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MKIB372: CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS OF

JD WETHERSPOONS

Student Number: 200922668

Wednesday 16th December 2015

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Contents Page

1. Executive Summary 3

2. Introduction 4

3. Internal Communications 5

a. Staff Meetings 5

b. ‘Tell Tim’ 6

c. ‘My JDW’ 7

4. External Communications 9

a. Banners and Pub Names 9

b. Social Media and ‘My JDW’ Search App 10

5. Conclusion 12

6. Recommendations 13

7. Bibliography 15

8. Appendix 18

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1. Executive Summary

This.report.outlines.the.effectiveness.of.JDW.internal.and.external.communication.strategies.as

they.stand, whilst also identifying ways in which the company could improve their communication

in the future.

In terms of an Internal Communication strategy, which the firm prioritises, JDWetherspoons focus

on employee integration and involvement, which contributes to the firms ‘two-way

communication’ process. Internally, JDWetherspoons has focused on regular staff engagement,

through weekly staff meetings to help build positive employee-employer relations. As.well.as.this

JDWetherspoons values its intranet, where employee feedback and ideas for improvement are

encouraged. This shows effective internal communication whereby employees have the freedom

of speech, while managers use the facility to communicate between departments, helping to build

a business culture which thrives upon togetherness.

In terms of an External Communication strategy, JDWetherspoons shows less intent to make full

use of all available platforms. Concentrating on social media especially they have focused on

keeping followers entertained, while.offering.both.Facebook.and.Twitter pages, where continuity

helps promote the corporate brand. Also JDWetherspoons have effectively used traditional pub

names to promote the heritage of the brand, associating all platforms of communication with a

‘British Pub Culture.’ Furthermore, JDWetherspoons use banners outside their pubs, which

although have the ability to grasp the passing trades attention, their scope is restricted at this,

where maybe through the use of Celebrity Endorsement and/or a TV advertising campaign the

company could promote brand awareness on a much larger scale.

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2. Introduction

JDWetherspoons was founded by Tim Martin in 1979 and has taken the struggling UK food and

beverage industry by storm, offering champion cask ales, long opening hours and cheap prices

that has helped to rediscover the industry. The core of the organisation is built across its head

offices in Watford, as well as its 931 pubs throughout the UK, and with over 35,000 employees its

annual sales exceeded £1.5billion in 2014 (Baker, 2015). With this in mind, JDWetherspoons is

recognised as one of the UK’s fastest-growing companies (BMI Research, 2015) where it’s

emphasis on good-quality food and drink at competitive prices, combined with its ‘friendly

atmosphere’ and passionate workforce, the organisation has managed to develop an effective USP

(Hogan, 2015). According to Martin (2002) JDWetherspoons offer the ‘traditional British pub” with

the visions to have “by far the best CQSMA (Cleanliness, Quality, Service, Maintenance and

Atmosphere) standards in the pub world, to be the best company to work for and, by doing these

things, to be the most profitable” (Martin, 2012). Understanding this mission statement, it is

apparent that JDWetherspoons main aim is to communicate their core values to all stakeholders

and in return the company can progress to becoming the most profitable firm in the pub market,

which they are well on their way to achieving. Therefore this report will look closely at the

effectiveness of the firms internal and externally communication strategies which Martin

highlights as a valuable part of JDWetherspoons business plan (Martin, 2002).

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3. Internal Communications

JDWetherspoons uses predominately internal communication tools throughout their business

model, for example; regular staff meetings, an intranet and an employee voice facility to motivate

employees, engaging them with the corporate visions of the firm (Cornelissen, 2008). The firm

takes pride in its ‘associates’ looking to implement a ‘Two Way Communication’ model, where

both managers and employees ‘voices’ are valued highly, emphasising that ‘mutual respect and

effort’ (Deetz, 2006) is needed to achieve the organisations mission statement.

3.a Staff Meetings

According to Martin (2012) a lot of JDWetherspoons success is down to their employees, who are

driven by a clear brand vision and have established a healthy internal culture which they all thrive

in. Holtz (2004) suggests to get the best out of employees, communication needs to be ongoing,

providing regular and updated information about organisational expectations. JDWetherspoons

have effectively utilised this, introducing weekly communication meetings between Managers and

Employees, where improvement suggestions and performance appraisal topics are covered.

