From Black Friday to Small Business Saturday to Cyber Monday, business communication over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is all about buy, buy, buy.

In this hypersaturated message environment, this email missive from the outdoor-clothing supplier Patagonia on Cyber Monday definitely stood out, starting with the large headline "Don't Buy This Jacket" and a large photo of one of its signature fleece jackets.

Rather than promoting the jacket as a must-get gift for holiday shoppers, Patagonia used the email to talk about the environmental impact of its products and to encourage readers to take the Common Threads Initiative pledge: reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, and reimagine.

Here's how the company explained its unusual message:

Because Patagonia wants to be in business for a good long time – and leave a world inhabitable for our kids – we want to do the opposite of every other business today. We ask you to buy less and to reflect before you spend a dime on this jacket or anything else.

The message wasn't entirely un-promotional. It did point out that the high durability of the jacket meant that wearers wouldn't need to replace it for a long time. However, this was done within the context of the "reduce" message, and it clearly stands in opposition to the planned obsolescence that drives so many product categories today—how many weeks until the next generation of smartphones replaces the perfectly functional current generation?

Was Patagonia's message a cynical ploy to gain favor with its environmentally conscious target consumer? One might jump to that conclusion, but we've been following the company for a long time and respect its managerial ethos. While the message clearly resonates with the target audience, we believe it definitely fits the criteria of ethical communication, regardless of one's personal stance on sustainable commerce: It includes the information readers need in order to make an informed response, it is true in both word and spirit, and it is not deceptive in any way. 

This is a great example of communication ethics to discuss with your students, as well as an intriguing case study in promotional communication. For example, can a company benefit in the long run by discouraging customers to buy less in the short run?

Please let us know what you and your students think about this unusual message.

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You know that feeling when the the words don't quite capture the spirit of your intended message, but words are all you have?

Let's say your project team has just been reprimanded by the boss for missing an interim deadline. You're confident that the team will meet its final deadline, so you're ready to brush off the criticism and get back to work. Your colleagues, however, left the meeting grumbling about being criticized in public, and you fear that morale will slip.

You could craft a restorative, inspirational message to soothe the bruised egos and get the team's energy turned around in a positive direction. However, writing such a message could be risky, because world-weary teammates might just brush it off as happytalk and resent you for trying to be a cheerleader. Moreover, to minimize the chances of a negative reaction, you'll have to spend a lot of time trying to get the words just right.

Alternatively, you could also suggest that your colleagues lighten up and stay focused on the ultimate goal of the project. However, you already know that telling grumpy people to cheer up is a sure-fire way to make most of them even grumpier.

Instead, you opt for a quick bit of gentle and jovial sarcasm, designed to help release the negative emotions in a collegial way. When you get back to your desk, you write the following one-line message via IM or email:

Well, let's pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on ;)

The over-the-top phrasing is a subtle way to remind everyone that the criticism wasn't all that traumatic, the use of "our" reminds your colleagues that you're all in this together, and that winking emoticon tells everyone to lighten up without actually saying so. The apparent sarcasm connects with people who are marinating in their negative emotions, but it's really a pep talk disguised as sarcasm. With apologies to Julie Andrews, you're feeding them a spoonful of medicine to help the sugar go down.

But wait: you remember reading somewhere that emoticons are "unprofessional," so you replace it with a simple period:

Well, let's pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on.

Oops. That one minor change to make the message more professional turned it into a statement of resigned sadness. If you were delivering the message in person, you could use a real smile to replace the emoticon. Even over the phone you could use a brief chuckle. But with IM or email, all you have are soulless squiggles on the screen.

You search your keyboard for any acceptable symbol that might help:

Well, let's pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and move on!

Great, now you've managed to sound bitter and demanding at the same time.

Under these circumstances, are emoticons really all that bad? And given the trend we're seeing in many industries toward a less "corporate" voice in business communication (spurred in large part by social media), is it only a matter of time before a few basic symbols enter the mainstream for all but the most formal messages?

When you think about it, is ;) all that different from !  ? They are both symbols designed to give words a particular emotional shape. In fact, the exclamation point would probably welcome the help. As the only emphasis character at a writer's disposal, the exclamation point is asked to do too much and is often overused as a result.

What position do you take with your students regarding emoticons in their writing for the business communication course? Is it time to introduce judicious use of a few subtle and simple emoticons, at least for internal communication? (Just to be clear, we're talking here about using text emoticons only, not graphical smiley faces, those collections of yellow cartoon characters available in many IM and blogging systems.)

Let us know what you think :)

Photo credit: VersatImage

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One of the more intriguing instructional questions we see on the horizon is how (or perhaps whether) to address video in the business communication curriculum.

