Crisis Case Study Presentation

Running head: Communication Assessment Project (CAP) 1

Communication Assessment Project (CAP) 21

Communication Assessment Project

[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Communication Assessment Project (CAP)

Communication Vehicle and Business Objectives

Total is a company whose origins are present back in the creation of the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP), or the "French Petroleum Company". The main objective of the company is to become a responsible energy major. From this statement, they meant to provide clean, affordable, and reliable energy. The communication vehicle or campaigns by this company are external and targeting the investors and potential customers. The news media includes press releases, latest news about the company, and special features of Total. They also have a media library that consists of online and download media. Furthermore, in the same media section, we can autobiographies, calendars, and social media, publications, and press contacts. All these elements which are present under the media section are aimed at providing information related to the company to the investors, shareholders, and customers.

Figure 1 The media segment consists of three main segments including news, media library, and others. The news column consists of press releases, latest news, and special features.

Communication objective and Rationale.

The rationale for selecting Press release and special features from the whole website from total.com is that it provides an overview of the companies' progress, it’s activities, communication with their customers, investors, and shareholders with the help of their press release.

Communication Vehicle for For Investors and Customers Comment by Nageeb Ibrahim Hassan: Please note that this whole project is about www.total.com as a COMMUNICATION VEHCLE for TOTAL What is needed is that the Meausrement methodolgoies and tools are applied practically on this the content of EVERY CATEGROY in the website: we provide an analysis, we critique the way content is presented, we benchmark the content with another company from the same industry and we provide our recommendations for improvement. PLEASE FOLLOW STRICTLY THE INSTRUCITONS PROVIDED BEFORE AND FOLLOW THE SAME EXAMPLE PROVIDED WITH THIS FILE.

Communication Objective 1: Press release

In the press release section, we can see that company provides information about the financial achievements, its achievements in the sea by finding a new source of oil, the discovery of gas in Egypt. Furthermore, their steps in merging with other companies to provide quality oil and in other countries, and selling of refineries like Lindsey. All these press releases are related to the investor's and customers' interests. The investor will be interested in investing in projects that total starts due to their credibility and success rate.

Figure 2 This segment of Press release shows information relevant to the companies performance, it shares values and assets. A similar kind of information related to the companies financial situation is present in the remaining press releases.

These press releases are also released on the social media platform Twitter.

The image above shows the hashtags #netzeroby2050, and other hashtags to keep the customers connected with their companies strategic plans. Similarly, Press release on twitter is of utmost importance as it provides the users with the information that is published on the website under the press release section. Hence, the company is using social media as a means of communication to keep the customers and followers updated.

Communication objective 2: Our special features.

The special features are targeting investors. In this section, we can see that Total company has provided information about their company, their activities in the shareholder Webinez which is possibly the monthly magazine released by the company. The company highlights the activities that happened during the month and their achievements. For instance, in the month of May 2020, online investors fair happened, total investors day was observed, 1st 2020 dividend interim report was published, shareholders meeting happened in Annecy, and Clermont Ferrand (France). It is evident from the type of news published in these sections that they are aimed at providing information to their stakeholders and investors in general. The magazine appears to serve as a channel to increase the revenue and sales of the company.

Figure 3 is observable that the calendar provides an overview of the events that happened in a month, and below is the detailed information present relevant to the events that happened in the month of May 2020.

These monthly magazines are shared with the customers and followers on the social media platform i.e. Twitter. This shows that the company is sharing information about the steps they are taking, for instance, the content that is being posted on Twitter is user interactive. The company twitter handler post questions, share an update on how workers are working in the rough climatic situations, and many more. Hence, the main objective of the magazine and sharing the information relevant to it is the main objective of the company so that it can build a strong relationship with its customers. In his book (Paine, 2013), it is stated that good relationships with the customers are the basics to gain more profit, if good relationships are not present than the company might go in the loss within few months.

Internal Audience:

Communication Objective 3: Employees Safety

Employees are considered the strength of the company. The company owns more than 100,000 employees who are working in 150+ countries across the globe. Their staff is based on technical and marketing teams. In the companies opinion, the ambition of Total is to become the energy major, and it would not be possible they don’t create conditions for their employees to develop their potentials and express themselves.

According to Paine (2011), it is important to evaluate the employee on a continuous basis to know about their thoughts related to the company, their attitude and behavior towards the company are closely tied with the sales and profit. If the organization is dedicated to providing a supportive and productive environment to its employees it means that are honest with the companies goal (p. 149). For this purpose, the company has launched an industrial headset with the help of TOTAL’s technicians and engineers to overcome the communication gap that they were facing from employees. This helmet will enable them to diagnose the maintenance or operational issues with the help of an operator.

Audience Analysis

Investors:

Investors are those individuals or companies that allocate their capital in another company with an expectation of getting profit in the future. Under the investor's section, the company has provided detailed information that can be useful for them. the facts and figures that attract the investors towards the company are provided on the website which includes, it’s Wolrd’s no.2 liquified natural gas operator, produces 3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, invested in low carbon electricity about $1.5-2.0 billion, and top 10 global refiners and petroleum manufacturer.

