Ashley Madison Strategic Communication - Case Study Example

Executive Summary

Ashley Madison Agency is one of the largest online dating service platforms based in Canada. The company primarily targets married individuals or those who are in relationships but still want to date. Following, the public relations crisis with security breach regarding its database during August 2015, the current strategic communication plan is designed to set out the objectives, strategies and messages that will be utilised to communicate the company’s programs and policies to their numerous audiences concerning rebuilding its brand, reassuring and mitigating against the confidentiality crisis that their consumers have experienced. It describes the company’s approach and objectives for communication, strategic messages, tools and tactics, the execution plan and measures for outcome assessments. This strategic communication plan aims to augment awareness, provide access, ensure confidentiality, establish transparency, increase engagement and reinforce credibility. Moreover, this strategic communication plan describes the company’s issue identification, and approach of management in addition to an analysis of emerging social media opportunities, and the company’s plan to execute a social media strategy for the forthcoming years.

Element A - Ashley Madison Strategic Communication Plan

Introduction

Ashley Madison is a social networking and an online dating service based in Canada. It was established by Darren Morgenstern in 2002 (Mansfield-Devine, 2015, p. 8). The company’s social networking service and online dating service are marketed to the married individuals or individuals who are in a devoted relationship. The company is the leading online social networking community of its type in the world that caters to individuals who are already in relationships; nonetheless, still needs to date. On July 2015, Ashley Madison received attention after hackers stole all of its client data comprising names, information on the credit card, emails, home addresses and sexual fantasies and threatened to post the entire data online when the company and its fellow Avid Life Media site’, the EstablishedMen.com were not forever closed. This paper discusses the strategic communication plan for the company.

Situational Analysis

The company's main challenge is to provide opportunities for audiences to voluntarily upsurge their level of engagement, remove barriers to participation, and augment the value of their relationship with their customers. Furthermore, the company is faced with the problem of hacking in which its customers' data were stolen. This made its customers feel that there is no confidentiality in handling their data in the company website. The hackers who stole sensitive client information from the cheating site AshleyMadison.com seem to have benefitted on their threat to post the data online (Buchanan, 2015, p. 5). The site hyped itself as the premier cheating site for married individuals in search of partners for infidelity; nevertheless, it was relatively unidentified until hackers broke into its servers and released above thirty gigabytes of customer and its data propelling it into the spotlight.

Ashley Madison has aspirations for the quality of its communications and other considerations that also guide strategies and tactics. The company is very careful in ensuring that it is conscious and execute all legal requirements (Mansfield-Devine, 2015, p. 10). Besides, it is careful to implement its communications within the established policies of the region. Finally, it strives to meet the utmost ethical standards of both the communications profession and government agencies. The company must consider media preferences and comprehend the unique features of every channel that it deploy, recognizing that people have divergent expectations and conscious wants in communicating with the company.

Communication Strategy

Communication refers to the process of transmitting ideas and information. To communicate effectively, it is vital to develop a communication plan. A communication plan refers to a plan that describes what a company plans to complete with the information it receives or disseminate outside (Lloyd-Parkes, 2016). Ashley Madison’s communication plan outlines its objectives, the tools that are utilised to create information and the intended recipients. It describes the type of data that can be shared and how that data can be distributed online. Furthermore, it clearly identifies the individuals who have the duty of coming up with information, managing it, knowing when it should be communicated and the place for storing the communication records (Buchanan, 2015, p. 11). Ashley Madison’s strategic communication plan will serve as a proactive measure to guaranteeing that every individual has correct and accurate information promptly.

Additionally, it will assist in describing the individuals having the responsibility for creating every kind of communication and also describes how frequent the information can be disseminated and reorganized. In communication, strategically finding out the appropriate communication media is key in the success of the intended message delivery. This offers great impact in the understanding and comprehending the received message. In this time, technology has enabled for better efficiency and reliability in the sending and receiving of messages. One of the factors to consider is the purpose of the communication (Bretz,2003. 163). Here the sender is to consider the mood and intended effect of the message. Therefore he or she should see to it that the message is understood well. Another factor is the duration or the time the message will take to reach the receiver. This is a matter of urgency and the speed the message is to go. For this reason the sender should choose a communication medium that is fast and take less time to relay the message to the receiver. Another factor is the cost of the communication medium. Here the sender should consider a communication medium that is cheap and reliable. This would help him or her save on costs. The distance is also a factor to consider when sending messages. Here the communication media should be able to cover a large area and send data conveniently and efficiently to the receiver. Another factor to consider is the confidentially. Here the message should be secure and other uninvolved parties should not be able to access the data.

