Things Oklahoma Taught Me

In the musical Oklahoma, the character of Andrew sings, “Territory folks should stick together, Territory folks should all be pals. Cowboys dance with farmer's daughters, Farmers dance with the ranchers' gals.” These lyrics point out the value of both farmer and rancher and the similarities they share. The song is a simple tune with a strong message about communication. I often wonder how much valuable time, creative thinking, and productive energy is wasted by Communication professionals fighting for their place at the table? We are territory folks. Our areas include marketing, public relations, media relations, social media, web design, advertising sales, speaker’s bureau, graphic design and many others. Unfortunately, many organizations will gather all of these individuals under the heading of Marketing with the implication that the Marketing Director sits at the head of the table and all others are his or her guests. Perhaps it’s a matter of semantics, but I would offer the following: Why not call the department Communication instead of Marketing? All of the above mentioned fields are equal parts in the discipline of Communication. Why do we elevate one area of the discipline and create an unhealthy hierarchy?

In the article Internal Branding: Exploring the employee’s perspective, King states, “People possess skills, knowledge and experiences and, therefore, are of significant economic value to organizations. As these skills, knowledge and experiences enhance productivity, they represent capital that is too valuable to be lost.” Unfortunately, a great deal of this capital can be lost if time is being wasted defending one’s value. A true benefit of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) would be the collective teamwork established through such a practice. If Communication professionals can openly embrace the value of their colleagues and their specialties and accept each other’s role in the organization, time could be focused more clearly on unified outcomes that could ultimately benefit employee, employer and public.

Obviously, there are challenges to this approach. Decades of practice in the old ways of thinking can obstruct a clear view of the positives. For example, social media is the new kid on the block and is currently finding its way and searching for a place at the table. Many view social media as a fad and not grounded in the solid principles of Communication theory and practice. Some have even gone as far as calling it “meaningless communication.” With these prevailing attitudes, how can the new experts in social media and Internet technology find equal footing in a non- integrated environment? King says, “organizations that implement an employee-oriented service culture or ‘ internal service ’ are able to positively impact consumer confidence as a result of employees treating customers with greater respect. The writer continues by stating, “Effective management, therefore, of employees, requires an internal market orientation (IMO), in the same way that managing the organization – customer relationship requires an external market orientation."

With a proper and effective IMO, a strong IMC can be created. If we can first understand the purpose behind our existence, we can then know why our place at the table is not only desired but necessary. “The most significant difference appears to be that many U.S. PR and advertising agencies consider IMC to be a mechanism around which they actually can organize.” Organization is important. If the IMC can organize dealing with the issue of who we are, why we are here and what do we need to accomplish, we can then learn how to communicate effectively and give all practitioners in our field their due credit.

If it works in Oklahoma, it can work for us.