Now that video is cheap to produce and often free to distribute, more and more companies are using video to supplement or replace written messages. Of course, video has been used for years, but it was usually concentrated in a few functional areas as marketing and training or reserved for special occasions. Significantly, video was often the domain of trained videographers who were comfortable making the many aesthetic and technical choices that quality video requires.

In much the same way that basic desktop publishing went mainstream, video is now a common media choice for many business professionals. The benefits for senders and receivers can be huge, whether it's an engineer posting a how-to video to the customer support blog or the CEO issuing an important public statement. The wild growth of YouTube and other video-sharing sites—even for clips that don't involve piano-playing kittens—is evidence of how readily professionals and consumers alike embrace content in video form.

Unfortunately, just as it was easy for the untrained to make hideous brochures and posters when they first got their hands on desktop publishing capabilities, making awkward or ineffective videos is easy, too.

Imagine a public, negative-news message from a CEO, such as the announcement of a facility closure or a product recall. A print form of this message would be challenging enough to write, given the multiple stakeholders in the audience and the level of emotional involvement. However, with a lean medium such as a news release or a blog posting, the number of nonverbal signals associated with the message is small, so the communicator can focus his or her energies on the words themselves and not have to worry too much about whether the packaging of the words will send unwanted messages.

In contrast, using video to send this message introduces a wide array of nonverbal variables. For instance, a CEO sporting a $200 haircut and $2,000 suit while sitting comfortably in a mahogany-paneled office won't be a very sympathetic character for delivering news of a major company layoff. At the other extreme, surviving employees who worry if they're next and community members who count on the company's economic activity might not be too comforted by a poorly lit CEO standing stiffly in front of a blank wall with a look of gloom and doom on her face. The same message delivered in two starkly different visual settings could trigger profoundly different reactions from the viewing audience.

Even for less dramatic messages, the communicator has to consider a significant number of variables: setting, lighting, props, camera angles, clothing, speech patterns, body language, vocal characteristics, whether to add musical cues on the fade in or fade out, and more.

With many instructors still trying to fit blogging and other new media into an already overloaded syllabus, we realize the thought of adding video might be enough to make one scream. However, as video continues to go mainstream as a business communication medium, how can today's and tomorrow's business professionals learn the nuances of good video production?

Video clearly falls outside the scope of a focused business writing classes, but what about broader business communication courses? Do you address video as a business medium now? If not, do you anticipate doing so in the future?

We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Photo credit: Andrew Rennie

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Corporate calamities are a great time to observe business communication in action and to analyze the substance and style of a company's response to a crisis. Apologizing and offering restitution are among the more challenging communication tasks during such times, partly because these messages can be a challenge to write in and of themselves, and partly because the negative communication takes place within the company's ongoing (and generally positive) conversational stream with its stakeholders.

Striking the right balance is often difficult. On the one hand, you have to be sufficiently humble and contrite in front of angry customers—without wallowing in negativity. On the other hand, you have to find some way to move the conversation forward and nudge it back onto a positive track—without acting as though nothing happened or that you've already forgotten about it and moved on. For example, how much do you have to beat yourself up in public to show remorse, and how soon is it appropriate to shift from "apology mode" back to business as normal?

Research in Motion (RIM) is an interesting case of a company searching for that balance while trying to turn the public dialog around. After recent global service outages that left millions of BlackBerry users without email and web access for up to three days, RIM had to soothe angry customers while continuing to push forward with positive communication on other fronts. Those ongoing communication efforts are challenging enough on their own, as RIM tries to battle declining share and become a mass-market must-have in the face of strong competition from Apple's iPhones and smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. To make matters worse, the service outage hit just as Apple was introducing its latest phone and RIM was preparing for its annual developers' conference, where one of its tasks is convincing software companies to create more apps for the BlackBerry line.

The postings on RIM's Facebook page offer a convenient (if incomplete) way to track its outgoing communication efforts. Here is the essence of the first 10 messages that appeared after service had been restored around the world:

(1) October 13: Announcing that service has been fully restored

(2) October 14: Expressing thanks to customers for their patience and support, directing them to BlackBerry's Twitter account if they need support

(3) October 17: Announcing a "Thank You Gift from BlackBerry," a series of free software apps that will be made available to current customers over the next four weeks, with a total value of more than $100; more details to  come

(4) October 18: Promising more info to come on the free apps, but announcing a new operating system for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets

(5) October 19: Announcing that the first free app is now available

(6) October 20: Announcing that the second free app is now available

(7) October 20: Posting a video that promises to answer the question "how extreme is gaming is on the BlackBerry PlayBook?"