Identifying the Target Audiences

Ashley Madison is a site that targets the married individuals that seek partners for infidelity. The company should clarify the problem that its product or service addresses since it is a good way to determine the individual who is likely to become its customer. It should define the characteristics of its clients that should be personal ones and pertains to income, lifestyle, geographical location and hobbies (Carroll, 2015, p. 20). Ashley Madison should determine its primary audience since numerous products and services address the wants of a range of individuals. There is the need to study the current audience of the company to know any other person who could be the potential client for the company. Moreover, it should know the target of its online competitor to comprehend its target customer base. Lastly, it should know who uses its online site and the main reason for the use since it will help in preventing hacking of the site.

Both internal and external communications will be required to communicate with the diverse audience of Ashley Madison. For example, in a company, a range of communication media can be used it pass information through various levels of work. In this case a communication media is message is sent from sender to receiver. One these media is the face to face communication. Here the sender and the receiver are at a close distance to each other. This medium is very effective and powerful in the sending and receiving messages in the company. This can be done in either verbal or non-verbal means. Verbal means involve the use of words while nonverbal can be done through body language and gestures. This means allows for immediate feedback. An example of this medium is as in job interviews.

Another medium that can be used is two-way remote communication. In this medium, the sender and the receiver are not in the same physical location. This media also allows immediate feedback. An example of this medium is teleconferencing (Bretz, 2003. 189). Written communication is also another communication medium. This involved the use of written words. These writing can be either formal or informal depending of the conditions of the message. This medium has timed feedback. Its limitation is that some of the information intended for the message can be forgotten or misunderstood in the process. Another medium is social media communication. This is the most medium of communication in companies today. This type of medium allows for real time feedback. It in cooperates other media like the written media and the two way media. This involves web based social websites to send and receive information

Determining the Communication Objectives of the Company

The company should develop communication objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound (SMART). This varies according to distinct target audiences (Doran, 2011). It is the standard in advocacy campaigns as the primary and secondary target audiences want to be reached in a different way and will likely take diverse kinds of action (Austin and Pinkleton, 2015, p. 19). The company’s objectives should be to augment awareness, provide access, increase engagement, reinforce credibility, and establish transparency.

According to agenda setting theory, the communication objectives of the company need to be specific, measurable, realistic, acceptable and time constrained (Windahl et al., 2008, p. 30). They should be clear and well delineated because vague objectives lead to vague communication. The communication objectives should be more measurable to help ascertain whether they have been met or not. The company should be aware of its limitations to better recognise and comprehend its strengths. Thus, there is the need to select a realistic approach and avert setting objectives that can never be accomplished by the company. Ashley Madison's communication objectives should be correct, and every individual must go along with them. Ultimately, there is the need to set a communication deadline to limit any discussions following the occasion.

Designing Messages

The design of the company messages needs to help in rebuilding its brand and make an exertion to reassure and mitigate against the confidentiality crisis that its consumers have experienced. Ashley Madison's messages need to state that it cares, plans for the future, committed to ensuring economic vitality, economical, efficient and values its customers' input. The company key messages should effectively speak to the company target audiences. The messages need to be tailored to resonate with the target audiences in that numerous versions of the message should be prepared to reach distinct audiences. According to McQuail's theory of mass communication (2010), the company needs to consider the person who will deliver the messages (McQuail, 2010, p. 15). For instance, the change of behaviour messages resonate well from peer groups of the target group; nonetheless, the advocacy and awareness messages might reverberate better from politician and celebrities.

Choosing Media

The media landscape is quickly ever-changing under the existing economic conditions and maturing online social media offerings. The company believes that some form of professional journalistic existence is possible to remain engrossed on companies’ business undertakings for the foreseeable future (Mansfield-Devine, 2015, p. 15). Despite that, the relative explosion of fresh or non-traditional media is making it more problematic to determine effective plans for deploying messages, necessitating a willingness to attempt new techniques of leveraging the media. In addition, Ashley Madison needs to view its role in dealing with the media as establishing the agenda functioning with the media to upsurge the frequency that some concerns appear, therefore increasing its salience and amplifying their significance (Buchanan, 2015, p. 20). The comparatively current advent of numerous of the social media apparatuses implies that the implications and best practices for their utilisation have hardly scratched the surface of what may be probable.