Another piece of information present on the website is the presentation for investors. The main components of the presentations are present in the screenshot below:

The action plan provided by the company clearly states the problems that they have faced in the year and resiliency shown by them. Furthermore, they have provided information about the HSE, delivery, cash, and cost of their operations. In the last part of the presentation, it can be seen that the information related to the capital investment by the investors is provided by the company. Their investment is based on the calculation of long term returns and reduced financial risks. According to a research study (Jansson & Biel, 2011), private investors are influenced by the long term returns while institutional investors are motivated to reduce financial risks. Hence, the information provided by the company is enough for the investors to determine whether they should invest or not in a known world refinery.

Shareholders:

In a similar tab of investors, the information relevant to shareholders is present.

The number of shares that are owned by institutional investors and individual shareholders and geographic breakdown is shown on the website in this way:

Furthermore, they have identified the shareholders by type and area. It is apparent that the institutional shareholders are 86.9%, individual shareholders are 7.8% and group employees are 5.3%. Similarly, the highest portion of shareholders belonged from North America 34.9%, France 27.2%, Europe 16.7%, United Kingdom 12.3%, and Rest of the world 8.9%.

General Audience/ Employees

It is observable on the Twitter accounts of the TOTAL company provide information that they are looking for the safety of their workers, they provide information that their workers are working in extreme conditions with complete safety kits, hence gaining more attention and appraisal from the customers and followers on their work. Furthermore, the general public gets to know through social media accounts and website about the products and policies of the company.

Benchmarks

Internal Benchmark

 Internal benchmarking is a process in which an organization or a company analyzes its own business and practices to determine the best methodology to complete the job in a more efficient manner. The purpose of the internal benchmark is to determine the best practice they can utilize to complete a specific task with minimum resources and efforts (Freytag & Hollensen, 2001).

The internal benchmark that the company has set to achieve by the year 2050 needs to be based on increased followers and loyal customers. According to Paine (2013), if the customers are loyal they will defend you in crises or in the wake of any scandal that can affect the company badly. These loyal customers are essential for any company so that they can show a positive aspect of the country, and influence those who are around them. These customers are considered as assets of the company, hence, it is important to develop a strong and positive relationship with them. Relationships with customers can only be improved by developing a strong means of communication. The present state of means of communication is weak while analyzing different social media platforms. The analysis and observation show that Instagram and youtube are the social media channels of the company that are viewed more than Instagram and Facebook. This is apparently present due to limited interaction from the company from other platforms. Hence, the company needs to follow trends like posting questions, posting interactive material, images, and videos that tell the customers more about their innovative products and technologies. This will not only increase customer's interest in the companies products but also it will purchase it due to constant marketing.

External Benchmark

External Benchmarking is observed when an organization compares its performances with other compatible organizations. The number of organizational employees is higher in TOTAL. On the other hand, the valuation of Total is less than Shell which 102.5b and 118.4b respectively. Revenue of total is less than shell which is 2x times more than TOTAL (Anonymous, 2020). Furthermore, the usage of social media accounts is good as compared to other companies like a shell. The company needs to improve its number of followers because the shell is having more followers, more interactive advertisements. To achieve its external benchmark, TOTAL needs to consider shell as the main competitor in the industry from a communication perspective. This goal will lead to an improvement in the communication process, and relationship with the customers, investors, and stakeholders.

Key Performance Indicators

The key performance metrics are discussed as follows:

Objective 1: Increase awareness about the projects and policies of the company among the investors, customers, and stakeholders through twitter.

	KPI’s	Measurement Tools
Output KPI’s	>usability of the press release and monthly magazine by potential customers, investors, and stakeholders	Survey
Attitudinal	Awareness of steps or initiatives taken by the company to the customers and to the world in general.	Survey
Behavioral	· Increase in the click rate on the press release. · Most clicked anoucements · Most clicked news. · Click the rate in the items under the media segment.	Mail Chimp Native reporting Tool

Objective 2: Increase communication with customers across the globe through Instagram Twitter and Facebook.

	KPI’s	Measurement Tools
Output KPI’s	· Increase in a number of followers likes and retweets on social media account.	Number of followers and retweet number can be measured with the help of socialbakers.com
Attitudinal	· Awareness of new products and services.	Survey
Behavioral	· Retweet or comments on the posts, posted by the organization's social media department.	Analysis of the content replied in social media posts.

Objective 3: Increasing the visibility of the brand against the competitor. In the case of the TOTAL company, Shell is considered as the competitor because their communication strategy is 5x times stronger than TOTAL. According to Paine (2013), “one strategy would be to raise visibility to get your brand name out more prominently than the competition”. Hence, this strategy might appear helpful in improving brand visibility.

	KPI’s	Measurement Tools
Output KPI’s	· Raise the visibility of brands name against competitors. Using hashtag #Total while making a new tweet. Development of campaigns, quizzes, and polls using the hashtag.	Comparison of followers and interaction can be measured from socialbakers.com
Attitudinal	· More interaction on social media and strong marketing strategy	Survey
Behavioral	· People will like TOTAL more than Shell	SocialBakers.com features will enable us to perform the comparison of likes between two companies on different social media platforms.

