It's just internal marketing...

Hmm, maybe so. About five years ago I gave a presentation at an academic seminar on part of my research on communication during organisational change. A fellow academic from the Marketing Department, came up to me, complimented me on the work and then said - "but you know, change communication is just internal marketing". I smiled, nodded politely, and walked away rolling my eyeballs.You see, in previous lives I had worked in marketing. I started off in radio and television, worked in small advertising agencies, and then worked in roles marketing professional services and then veterinary pharmaceuticals. Didn't have any formal qualifications in it, but I *knew* marketing in the real world. Not this academic mumbo jumbo.  There was no way you could tell me that the wonderfully complex world of communication during change that I had studiously slaved over for  24/7 for four years could be reduced to an internal marketing campaign. Humph.Ah, the umbrage of ignorance. You see, in the last year or so, I have re- immersed in marketing comms through the thought leadership provided by those I follow on Twitter (eg James Duthie's Online Marketing Banter, Gavin Heaton's Servant of Chaos,  Anne Sorensen's Marketingisus Trevor Young's PR Warrior. And that deeper immersion has taught me great marketing is as wonderfully complex as great change communications. Perhaps the offence I took at the statement, was a reflection of my lack of knowledge of great marketing.Here's what I'm thinking now in terms of the similarities between great change communication and marketing. Both:

• Address an act of consumption (product, service, message, new organisational practice)
• Start with a comprehensive stakeholder analysis (who is the purchaser, user, audience we are addressing)
• Are concerned with identifying influencers and engaging their participation
• Use multiple media/ channels to introduce the new (product, service, message, organisational practice)
• Respond immediately to feedback that indicates difficulty accepting the new product/process/service/practice
• Engage the consumers / employees on a continuous basis to provide feedback back to the organisation on product / service/ process/ structure redesign
• Treat the consumers / employees as partners in the future of the organisation and focus on the relationship development and maintenance
• Understand that focusing on control is a quick path to cynicism about the message content
• Can go ridiculously pear shaped regardless of the composition of the team delivering the campaign/ programme and the preparation that has been done!
• Understand that small conversations is the key to successful adoption of the new idea/ product/practice

And on that last point, some of you may not yet have seen the model that ParkYoung put forward last week.I've challenged them on bottom up communication being in the final Conversation model, (I think it should be symmetrical communication for a real conversation). It maps pretty nicely to change communication approaches too...where would your organisation fit?Truthfully, I feel a bit of a dill writing this. It's probably a no brainer for many of you. I've always prided myself on my interdisciplinary thinking, yet clearly have gotten very siloed with experience. Must look at that. I'm starting by re-reading Everett Roger's Diffusion of Innovation. I used it a lot in my change management research, but some-how missed it has been used just as widely by marketing studies. So, my question to you is "what discipline are you shunning or dismissing, that could provide some insight to a challenge your are facing within your work as a change communicator?"