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  • 16 Feb 2024
  • Research & Ideas

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

Extroverts are more likely to express their passion outwardly, giving them a leg up when it comes to raises and promotions, according to research by Jon Jachimowicz. Introverts are just as motivated and excited about their work, but show it differently. How can managers challenge their assumptions?

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  • 06 Nov 2023

Did You Hear What I Said? How to Listen Better

People who seem like they're paying attention often aren't—even when they're smiling and nodding toward the speaker. Research by Alison Wood Brooks, Hanne Collins, and colleagues reveals just how prone the mind is to wandering, and sheds light on ways to stay tuned in to the conversation.

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  • 31 Oct 2023

Checking Your Ethics: Would You Speak Up in These 3 Sticky Situations?

Would you complain about a client who verbally abuses their staff? Would you admit to cutting corners on your work? The answers aren't always clear, says David Fubini, who tackles tricky scenarios in a series of case studies and offers his advice from the field.

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  • 24 Jul 2023

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

Businesses need more staff and employees need more work, so what's standing in the way? A report by Joseph Fuller and colleagues shows how algorithms and inflexibility prevent companies from accessing valuable talent in a long-term shortage.

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  • 23 Jun 2023

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

Dutch home health care organization Buurtzorg avoids middle management positions and instead empowers its nurses to care for patients as they see fit. Tatiana Sandino and Ethan Bernstein explore how removing organizational layers and allowing employees to make decisions can boost performance.

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  • 24 Jan 2023

Passion at Work Is a Good Thing—But Only If Bosses Know How to Manage It

Does showing passion mean doing whatever it takes to get the job done? Employees and managers often disagree, says research by Jon Jachimowicz. He offers four pieces of advice for leaders who yearn for more spirit and intensity at their companies.

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  • 10 Jan 2023

How to Live Happier in 2023: Diversify Your Social Circle

People need all kinds of relationships to thrive: partners, acquaintances, colleagues, and family. Research by Michael Norton and Alison Wood Brooks offers new reasons to pick up the phone and reconnect with that old friend from home.

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  • 15 Nov 2022

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

Quirky amateur video clips might draw people to TikTok, but its algorithm keeps them watching. John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld explore the factors that helped propel TikTok ahead of established social platforms, and where it might go next.

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  • 03 Nov 2022

Feeling Separation Anxiety at Your Startup? 5 Tips to Soothe These Growing Pains

As startups mature and introduce more managers, early employees may lose the easy closeness they once had with founders. However, with transparency and healthy boundaries, entrepreneurs can help employees weather this transition and build trust, says Julia Austin.

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  • 15 Sep 2022

Looking For a Job? Some LinkedIn Connections Matter More Than Others

Debating whether to connect on LinkedIn with that more senior executive you met at that conference? You should, says new research about professional networks by Iavor Bojinov and colleagues. That person just might help you land your next job.

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  • 08 Sep 2022

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

Generation X and Millennials—eagerly waiting to succeed Baby Boom leaders—have the opportunity to bring more collaboration and purpose to business. In the book True North: Emerging Leader Edition, Bill George offers advice for the next wave of CEOs.

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  • 05 Aug 2022

Why People Crave Feedback—and Why We’re Afraid to Give It

How am I doing? Research by Francesca Gino and colleagues shows just how badly employees want to know. Is it time for managers to get over their discomfort and get the conversation going at work?

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  • 23 Jun 2022

All Those Zoom Meetings May Boost Connection and Curb Loneliness

Zoom fatigue became a thing during the height of the pandemic, but research by Amit Goldenberg shows how virtual interactions can provide a salve for isolation. What does this mean for remote and hybrid workplaces?

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  • 13 Jun 2022

Extroverts, Your Colleagues Wish You Would Just Shut Up and Listen

Extroverts may be the life of the party, but at work, they're often viewed as phony and self-centered, says research by Julian Zlatev and colleagues. Here's how extroverts can show others that they're listening, without muting themselves.

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  • 24 May 2022

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

Women and people of color tend to minimize their identities in professional situations, but highlighting who they are often forces others to check their own biases. Research by Edward Chang and colleagues.

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  • 12 May 2022

Why Digital Is a State of Mind, Not Just a Skill Set

You don't have to be a machine learning expert to manage a successful digital transformation. In fact, you only need 30 percent fluency in a handful of technical topics, say Tsedal Neeley and Paul Leonardi in their book, The Digital Mindset.

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  • 08 Feb 2022

Silos That Work: How the Pandemic Changed the Way We Collaborate

A study of 360 billion emails shows how remote work isolated teams, but also led to more intense communication within siloed groups. Will these shifts outlast the pandemic? Research by Tiona Zuzul and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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  • Cold Call Podcast

What’s Next for Nigerian Production Studio EbonyLife Media?

After more than 20 years in the media industry in the UK and Nigeria, EbonyLife Media CEO Mo Abudu is considering several strategic changes for her media company’s future. Will her mission to tell authentic African stories to the world be advanced by distributing films and TV shows direct to customers? Or should EbonyLife instead distribute its content through third-party streaming services, like Netflix? Assistant Professor Andy Wu discusses Abudu’s plans for her company in his case, EbonyLife Media. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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  • 11 Jan 2022

Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your Employees Are Not OK

Pandemic life continues to take its toll. Managers who let down their guard and acknowledge their employees' emotions can ease distress and build trust, says research by Julian Zlatev and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

short case study communication

  • 04 Jan 2022

Scrap the Big New Year's Resolutions. Make 6 Simple Changes Instead.

Self-improvement doesn't need to be painful, especially during a pandemic. Rather than set yet another gym goal, look inward, retrain your brain, and get outside, says Hirotaka Takeuchi. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

5 Internal Communication Case Studies and Best Practices To Follow

Alex Cleary

Apr 6, 2022

Internal Communications

From employee engagement to workplace culture to change management, businesses often face similar challenges to each other even if those businesses are radically different. While the specifics of these challenges may differ, how other businesses solve these challenges can give you new insights into addressing your own.

We’re always interested in how our customers use ContactMonkey to solve their internal communications challenges, which is why we publish customer case studies. Learn how other businesses solve their communication challenges and get inspiration on ways you can improve your business by using an internal communications tool .

Improve your internal communications today.

Create and track internal messages with ContactMonkey.

What is an Internal Communication Case Study?

An internal communication case study examines how a company addressed a specific problem facing their organization, or achieved a specific goal. Communication is crucial for every business, and communication challenges can manifest in all kinds of situations.

An effective internal communication case study will clearly outline the problem, solution, and result of the business’ efforts to reach their goal. An internal communication case study should also outline best practices that were developed in this process, and how those best practices serve the business going forward.

Why are internal communication case studies important?

A good internal communication case study should not only explain the circumstances around a specific business’ problems and solution. It should also help others develop new ways to approach their own internal communication challenges , and shed light on common communication pitfalls that face a majority of businesses.

Whenever you’re facing a particular communication problem at your workplace, we recommend searching out a relevant internal communication case study about businesses facing similar issues. Even though the particulars may be different, it’s always important to see how internal communications problems are solved .

Featured Resource: Internal Email Benchmark Report 2023

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How do your internal email performance metrics compare to 20 key industries? 

5 Best Internal Communications Case Studies

We put together this list of our favourite ContactMonkey case studies that best demonstrate the many problems our internal communications software can be used to solve. If you want to learn more about any of these customers and see other case studies, check out our Customers page .

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1. Mettler Toledo Saves Days on their Internal Communications with ContactMonkey

When Kate Kraley began as Mettler Toledo’s Marketing Communications Specialist, she wanted to use internal communications to increase engagement and improve communication with employees.

But Mettler Toledo —a global manufacturer of precision instruments for various industries—had a confusing and ineffective array of internal communications channels . Here’s how Kate took charge of internal communications at Mettler Toledo with ContactMonkey.

Kate came to an internal communications department tasked with reaching employees through a number of channels. Email was the main focus of their approach, but this encompassed many forms of communication based on email like employee newsletters, eNews, and quarterly email updates.

Kate wanted to improve the quality of their internal communications. She used a variety of tools to create their newsletters, including using Mailchimp and online HTML template builder. But because Mailchimp is not for internal communications , Kate and her team found themselves spending over 8 hours a week building their internal communications:

“We faced challenges with Mailchimp. Since we had to leave Outlook to use Mailchimp, we found it was double the work to maintain distribution lists in both Outlook and Mailchimp. The HTML builder in Mailchimp was also difficult to use as it didn’t work well with older versions of Outlook, compromising the layout.”

Kate also needed a way to determine whether Mettler Toledo employees were actually reading her internal communications. She used Mailchimp to track open rate, but wanted more in-depth measures of engagement. That’s when she switched to ContactMonkey.

Kate found ContactMonkey via the IABC Hub in 2018, and began testing it out. ContactMonkey’s all-in-one internal communications software removed the need to switch from tool to tool. Using our email template builder , Kate now builds visually stunning email newsletters and templates without having to navigate away from Outlook:

Email template for employees - innovative internal communication ideas

She also now has access to her own analytics dashboard . Kate analyzes numerous email metrics like open rate, click-through rate, read time, opens by device and location, and more to see which communications are driving the most engagement. With this new centralized approach, Kate knew she had found the right solution:

“Once I started using ContactMonkey, I realized I was able to save 4 hours of work a week, which translated to 25 days saved per year! ContactMonkey has helped us understand what employees are interested in!”

Save time with ContactMonkey

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2. BASF Manages Their Remote Workforce with ContactMonkey

Mark Kaplan is the Global Communications Manager at BASF’s Agricultural Group —a department of the German chemical company BASF SE. Because BASF has offices and production sites around the world, Mark coordinates with other internal communicators across the company to drive employee engagement.

With the success of any business comes new challenges, and BASF isn’t any different. While Mark knew he had to keep others informed of the latest news from the BASF Agricultural Group, he was aware employees would be receiving news from other parts of the company as well.

With many different departments sending their own internal communications, Mark faced a difficult task: keeping employees engaged while being careful not to overwhelm them with countless emails and updates.

“We try to be very strategic with what we’re sending out because people are already getting a lot.”

Not only did Mark have to find a solution that made his email communications more engaging, but he also had to prove the value of whatever solution he chose to management. How could Mark show that he was increasing employee engagement while avoiding tuning out from oversaturation?

Mark began using ContactMonkey to create better internal communications for BASF employees. Using our drag-and-drop email template builder, he designs emails that maximized communication and minimized distractions, keeping information to just what his recipients needed to know.

Mark uses ContactMonkey’s email template library to save time on his email design process. He also uses the easy drag-and-drop format of the email template builder to add multimedia into his email communications to save space and increase their effectiveness:

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Mark uses the email analytics provided by ContactMonkey to determine the best times to send internal emails . Not only does email analytics help Mark increase engagement on his employee emails, but he now has hard data he can show management to prove the value of his internal communications.

“ContactMonkey has been great in that I can download a report, attach it to an email, and send it to our top leadership and say, ‘Oh, wow. 88% of the organization opened this in the last 24 hours, I think we should do more of this.’ It’s that little extra credibility.”

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3. Alnylam Drives Remote Employee Engagement Using ContactMonkey

Employee engagement is crucial for ongoing productivity and growth, and Alnylam’s Brendon Pires wanted to leverage their internal communications to increase engagement.

Brendon is an internal communications specialist at Alnylam —the world’s leading RNAi therapeutics company—and is tasked with keeping their 2000+ employees engaged and informed. But Brendon’s existing internal communications process was leading to issues all over the place.

Like many companies, Alnylam shifted to remote work when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Brendon knew that employees would be relying on his emails to stay up-to-date on the latest company news and announcements, but their existing internal communications tool wasn’t up to the task:

  • Scheduled emails were prevented from being sent out.
  • Email design was a chore with a difficult-to-use email builder.
  • Intranet traffic was down and Brendon’s emails weren’t driving traffic to it.
  • Email tracking was limited as many internal emails were being flagged by their tracking software’s firewall.

“We were having consistent issues and it had been going on for like a couple of months. It was one issue after the other, between emails not sending because they were getting caught in our firewall, and then tracking not being consistent. So at the end of the day it was kind of like that’s really important, you know? Obviously if I can’t send that email that’s a problem. So that’s what really drove us to look at other solutions like ContactMonkey”

Brendon and Alnylam use Outlook for their employee emails, so he began looking for alternatives to his current software. That’s when Brendon found ContactMonkey.

Right away Brendon had a much easier time creating internal emails using our email template builder. He can create stellar internal emails and email templates that drive more engagement.