(8) October 21: Announcing updated Twitter capability for BlackBerry smartphones

(9) October 21: Encouraging customers to continue sharing comments, saying "We love hearing your feedback, Team BlackBerry"

(10) October 24: Announcing the winners of a meet-the-celebrity contest (unrelated to the outage or the free apps program)

The substance of the free app program is open to question—for example, more than a few Facebook commenters weren't too impressed with getting a $5 game (and a frankly rather juvenile-looking one at that) as the second app, and some complained that they should've been able to choose the apps themselves. In addition, by stretching out the delivery of the apps over a period of four weeks, rather than making them available all at once, RIM is forced to keep the story of the outage alive, because the announcement of each new app will remind customers of the service problem. (Although it might've been staged this way to prevent overloading the app store, or for some other viable technical reason.)

However, aside from these questions, RIM seems to have done a reasonably good job under the circumstances of addressing the communication issues related to the outage while pushing the dialog forward. The company simply can't afford to stand still or dwell on a problem that has been fixed, given the challenges it faces from Apple and the Android platform. For the first week after the outage (posts 1-3 and 5-6), the Facebook messages focused mostly on rebuilding goodwill with customers. Following that, the messages were all forward-looking announcements on other matters.

From the messages we've reviewed, RIM apologized in a straightforward, unemotional manner and identified the technical reason for the outage. Calling the free apps a "thank you" gift also puts a positive spin on the make-good effort. (Although thanking people for their "patience," when they had no choice but to sit and stew, is always a curious if perhaps unavoidable choice.)

We'd love to hear your thoughts, particularly if you are a BlackBerry customer who was affected by the outage.

Image: RIM media gallery

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Judging from the vociferous comments in the social media atmosphere, one might think that Netflix's decision to split itself in two or Bank of America's introduction of a debit card fee were some of the worst horrors ever visited upon the human race. BofA isn't likely to reverse its decision, even if thousands of people really do drop their banks for a credit union on Bank Transfer Day. However, the online uproar certainly prompted Netflix to first apologize for not doing a better job of explaining its decision—and then to reverse the decision entirely. [Update 11-1-11: In response to an overwhelming number of complaints, BofA just announced it is scrapping plans to introduce the debit card fee. The crowd has spoken!]

When we began covering social media in our textbooks some years ago, it was soon apparent that these new tools were much more than tools: They were disruptive technologies that were going to fundamentally alter the relationships between companies and their stakeholders. Sure enough, consumers have more power to influence business than ever before, and they aren't always yielding that power with a gentle touch and a kind word.

In addition to aggregating consumer voices, social media can amplify consumer moods and emotions. Unpopular decisions that might have once caused little more than isolated, ineffectual grumbling can now spark organized protests that tarnish brands, deplete goodwill, and even cause changes in corporate strategy.

The message to companies: You better get it right, you better get it right the first time, and you better explain yourself before, during, and after every change you make. Effective communication has never been as important as it is in this volatile new world of business. And even if you're doing something that makes strategic or financial sense, prepare yourself for a negative response.

Photo credit: tomboy from morguefile.com

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Consumer-review websites such as Yelp can be a boon or a bane to local businesses. They can help businesses with little or no advertising budget get exposure through positive word-of-mouth, but they can damage businesses when unhappy customers use the Internet to vent their frustrations.

When a bad review is justified, it can alert potential customers to consider other options and help the company improve its operations. However, an unfair negative review helps nobody. It can divert potential customers away from company that might well meet their needs, and it can inflict temporary or even lasting damage on a company that doesn't deserve it.

Unfair negative reviews can come in a variety of flavors, such as when consumers are at least partially at fault (e.g., ignoring product descriptions on an e-commerce site, ordering a product that clearly doesn't meet their needs, and then criticizing it), when a minor glitch in service is blown out of proportion, or when individuals use review websites as their personal creative-writing platforms and are more interested in being funny or snarky rather than honest and helpful.

Fortunately for unfairly maligned business owners, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other sites give them the chance to respond. However, these scenarios do present one of the more difficult writing challenges a business owner is likely to face. Unlike an apology for poor service, for example, where the owner can express regret in a straightforward manner and perhaps offer some form of compensation, the unfair review requires a great deal of finesse. The owner's response needs to correct the misinformation without engaging the reviewer in a public argument. Moreover, maintaining a calm, professional tone can be a challenge when one's reputation and livelihood have been subjected to unfair insults.

Putting your students in the roles of maligned business owners can be great practice for writing clearly while keeping one's emotions under control. Have each student find a harsh negative review on Yelp or TripAdvisor and imagine that he or she is the owner of the business in question. The student should assume that the information in the review is factually incorrect and write a hypothetical response that corrects the misinformation without "taking the bait" of the emotional attack. Encourage students to really imagine just how upset hardworking business owners would be after seeing their names dragged through the mud. By role playing scenarios like this, students will get practice at keeping their emotions under control when they are unfairly criticized in any professional setting.

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This Twitter exercise can help students students grasp the value of the communication course and practice writing tight, focused messages at the same time.

