The communication audit DevCom conducted in May 2010 brought to light the results of this approach to communication:

• There was low brand awareness among LASA’s own stakeholders and in the general market.
• Existing clients had little or no connection with the LASA brand. Interaction with these stakeholders was irregular, limited to infrequent contact with selected decision-makers, and, at times, quite strained. They were also hardly aware of LASA services beyond those they were already receiving.
• A lack of measurement meant that LASA had little indication of the kind of communication required by its audiences.
• Conflicting, inconsistent, and confusing messages had led the market to associate Louis Allen with basic training, instead of high-level management and leadership development.
• LASA was losing business to competitors because it had not addressed stakeholders’ questions around the relevance of the brand and its training methodologies.
• The directors met infrequently, and employees spent more time at client premises than at LASA’s offices. As a result, there was little internal engagement with the LASA values and brand.
• Client success stories, of which there were many, were neither documented nor shared with other stakeholders.
• LASA had trained thousands of people over the years. Statistics showed that 80% of new or repeat business for Louis Allen came from alumni. Yet there was no alumni database, and no attempt to stay in touch with this group.

Based on the audit results, DevCom developed and implemented a communication strategy to help realise the company’s growth strategy. In total, we worked with LASA for 18 months.

Our strategy encompassed a variety of activities:

We started by developing verbal and visual communication messages that captured the essence of the LASA model from clients’ perspectives.
Armed with our research results, we developed a full corporate identity around LASA’s new logo and applied it consistently throughout the company using several templates.

We set up a database that not only captured clients’ information, but also indicated their relationship status (Level 1 = poor; Level 5 = excellent).
Regular and continuous contact with stakeholders had to be established. To address this need, DevCom introduced a monthly electronic newsletter to communicate success stories, industry issues, and partnership information. We also designed a new company website.
We assisted Louis Allen with a multi-site event featuring leadership guru Jack Zenger in November 2010. More than 300 new contacts were established at this event.

To help build the client’s profile, regular press releases were issued, generating editorial coverage for the first time in the current owners’ tenure.
A cornerstone of our strategy was to establish relationships with LASA alumni. To this end, we wrote up alumni success stories into hard and soft copy factsheets, which we included with the training material and other marketing documents.

Employee engagement was improved with the launch of The Insider, a bi-monthly electronic newsletter that communicated important dates, information on industry topics and trends, and partnership news with LASA employees and consultants.