Brendon also uses ContactMonkey’s embedded star ratings to let Alnylam employees rate the emails they’re receiving. This helps Brendon and his team zero-in on their most engaging email content. He also uses our email analytics to measure engagement via open rate and click-through rate. He maximizes his results on these metrics by using ContactMonkey’s scheduled email sending:

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Using ContactMonkey, Brendon was able to increase email engagement and drive traffic to Alnylam’s internal intranet . He now sends emails without worry of encountering sending errors that can hinder engagement—like Outlook not rendering HTML emails .

“ContactMonkey is really easy to use and allows me to create really nice content. There’s enough customization so we can do what we really want and have some creative freedom.”

4. Travel Counsellors Ltd. Stays Connected with Remote Employees Using ContactMonkey

In an economy deeply impacted by COVID-19, countless companies had to adapt to new challenges. As Community Manager at Travel Counsellors , Dave Purcell experienced firsthand the effects on morale and engagement his over 1,900 partners experienced as result of the quarantine and resulting societal changes.

Dave wanted to regularly check-in on Travel Counsellors franchisees’ wellbeing, and measure their engagement over time. But Dave’s current method of checking-in on an audience of over 1,900 was not up to the task.

Using their existing email software, Dave encountered all sorts of problems when trying to gauge wellness and drive email engagement. He and his team were unable to create personalized internal communications , as they were told it just wasn’t possible with their existing “solution”. They also experienced numerous tracking issues, as they were receiving tracking numbers that didn’t make any sense.

“The stats we had previously were unusable and that’s the easiest way I can put it. I was getting 200% open rates, which was just impossible.”

Realizing that email tracking and personalization were must-have features for him and his team, Dave sought a new email software that could deliver what he was looking for.

With the aim of sending personalized emails and tracking wellness in his organization, Dave was immediately impressed by ContactMonkey. “I stumbled across ContactMonkey, and everything just screamed: ‘This is the right platform for us’. It’s pretty fantastic.”

Dave uses ContactMonkey’s merge tags to create personalized subject lines and body copy based on the recipient:

Adding merge tags to a subject line for an email being sent in Gmail using ContactMonkey.

He also began using emoji reactions on his weekly employee newsletters , using them as a pulse check survey for his audience.

“Mindset and wellbeing have always been a big part of what we do. It’s even more so now. Our franchisees craved that personal interaction. ‘Welcome to a Brand New Week’ checks in with them on a Monday, sees how they’re feeling with emoji reactions. And we do the same on a Friday.”

In addition to customization and surveys, Dave uses our email template builder’s custom employer branding options to save time on creating his email newsletters. All of this is driven by email analytics that help Dave and his team determine which content is generating the greatest engagement.

“Our commercial team is looking at what people are engaging with in terms of link clicks and what they’re not engaging with and changing our tactic depending on that. We also send an update from our CEO and we can now track this more accurately. We’re getting a 90% open rate within two days.”

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5. Exemplis Boosts Internal Communications Engagement with ContactMonkey

When Corey Kachigan arrived at Exemplis as Engagement and Communications Lead, she knew she had her work cut out for her. Exemplis—the largest volume manufacturer of office seating in North America—was experiencing rapid growth but did not have any sort of internal communications strategy . Corey knew if she wanted to properly manage Exemplis’ ongoing growth, she’d need to make internal communications an indispensable part of the business.

Before Corey arrived, Exemplis’ existing internal communications consisted only of random announcements and update emails. They had no defined approach for sending internal communications, which lead to emails that can cause employees to tune out.

“Our receptionist would email: ‘Hey, whoever left their coffee mug in the sink, please clean it and take it back to your desk.’ And it’s like, okay, that just went to 200 people.”

Corey and her team knew they had to harness their email resources better, and wanted a way to measure what employees actually wanted to see.

“We need some metrics to gauge whether this is working or not. We’re rolling out all these things, but we can’t tell if employees are even clicking these emails. Our team is inundated with hundreds of emails a day. How do we know they are reading these and how do we know they find it valuable? We have no idea.”

They also wanted to use emails to align their ever-growing employee base with Exemplis’ core values and vision. Using Mailchimp—an external marketing email tool—resulted in more problems than solutions. Corey experienced issues with importing and tracking emails within Outlook. She realized that Mailchimp is not for internal communications , and set out to find a new solution to power her employee emails.

So Corey began searching for a new email software for internal communications. Creating a definite approach to internal communications was just one priority of hers; she also wanted to prove the value of internal communications to management using hard data.

What first stood out to Corey about ContactMonkey was the crisp layout and that it worked with Exemplis’ existing Outlook system. ContactMonkey uses your company’s existing email services, and this meant Corey would no longer encounter internal email problems caused by an external tool like Mailchimp.

Corey now uses email metrics and employee feedback to inform her internal communications approach. She features pulse surveys on her internal emails, and uses the results in combination with email metrics to pinpoint what Exemplis employees want to see.

ContactMonkey eNPS survey

With ContactMonkey’s email analytics, Corey can point to real engagement data to back up her internal communications objectives.

“The thing I love about ContactMonkey is that it allows us to communicate more consistently with our team, but also be able to have the data to back it up. When we used to send out newsletters, we didn’t really have a way to see who did or didn’t open it, who clicked what and they couldn’t interact with the communication besides reply to me, which was super cumbersome.”

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Achieve Your Internal Communications Goals with ContactMonkey

Although internal communications is a common aspect of all businesses, everyone approaches it differently. Finding out the best email practices that work for your employees is a crucial step in the quest for increased engagement.

Read even one internal communication case study and you’ll see how ContactMonkey stands out among other internal communications tools. You can create, send, and track internal emails, and collect employee feedback and email metrics to develop innovative internal communication tactics . Whether you’re a seasoned internal communicator or new to the field, ContactMonkey can turn your internal communications into a powerful driver of productivity and growth at your organization.

Discover the power of modern internal comms tools.

See the benefits of ContactMonkey in about 15 minutes.

Want to see ContactMonkey in action? Book a free demo to see how our internal communications software can transform your employee emails:

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1. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?

1.4 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Communication

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions.  In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone are close to $4 billion annually! [1] Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year; if they are not properly or clearly defined, the problems remain unsolved.

You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before ( Figure 1.4.1 ); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.

Different interpretations of how to design a tree swing by different members of a team and communication failures can lead to problems during the project.

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse or a flood. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “ Comma Quirk ” in the Rogers Contract that cost $2 million. [3]   A small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million. [4]   Examine Edward Tufte’s discussion of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. [5] The failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. [6]   The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.

In small groups, examine each “case” and determine the following:

  • Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
  • Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
  • Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
  • Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. [7]

CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results

Bruce, a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and data from toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly safe and effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Bruce had since left the company, because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 2: The rejected current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more affordably, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that the new Acme regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed the potential cost savings over 3 years.

The proposals did not receive any response. Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

CASE 3: The instruction manual the scared customers away

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls

Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: Big science — Little rhetoric

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, [8] itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: The co-op student who mixed up genres

Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.

He wrote the essay first, because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.

  • J. Bernoff, "Bad writing costs business billions," Daily Beast , Oct. 16, 2016 [Online]. Available:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll ↵
  • J. Reiter, "The 'Project Cartoon' root cause," Medium, 2 July 2019. Available: https://medium.com/@thx2001r/the-project-cartoon-root-cause-5e82e404ec8a ↵
  • G. Robertson, “Comma quirk irks Rogers,” Globe and Mail , Aug. 6, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/ ↵
  • “The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business,” (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian [online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons ↵
  • E. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint , 2001 [Online]. Available: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf ↵
  • C. McFadden, "Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse," Interesting Engineering , July 4, 2017 [Online]: https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse ↵
  • T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing ↵
  • C. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York, NY: Random House, 1995. ↵

Technical Writing Essentials by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Internal Communication Case Studies: The Terrible & The Terrific

It’s a question that often comes up: ‘How do other businesses do this?’. Whether you’re implementing a new sales structure or updating your software systems, it’s always helpful to consider how similar companies approached the issue. This is particularly relevant for internal communications , where there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each organisation has its own unique set of challenges and needs to tailor its internal communication strategy accordingly. Internal communication case studies can help you evaluate your approach, by exploring comparable situations and their outcomes.

In this blog, we’ve selected some of the best internal communication examples from the world of business. Not all were successful. In fact, some were complete disasters. But these failures, along with the success stories, are great examples of internal communication in action. When you’re looking for the answers to effective internal communication , nothing speaks more clearly than real-life examples.

We have grouped the following internal communication case study examples under the ‘seven golden rules’. These rules were proposed by Fitzpatrick in his ground-breaking  publication  Internal Communications: A Manual for Practitioners. These fundamental rules of internal communication best practices help us to categorise the relative successes and failures of these examples.

Develop a robust internal comms strategy using our canvas

Rule 1: Activity means nothing without results

The starting point for every IC has to be: “What do we want people to do?” Being busy and generating a constant stream of campaigns, videos and newsletters is a waste of time if nothing changes as a result. When you’re looking at improving internal communications , always keep track of the outcome as well as the action. This is where the true significance lies.

Case Study 1 - Nationwide Building Society

Background: Nationwide Building Society ran an award-winning five-week BIG Conversation, gathering ideas from all its 18,000 employees in a company-wide collaboration. The aim was directed to reinvigorating Nationwide’s sense of purpose.

Approach: The activity included TalkBack events, online surveys and a huge listening exercise to give staff and members the chance to contribute to its future. By implementing a company-wide internal communications survey , Nationwide opened up a free-flowing conversation with its workforce.

Outcome: The result has been a refreshed strategy and a marketing campaign based on the new concept of ‘building society, nationwide’ – helping people improve the quality of their lives. This business communication case study demonstrates the power of actively listening and acting on employee’s suggestions. 

Verdict: Success

Rule 2: Value benefits the business

You will only be adding real value if your employee communication links directly to the business needs of your organisation and helps to achieve a defined strategy or a specific project. The benefits of good internal communication only become apparent when you define your desired outcomes and set actual targets.

Case Study 2 – XPO Transport and Logistics

Background: XPO wanted to leverage great ideas from its colleagues across its 104 UK sites to help its customers improve productivity and reduce costs. Its large, flexible and hard-to-reach workforce (from drivers for Asda to B&Q warehouse contractors) don’t usually have a company phone or laptop. Of all the case studies on communication in the workplace, this large-scale exercise is remarkable in its scope.

Approach: To spark engagement, Talkfreely developed the Ideas Matter App, which every employee was able to download to their personal phone. An internal communications app is the ideal way to connect with remote workers and hard-to-reach employees.

Outcome: Linked directly to business needs, the internal communications platform proved to be exceptional value. The generation of ideas has been significant; 1 in 4 of all ideas submitted are being put into practice. In addition, it showed a remarkable return on investment of 6.5:1 with £156,000 of savings in the first year alone.

Rule 3: In the thick of it

When you’re looking for new ideas, trying to work out what your employees are really thinking or wondering why a previous internal communications plan went wrong, don't sit pondering at your desk or researching online. Leave your office and start talking. Once you talk and listen to your employees, you will begin to understand what motivates them, what concerns them and how they feel about the company. Of all the internal communication ideas , this one is key if you want to keep track of engagement levels.

Case Study 3 – AOL

Background: AOL announced it was slashing its Patch local news network by a third. This was a large-scale change affecting many employees across the company and required careful handling in its communication.

Approach: CEO Tim Armstrong set up a conference call with 1,000 employees with the aim of boosting morale across the workforce. As Armstrong talked, Patch Creative Director Abel Lenz began taking pictures of him. He was immediately sacked, in front of the 1,000 staff on the conference call.

Outcome: Perhaps Armstrong did not know that Lenz’s job included photographing meetings with key leaders for the Patch intranet, for the benefit of remote workers. But he should have. If he had been in touch with his workforce, he would have been fully aware of the roles of individual employees. This employee communication case study gives a clear indication of the importance of understanding your employee’s job roles.

Verdict: Failure

Rule 4: Shut up and listen

Communicating with employees should be a two-way street. The megaphone approach is never going to work best because people only feel connected and motivated if they are part of a conversation. It’s vital to put internal communication channels in place that allow employees to comment on the messages coming down from the top. Listen to what they have to say … and learn.

Case Study 4 – PayPal

Background: The digital payment company needed to address an internal report that revealed not all their employees were not using the PayPal app. The President, David Marcus, wrote a company-wide memo to all staff regarding the problem.

Approach: David Marcus took a heavy-handed approach to the matter. He told his staff to use the product or quit: “If you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere”.

A better policy would have been to find out why his employees weren’t using the payment app, whether they felt competitor products had better features and ask for their suggestions.