Measurement Tools and Key Data

To analyze all these key metrics the measurement tool that will be developed for this project will be named TOTAl analysis.

The number of clicks on the Website: The tool consists of three main variables to determine the number of clicks on the webpage. The number of visitors who visited the website will be mentioned in the last part of the website so that new users can know the influence of the company in the world. Furthermore, the number of clicks in the media segment which is further categorized into three segments will be analyzed. It will be noticed in which content users are more interested. For instance, they are accessing the monthly magazine more or the press releases on a daily basis more. Furthermore, links from social media platforms that are directed towards the company website can determine how much traffic is coming from social media accounts. For instance, if the company has updated status about the technology where they have developed safety helmets, the link for the webpage is shared only on twitter will let them know how much traffic is coming from twitter towards their website.

Number of Likes on Social Media Platforms.

Since the company is present on different social media platforms. The number of likes, retweets, and comments will determine which content is more liked by the people. For instance, it is certain that people will appraise the policy of the company to ensure the worker's safety, they show more interest in the news where the company posts guess questions (like they have posted a question related to new world record made by a ship) and images that show information or content related to their company. Moreover, the interest of the customers can be determined by the number of likes, retweets, and interactions with the post can determine which type of post has influenced the targeted audience. In this way, the company will get to know more about the external audience, their behaviors, and attitude towards the company policies, behaviors, and goals.

Survey:

By initiating the question/ answer segment or by creating a short poll on their social media account, or by creating a survey and sharing the survey via email to the target audience, the company can understand the behavior and attitude of their customers. The company can understand what the customers are expecting from them, in which products or services they are more interested and their satisfaction with the use of the product and services currently offered by the company.

Analysis and Recommendations

Social media is a platform that has gained a lot of attention from both individuals and companies interacting on the networking site. These social media platforms like Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook have created a huge international e-Business, E-learning, and e-management and motivation on the communication platform with the end customers. The traditional medium of communication was not giving direct communication with the end customers. According to a research study by Carlsson (2010, social media platforms are changing the traditional marketing communication process. The way traditional brand communication was occurring is changed. Previously brand marketing managers were controlling the marketing campaigns now the end-user has shaped the marketing strategy where their likes and dislikes are considered more important than other factors. According to a research study by Brown (2010), social media allows companies and brands to provide quick responses to customers on their issues, improve their customer help services, and look after their complaints. It also facilitates the process of sharing content rapidly and provides quick changes in interaction with the end customer (Palmer & Lewis, 2009). Social media communication is considered as fast, viral, widespread, and a low cost way to share content (Miller, Fabian, and Lin, 2009).

By analyzing the strategies and data obtained from research and analysis of the company website, it is evident that the number of followers that the company has is much more than any other company but they are 5x times less than shells. The company needs to improve its communication strategy, marketing strategy so that people get to know more aware of the company projects, their products, and their goals. The limited number of followers results in a limited number of tweets and the spread of the message. The company must develop a strategy to increase its social media influence so that they get some good investors and customers in the future.

There are many countries in which their product are not famous as compared to Shell. The real competitor that TOTAL must consider should be Shell. There are many metrics and data that shows that Shell is doing far better than the TOTAL in terms of communication with the external audience.

The KPI measurement will enable the company to develop better internal and external benchmarks. On the basis of data, it is analyzed that the companies' external audience needs more attention, the press releases, or media campaigns that they are running are not reaching maximum people. Furthermore, the company needs to focus on its employees so that a positive, and safe environment can develop for them and increases the job satisfaction level of the employees. According to Paine (2013), a strong relationship with customers higher will be brand loyalty. Hence, by improving relationships with customers, the company can achieve great outcomes.

References:

Anonymous. (2020). Total Competitors. Craft. Retrieved 6 August 2020, from https://craft.co/total/competitors?competitors=total%2Cshell%2Cbp-british-petroleum%2Comv-group%2Cair-liquide%2Cmol-group.

Brown, C. H. (2010). 101 ways to promote your brand with social media marketing. Retrieved from http://webmarketing-coach.com

Carlsson, L. (2010). Marketing and Communications in Social Media: Fruitful Dialogue, Stronger Brand, Increased Sales (1st ed.). Gothenburg: Kreafon

Freytag, P., & Hollensen, S. (2001). The process of benchmarking, benchlearning and benchaction. The TQM Magazine, 13(1), 25-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780110360624

Jansson, M., & Biel, A. (2011). Motives to engage in sustainable investment: a comparison between institutional and private investors. Sustainable Development, 19(2), 135-142. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.512

Miller, K. D., Fabian, F., & Lin, S. J. (2009). Strategies for online communities. Strategic Management Journal, 30(3), 305-322.

Paine, K. (2013). Measure what matters (1st ed., pp. 31-37). Wiley.

Palmer, A., & Lewis, K. N. (2009). An experiential, social network-based approach to direct marketing. International Journal of Direct Marketing, 3(3), 162-176.