In a nutshell it is communicating with an identified purpose. It is when you decide — prior to hiring designers, prior to identifying your target audience and prior to developing a quip tag line — to clearly identify and support the goals of your organization through the use of communication techniques. To be clear we are not talking about your communication goals we are talking about the goals of the organization you are communicating for.I know that sounds obvious and basic, and maybe it is. But I have seen, all too often, professional communicators who work reactively, not proactively and who tend to communicate purely for the sake of communicating.

If every decision you make does not strategically support the goals of your company than you run the risk of wasting money and energy. Once you identify the purpose you will have an easier time developing targeted, effective messages and identifying the audience to which you should deliver those messages.