Outcome: The memo was leaked to the press. It generated widespread coverage across the media and left customers wondering what was wrong with an app that PayPal’s own staff wouldn't use. Internal communications best practice case studies demonstrate that opening a two-way channel for feedback will improve both internal and external communication .

Find out how an employee engagement app can play a pivotal role in delivering an employee engagement strategy

Rule 5 – I did it their way

Understand the working methods of those you need to convince. If leaders seem bound up in stats and spreadsheets, give them what they want. Gather data to prove your ideas work, show them a process, outline a clear outcome and they’ll soon be on your side. Measuring internal communications will help to provide the rationale behind your ideas. Equally, if the types of internal communication you are using don’t seem to be connecting with your employees, don’t be afraid to try a different approach.

Case Study 5 – Seymour House

Background: Seymour House runs ten outstanding childcare nurseries and wanted to get staff across the group engaging better with each other to share great practice. They needed to identify the best methods of internal communication that would resonate with their unique team-based workforce.

Approach: Talkfreely innovated with an internal communications app called Community. Community replaces static web pages and posts with highly personalised, bite-sized chunks of information presented on boards displaying relevant cards. These communicate quick stories and are far better at connecting people across teams. 

Outcome: The Seymour House teams instantly connected with the Community app. Engagement levels took an immediate uplift as the communication and understanding between teams and individuals improved. This internal communications case study shows how crucial it is to connect with employees in a way that suits their style of interaction.

Rule 6: Make the most of managers

Your leadership team are crucial to the success of your strategy. However big or small your organisation, line managers and local leaders are your allies. They are essential to motivating employees and getting them on board: through discussion, allaying fears and leading by example. When you’re pulling together your internal communication definition , make sure leadership is one of the key points.

Case Study 6 – Yahoo

Background: The tech pioneer defined a need for remote workers return to the office environment. There was no longer a role for staff working from home and all employees needed to be office-based moving forward. The job of communicating this message was handed to the HR department.

Approach: Yahoo’s Head of HR sent out a motivational memo full of praise for the company’s “positive momentum”, “the buzz and energy in our offices”, “remarkable progress” and promising “the best is yet to come”. At the end of this message was the directive that all staff working from home must move back into the office or quit.

Outcome: A communication of this importance should have come from the head of the business. By trying to hide the order as a motivational HR message, it failed to provide a strategic business rationale. This is where the CEO needed to be a visible presence, sharing the reasoning behind this unpopular decision. Internal communication case study examples show time after time that leadership visibility is an essential element, especially when communicating change .

Rule 7: There is no silver bullet

We’d love to be able to reveal the secret to implementing that perfect internal communication strategy. Social media, the employee intranet , digital screens, email – they have all at some stage promised to revolutionise internal communications and make everything else redundant. But it hasn’t happened, which means the role of the internal communicator remains absolutely pivotal. Cut yourself slack in how you judge success, because every organisation has a different set of challenges and issues to overcome.

Case Study 7 – West Sussex County Council

Background: West Sussex Country Council has a workforce of over 6,000 staff spread across a wide geographic area in a variety of locations. In addition, around 25% of staff members have limited access to IT equipment and/or limited IT knowledge. The channels of internal communication in operation were outmoded and ineffective, leading to misinterpretation and inconsistencies.

Approach: Talkfreely developed a bespoke internal communications app designed to connect the disparate council workforce. Called ‘The Big Exchange’, the app allowed for real-time communication over a variety of digital platforms. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it allowed for flexibility in work patterns, increasing its appeal for all employees.

Outcome: By the end of the first quarter, a third of the employee base were actively using the app. In some sectors, 33% would be a pretty modest engagement score. For West Sussex Country Council however, it has connected with those hard-to-reach employees for the very first time. In addition, it proved that there is a real council workforce appetite to get involved. For example - there were 25,200 page views in the first month which means on average, each active user visited over 25 pages of content per month. Read the full case study .

“The TalkFreely app has helped improve, beyond recognition, the way we communicate with our 6000 strong workforce, many of whom are hard to reach. This has become even more evident over the last few weeks in our local response to the coronavirus crisis, helping us to get critical, time-sensitive information out to staff quickly and easily wherever they are across the county.” William Hackett, Communications & Engagement Lead, West Sussex County Council

Final thoughts

It’s clear, when looking at this selection of communication case studies, that not every internal communication is destined for success. And, if handled incorrectly, a poorly targeted message can actually do more harm than good. Internal communication mistakes are very costly, to both morale and the bottom line. However, if you take the time to plan carefully, the positive impact of a good internal communication exchange can be considerable. When assessing internal communications case studies, it’s also vital to consider the arena in which the company is operating before judging the relative success of the campaign. Ultimately, every organisation will need to take a different approach, tailored to suit their unique set of circumstances.

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Master of Advanced Studies in INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

MIC website

Case Studies in Intercultural Communication

Welcome to the MIC Case Studies page.

Case Studies Intercultural Communication

Here you will find more than fifty different case studies, developed by our former participants from the Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication. The richness of this material is that it contains real-life experiences in intercultural communication problems in various settings, such as war, family, negotiations, inter-religious conflicts, business, workplace, and others. 

Cases also include renowned organizations and global institutions, such as the United Nations, Multinationals companies, Non-Governmental Organisations, Worldwide Events, European, African, Asian and North and South America Governments and others.

Intercultural situations are characterized by encounters, mutual respect and the valorization of diversity by individuals or groups of individuals identifying with different cultures. By making the most of the cultural differences, we can improve intercultural communication in civil society, in public institutions and the business world.

How can these Case Studies help you?

These case studies were made during the classes at the Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication. Therefore, they used the most updated skills, tools, theories and best practices available.   They were created by participants working in the field of public administration; international organizations; non-governmental organizations; development and cooperation organizations; the business world (production, trade, tourism, etc.); the media; educational institutions; and religious institutions. Through these case studies, you will be able to learn through real-life stories, how practitioners apply intercultural communication skills in multicultural situations.

Why are we opening our "Treasure Chest" for you?

We believe that Intercultural Communication has a growing role in the lives of organizations, companies and governments relationship with the public, between and within organizations. There are many advanced tools available to access, analyze and practice intercultural communication at a professional level.  Moreover, professionals are demanded to have an advanced cross-cultural background or experience to deal efficiently with their environment. International organizations are requiring workers who are competent, flexible, and able to adjust and apply their skills with the tact and sensitivity that will enhance business success internationally. Intercultural communication means the sharing of information across diverse cultures and social groups, comprising individuals with distinct religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. It attempts to understand the differences in how people from a diversity of cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them. For this reason, we are sharing our knowledge chest with you, to improve and enlarge intercultural communication practice, awareness, and education.

We promise you that our case studies, which are now also yours, will delight, entertain, teach, and amaze you. It will reinforce or change the way you see intercultural communication practice, and how it can be part of your life today. Take your time to read them; you don't need to read all at once, they are rather small and very easy to read. The cases will always be here waiting for you. Therefore, we wish you an insightful and pleasant reading.

These cases represent the raw material developed by the students as part of their certification project. MIC master students are coming from all over the world and often had to write the case in a non-native language. No material can be reproduced without permission. ©   Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication , Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland.

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If you want to receive our last updated case studies or news about the program, leave us your email, and you will know in first-hand about intercultural communication education and cutting-edge research in the intercultural field.

short case study communication

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5.1: Preface: Learning with Case Studies

Learning objectives.

short case study communication

  • Identify the use of case studies in learning scenarios
  • Describe the types of case studies available for learning use

Case Studies: Definition and Uses

Case studies are detailed “stories” about a business situation that allow us to consider a number of aspects of the business world:

  • the diversity of everyday business situations we might encounter;
  • the seriousness of some of the dilemmas business professionals routinely deal with;
  • the consequences involved if a difficult situation is mishandled (if those involved do or say the wrong thing);
  • the difficulty to choose the best response in a complicated business situation (sometimes, there is no ideal solution, and we might have to choose the least damaging solution instead).

These “stories” typically provide detailed information about the business situation in question, the problem encountered, how it was approached, and to what results. They can be shorter or longer, and strictly descriptive (most cases used for training purposes in college tend to be descriptive, and students are asked to analyze them) or analytical (some academic case studies provide analysis, too, and they might also make suggestions regarding better ways to address similar situations in the future). For instance, an academic article tracing Target’s failure to operate in Canada (2013-2015) would summarize in detail the facts of the case and analyze where the company went wrong; it might also suggest what the company should have done instead to secure a place on the Canadian market.

Professionals in different fields often use case studies as part of their research into various issues of interest for their organization (for instance, when they decide to launch a new product and/or service and want to learn from other companies’ success/failure before they plan their course of action). In college/university courses, case studies are used in order to connect the course material more effectively to the types of tasks the students will have to perform at work once they graduate.

Main advantages of learning with case studies — in general and in COMM 6019 :

  • Case studies allow us to apply the theoretical knowledge we have acquired, so we can see how we can take advantage of our knowledge in everyday business situations.
  • Case studies encourage critical thinking and collaborative learning.
  • Based on what we know about professional business communication, we can use case studies to assess situations, examine options, trace a course of action for each option, and decide which might be the best. In so doing, we have to keep our focus on our goal.
  • For each case study, we should try to make suggestions that would allow those involved to reach their goal, if possible, or get as close to their initial expectations as possible.
  • people who are equally valuable in an organization might have very different leadership, management, or communication styles – and they might fail to appreciate each other for these reasons;
  • depending on our boss and coworkers’ personality, background, and preferences, different approaches must be taken to ensure success (a direct approach might work with some of them, whereas others might prefer an indirect approach; there might also be situations when certain issues should not be brought up at all in order to avoid making a bad situation worse;
  • choosing the wrong words in expressing an idea might have serious consequences for our career, even if we had the best of intentions in initiating contact with the other person(s) involved and did not mean to offend anyone.

Approaching Case Studies Analytically and Making Suggestions

Understanding the situation.

Whenever we work with a case study, we should take an analytical approach. First, we should make sure we understand the situation clearly. That includes identifying the following:

1. The problem/ issue:

What is the problem, exactly? In complex business situations, this question might not be as easy to answer as it seems. For example, there might be several problems involved, and trying to solve them all or treating them all as equally important might cause us to get lost in details and give insufficient attention to the one issue that might have the most damaging effect on our organization. In identifying the problem, we need to clearly distinguish between major concerns and peripheral aspects.

2. The context/background:

What caused the problem? Again, the answer might not be easy to formulate. There might be multiple causes, and some might have had more impact than others. Some of these causes might be out of anyone’s control: unpredictable market fluctuations due to natural disasters, etc. Others might be mistakes people made: lack of foresight in analyzing the market, communication problems, etc.

We also need to analyze the context in terms of the options available in addressing the problem. For example, the context might not allow for a certain type of approach (some obvious examples would be differences in legislation or in cultural norms between different countries).

3. The key aspects/facts of the situation:

Again, distinguishing between major and minor aspects might not be an easy task. Making this distinction might be particularly difficult for people who are directly involved in the situation. This may seem counterintuitive, but if, say, a project leader is more invested in some parts of a project than others for whatever reason, he/she might not be able to judge the key facts correctly in a crisis.

4. The decision-maker’s priorities and goal:

We need to understand exactly what the decision-maker is hoping to achieve, as well as what he/she can – realistically – achieve. We also need to understand the decision-maker’s and the company’s priorities. Caution is recommended here: the decision-maker might not be aware that there is a mismatch between the goal he/she has set and the company’s priorities. If that is the case, our recommendations may have to include cautious explanations that might help the decision-maker redefine his/her goal.

Analyzing Options

Next, we should try to see how many options the decision-maker might have. The key question at this stage is the following: Can the problem be solved (can all negative aspects or effects be completely eliminated) or is reducing the negative effects the best we can hope for?

Many professionals sometimes make a situation worse because they naïvely assume that every conflict or problem can be completely eliminated, in all its overt and hidden implications/ consequences. Thus, they set the wrong goal (an unreachable goal ) and choose their strategies based on that goal. In such situations, the results can be disastrous – financial losses, loss of reputation, etc. — because resources will be wasted on aspects that were hopeless to begin with. Setting a more realistic goal (say, to improve specific aspects of the situation in a limited, achievable way) would allow decision-makers to select the right strategies to reduce losses as much as possible, and to get the most out of the resources available.

Presenting Persuasive Suggestions

Finally, after analyzing the situation and the available options, case studies allow us to present and motivate our recommendation as we would at work. To make our recommendation persuasive, we should offer several options (typically, at least two or three) and discuss them in detail, to show that the one we recommend is the most likely to lead to a positive outcome.

