company also made efforts to ensure that each of its employees knew the
history and heritage of the company through initiatives such as story telling.
“Every company has a history… But we have a little bit more than a history.
We have a heritage, something that’s still relevant today. If we connect people
to that, chances are that they won’t view Nike as just another place to work,”
said Dave Pearson, a training manager at Nike
In 2007, when Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc (Bayer HealthCare)
reported a significant growth in the sales of Betaseron, its drug for the treatment
of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), analysts attributed the growth largely to a new
communication campaign for the brand targeting the doctors that was
implemented by the company’s sales force. And what was noteworthy was that
the sales force had been trained through an online video game sales tool.
According to Ken Begasse, Jr. (Begasse), COO, Concentric Healthcare
Advertising , who developed the simulation game called Rep Race: The Battle
for Office Supremacy for Bayer, “We wanted to make it [Rep Race] fun but at
the same time communicate the marketing challenges and goals of the team…
You have feedback mechanisms already built into the game and you can start to
add quantitative measurements. We can link the rep’s performance on the
gaming platform with their performance in the field. We know we’ve done
better in message recall and message retention since this program has been out
there…

Bayer HealthCare was the pharmaceutical unit of Bayer Healthcare LLC, the
US unit of Germany-based pharmaceutical major Bayer AG. Bayer HealthCare
was officially launched in the US on April 4, 2007. It incorporated the former
Berlex Inc. (Berlex) into Bayer HealthCare, as part of Bayer AG’s acquisition
of Schering AG, Berlex’s former parent company. Betaseron (marketed as
Betaferon in Europe and Japan) was approved as the first new therapy for MS in
the early1990s. For the year 2006, Betaferon/ Betaseron, with global sales of €
991 million, was the highest selling brand for Bayer HealthCare AG. By the end
of 2006, over 100,000 people with MS had used Betaferon/ Betaseron since the
launch of the drug

1. How Information and Communication Technology could be leveraged for

Sales Training
2. Issues & Challenges in designing and implementing an E learning
program
3. What are tools of communication was used to educate the Sales Team
 Case Study 4

Tourism Malaysia: Creating 'Brand Malaysia'

Malaysia has made efforts to attract tourists to the country since the 1960s
(Refer Table I for the various taglines used by Malaysia to promote tourism
over the years). In 1972, the Tourist Development Corporation of Malaysia
(TDC) was established as an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry

Tourism Malaysia launched the 'Truly Asia' campaign in 1999 with the
intention of positioning Malaysia as a preferred tourist destination for people
from different parts of the world. Efforts had been made to promote Malaysian
tourism previously, but the country had been largely hampered by its lack of
'distinctiveness' in the global tourism sphere. Analysts thought that Malaysia did
not have a unique image in the minds of people and there was nothing to set it
apart from any other Asian country. Some of them went to the extent of saying
that Malaysia's diverse population was its shortcoming, as it prevented it from
creating a distinct identity globally

Over the years, the Malaysian government had launched several campaigns to
increase the tourist arrivals to Malaysia. Some of these are described below:

Malaysia My 2nd Home: This evolved from the 'Silver Hair Program'

launched by the Malaysian government in 1996. This program aimed at
convincing foreign retirees to make Malaysia their second home. Foreign
retirees had to open a fixed deposit of RM 300,000 (for persons below 50 years
age); or RM 150,000 or show proof of monthly off-shore income of at least RM
10,000 (for persons above 50 years age)...

Mesra Malaysia: This program was launched by Tourism Malaysia to prepare

front line staff in the tourism industry to deliver exceptional customer service to
visitors to the country. They were taught to be 'courteous, friendly, and
customer-oriented' and to ensure that they made visitors to Malaysia feel
comfortable in every way...

Make it Malaysia: This program was launched in 2005 to generate closer

industry relationships with foreign travel trade partners. Under this program,
groups of foreign media persons and tour operators were invited to experience
the tourist products and destinations in Malaysia
1.  To understand the importance of tourism as a source of revenue for a
country and to examine the efforts that go into making a country a sought
after tourist destination

2. To analyze the factors that promote and hinder a country's tourism

potential, and to study how the country in focus rates on these parameters

3. To study the creation and implementation of a successful marketing

campaign that has helped a country create a unique image and distinct
identity for itself in the global tourism market

4. To analyze the scope of alternative avenues of tourism, and whether

governments would be justified in increasing their investments in
promoting these avenues in future
 Case 5

Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltd: A Case Study in Business Communication

Nand Kumar worked as a Marketing Manager at Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltd.
(Orient), a mid-sized company in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry.
Aggrieved at the cost-cutting measures introduced at the company, Kumar shot
off an email to the CEO of the company. Now, after receiving the response from
the CEO, he wondered whether he had approached the issue in the right way.

PART-A

Kumar had been working at Orient for three years. Orient, headquartered in
New Delhi, India, had a broad portfolio of products such as beauty care,
consumer healthcare, household cleaning, packaged food, etc. It had operations
spread across India. The company also provided ample opportunities for its
employees to grow in the organization.

Kumar had joined the company at an entry level sales position in the beauty
care category, but had now become a Marketing Manager looking after New
Delhi and the National Capital Region.
Kumar’s job involved extensive tours but he was also available at the corporate
headquarters for around ten days in a month. He was very hard working and
performance-oriented.

The sales growth in Kumar’s region for the last six months was 25 percent more
than what it had been in the corresponding period of the previous year. The
CEO of Orient, Robin Shah (Shah), had taken note of his performance and also
appreciated Kumar’s efforts...
1. Understand the communication process.
2. Understand the issues related to different forms of communication -- viz.
oral communication, written communication -- and the appropriateness of
each form of communication in different situations.
3. Understand the pros and cons of using different types of media such as
telephone, email, etc.
4. Understand the issues in written communication and develop skills in
this area.