Conference 7.286::digital

3775.0. ""Whatever It Takes" survey results" by CONSLT::OWEN (Stop Global Whining) Thu Mar 30 1995 13:05

From:	NEMTS::NEMTS::MRGATE::"SALES::A1::ADVERTISING" 30-MAR-1995 11:09:57.06
To:	@Distribution_List
CC:	
Subj:	Whatever It Takes Mission Critical Attitude Survey                     2

From:	NAME: Corporate Advertising         
	FUNC:                                 
	TEL:                                  <ADVERTISING AT A1 at SALES at AKO>
To:     See Below

From  Communications Readiness Team  A1: SUCCESS @AKO
      
  Whatever It Takes Mission Critical Attitude Survey
  
  
  Thank you for taking the time to participate in the recent Whatever It 
  Takes Mission Critical Attitude survey.
  
  The survey team has analyzed your feedback and we are now in the 
  process of relaying the results to Corporate, Business Unit and 
  Functional Communications Managers.  Attached is a copy of the 
  Executive summary for your information.
  
  As a result of your feedback, we are reviewing our communications plan 
  and intend to address your major suggestions and concerns.  We 
  appreciate your honesty and willingness to work with us to enhance 
  Digital's internal and external communications.
  
  
  Regards
  
  Communications Readiness Team

 
 
               Whatever It Takes Mission Critical Attitude
 
 
                   Employee Survey - Executive Summary
                                    
 
 
 FOREWORD
 _______________________________________________________________________
 During the month of October 1994, Digital introduced its new brand 
 advertising campaign developed by DDB Needham.  DDB Needham recommended 
 that the new branding campaign also be incorporated into Digital's 
 "change management process".  The internal roll-out plan was segmented 
 into three phases; awareness, understanding and internalization.  
 During the first phase, U.S. employees were informed by; DVN, manager 
 communication kits, external advertising and articles published in 
 internal publications.   Before proceeding the Communications Readiness 
 Team decided to measure the level of exposure and awareness that 
 reached the U.S. employee population.  A survey was developed to 
 furnish the necessary feedback required to measure their communication 
 efforts.  The survey also incorporated questions about the new brand 
 advertising campaign.
 
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 _______________________________________________________________________
 A one week electronic survey began January 20, 1995, using Digital's 
 Videotex (VTX) application and Worldwide WEB. The survey included ten 
 close ended and one open ended questions.   Four-thousand one hundred 
 and twenty-one U.S. employees (thirteen percent)  were randomly 
 selected to participate, and were invited to take the survey by 
 Reader's Choice.
 
 Twenty-five percent or one-thousand and fourteen employees chose to 
 participate in the survey, with the response distribution across 
 divisions, functions, managers and individual contributors received as 
 expected.
 
 Questions Regarding the "Whatever It Takes Mission Critical Attitude":
 ______________________________________________________________________
 When surveyed regarding the level of awareness of the participants:
 - thirty-five percent had minimal or no awareness
 - sixty-five percent with measurable awareness  
 - Employees who were not aware, skipped over the remaining "Whatever It 
   Takes Mission Critical Attitude" questions.
 
 When participants were asked which communication vehicles aided in 
 their awareness:
 - the leading vehicle was Digital Today followed closely by Livewire 
 - Other vehicles listed were: Digital Leader, External Publication, 
   Manager Presentation, Employee, DVN, Selling News, or Other, all 
   remaining results ranging between nine and twenty-three percent.
 
 When employees were questioned about the level of clarity in the 
 communications, a normal distribution resulted.  When correlating the 
 awareness, clarity and the media channels, participants who received 
 their information from external publications reported the highest 
 awareness,  with management presentations and Digital Today following 
 closely behind.  Clarity of communications was highest among those who 
 received their information from management presentations, Digital Today 
 or DVN. 
 
 Participants were asked to rank from highest to lowest whom they 
 believed the attitude was directed.  Fifty-nine percent of the people 
 who were aware, felt that it was most directed at Digital's customers. 
  
 Participants were asked to define what the Whatever It Takes Mission 
 Critical Attitude meant to them.  Eighty percent of the employees felt 
 that it was defined equally as: Digital's public image, Digital's 
 advertising campaign, employee commitment and their promise.  
 
 Questions Regarding Digital Brand Advertising Campaign:
 ______________________________________________________________________
 When surveyed regarding the level of brand advertising awareness:
 - twenty-six percent had minimal or no awareness 
 - seventy-four percent with measurable awareness 
 - Participants who were not aware, skipped over the remaining Digital 
   Brand Advertising questions.
 
 When participants were asked which communication vehicles aided in 
 their awareness of the advertising campaign:
 - the leading vehicle was internal communications followed by 
   television  
 - Other vehicles listed include: External Publications, Employee, or 
   Other with all remaining results ranging between fourteen and 
   forty-seven percent.
 
 Participants who were aware of the Digital Brand Advertising Campaign, 
 were asked whether it created a positive image of Digital.  
 Overwhelmingly the response was yes with seventy-six percent.   When 
 correlating the campaign with the media and image, participants who 
 selected the external publication media were the most aware of the 
 brand and were positive about the image.  Internal communications and 
 television followed in the awareness category, with internal 
 communications following in the image category.
 