Here are some aspects to consider in choosing the solutions we should discuss and then selecting the best one:

  • If other decision-makers involved seem to favour an approach with which we disagree, we need to include that approach as one of the options, analyze it, and show that it will have limited success or that it comports serious risks.
  • Potential improvements, as well as potential risks need to be discussed in detail for the solution we want to recommend, too. If we do not mention some obvious drawbacks of the solution we support, we can lose our credibility.
  • The idea is to show that we have carefully weighed all relevant options and that we chosen the option that seems to be the most advantageous.

Case Study Work in COMM 6019 and Workplace Applications

Depending on your course section and professor, you might have to do more or less case study-related work in this course, but you are likely going to be asked to complete at least two case study-related assignments. Specifically, your professors might use information from case studies to create scenarios for your written assignments, or they may ask you to find and/or analyze case studies specific to your field, always with a focus on communication aspects. Case study elements can also be used in the Research Report, although they are not mandatory.

Our work with case studies in COMM 6019 is meant to help you assimilate the necessary strategies in analyzing any business situation (from a communication perspective, as well as in general). This experience will prove particularly useful when you are asked to complete analytical reports and recommendation reports at work. Any routine business situation, as well as any crisis, can be analyzed in this manner to make sure we arrive at the best decision.

Whenever you are assigned this type of task in the workplace, make sure you understand what you are expected to do and that you do just that:

  • In some cases, you might be asked for a recommendation, whereas in others you might just be asked to analyze options.
  • If you are asked to analyze options, you can still explain which option you think is best, to show initiative – but only if you think your reader(s) would be open to accepting a recommendation. (Some upper-management employees might think that you are overstepping your mandate if you do that. Always consider your primary audience carefully when you make such decisions.)

In courses focused on field-specific skills, professors usually use complex case studies, and the students are expected to produce lengthy case study-related assignments (reports). Thus, the case studies provided to students would be at least 4 pages long (usually much longer), and the reports the students would be expected to write might be 2000-word reports that include information from several research sources.

In COMM 6019, our focus is on teaching students how to analyze situations and make recommendations in objective language and without saying anything that might be perceived as unnecessarily negative, insensitive, or offensive . To this end, we typically use short case studies and short articles reporting various real-life business/professional incidents  as “prompts” for assignments – to help you understand what kinds of problems professionals have to deal with in the business/professional world and what might be the best approach from a communication perspective . Your professors might also ask you to read a longer, more complex case study but focus on just one particular aspect of the situation instead of providing a full-length case study analysis (a long report). This is meant to stimulate your critical thinking skills while maintaining the focus on the main objective of this course – helping students to acquire the writing and communication techniques they need in order to make their case effectively in any business situation, however difficult/ sensitive.

A Sample Case Study

Here is an example of a case study we might use in a Professional Communication class:

  • https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=35525

This is a tricky case study – as case studies usually are. In class discussions, some students rush to suggest that the two business people involved should set up a meeting and solve their financial disagreements immediately, so that they can work together on the new task they have been assigned. However, a more careful analysis of the case study would show that this is a naïve approach. The details provided about the two individuals’ educational background, personality, work history, and history of business conflict (including a lawsuit!) clearly indicate that they won’t be able to “solve the problem” in a meeting (or two, or ten). Therefore, what they need to do is agree to focus on the new task and never mention their previous problems in meetings related to the new task, allowing the old conflict to be solved in court.

Once this aspect of the situation is clarified, a good way to use this case study for an assignment in COMM 6019 would be to ask students to pick one of the two business professionals and write a short recommendation report from a Communication perspective, advising the person of their choice that the best way to approach the situation is to keep the old conflict and the new task separate. To be persuasive and useful, the report would have to include the following sections:

  • an analysis of the situation, explaining why this is the best option;
  • a section of detailed suggestions concerning exactly how the person they are advising should behave, exactly what he should say, etc.

In order to help you to understand a little better the relevance of the content studied in this course for the work you will do as professionals, your professors may relate case studies or media coverage of business/ professional/ corporate incidents to any number of themes covered in this course, from effective social media use to workplace diversity and intercultural communication to employment interviews.

Case Studies and Workplace Communication: Quick Example

Here is an example of a costly communication mistake concerning the channel of communication chosen by the sender of the initial message and the role the receiver decided to assume — a mistake with serious international consequences, as you are about to see.

You might have heard that Hillary Clinton is assumed to have lost quite a few votes in the US election in 2016 after some emails exchanged between individuals in high-ranking positions in her campaign were “leaked” as a result of hacking. According to a December 2016 New York Times article, FBI agent Adrian Hawkins called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to warn them that their computers are being hacked by “The Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian Government. He was transferred to the Help Desk and spoke to Yared Tamene, a tech-support contractor working for the DNC, who did a routine check of the DNC computer system logs to look for evidence of a cyberattack and did not find any.

Tamene was not an expert in cyberattacks, and “The Dukes” appear to be a sophisticated group – they are suspected of having hacked the unclassified email systems of the White House and the State Department, among other cybercrimes. Apparently, Tamene was not sure if Hawkins was a real FBI agent or an impostor – sohe  did not conduct a more thorough search for signs of hacking and did not transmit the information to higher-ranking DNC officials, although Special Agent Hawkins called repeatedly, over several weeks.

You can read a New York Times article on this topic here if you are not familiar with the incident:

  • The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S . (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0)

It is easy to see that several communication mistakes are to blame for the fact that the cyberattack was not stopped right away. Most importantly,

  • The FBI agent spoke on the phone with a tech desk employee instead of setting up an official face-to-face meeting with a top DNC official (he made a serious error in choosing the channel of communication and the person to contact).
  • The tech desk employee acted as a gatekeeper for the message although he was not competent to assess the validity of the warning (he made a serious error in judgement).

Since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote (by 2.8 million votes) and was narrowly defeated in several key states, many political commentators have argued that if even one mistake of this type had been avoided, she could have been the President of the U.S. instead of Donald Trump. Imagine what this public perception might mean for the future career of the F.B.I. agent or for that of the tech desk employee involved. Even communication mistakes of a much lower magnitude can get employees into serious trouble. At the very least, they would lose any chance at promotions. Consequences might also include being fired and, perhaps, becoming unemployable in their field. (Who would take a chance on a potential employee with this kind of work history?)

Additional  Case Study Examples

A list of case studies in Astronomy, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Ethics, Evolution, Genetics, Behavior, Biology, Botany, Ecology, Epidemiology, Health Sciences, Microbiology, Phylogenetics, Physiology, Physics,  and other disciplines:

  • http://bioquest.org/icbl/cases.php 

National Centre for Case Study Teaching in Science: The purpose of this center is to “promote a nationwide application of active learning techniques to the teaching of science, with a particular emphasis on case studies and problem-based learning” (quotation from front page of the official website). This resource contains many cases in all areas of science:

  • http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/ and, more specifically:
  • http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/

MERLOT II: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching: You can have access to many cases in various disciplines by doing a search with the key phrase: “case studies”.

  • https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Stanley, E., (n.d.). Investigative case based learning examples, SERC Pedagogic Service Project: Several cases are provided and some of the Earth Systems topics are in atmosphere, biosphere, climate, Earth’s cycles, human dimensions, hydrology and surface processes.

  • http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/icbl/examples.html

Ryerson University – The Teaching and Learning Office – Teaching Methods for Case Studies: This is a pdf file with information on how to pick a case study, how to prepare students for it, the importance of knowing students’ abilities and needs, how to lead the discussion, what types of questions to be asked, and the evaluation process.

  • http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/lt/resources/handouts/CaseMethodBestPractices.pdf

Boston University – Center for Teaching and Learning – Using Case Studies to Teach: This website has a brief introduction on case study use to teach: common elements in case studies, advantages in using them in class, guidelines for using them, how to lead a case discussion and how to evaluate performance.

  • http://www.bu.edu/ctl/teaching-resources/using-case-studies-to-teach/

The case directory of Western University’s Ivey Business School:

  • https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/internationalbusiness/resources/published-cases/case-directory/http://www.bu.edu/ctl/teaching-resources/using-case-studies-to-teach/

Key Takeaways

Key Icon

  • Case studies allow for complex learning activities that stimulate the development of higher-order cognitive skills such as critical thinking in students
  • Analyzing a case study (and any business situation) involved understanding the problem/ issue, the context of the problem, the key aspects of the situation, and the decision-maker’s priorities and goal.
  • In making suggestions, we should always start by carefully assessing what is achievable and what is not — to avoid directing resources at issues that can’t be solved. We should also make our suggestions in clear, objective language, being careful to avoid careless and unnecessarily negative comments.

Additional resources for case study-based learning:

Brown University, (n.d.). Case Studies. Retrieved April 13, 2017 from:

https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/sheridan-center/teaching-learning/effective-classroom-practices/case-studies  

Davis, C., and Wilcock, E. (2003). Teaching materials using case studies. In UK Centre for Materials Education: Working with you to enhance the student experience. Retrieved on April 18, 2017 from:

http://www.materials.ac.uk/guides/1-casestudies.pdf

Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching, (1994). Teaching with case studies. In Speaking of Teaching, 5(2), 1-4. Retrieved on April 13 2017 from:

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Newsletter/case_studies.pdf

Stanley, E., (n.d.). Using Investigative Cases. SERC Pedagogic Service Project. Retrieved on April 18, 2017, from:

http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/icbl/index.html

The BioQuest Library IV, (1996). Planning for case-based learning. Retrieved on April 18, 2017, from:

http://bioquest.org/lifelines/PlanningStages.html#structure

Advanced Professional Communication Copyright © 2021 by Melissa Ashman; Arley Cruthers; eCampusOntario; Ontario Business Faculty; and University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A CASE STUDY OF WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION PROBLEM: STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION TO MAKE THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS MORE EFFECTIVE

Profile image of Oghenethoja Umuteme

Instituting effective organisational communication is imminent for organisations if they want to be relevant in the business world, going forward. Severally, breaches in communication ethics result in conflicts between top management and the labour force. This work examine such a case with a fictitious company name, in order to address the issue, by proffering a way forward using psychological theories and models.

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This journal was my submission for the course's final assignment. it is my reflection on ethics base on the case studies from Steve May's Case Studies in Organizational Communication. Ethics stand different for every individual and therefore, assuming that the thoughts in this journal are the only right ethical decisions would be wrong.

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1.10 Case Studies: The Cost of Poor Communication

This chapter is adapted from Technical Writing Essentials – H5P Edition by Suzan Last licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Learning Objectives

  • Apply your understanding of context, purpose, audience, and channel in case studies.

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions.  In 2017, Josh Bernoff claimed that the cost of poor communication was nearly $4 billion per year: “American workers spend 22 percent of their work time reading; higher compensated workers read more… America is spending 6 percent of total wages on time wasted attempting to get meaning out of poorly written material. Every company, every manager, every professional pays this tax, which consumes $396 billion of our national income” (Meier, 2017).

Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. In one tragic case, a lack of communication between contractors and engineers resulted in a walkway collapse that killed 114 people at the Hyatt Regency .

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following cases show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences.

A .  Read “Case 1: The Unaccepted Current Regulator Proposal”. Then, answer the 5 questions in the quiz set.

CASE 1:  Acme Electric Company

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more cheaply, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that their regulators be installed at all company plants.

The first 87 pages of the proposal were devoted to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind the new regulator, and the next 32 pages to descriptions of a new assembly line to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models and a poorly drawn graph showed how much the dollar savings would be.

Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

B .  In small groups, examine one of the following cases and complete the following :

  • Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
  • Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
  • Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
  • Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

CASE 2: Petro-chemical company report

Cameron (he/him), a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and computer printouts of toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Cameron’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Cameron’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Cameron had since left the company because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 3: Novaware instruction manual

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Novaware, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Novaware felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Novaware asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Novaware began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Novaware eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Novaware $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: Policy memo

Nhi (they/them) supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, they issued this one-sentence memo to their staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Nhi’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: “Nerds gone wild”

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: Same topic, different genres

Rowan (she/her) was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the New Minas Boat Manufacturing plant. As part of her co-op work experience, Rowan shadowed her supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Rowan’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Rowan, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for her essay assignment as well.

She wrote the essay first because she was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. She had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. She began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the New Minas Boat Manufacturing plant. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Rowan finished the essay and submitted it to her writing instructor. She then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to her co-op supervisor. She “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but her co-op supervisor told her that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Rowan was aghast! She had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . She missed the company softball game that Saturday so she could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of her supervisor.