As a social networking site, the visitor to the company's newsroom or blog should be given the opportunity to share stories on a range of platforms, comprising Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This will enable individuals to transfer the company's communications easily and upsurge the utility of the company communications assets (Lloyd-Parkes, 2016). This tactic should be labeled "viral" in that information the company offer is passed directly from utiliser to utiliser without further exertion on the company. Thus, there is the need to generating useful and persuasive content (Carroll, 2015, p. 45). Further, there is the need to repurpose news releases and the company stories for inclusion on many social media websites, in addition, to utilise the share feature to distribute media utilising company presence on the sites.

Ashley Madison should choose media that can help in attaining its objectives and ensure customers’ satisfaction. Its general and advertising objectives are the key considerations in selecting the media selection. The company advertising objectives should inform, convince, remind and generate prestige to the company customers and increase sales and profits to the company. The selection of media decision is greatly influenced by the costs of the media and the company capability to pay (Carroll, 2015, p. 60). Ashley Madison has to pay for purchasing time and space and preparing advertising copy fit for the media to be chosen. Therefore, the company needs to choose media that is relatively cheap to reduce its costs.

The media selected should reach numerous different individuals exposed to a specific medium not less than once throughout a specified period. The mass media can reach millions of individuals by just one exposure. The company's customers should be considered while choosing the media. There is the need to classify the customers into numerous classes since every medium has its special readers, viewers or audience (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015, p. 33). Ashley Madison has the responsibility to know whether the target groups can be exposed to the specific medium. The company needs to consult the marketing experts and consultants who work on a professional basis to propose a suitable medium to carry the message. The experts, on the basis of analysis of market conditions in relation to products to be advertised, can recommend the appropriate media.

The Company Online Reputation Management

To comprehend how the company reputation is evolving online, the company’s community relations staff should start monitoring and measuring the communication that is being transmitted concerning Ashley Madison on numerous social media outlets (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015, p. 51). The company needs to emphasise on building good relationships with the main influencers who are the online users that create the most content about the company and providing them with information and feedback as required. Communication theory is a branch of knowledge involved in the principles and ways through which messages and information is relayed. One of the theories is the mass richness theory. This theory states that the media has the capability to relay the needed information and messages to the public (Fotner, 2006. 171). This is the capacity to disseminate information depends on whether the period of the public accessing this information is equal and certain. This theory was proposed by Daft and Lengel. This theory is also called the information richness theory. This theory suggests that the richness of the media depends on several factors. These are; immediacy of feedback, variety of the language carried and the conveyance of the message.

Conclusion

The company strategic communication plan should build consistency in the message or information that is important for the maintenance of its public image and reputation. There is the need to ensure that the entire correspondence going out to the media contains the same message and the workforces, and managerial staff needs to understand the information the company is disseminating.

Element B – Press Release

Reassurance to Our customers on the security of their Personal Data

Following, the recent confidentiality breach, the company wishes to inform all its users that stringent measures have now been put it place to prevent similar incidences in the future. In August 2015 in which more than 60 gigabytes of our company’s data was hacked and released to the public including personal information of the users such as names, addresses, homes, credit card records and search history among others. The mass release of customer records has not only significantly impacted on the lives of our customers but as also affected the reputation of the company.

One of the possible loopholes that may have been exploited by the criminal hackers is Ashley Madison’s policy of keeping the personal information and data of its users. In addition, there were a number of security loopholes on the company’s sites which may also been exploited easily by hackers. However, the company has implemented a number of steps have been to secure and protect all forms of customer confidential information. Given the nature of this kind of business, Ashley Madison understands that the protection of the privacy of our customers particularly the transaction and credit card details and names and addresses is of utmost importance.

The major step that has been taken by Ashley Madison Agency to avoid similar breaches is designing and developing a new encryption and key management system to ensure that the customer information stored in the company data base is only accessible through the use of encryption keys. Additionally, all sites belonging to Ashley Madison Agency have been secured and all unauthorized access points have been closed On the other hand, data-splitting technologies are also currently being employed to ensure that all the personal information of any client is not stored in one location. For example, credit card information will now be stored separately from the other information like names and addresses.

Similarly, new policies have been introduced for our employees to ensure that they do not engage in acts that may compromise the security of client personal data. The company needs to emphasize on building good relationships with the main influencers who are the online users that create the most content about the company and providing them with information and feedback as required. This will help to further augment awareness, provide access, ensure confidentiality, establish transparency, increase engagement and reinforce credibility. Finally, the company is in the process of building good relationships with the main influencers who are the online users that create the most content about the company and providing them with information and feedback as required.