Have them write four messages of no more than 140 characters each to persuade other college students to take the business communication course. They should think of the first message as the “headline” of an advertisement that makes a bold promise regarding the value that this course offers every aspiring business professional. The next three messages should be support points that provide evidence to back up the promise made in the first message.

As they think about ways to promote the course to other students, your students will have the opportunity to think through what you've shared with them in class so far about the value of the course and to visualize themselves putting their new skills to work.

If you prefer not to use Twitter for this, students can submit their messages using any medium you choose.

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These PowerPoint slides offer annotated examples from three companies making effective use of social media tools to develop customer relationships:

• Biznik
• Segway
• Lie-Nielsen Toolworks

You can download the PowerPoint file from the link below.

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Hard to believe fall is upon us! We hope you had a relaxing and productive summer. We'd like to start off the new season with a brief reminder of the free online resources we have available to help business communication instructors and students, including the many resources available exclusively for adopters of Bovée & Thill texts.

Business Communication Headline News

Business Communication Headline News delivers late-breaking news stories, interesting blog posts from a variety of communication professionals, and other information you can use to enhance lectures and class discussions. You can also follow BCHN on Twitter (@buscommnews) and Facebook.

Real-Time Updates

Bovée & Thill’s Real-Time Updates service offers a wealth of material we have personally selected for instructors and students, sorted by media type and textbook chapter.

Business Communication Communities on Facebook and LinkedIn

Connect with business communication instructors and professionals from around the world in the Bovée & Thill online communities on Facebook and LinkedIn:

• Facebook: Teaching Business Communication. Share your opinions about issues that are important to instructors of business communication, ask your peers questions, and offer best practices for instruction.
• Facebook: Bovée and Thill's Inner Circle for Business Communication. Devoted exclusively to college and university instructors who are adopters of Bovée & Thill texts.
• Facebook: Social Media and Electronic Communication Workshop. Learn about electronic communication and social media quickly and easily. Members can receive one-on-one mentoring, as requested, as well as opportunities for group chat and webinars.
• LinkedIn: Teaching Business Communication group. This group is a discussion and resource-sharing forum exploring all aspects of teaching business communication.
• LinkedIn: Bovée & Thill’s Inner Circle for Business Communication. This group is also devoted exclusively to college and university instructors who are adopters of Bovée & Thill texts.

Bovée & Thill YouTube channel

The new Bovée & Thill channel on YouTube offers videos with advice on teaching the new elements of business communication.

Bovée & Thill's Web Search

This powerful metasearch system developed by Bovée and Thill lets you quickly access more than 325 search engines. The tool uses a simple and intuitive interface engineered to help business communication instructors and students find precisely what they want, whether it’s PowerPoint files, PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, Excel files, videos, or podcasts.

Website Registration

You'll notice that instructors and students are now asked to register for Real-Time Updates and Business Communication Headline News. We implemented this change to preserve the integrity of these resources as unique benefits for adopters of Bovée & Thill textbooks. Registering gives you full access to the entire Business Communication Network, including the Learn More media items highlighted in the texts, downloadable student assignments, and more. During registration, instructors are asked to enter a special one-time password that you can retrieve from the publisher's website (instructions for doing so are provided on the registration screen). After registration, you and your students can log in simply by entering the email address and personal password you provided at registration. Note that registration is not required for this blog or for Bovée & Thill's Web Search.

If you experience any challenges in registering, contact us at cbovee@businesscommunicationblog.com.

Again, we wish you and your students a successful fall term. If we can answer any questions or entertain any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Court Bovée and John Thill

p.s. You may encounter temporary availability issues with some of the Real-Time Updates media items. We're "recovering" from a system upgrade and are working hard to restore all of these.

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Have you noticed more companies lowering their guard when it comes to communicating in a lighthearted style?

We have only anecdotal observations on this, but as social media change the nature of the relationships between companies and their stakeholders, we’ve noticed an uptick in the number of companies working humor into their routine communication efforts.

At the subtle end of the humor spectrum, for example, the software company Techsmith includes the following privacy statement at the end of its email newsletters:

We’re happy to have you on our list, and since we want to keep you all to ourselves, we never share your email address with anyone.

“We want to keep you all to ourselves” is a pleasant and slightly offbeat way to convey both the privacy assurance and the idea that Techsmith values its customers.

At the other end of the spectrum—far, far at the other end—the online music retailer CD Baby has some fun with its version of letting customers know their orders are on the way:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, May 17, 2011.

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.”

Such an over-the-top message wouldn’t work for a bank or a medical products supplier, to be sure. However, the humor probably promotes a closer emotional bond with CD Baby, if only for poking fun at other companies that take themselves a little too seriously.

Have you seen notable examples of “business funny” that suggest a more relaxed approach to business communication (outside of advertising, that is)? Would you consider having your students try a writing exercise in this vein?

By the way, we’re going to take a short break and will begin posting again in mid-August. Have a great summer!

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