Meier, C. (2017, January 14). The Exorbitant Cost of Poor Writing (About $400 Billion). Medium . https://medium.com/@MeierMarketing/the-exorbitant-cost-of-poor-writing-about-400-billion-973b5a4f0096

Sagan, C. (1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing

1.10 Case Studies: The Cost of Poor Communication Copyright © 2021 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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5 mini case studies about understanding and serving the customer

Understanding What Customers Want: 5 mini case studies

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

Mini Case Study #1: 34% increase in conversion for powdered health drink company by helping customers come to their own conclusions

A single-product company that sells high-quality, all-natural, powdered health drinks engaged MECLABS Institute to help better understand their potential customers and increase the conversion rate of prospects reaching the homepage.

The original homepage took a claims-driven approach – it provided several bold statements about what the product would do for a customer with no information about the product to help the customer understand why it would work for them. Here is a look at the upper left of the original homepage.

Creative Sample #1: Upper left of original homepage for health drink company

Creative Sample #1: Upper left of original homepage for health drink company

The MECLABS team created a version of the homepage that took a conclusion-driven approach – instead only trying to convince potential customers with only bold claims about the product, the homepage copy included information about the product to help customers understand why the product would help them.

Creative Sample #2: Upper left of treatment homepage for health drink company

Creative Sample #2: Upper left of treatment homepage for health drink company

The team tested this version as the treatment against the original homepage (the control) to help better understand what communication style customers would respond to.

The treatment generated a 34% increase in conversion rate.

This experiment highlights a classic disconnect between customers and marketers. If you work in a company or with a client, you have intimate knowledge of the product and believe in its effectiveness. You spend all day thinking about it. You personally know some of the people who designed it. Your paycheck depends on the success of the product.

A customer does not have this same understanding or belief in the product. They have a significant gap in their knowledge about your product. Bold claims alone are not enough to close that gap. They have to understand why the product will work and come to their own conclusions about the company’s ability to deliver on its promises.

You can learn more about this experiment in The Conversion Heuristic Analysis: Overcoming the prospect’s perception gap from MarketingExperiments (MarketingSherpa’s sister publication).

Mini Case Study #2: Bags company increases conversion 191% by adding clarity to homepage

“I'm the CEO of Doubletake , a tennis and pickleball bag company, but I spent the majority of my career focused on messaging and research, consulting as a strategist for top brands for the last 10 plus years, and in-house prior to that. I'm almost embarrassed that I have this example to share, but I thankfully came to my senses!,” Shawna Gwin Krasts told me.

“It is interesting that crafting messaging/copy for products that aren't ‘your baby’ is so much easier – there is just more distance to see it for what it is. If this wasn't so near and dear to my heart, I would have caught it in a second.”

The team launched its homepage with only the headline “Sports Meets Style” over a photo of a bag. The headline was meant to differentiate the brand from competitors that were either only sporty or fashionable. Below the headline was a call-to-action (CTA) button with the word “shop.”

Creative Sample #3: Previous homepage copy for bag company

Creative Sample #3: Previous homepage copy for bag company

Internally it seemed obvious that the company sells tennis and pickleball bags since a bag was in the photo.

But they came to realize that it might not be as clear to website visitors. So the team added the subhead “Gorgeous Yet Functional Tennis and Pickleball Bags.” They also added the word “bags” to the CTA so it read “shop bags.”

Creative Sample #4: New homepage copy for bag company

Creative Sample #4: New homepage copy for bag company

These simple changes increased the website's conversion rate by 191%.

“It is so important for marketers to get out of their own heads,” Krasts said. “I suppose this is why I struggle with messaging so much for Doubletake. I am the target customer – I have the answers in my head and I suppose my natural curiosity isn't as strong. But clearly, I also have to remember that I've seen my homepage 10,000 more times than my customers, which means things that seem obvious to me, like the fact that Doubletake is a tennis brand not a reseller, might not be obvious.”

Mini Case Study #3: Online motorcycle gear retailer doubles conversion with personalized emails

There are ways to better tap into what customers perceive as valuable built into certain marketing channels. Email marketing is a great example. Marketers can build off information they have on the customer to send more relevant emails with information and products the customer is more likely to value.

"Very early in my marketing career I was taught, 'You are not the target audience' and told to try to see things from my customer's perspective. Empathizing with customers is a good start towards seeing products from the customers' perspective, but marketers really need to focus on quantifiable actions that can help identify customers' needs. That means continuous testing across messaging, price points, packaging, and every other aspect of a product. This is where personalization can really shine. Every time a marketer personalizes a message, it brings them closer to their customer and closes that gap," said Gretchen Scheiman, VP of Marketing, Sailthru.

For example, 80% of the email messages RevZilla sent were generic. But the website sells motorcycle parts and gear to a wide range of riders, each with their own preference in brand and riding style. The online motorcycle gear retailer partnered with Sailthru to better connect with customer motivations. The team started by upgrading the welcome series for new customers by personalizing the email messages based on the customers’ purchases and preferences.

The company has tested and added many new triggers to the site, and now has 177 different automation journeys that include triggers for browse and cart abandonment as well as automations for different product preferences, riding styles and manufacturer preferences.

The conversion rate from personalized email is double what RevZilla was getting for generic batch-and-blast sends. Automated experiences now account for 40% of email revenue. Triggered revenue is up 22% year-over-year and site traffic from triggers has increased 128% year-over-year.

"Customizing the buyer journey isn't about one long flow, but about lots of little trigger points and tests along the way. For any marketer that is intimidated about getting started with personalization, it's important to realize that it's more like a lot of small building blocks that create a whole experience. We started with a custom welcome series using testing and built from there. We're still adding new tests and new trigger points, but it's with the same concept that we started with,” said Andrew Lim, Director of Retention Marketing, RevZilla.

Mini Case Study #4: Pet protection network increases revenue 53% thanks to survey feedback

Huan makes smart tags for pets to help owners find their pets if they go missing. Initially, the company focused on the technical features in its homepage copy. For example, the tags don’t emit harmful radiation, are water-resistant and have a replaceable one-year battery.

From customer feedback surveys, the team discovered that customers purchased the product because they were worried they wouldn’t be able to find their pet if the pet went missing. This discovery prompted the team to change its messaging.

The new messaging on the homepage read, “Keep your pet safe and prevent heartbreak. Huan Smart Tags help you find your missing pet automatically.”

Revenue increased 53% increase following the change in messaging. “We immediately saw an increase in engagement on our website, with a lower bounce rate, higher click-through rate and a higher conversion rate. There were also a few people who messaged us on social media saying how our new message resonated with them,” said Gilad Rom, Founder, Huan.

Mini Case Study #5: Talking to new customers leads SaaS to change strategy, increase sales 18%

When Chanty launched, the marketing messages focused on pricing since the Saas company is 50% less expensive than the best-known competitor. However, when the team started talking to customers, they discovered most people had switched from the competitor for different reasons – ease of use, better functionalities in the free plan, better experience with the customer support team, and a better mobile app.

The team changed its marketing to focus around these product attributes and only listed pricing in the end as an additional benefit.

“It turned out that this was the way to go because we attracted people who wanted a better experience, rather than just customers who wanted to save money. After six months of implementing this new marketing and sales strategy, our sales grew by 18%,” said Jane Kovalkova, Chief Marketing Officer, Chanty.

Related resources

The Prospect’s Perception Gap: How to bridge the dangerous gap between the results we want and the results we have

Customer-First Marketing: Understanding customer pain and responding with action

Marketing Research Chart: How customer understanding impacts satisfaction

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Types of journal articles

It is helpful to familiarise yourself with the different types of articles published by journals. Although it may appear there are a large number of types of articles published due to the wide variety of names they are published under, most articles published are one of the following types; Original Research, Review Articles, Short reports or Letters, Case Studies, Methodologies.

Original Research:

This is the most common type of journal manuscript used to publish full reports of data from research. It may be called an  Original Article, Research Article, Research, or just  Article, depending on the journal. The Original Research format is suitable for many different fields and different types of studies. It includes full Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

Short reports or Letters:

These papers communicate brief reports of data from original research that editors believe will be interesting to many researchers, and that will likely stimulate further research in the field. As they are relatively short the format is useful for scientists with results that are time sensitive (for example, those in highly competitive or quickly-changing disciplines). This format often has strict length limits, so some experimental details may not be published until the authors write a full Original Research manuscript. These papers are also sometimes called Brief communications .

Review Articles:

Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic, and a perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading. They are often written by leaders in a particular discipline after invitation from the editors of a journal. Reviews are often widely read (for example, by researchers looking for a full introduction to a field) and highly cited. Reviews commonly cite approximately 100 primary research articles.

TIP: If you would like to write a Review but have not been invited by a journal, be sure to check the journal website as some journals to not consider unsolicited Reviews. If the website does not mention whether Reviews are commissioned it is wise to send a pre-submission enquiry letter to the journal editor to propose your Review manuscript before you spend time writing it.  

Case Studies:

These articles report specific instances of interesting phenomena. A goal of Case Studies is to make other researchers aware of the possibility that a specific phenomenon might occur. This type of study is often used in medicine to report the occurrence of previously unknown or emerging pathologies.

Methodologies or Methods

These articles present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method. The article should describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available.

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Managing Organizational Change

Communication failure in the workplace: case study.

What happens when communication fails in the workplace?

What are the common problems in communication and what can we do to fix communication issues at work?

In this case study we will try to understand how things can go wrong and what should be done to avoid the catastrophic consequences of bad communication .

Let’s take a look at small projects that you have to work on daily. Projects or activities that somehow you were expecting would improve your job, increase efficiency, productivity or improve relationships.

In this post, I want to analyse what brings people to fail in communicating .

I want to analyse a real event happened in the company I work for when a new project had to be planned and executed to improve scheduling of the machining and tooling department.

Creation of a new project

Our Head of quality (that we will call Mr L.) suggested that the company needed to improve the planning and scheduling of the machining and tooling department.

All companies that have machine production do this, and we already had someone scheduling this department (Mr M.), but we needed someone that could do it much more in detail and ahead of time.

  • Eventually, the supervisor of the machining department (Mr S.) was elected to be the best person for this job, so the CEO of the company decided that Mr M. had to train Mr S. and explain the method he followed for the planning.
  • Mr M. is known to be someone that likes to work the way he wants to work! In other words, he is not known for being someone that listens to other people’s opinion, so Mr S. (much younger) had some difficulty getting information out of Mr M.
  • This problem had been planned. In fact, before this project started there had been at least two separate meetings, one together with Mr M. in which the steps of the projects were planned and agreed upon, and one meeting without Mr M. where the relationship issue was discussed with the CEO.

Starting the project

Mr S. was not satisfied with the training received by Mr M. and more than once explained that he could not start scheduling the machines if he had not received more information from Mr M.

After he explained this simple point to the CEO, he almost lost his job and was told that “there are other people out there that can do your job!”.

Mr S. almost left the company, but eventually decided to continue and asked help to other members of the company and understood that there were important elements missing.

He had very poor tools that could not help him understand what had to be scheduled, there was no method and the MRP (Material Requirement Planning) was missing most BOMs.

Without this basic information there was no way that he could receive the correct data from the MRP and start planning.

Where is the communication issue?

Mr. M. was cut out without notice.

The first and maybe the most important mistake was performed by the CEO. He did not understand why there was a need to increase efficiency in the planning and did not communicate properly this need to Mr M. which had been doing it for over 10 years.

How to communicate with Mr M?

The communication issue with Mr M. was not sufficiently taken into consideration by the CEO nor by the head of quality. Given the younger age of Mr S. it was given for granted that there would have been communication differences between the two, but clearly, this cannot be a reason for not facilitating communication.

Age difference in today’s companies is a very important topic that has been studied for decades and needs to be understood deeply by HR managers, CEO’s and middle management in organizations.

What should have been done?

First, the communication problem with Mr M. should have risen at the beginning , in the very first meeting, and should have been faced directly explaining what everyone expected from him .

Second, there had to be a better role definition and goal setting . Who does what and when!

If everyone had a clear idea of the steps required before Mr S. could take ownership of his new task, probably they would have learned from the very beginning that there were important information missing.

They would have saved a lot of time and probably Mr S. wouldn’t have almost lost his job for no reason.

What everyone did was concentrate on the relationship with Mr M. and believed that the project could not continue because of him and not because of the lack of tools to properly schedule the machines.

How did things go?

It ended with Mr S. losing almost 3 months without planning.

The company lost a lot of time and money on something that would have taken a few days to figure out.

Mr M. and Mr S. did not improve their communication skills.

