The importance of communication in organizations

Communication is the lifeblood of any organization. In the global market, excellence in effective website communication has become a priority for businesses that have web presence. The web presence has become major contributing factor to the success of countless businesses, especially if it’s well-designed, user-friendly and informative. The company website communication has become the major connection between companies and the all-important customers, upon which the success of every business relies. As Locker and Kaczmarek (2007) note, business communication fulfils a rather different function from social communication, and there are specific techniques which have to be employed in order to ensure that the communication is effective. Much of the success of a business or organization rests on its ability to communicate well with its intended audience, and Locker and Kaczmarek define this ability according to the PAIBOC principles: that is, purpose, audience, information, benefits, objections and context.

Accenture is an exemplar of a business which focuses on advertising strategy to appeal to their niche market which includes businesses and governments that want to improve their performance. Their website (http://www.accenture.com/) is an excellent marketing tool because of its effective use of rhetorical appeals, which are claims or arguments that are meant to persuade.

One of the most important objectives for developing a website is to provide ongoing communication with a clearly defined target audience (Peer, Stephen.  2001). Website Accenture also seeks to provide ongoing information to its target audience to improve sales by building an image for the services the company provides. Increasingly, this is an explicit goal for large companies with ample budgets. Another important objective for the website is to enhance a company’s corporate image and brand. Further, another purpose of the site is to think in terms of awareness, interest, trial, and repeat. These concepts are often used in marketing to explain the stages a new customer (or site visitor, in this case) goes through on the path to becoming loyal to its business.

The audience of the website is companies and governments that seek to increase their performance.

Information is the primary reason why individuals initially visit a website. Websites present consumers with information on which they base their purchase decisions. The task facing marketers is to present consumers with information that is appropriate and relevant for their specific needs (Ariely, 2000).Providing information is the basic goal of a web site (Bhatti et al., 2000). Targeted marketing efforts in this stage bring the customer closer to the product, allow the business to get to know the customer better and create opportunities to invite the customer to get involved with the product benefits. The website makes it easy for viewers to read information by breaking up text by using headlines and frequent paragraph breaks. The navigation, terminology, tone, and style is consistent throughout the site. The site has successfully avoided grammatical mistakes, typos, and misspellings that can spoil or even ruin a reader’s experience.

The benefit to the user is apparent as there is sufficient information on the services provided by Accenture and success stories that will encourage users to use Accenture’s services. The website benefits its users by providing references and/or bibliographies to support its information to counter any questions or reservations users may have about a site or the information presented. Other benefits provided to the customer include site search box order to help the customers or the users to find what they want, and locate the information that they needed in the website in short period of time. Above all, the website provides a feedback provision to know the reaction or the comments of the customers or users regarding the websites .By doing this, Accenture is able to communicate and know the needs and demands of the customers and be applied to the application and maintenance process of the website.

The website users may have some objections regarding the website which if countered could help improve user experience. User of Accenture website are not able to know which pages they’ve already visited and tend to unintentionally revisit the same pages.To reduce navigational confusion, select different colors for the two types of links. Moreover, the font size is fixed, which unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser’s “change font size” button and specify a fixed font size. This reduces readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.Respect the user’s preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms — not as an absolute number of pixels.

The website conveys a positive image of Accenture. The understanding of the site is positively affected by the positive image of the company. According to a survey taken on

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/snapshots/11019.html

on WORLD’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES, Accenture came second after IBM which took the first place. The technology used by the website is understandable. Incorporating appropriate technology is critical in website success (Kasavana, 2002). Technology, applied correctly, not only increases the visibility of a website but the usability as well (Bai et al., 2008). Further,

The Internet as a communication medium is uniquely different from other media on several dimensions, such as interactivity, control, dynamic content, and depth of content accessible to the consumer (Hoffman and Novak 1996). It can be concluded that that the site conforms with PAIboc. Perhaps some statistics about ProActiv’s success (e.g. market share) would be useful in the conclusion to show how popular the product is and to establish the connection between that success and the product. Internet advertising is done in a variety of forms, including banners, buttons, interstitials, hot corners, and portals (Hanson 2000). However, all forms of Internet advertising share the common characteristic that the consumer must initiate some action (e.g., click on a small graphic) to be exposed to the communication.