Put all your eggs in one basket!

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” -Brian Tracy-

What makes a good communicator? Or a bad communicator? In the business world, good communication is important for the daily operation of the company, but can also be dangerous for the sales and, therefore, for the company’s future. So, if communication is important, a good communication is vital. Many companies put all your eggs in one basket and try to reach their costumer through innovative and strange form of communication.

 One of the companies that makes a good communication is ENI. Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational company headquartered in Rome. It is the Italian largest

industrial company and works in 79 countries. “ENI” stands for “Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi” (national hydrocarbons authority) and the company has operations in a large number of fields including nuclear power, energy, chemical and plastic ecc… Eni has built a company website that led the company to win a prize for the most effective online company communication. And, how to build the most effective company website? Through two strengths: consistency and usability. Furthermore, Eni won a double gold medal in reward to being the best society in the world for innovation of the digital web and for communication. But, what does mean innovation of the digital and of the communication techniques on the own website? “It is necessary a strong commitment and a bright management who understands the importance of the communication and the digital contents” says Roberto Ferrari, Eni web and Digital Communications Manager. Another Eni winning strategy regards the social networks. The company doesn’t enter into a social network just for the fun of it, but it tries to identify it and take advantage from it. For instance, the company uses Linkedin for recruitment, Twitter for news, Facebbok for a page reserved to the culture. For all these aspects, we can say that Eni is a good communicator company.

 But, what about a bad communicator? What happens when a company adopts a wrong method to communicate his identity? That’s the Mc Donald’s case. Recently, in

Italy, the company carried out a tv advertisement that raised not a few polemics. It decided to build a campaign that aimed not so much to clean up the sandwiches and chips image, as to emphasize the role that a company with 16,000 employees (in Italy) plays in the economy of a country. The logic is simple: job is a very high social sensitivity issue. Focus on this and you will be able to change the public view on the fast food chain. Not at all. The company was accused to manipulate such an important theme to take advantage from it. So, this campaign wasn’t a big success, it was a boomerang, indeed. It 's the price you pay when trying to exploit highly sensitive social issues to promote the corporate image. Should be evaluated the pros and cons. The problem is that too often the cons weigh significantly more than pros. In that case, forget about it! Change your strategy! So, if you want to communicate, do it well! Very well!

Cecilia