The head of quality stopped following the project and did not facilitate the cooperation between the two.

Communication continued to fail and other projects did not meet the results expected.

The CEO believed that Mr S. was not right for the job and probably never changed idea.

Production efficiency decreased.

All of these “catastrophic” consequences were caused by a simple communication issue.

Common communication issues

These are some common communication difficulties :

  • Not explaining goals and priorities properly
  • Not asking questions
  • Preconceived ideas
  • Not understand the actual problem and where the project is aiming to
  • Jumping to conclusions
  • Not exploring alternatives

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Suppose two regional sales reps share responsibility for sending weekly updates to their manager. Brad always submits them on time, but Frank often turns them in late. Saying, “Frank, you’ve turned in the sales reports late again” would only put Frank on the defensive. Instead, Brad opens the conversation this way: “Frank, you and I place a different value on deadlines. I want to explain why meeting them is important to me, and then I’d like to hear your take on them.”

Brad learns that Frank, when faced with the choice of possibly making a sale or compiling the report, thinks he should focus on the sale. With this insight, Brad proposes another way to share responsibilities: Brad will complete the report when it’s Frank’s turn to do so, as long as Frank gives Brad two hours’ notice and a share in any commission Frank earns as a result of being able to continue pursuing a lead.

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Related Conflict Resolution Article: Conflict Management Skills When Dealing with an Angry Public – Here is some negotiation advice drawn from a case study of conflict management dealing with an angry public.

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Originally published in 2010.

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  • Published: 09 March 2024

Impact of internet celebrities’ short videos on audiences’ visit intentions: Is beauty power?

  • Peng Li   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8122-7498 1 &
  • Yang Sun 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  381 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Although celebrity endorsements and promotional videos dominated by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are critical in travel decision-making and destination marketing, as a new type of endorsement, the impact of internet celebrities’ short travel videos on social platforms remains not well understood. To bridge this gap, the current study applied source credibility theory and the match-up hypothesis to construct a conceptual model for examining the impact of internet celebrity endorsements on audiences’ visit intentions. FangQi Kiki, a typical producer of short travel videos on TikTok, was used as a case study. 649 valid samples were taken from respondents who were asked to complete a questionnaire after watching a short video. The results showed that internet celebrities’ trustworthiness and expertise significantly affect audiences’ visit intentions. However, attractiveness in terms of the physical characteristics of internet celebrities and internet celebrity–destination congruence had no significant effect on audiences’ visit intentions. The implications show that “Appearance Fallacy” exists in online influencers’ marketing, and physical appearance may affect the popularity of short travel videos online, but it has no significant effect on promoting destination marketing. Unlike the celebrity effect in conventional endorsements, internet celebrities’ short videos belong to content marketing, where popular content is more important than an internet celebrity’s personality. This research adds to the body of knowledge concerned with internet celebrity endorsements in tourism, providing valuable insights for DMOs to project short video marketing.

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How short video marketing influences purchase intention in social commerce: the role of users’ persona perception, shared values, and individual-level factors

Xiangdong Shen & Junbin Wang

Introduction

Social media has become ubiquitous in contemporary life, particularly in travel and tourism. Indeed, short videos on social media often influence consumers’ travel decisions. Individuals with extensive travel experience and an aptitude for sharing information may become opinion leaders online (Wu et al. 2017 ). Potential tourists, especially consumers with low self-esteem (Liu et al. 2018 ), tend to search for content shared by opinion leaders when making travel decisions. Meanwhile, consumers are becoming less sensitive to traditional marketing, consequently leading many marketers to turn to online influencers to promote their brands and products on social media (Leung et al. 2022a ). As online influencers, internet celebrities in tourism play the role of opinion leaders in their fan community. Strong celebrity–fan relationships exist in “online influencer marketing” (Teng and Chen 2020 ), with consumers becoming active members of fan communities and participating in content marketing (Geng et al. 2020 ).

Destination marketing is becoming increasingly reliant on mobile short-form videos to stimulate viewers’ sense of immersion, social presence, and entertainment. Consequently, these videos are innovating the destination marketing model, which is becoming increasingly consumer-oriented (Wang 2020 ). In recent years, some travel destinations in China have become widely known in a relatively short amount of time by virtue of internet celebrities’ short travel videos. The popularity of “Zibo Barbecue” (a phenomenon in which people are flocking to Zibo for tourism and indulging in local barbecue) across China is a typical example of short video marketing. Internet celebrities’ short videos about a destination appear more effective and attractive than traditional advertising or promotional videos, which has inspired other DMOs to follow suit. However, some influencers’ short videos about a destination had a lukewarm response online, raising doubts about the effectiveness of short travel videos. Hence, it is crucial to understand how influencers’ short videos affect audiences.

As a new type of endorsement between no endorsement and celebrity endorsement, internet celebrities possess some characteristics that warrant the concerns of researchers and managers. Unlike traditional celebrities, internet celebrities have limited public credibility (Leung et al. 2022b ); simultaneously, they are usually deeply engaged in a particular field and have mastered a certain degree of professional knowledge. Moreover, internet celebrities tend to automatically apply beauty filters to smooth out pores and remove blemishes in their videos to enhance the beauty effect, which is done to gain attention and increase influence (Xie et al. 2023 ). These characteristics—trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness—are key to explaining how internet celebrities affect their audiences. In addition, the production and dissemination of short travel videos on social media platforms can be monetized to generate revenue, contingent upon their ability to garner online popularity through metrics such as likes, followers, reposts, comments, etc. Internet celebrities carefully manage the content they create and match themselves to the destination in short videos to reduce incongruity (Lee and Eastin 2020 ). Sometimes, the destinations showcased in short videos often serve solely as video material or filming locations. It is not uncommon for destinations described in popular short videos to lack tourist presence. The above situations complicated the influencers’ short video marketing.

Prior research related to tourism has mainly focused on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements (Zhang and Xu 2023 ; Halder et al. 2021 ; Choi and Rifon 2012 ) or official promotional videos (Cao et al. 2021 ; Gan et al. 2023 ; Guerrero-Rodríguez et al. 2020 ). As a third-party endorsement, the impact of an internet celebrity’s short travel video on travel decisions and destination marketing is not well understood due to its recent development and rapid growth during the we-media era. Thus far, the literature on endorser effectiveness has mainly focused on the endorser’s characteristics (e.g., source credibility) or a match between the endorser and the product (e.g., match-up hypothesis). Source credibility is an important informational and heuristic cue that is highly relevant in online environments (Ozanne et al. 2019 ), Simultaneously, appropriate matches between endorsers and products can result in a more favorable attitude toward the endorsements (van der Veen 2008 ). Therefore, in the present study, source credibility and match-up theory were combined to construct a conceptual framework to explore the underlying effect mechanisms linking internet celebrities’ characteristics, audiences’ attitudes toward short videos, audiences’ attitudes toward destinations, and visit intentions. In addition, which characteristics of internet celebrities, such as trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, and celebrity–destination congruence, can significantly affect the visit intentions of social media audiences were also examined. The results aim to contribute to the knowledge on internet celebrity endorsements in tourism, extend the application of source credibility and match-up theory in the field of online influencer marketing, and provide valuable implementation suggestions for DMOs to promote short video marketing.

Literature review and research hypothesis

Internet celebrities and short videos about travel destinations.

Traditionally, celebrity endorsers usually refer to movie stars, singers, models, athletes, politicians, and businessmen (Hsu and McDonald 2002 ). In more recent times, with the increasing number of social media platforms (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok), the definition of celebrity has been expanding, propelling the emergence of “internet celebrities” known in prior studies as social media influencers (SMIs) or online influencers (OIs), who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media (Freberg et al. 2011 ). Unlike traditional celebrities who have succeeded in some credentialed fields (e.g., sports, acting, music), internet celebrities are not certified by any formal institutions (Leung et al. 2022b ; McQuarrie et al. 2013 ). They gain followers by sharing content in their own styles and weaving brand endorsements into their personal stories and posts (Lou and Yuan 2019 ). Short travel videos filled with personal narratives (Dong et al. 2023 ) and destination information can serve as reference content, playing a significant role in shaping audiences’ cognition, evaluation, and aspiration to the destination. That is, a positive attitude towards a destination can impact audiences’ willingness to visit or recommend it (Yin et al. 2023 ).

The emergence of internet celebrities devoted to travel and to making short travel videos has attracted an increasing amount of attention, drawing young people to “tick off” an internet-famous destination. An online renowned destination refers to a place that can evoke symbolic interaction and emotional resonance among netizens, thus gaining wide network attention. Internet celebrities’ short travel videos dissolve the hierarchy of tourist destinations by highlighting and promoting visits to obscure or unknown locations (Sun 2022 ). Short travel videos can provide users with abundant information (Du et al. 2022 ) and positively affect electronic word-of-mouth on destination image (Yin et al. 2023 ). The existing literature has highlighted the effects of visual content, visual perspective (Gan et al. 2023 ), and audio-visual elements in promotional videos on consumers’ information processing and meaning construction. However, the influencing factor in social short video marketing is another important dimension that lacks discussion and exploration. It is thus crucial to understand the causal mechanisms connecting short travel videos and visits to travel destinations from the perspective of internet celebrity endorsements.

Source credibility

The concept of source credibility (the credibility of information and its source) was initially proposed by Hovland et al. ( 1953 ) and has been found to exert a significant influence on the persuasion process. Under the same information conditions, when the credibility of the source is high, an individual is easily persuaded (Chung et al. 2015 ; Filieri 2015 ). The application of source credibility theory in prior studies has demonstrated that celebrity endorsements have a positive effect on consumers’ brand awareness, brand trust (Hung 2014 ), brand preference (Albert et al. 2017 ), and purchase intention (Argyris et al. 2021 ; Mainolfi et al. 2022 ; Pradhan et al. 2016 ; Saldanha et al. 2018 ) when it comes to endorsed products, services, or destinations. Concerning the tourism industry, the intangibility of tourism-related products and the risks accompanying purchasing decisions make the issue of credibility even more important. In this case, source credibility can affect tourists’ perceptions of satisfaction with a destination (Veasna et al. 2013 ). On social media, credibility is essential for generating positive attitudes toward the endorser (Belanche et al. 2021 ), as users are more inclined to accept information from highly credible sources (Ho and Gebsombut 2019 ; Hussain et al. 2017 ; Sokolova and Kefi 2020 ).

Source credibility is composed of trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness (Tzoumaka et al. 2016 ). Trustworthiness can be viewed as consumers’ confidence in the information source (the endorser), that is, whether the information source is objective and truthful when provided (Erdogan 1999 ). In tourism, celebrity trustworthiness positively affects tourists’ attitudes toward travel advertising and their intention to visit a location (Johns et al. 2015 ; Kim et al. 2018 ). Expertise is derived from the endorser’s knowledge and experience in the relevant field (Erdogan 1999 ), which can be defined as the endorser being skilled, experienced, and possessing a certain degree of knowledge about the endorsed product. Attractiveness refers to how attractive, elegant, or cute the endorser appears to the audience (Wei and Lu, 2013 ). There is a popular saying, “Beauty is power,” which means that being physically attractive is a form of power, so whatever one says and does is seen as being right. Unconsciously, people are eager to identify with attractive people, so they are more willing to accept information from attractive endorsers (Kim et al. 2021 ) and allow the “beautiful is good” heuristic to guide their decisions (Ozanne et al. 2019 ). Theoretically, attractiveness includes physical attractiveness and moral characteristics, such as personality, lifestyle, and intellectual skills (Erdogan 1999 ). However, in the practice of celebrity endorsement, advertisers mainly focus on the physical attractiveness of the endorser (Tantiseneepong et al. 2012 ) due to its ease of observation.

In the field of tourism, user-generated content, such as photos, travel notes, and videos, can be used as information sources for tourists to make travel decisions. Studies have found that, as information sources, short videos are superior to photos and travel notes because of their storytelling and experiential qualities (Hautz et al. 2014 ). Sharing short videos and projecting attractive internet celebrity images can help new media audiences generate a positive flow experience, thereby affecting their travel attitudes (Zhang et al. 2022 ). In celebrity endorsements, attitudes toward products or brands mainly refer to positive or favorable dimensions. In tourism, attitudes toward a destination refer to audiences’ cognition, evaluation (Knoll and Matthes 2017 ), or aspiration (Xu and Pratt 2018 ) to the destination. The intangible nature of tourism products and the economic and psychological risks associated with visit decisions elevate the importance of credibility. When the information source is highly reliable, the social media audience is more likely to rely on the information when traveling. Accordingly, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: An internet celebrity’s trustworthiness has a significant positive influence on the audience.