 Open Ended Comment Question:
 ______________________________________________________________________
 - Seven hundred employees provided feedback for the Whatever It Takes 
   Readiness Team.  
 - An overwhelming theme throughout the hundreds of comments received 
   regarded the lack of ability to implement because of resource 
   constraints and bureaucratic systems.  
 - It was a common opinion that Digital had a lot to do internally 
   before making the promise to its customers.  
 - Some employees believed the campaign should still be rolled out 
   externally.  
 - Another theme dealt with leading by example and demonstration 
   results. 
 
 In the area of communications:
 - Employees felt that publishing success stories and demonstrative 
   examples would help them internalize and understand what the promise 
   means.   
 - Participants felt positive that Digital began advertising, but had a 
   mixed review for the campaign (that is, did not like or understand 
   message or format).  
 - Employees encouraged the use of a reward and recognition program, 
   posters, buttons, coffee mugs, etc. in support of and to encourage 
   the attitude.   
 - The feeling of being overloaded with paper and electronic 
   communication was also expressed.  Employees felt that mandatory 
   management presentations would   be one way to focus on the attitude.
 
 
 
 							February 1995
 
Distribution:
This message was delivered to you utilizing the Readers Choice delivery
services.  If you have questions regarding this message, please contact
the author(s) of the memo.

    	I'm speechless. The Whatever It Takes readiness team? What's next,
    the Whatever It Takes program office with a multi-million dollar
    budget? I used to think that this company should come to me if they
    were looking for new and creative ways to waste lots of money, but it's
    now clear to me that they've found someone considerably more qualified
    than me to do this.

RE: .1

	Yea Steve, he's already a VP.. :-)  VP of Whatever it Takes.

						mike

Whatever It Takes To Justify Our Existence.

;-)

Are these the people that produced the recent content-free "hello" guidelines?

Paul

    The phone guidelines are from the Brand Communications Group...
    the same folks that experimented heavily with Alpha logos and
    the "AXP" suffix.  They've moved on. 

> They've moved on. 

  One can only hope they keep moving until they get to, say, H/P.

                                   Atlant

    ...in the Siberia office, if we're lucky.

    
    Hi - cease fire.  The survey was done to evaluate a few things as we
    conducted the Corporate Advertising campaign, including evaluating how
    people found out about the campaign, awareness levels, and some sensing
    on employee reactions/understanding.  A summary of results was sent to
    participants - a good practice IMHO.  Customer research is also
    underway.  While we do listen and participate in this notes file, not
    everyone does, so some survey work was needed.  It was not a big deal
    in time or cost, as I recall a ready made VTX system was used, but of
    course I was not surveyed on my awareness of the campaign. :^)  
                                                  

    
    	Why do I think several of them have landed prominent roles in the
    SBU? Maybe because it's the *most* clueless...
    
    		the Greyhawk
    
    		(getting in his Friday PM dig before heading for two days
    	         of non-Digital)
    
    	

Bill:

> -< "Time to cease fire" >-

  The problem, Bill, is that appearances count. And a team named
  the "Whatever It Takes Program Team" or some such would strike
  a number of us as a mite too silly to believe, when there are
  clearly not enough warm bodies on the front lines, at the ar-
  tillery, or anywhere else in this corporation to succesfully
  execute our mission.

  (One exception: The General Staff still seems to have lots of
  warm bodies.  Except that they seem to be unable to perform
  their one critical duty: to advise us of what the mission
  really is, and design strategy and tactics to accomplish it.)

  A much-lower-level analogy is the fact the the MRO1/2 site just
  spread what must be several thousands of dollars in bark mulch.
  It's beautiful, no doubt, and it would certainly impress a
  prospective buyer, but was that the message the Corporation
  wanted to deliver? When the troops are starving for equipment?

  It ain't just paid advertising that delivers messages! And
  a Pythonesque "Task Force for Doing Whatever It Takes to Do
  Whatever It Is That Needs Doing So That We Can Say It Got Done"
  seems to be one of those unintended messages.

                                   Atlant

    I'm going to jump in on the side of the survey takers. They collected
    data intended to evaluate a specific, risky new venture then made sure
    they followed-up directly with the takers of the survey. They completed
    the job. Much better than other teams sponsoring several other surveys-
    -with-silly-names that I've responded to in the last few years.
    
    Who cares if they dressed up in clown suits and named themselves High
    Poobahs of Frumpenstein? They did what they said they were going to do.

    
    And, it caught two of my personal hot buttons:
    
 - It was a common opinion that Digital had a lot to do internally 
   before making the promise to its customers.  
    
 - Another theme dealt with leading by example and demonstration 
   results.
    

I stumbled over this topic right now. While it seems somewhat late for a reply,
here I go:

The Communications Readyness Team should be made aware of the fact that numbers
(except small ones or "round" ones, like 1000) can be much better communicated
if expressed in digits rather than words. While it's interesting that
"sixty-five percent" of "Four-thousand one hundred and twenty-one U.S.
employees" have measurable awareness of the campaign, it would be much easier to
read "65 % of 4121 employees".

Well, reading the base note again I detect that the sixty-five percent relate to
the one-thousand and fourteen employees who actually participated in the survey,
so that's only fifteen point ninety-nine percent of the original sample ... but
never mind.

Back in the ole days, I learnt that numbers greater than twelve are usually
expressed in digits, except for special cases like "four hundred" or "six
millions". But maybe this has changed, too...

Regards,
Hans.

PS: I see the base note has been written on 30-Mar, isn't that two days early ?
;-)