H1a: An internet celebrity’s trustworthiness affects the audience’s attitude toward the short video.

H1b: An internet celebrity’s trustworthiness affects the audience’s attitude toward the destination.

H1c: An internet celebrity’s trustworthiness affects the audience’s intention to visit the destination.

H2: An internet celebrity’s expertise has a significant positive influence on the audience.

H2a: An internet celebrity’s expertise affects the audience’s attitude toward the short video.

H2b: An internet celebrity’s expertise affects the audience’s attitude toward the destination

H2c: An internet celebrity’s expertise affects the audience’s intention to visit the destination.

H3: An internet celebrity’s attractiveness has a significant positive influence on the audience.

H3a: An internet celebrity’s attractiveness affects the audience’s attitude toward the short video.

H3b: An internet celebrity’s attractiveness affects the audience’s attitude toward the destination.

H3c: An internet celebrity’s attractiveness affects the audience’s intention to visit the destination.

Match-up hypothesis

The influence of internet celebrities’ short travel videos on consumers’ visit intentions can be tested using source credibility. Meanwhile, the endorser–product match-up hypothesis provides another dimension (Kamins and Gupta 1994 ; Zhang and Xu 2023 ). Initially, the literature mainly focused on specific matches, namely, consistency between spokesperson’s characteristics and attributes of the product. Belongingness, similarity, and so forth, that can be used to describe the match-up hypothesis (Misra and Beatty 1990 ). Subsequent research focused more on overall matching; that is, the endorser being congruent with the product/brand and consumer perception of the congruence between the celebrity and product being endorsed at an overall level is more important (Till et al. 2008 ). Choi and Rifon ( 2012 ) proposed that endorser–product congruence positively affects consumer attitudes and behavior toward advertising and brands. Research on the match-up hypothesis has suggested that endorsements are more effective when the endorser’s image is congruent with the endorsed product (Till and Busler 2000 ; Till et al. 2008 ). A good match between the endorser and product leads to more positive consumer perceptions of advertising and product than a poor match (McCormick 2016 ; Yang et al. 2022 ), Moreover, native celebrity endorsers are more appropriate spokespeople for a destination compared with non-native (van der Veen and Song 2014 ).

Travel destinations are more complex and multidimensional than products and brands, and the destination image has been proven to be an important factor affecting potential tourists (Tasci and Gartner 2007 ). Content posted on social media by internet celebrities can transform the destination’s original image into an induced image. Therefore, congruence between the overall image of internet celebrities and destination image is crucial. In the hypothesis model proposed by Choi and Rifon ( 2012 ), celebrity–product congruence influences consumers’ advertising attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. The prior tourism literature has mainly focused on the congruence between celebrities and tourists relying on the self-consistency theory (Chan et al. 2018 ; Li et al. 2022 ; Pradhan et al. 2016 ) without emphasizing the congruence between celebrities and destinations (Xu and Pratt 2018 ). A good match between internet celebrities’ overall image and the destination image may trigger a stronger willingness to visit. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H4: Internet celebrity–destination congruence has a significant positive influence on the audience.

H4a: Internet celebrity–destination congruence affects the audience’s attitude toward the short video.

H4b: Internet celebrity–destination congruence affects the audience’s attitude toward the destination.

H4c: Internet celebrity–destination congruence affects the audience’s intention to visit the destination.

Dual mediations and destination advertising response (DAR) model

Attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intention have long been examined as advertising effectiveness variables, and their interrelationships have been theorized and corroborated in prior research (Heath and Gaeth 2019 ; Hwang et al. 2011 ; Kalwani and Silk 1982 ; MacKenzie and Lutz 1989 ). The dual mediation hypothesis proposes that consumers’ advertising attitudes will affect consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions (MacKenzie and Lutz, 1989 ; MacKenzie et al. 1986 ). In the tourism literature, Park and Nicolau ( 2013 ) proposed the destination advertising response (DAR) model, in which the attitude toward the destinations replaced the attitude toward the brand. The major stages of the DAR model are attitude toward advertisements, attitude toward the destination, purchase trip facets, and total trip expenditure (Stienmetz et al. 2015 ). In addition, Xu and Pratt ( 2018 ) found that attitudes toward advertisements affect attitudes toward destinations and travel intentions in the context of social media influencers as endorsers. Compared with advertisements, short travel videos are more experiential and interactive, usually telling a travel story, which is more likely to arouse the audience’s positive attitude toward the destination and stimulate the willingness to travel. Thus, based on the dual mediation hypothesis and the DAR model, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H5a: Audiences’ attitude toward the short video affects their attitudes toward the destination.

H5b: Audiences’ attitude toward the destination affects their visit intention.

The conceptual model constructed in the present study is shown in Fig. 1 .

figure 1

Proposed model and hypotheses.

Materials and methods

Case selection.

TikTok (Douyin) is China’s most popular short video social platform, the number of its users reached 842 million, and the majority of users are under 35 years old. The present study used FangQi Kiki, a short travel video producer on TikTok, as an example. Fang Qi Kiki used to be the location host of “Beautiful China Tour,” a channel on Discovery Journey. She currently has 20 million followers and 456 posts on TikTok and is a typical producer of short travel videos. This study employed her representative short video “Big Fish and Begonia” as a case study. The video has 1.97 million likes and 89,000 comments online and was filmed in the Tulou buildings located in Yongding and Nanjing in Fujian Province, China. The short video tells a traveling story against the background of the film Big Fish, which was shot in Fujian Tulou.

Questionnaire design

The questionnaire consisted of four parts: The first was demographic characteristics, including gender, age, education, frequently used social platforms, frequency of watching short videos per day, and familiarity with FangQi Kiki. The second part measured the audience’s attitude toward the short video, attitude toward the destination, and visit intention. The third part measured the influence of the internet celebrity’s trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness. The fourth part measured the influence of internet celebrity–destination congruence. In the second, third, and fourth parts, a 7-point Likert scale was adopted, with 1–7 representing “strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “somewhat disagree,” “uncertain,” “somewhat agree,” “agree,” and “strongly agree,” respectively (Tables 1 and 2 ).

Sampling survey and data collection

At the beginning of the study, the questionnaire was predistributed using the snowball technique. After collecting some samples, the structure and content of the questionnaire were optimized. The questionnaire was officially distributed by a combination of random sampling and stratified sampling through the Chinese online survey platform SoJump. A short video of FangQi Kiki was embedded in the questionnaire. The participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire after watching the short video (1 min and 06 s). The official distribution period for the questionnaire was from March 26 to April 8 and October 28 to November 5, 2023, 783 questionnaires were received, 134 invalid questionnaires (including those with missing values, the same score for all items, and samples who living in Fujian province) were excluded. Ultimately, 649 valid questionnaires were obtained, with an effective rate of 82.89%. According to IP addresses, the distance between the sample location and Fujian Tulou ranged from 360 km (Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province) to 4600 km (Altay, Xinjiang Autonomous Regions). The samples came from 116 cities in 31 provinces (including municipalities and autonomous regions) in China.

Among the 649 valid samples, men accounted for 48.4%, women for 51.6%, young people aged 18–26 for 53.6%, 27–35 for 25.9%, and 36–45 for 11.1% of the sample. The post-95s (those born after 1995, known as Generation Z) are the main group conforming to the consumption characteristics of internet celebrities’ short videos. In the educational structure, those with an education below the college level accounted for 18.5%, junior college accounted for 21.4%, undergraduates accounted for 52.2%, and postgraduate and above for 7.9% of the sample. The most frequently used social platforms were WeChat and TikTok, accounting for 93.8% and 77.3% of the sample, respectively. Meanwhile, 33.3% occasionally watched short videos every day, and 52.5% frequently watched short videos. Of the total sample, 46.2% were unfamiliar with FangQi Kiki, 37.0% knew something about her, and 12.6% often watched her short videos. Samples were diversified and representative of the major audiences of social short videos (Table 1 ).

Reliability and validity

First, a reliability test was conducted on latent variables: the internet celebrity’s trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, internet celebrity–destination congruence, attitude toward the short video, and attitude toward the destination. The results showed that Cronbach’s alpha was between 0.865 and 0.958. The average variance extracted (AVE) ranged from 0.719 to 0.857 ( > 0.5), and the combined reliability (CR) ranged from 0.911 to 0.968 (> 0.7), indicating that the reliability of the questionnaire was good. Second, the KMO value measurement and the Bartlett sphericity test were carried out. The results showed that KMO ranged from 0.748 to 0.904, and Bartlett sphericity test P -values were all less than 0.001, indicating that all variables in the scale were significantly correlated (Table 2 ).

Finally, the discriminant validity was analyzed (Table 3 ). The square root of the AVE of each variable (the number in bold diagonal) was greater than the correlation coefficient between any two variables, indicating that the discriminant validity of each latent variable was good. In the present study, the square root of the AVE of each latent variable was higher than the correlation coefficient of each latent variable, indicating that the discriminant validity met the analytical requirements.

Structural model results

A path analysis of the structural equation model (SEM) was utilized to test the hypothesis model with the help of Amos 26.0. In this case, \({\chi}^{2}\) /df = 2.348, CN = 319 > 200, RMSEA = 0.046 < 0.05, RMR = 0.044 < 0.060, GFI = 0.933 > 0.9, AGFI = 0.909 > 0.9, CFI = 0.980 > 0.9, NFI = 0.966 > 0.9, and TLI = 0.975 > 0.9 all met the adaptation standard, indicating that the model hypothesis was appropriate.

The first group of hypotheses examined the influence of internet celebrities’ trustworthiness regarding short videos (H1a), destinations (H1b), and visit intentions (H1c). The results showed that trustworthiness significantly affected the audience’s attitude toward the short video (β = 0.233, p  = 0.002 < 0.05), the audience’s attitude toward the destination (β = 0.139, p  = 0.021 < 0.05), and the audience’s visit intention (β = 0.167, p  = 0.023 < 0.05). Therefore, H1a, H1b, and H1c were all supported; that is, internet celebrities’ trustworthiness significantly influenced the audience (Table 4 ).

The second group of hypotheses examined the influence of internet celebrities’ expertise on short video (H2a), destination (H2b), and visit intentions (H2c). The results showed that, although the internet celebrities’ expertise was positively correlated with the audience’s attitude toward the short video, there was no significant effect (β = 0.144, p  = 0.158 > 0.05). The internet celebrities’ expertise was negatively correlated with the audience’s attitude toward the destination, and there was no significant effect (β = −0.012, p  = 0.884 > 0.05). The internet celebrities’ expertise significantly affected the audience’s visit intention (β = 0.316, p  = 0.001 < 0.05). Therefore, H2c was supported, and neither H2a nor H2b was supported (Table 4 ).

The third group of hypotheses examined the influence of internet celebrities’ attractiveness on short videos (H3a), destinations (H3b), and visit intentions (H3c). The results showed that the internet celebrities’ attractiveness had no significant effect on the audience’s attitude toward the short video (β = 0.071, p  = 0.415 > 0.05), the audience’s attitude toward the destination (β = 0.047, p  = 0.478 > 0.05) and audience’s visit intention (β = −0.076, p  = 0.349 > 0.05). Therefore, hypotheses H3a, H3b, and H3c were not supported (Table 4 ).

The fourth group of hypotheses examined the influence of celebrity–destination congruence on short videos (H4a), destinations (H4b), and visit intention (H4c). The results showed that, although the celebrity–destination congruence significantly affected the audience’s attitude toward the short video (β = 0.141, p  = 0.031 < 0.05), it had no significant effect on destination attitude (β = −0.010, p  = 0.843 > 0.05) and visit intention (β = 0.009, p  = 0.883 > 0.05). Therefore, H4a was supported, and neither H4b nor H4c was supported (Table 4 ).

The fifth group of hypotheses examined the influence of the audience’s attitude toward the short video on their destination attitude (H5a) and visit intention (H5b). The results showed that the audience’s attitude toward the short video significantly affected their attitude toward the destination (β = 0.683, p  = 0.000 < 0.05) likewise, the audience’s attitude toward the destination significantly affected their visit intention (β = 0.216, p  = 0.000 < 0.05). Thus, both H5a and H5b were supported (Table 4 ).

Seven of the 14 proposed hypotheses, namely H1a, H1b, H1c, H2c, H4a, H5a, and H5b, were statistically significant (Fig. 2 ).

figure 2

*** p  < 0.001, ** p  < 0.01, * p  < 0.05; NS Not Supported.

Based on the significant path of the direct effect, four groups of mediation effects tests were conducted using the user-defined “estimands” function. The bias-corrected bootstrap method was used, with a 95% confidence interval, and repeated sampling was conducted over 2,000 times (Hayes 2009 ). The following results were obtained: ICT → ATV → ATD → VI (0.010, 0.104), ICT → ATD → VI (0.001, 0.091), and ATV → ATD → VI (0.079, 0.237). These three paths did not contain 0 in the 95% confidence interval, and the mediation effect was significant. The path of C/D-C → ATV → ATD → VI (0.000–0.069) contained 0 in the 95% confidence region, indicating that the mediation effect was not significant (Table 5 ).

Multiple-group analysis

The stability or variation of the estimated model across different groups can be verified through multiple-group analysis, which is applicable to test control variables (grouping variables). Some of the literature has shown that consumers have little intent to purchase a product endorsed by an unfamiliar celebrity (McCormick 2016 ). Considering that the familiarity level of internet celebrities (including four groups: “unfamiliar with her,” “know something about her,” “often watch her short videos,” and “I am her fan”) would affect the audience’s visit intention, a one-way ANOVA was conducted using internet celebrities’ familiarity as the control variable. The results showed that different degrees of familiarity had a significant impact on the average value of visit intention (F = 15.067, P  = 0.000), with the “often watch her short videos” group having the highest visit intention.

Furthermore, familiarity was used as a control variable for the multiple-group analysis to verify whether there were cross-group differences in the research results. In this case, X^2/df=2.358, CN = 297 > 200, RMSEA = 0.046 < 0.05, IFI = 0.916 > 0.9, TLI = 0.901 > 0.9, CFI = 0.914 > 0.9, and ΔCFI < 0.01, meaning they all met the adaptation standard and, therefore, the multiple-group analysis model was appropriate. The results of the multiple-group path analysis showed that there were cross-group differences in the path coefficients but no cross-group differences in significance (Table 6 ), indicating the results are stable across different groups. In addition, the path coefficient of ICE → VI decreased successively across groups, indicating that the effect of an internet celebrity’s expertise on visit intention decreased with increasing familiarity (Fig. 3 ).

figure 3

** p  < 0.01, * p  < 0.05; ICT Internet Celebrity’s Trustworthiness, ICE Internet Celebrity’s Expertise, VI Visit intention.

Conclusion and discussion

First, the internet celebrity’s trustworthiness was found to be vitally important because it significantly affected audiences’ attitudes toward short videos, attitudes toward destinations, and visit intentions. On a social networking platform where photos and videos may have been digitally enhanced, and considering that travel often involves a high level of uncertainty, trust is particularly relevant to travel decision-making, and thus consumers place more importance on factors such as authenticity, objectivity, and sincerity (Yin et al. 2023 ). Celebrity credibility is important for attracting potential tourists and maintaining the sustainable development of endorsement destinations (Liu et al. 2013 ). The ultimate purpose of travel is to immerse oneself in the authenticity of the destination; hence, to obtain real experience, internet celebrities should be required to declare whether the camera’s beauty and filter functions are used, enabling the audience to accurately assess the information presented in the videos.

Second, internet celebrities’ expertise only significantly affected visit intention. Internet celebrities often play the role of opinion leaders in their fan communities, relying on their professional knowledge and travel experience, which can provide more valuable travel information to potential tourists. Some studies have shown that skilled internet celebrities can significantly affect consumers’ purchase intentions, reduce the cost of information searches, and even lead to impulsive purchasing behavior (Meng et al. 2020 ). In addition, the impact of internet celebrities’ expertise to visit intention decreases with increasing familiarity, thereby facilitating the DMOs in inviting suitable internet celebrities for cooperation.

Third, internet celebrities’ attractiveness (i.e., physical attractiveness) was found to have no significant effect on audiences’ attitudes toward the short video, attitudes toward the destination, and visit intention, indicating that appearance was not an effective factor affecting the audience, which is inconsistent with the traditional concept of “beauty is power.” In online environments, the level of physical attractiveness is not the primary attention-drawing feature as internet celebrities can enhance their appearance using the camera’s beauty function, which enables them to smoothen their skin, enlarge their eyes, and slim down their face in videos. Social media audiences are more interested in traveling stories told in short videos than in filtered looks and scenery. Prior research has shown that the more attractive the information source is, the more likely users will be to have a positive attitude, but it has no significant effect on purchase and use intention (Baker and Churchill, 1977 ). Similarly, Gilal et al. ( 2020 ) used advertising models with different degrees of attractiveness to endorse products, reaching a similar conclusion as Baker and Churchill ( 1977 ). Therefore, it would be risky for DMOs to choose a more physically attractive endorser than a normal one, which increases the possibility that the audience would remember the internet celebrity but ignore the destination. Internet celebrities’ attractiveness may affect the popularity of short travel videos online, but it has no significant effect on promoting destination marketing.

Additionally, celebrity–destination congruence only affects the audience’s attitude toward short videos, but the direct and indirect effect between celebrity–destination and visit intention was not significant, which is inconsistent with the research of Xu and Pratt ( 2018 ). This reveals the difference between advertisements and short videos in destination marketing to a certain extent. The main purpose of advertising is to project the destination image and conduct marketing, which usually reflects the interests and demands of the DMOs. While social short videos dominated by internet celebrities have multiple value pursuits, a well-made short video can be sought after by netizens, monetizing its popularity online. Internet celebrities making travel short videos need to align their personal image with the destination image, such as makeup, clothing, words, habits, and so forth, which is beneficial for short videos to be liked and shared online. This artificial consistency helps short travel videos gain online attention, however, when making travel decisions, audiences still prioritize the destination itself.

Finally, internet celebrities’ trustworthiness and expertise are factors significantly affecting visit intention, while internet celebrities’ attractiveness and internet celebrity–destination congruence are not significant in this regard (Fig. 2 ). The perception of social media audiences toward internet celebrities mainly arises from their short videos, comparatively, the perception of consumers toward traditional celebrities (stars) can be more broadly derived from their works, public events, and news reports, which highlights the importance of trustworthiness and expertise in online influencers’ marketing. In terms of the mediating effect, internet celebrities’ characteristics can be explained by four manifest variables (ICT, ICT, ICA, and C/D-C) in the structural model. Still, the dual mediation only played a role between ICT and visit intention. In comparison, the other three variables were not significant, indicating that trustworthiness still plays a major role in the chain path of “internet celebrities’ characteristics - short video attitude - destination attitude - visit intention.” If attitude toward the short video is taken as the starting point, the path of “short video attitude - destination attitude - visit intention” is always significant, which is consistent with the conclusion of dual mediation in advertising research. In other words, without considering internet celebrities’ characteristics, as long as the short video can be liked and supported, it can also make the audience have a positive attitude toward the destination and promote their intention to travel. The impact of an internet celebrity’s short video on a destination differs from that of traditional celebrity endorsements. For the former, the content and narrative of the video have a stronger impact, while for the latter, the celebrity’s charisma and appearance are more important.

Theoretical implications

The present study contributed to the knowledge concerning internet celebrity endorsements in tourism and offered a distinction between celebrity endorsements and online influencer marketing. “Appearance Fallacy” exists in internet celebrity endorsement, high physical appearance often leads audiences to remember internet celebrities rather than the destination. Furthermore, the authentic part of short videos plays a greater role than the constructed part, this concept addresses a strong explanation for issues related to internet celebrity endorsements. In online influencer marketing, information (short videos) is superior to the information source (internet celebrities), while in traditional celebrity endorsements, the information source (celebrities or stars) is superior to the information (advertisement). This explains why trustworthiness and expertise are more effective than attractiveness in online influencer marketing.

The present study has presented value to elicit the causal mechanisms in theory building, filling the gap in travel short videos of internet celebrities. Prior research has mainly focused on social media advertising and official promotional videos in tourism. As a mediation between tourists and destinations, short videos created by internet celebrities serve not only as promotions and recommendations but also fulfill the function of providing an experiential encounter. Internet celebrities’ short videos are comprehensive and interactive content that integrates the characteristics of Internet celebrities, destination scenery, and travel stories. These videos not only foster high audience engagement but also facilitate the establishment of a strong internet celebrity–fan relationship, consequently, they have emerged as an effective marketing strategy. The present study revealed the mechanism of how short travel videos affect tourism decision-making, thereby facilitating further in-depth research in this domain.

The current research extended the application of source credibility theory in the field of short video marketing. Some scholars have examined the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements and noncelebrity endorsements on advertising; in the present study, internet celebrity was defined as a third-party endorsement. In this kind of endorsement, internet celebrities’ trustworthiness and expertise are highlighted, while the impact of attractiveness was found to be insignificant, making trustworthiness and attractiveness seemingly incompatible factors for an effective marketing strategy. This further indicates that the role of the three dimensions of source credibility varies across different contexts; academic studies will provide mixed support for source credibility theory in the future.

Managerial implications

Trustworthiness and expertise are more effective than physical appearance when DMOs invite internet celebrities to project short video marketing, thus, the video content should be credible, authentic, original, and informative (Joshi et al. 2023 ). Normal-looking internet celebrities can attract people’s favorable impressions more than attractive ones and may be perceived as more honest and trustworthy (Bower and Landreth 2001 ). For instance, a normal-looking and unpretentious endorser with rich tourism knowledge can effectively promote consumers’ positive perceptions and visit intentions. Furthermore, the relationship between a native-born celebrity and a destination cannot be duplicated (Kwon and Vogt 2010 ), which means that a locally-born internet celebrity with a local accent can increase credibility and emotional connection between the destination and tourists.

As third-party endorsements, internet celebrities’ short videos essentially belong to the content jointly produced by internet celebrities and the DMOs. Internet celebrities intend the videos to be popular and monetized online, while the DMOs expect more video audiences to visit the destination. In this sense, effective travel short videos should reflect both internet celebrity attributes and destination characteristics. Compared with traditional advertising, short travel videos offer a more immersive experience; simultaneously, the essence of travel lies in experiencing an unusual environment. The “localism” of video presentation holds particular importance as it enables potential tourists to gain unique pre-experiences before traveling. Therefore, consistency between video style and destination characteristics is crucial in implementing effective online influencer marketing.

A dedicated video team should be formed to produce original short videos. Unlike the official promotional videos generated by DMOs, internet celebrities’ short videos are more informal, life-like, and emotional. Interesting and touching elements are the keys to success. Short travel video marketing should delve into the local culture, achieve a profound fusion of culture and tourism, and present the destination’s authenticity through a narrative perspective. Aesthetic fatigue is inevitable when encountering a large body of short videos on social media platforms, authentic, unadorned videos are more likely to resonate with audiences. Therefore, authenticity pursuit is superior to aesthetic pursuit for short video audiences, making portraying a naive image the primary marketing strategy for promoting a travel destination.

Limitations and future research

The current study took FangQi Kiki as a case study because she is a typical and representative internet celebrity in the field of short travel videos and has a large body of works and followers on TikTok. Using her as a case was conducive to conducting in-depth and intensive research with informational and heuristic case factors. Future research could conduct a multicase comparative study employing a mixed-methods approach, incorporating qualitative data such as social media content, web text, and interviews.

Social media audiences have become accustomed to the beauty enhancements in short videos, resulting in a desensitization towards physical attractiveness. Future research can use the video’s beauty or filter degree as a moderating variable to explore the impact of video modification on the audience’s travel intention and actual perceptions through experimental methods. DMOs need to consider using original videos to promote a destination’s naive image. This does not mean that internet celebrities cannot beautify videos, which depends on whether actual visitors perceive themselves to be misleading or not.

Short video narration can promote brand attitude and reduce individual psychological resistance to a destination (Cao et al., 2021 ). In addition, short videos not only influence travel decisions, but sharing travel stories in short videos may also reshape the tourist experience at a destination (Wang and Park 2012 ). Therefore, sharing a story or real-life experiences in a short video is more effective than simply showing the landscape. Future research can use personal narratives as a variable to explore their impact on audiences’ video experience and travel experiences. The topic of experience co-creation between online influencers and destinations deserves an in-depth study.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Peng Li contributed to conceptualization, methodology, software, developing the theoretical model, writing-original draft preparation, and addressing the reviewer’s comments. Yang Sun contributed to data collection, investigation, supporting the data analysis, and editing.

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This study did not involve humans or animals for experimental purposes and was based on an anonymous online survey. The questionnaire and methodology for this study have been ethically reviewed and approved by the research committee of the School of Tourism, Shandong Women’s University (20220925).

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Li, P., Sun, Y. Impact of internet celebrities’ short videos on audiences’ visit intentions: Is beauty power?. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 381 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02895-9

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02895-9

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