Having regular meetings and encouraging workforce contribution, while making sure all

employees understand ‘what they have to do and how they have to do it,’ helps JDWetherspoons

promote continuity throughout their workforce, effectively aligning all employee behaviours

(Asmuss, 2008) with the visions of the firm. Also having regular meetings gives JDW employees

the opportunity to voice any concerns which they might have, while managers focus on forming

positive relationships with team members, telling them how their involvement is valued, which

ultimately motivates them to succeed. The opportunity of employees to communicate with their

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managers regularly, in an environment where contributions are encouraged, therefore brings a

workforce closer together, forming employee-employer relationships based around trust, where

a freedom of speech encourages workforce development (Rogelberg et al., 2010). Also on a larger

scale, every month the company holds a ‘BigOperations’ meeting. The purpose of this meeting is

for the senior managers to discuss the company performance. What is significant about this is that

these meetings use a ‘top-down’ communication approach where the owner informs all managers

what he expects to be happening in the company (Smith & Mounter, 2008). Vertical

Communication is effective during this process as it makes sure the understandings of employees

is broadly consistent with the visions of the firm, making it clear to employees what is expected of

them (Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2007), however it is believed in a firm where a lot depends upon the

performances of bar/watering staff, more cooperative engagement between senior managers and

employees would allow JDWetherspoons to form a more dynamic culture, increasing employees

willingness to offer ideas based upon their real-life encounters (Men, 2014).

3.b ‘Tell Tim’

Although JDWetherspoons ‘BigOperations’ meeting contradicts the organisations strategy of

being a ‘two-way symmetrical’ communication institution, they have introduced an employee

voice facility into their operations where-by employees can electronically give suggestions or

feedback on their experiences in the organisation, guiding corporate decision making. The

software called ‘Tell Tim’ is available to all employees, where they can contact the CEO Tim Martin.

Giving employees a ‘voice’ and the opportunity to engage in management issues, makes them feel

valued and motivates them to work harder (Luchak, 2003). The impact of this software has given

JDWetherspoons a positive communication climate, whereby employees feel more involved with

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the organisation and a feeling of belongingness increases their commitment to organisational

tasks (Rosenburg & Rosentein, 1980). Also for a firm of this nature where a lot depends upon the

actions of the ‘front of house’ employees, it is crucial to ‘listen’ to their suggestions because often

the best ideas are glaringly obvious in retrospect but may be missed by a higher level manager

who is not interacting with customers daily (Sheets, 2005). Showing the effectiveness of this

system, employees used the ‘Tell Tim’ software to promote their concerns for paper food menus

being used outside, suggesting that a waterproof version would reduce the amount of menus

being ruined. This idea has now become a feature in all JDWetherspoons pubs increasing the

durability of the menus and decreasing waste costs. The significance of this is that

JDWetherspoons recognising employee’s feedback and ideas has benefitted the firm considerably,

increasing the effectiveness of communication channels between employees and managers, while

also increasing employee engagement and retention (Van der Heijden, et al, 2013), shown by the

firms achievement of the 2014 UK Top Employers Award, where the Institute director Eleanor

Nickerson (2015) said, “JDWetherspoons as a company are dedicated to communicating and

offering a rewarding employment experience for its people.” This shows that effective employee

communication has helped the firm to develop a culture which is both stable and enthusiastic to

improve.

3.3 My JDW

‘Tell Tim’ is one of the main facilities of the ‘My JDW’ intranet, which is a private network used by

the organisation to communicate with all its staff, that includes payslips, discounts and training

facilities. JDWetherspoons intranet is accessed and used by its employees on a regular basis,

increasing the knowledge and understanding employees have about the organisation and their job

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roles (Mockler & Gartenfeld, 2009). After speaking to the Manager at The Tollemache Inn

JDWetherspoons, Grantham, it was recognised that the facility helps connect each pub, employees

and functional department through a conglomerate system approach. For example, the financial

department use My JDW to show pubs performances against their projected targets, offering

suggestions on how performance can be improved. The intranet being used in this way shows that

through digital graphs and creative comparison tools, employees and managers visions are given

a clear direction which ultimately increases their engagement and motivation to surpass

organisational targets (Stenmark, 2003). With this in mind, the intranet helps JDWetherspoons to

promote and integrate its identity across all of its employees using the maximal spread of its digital

reach to bring managers and employees together (Bennett, 2009). Also the intranet involves a live

news update feature that makes sure when decisions are made the workforce are the first people

to receive this information, which is effective as it gives them a sense of satisfaction being the first

point of contact, making them feel a valuable organisational asset (Zinkhan, 2002). What is

interesting about the intranet is that JDWetherspoons have incorporated entertainment concepts

into the overall running of the network, for example they use a weekly prize draw to stimulate

their employees attention, which is a way to engage employees and increases their identification

with the firm. Also it promotes and gives employees the chance to win rewards which keeps

employees entertained. Overall the establishment of the My JDW intranet has helped the firm

streamline all internal communication used within the firm giving employees a single platform to

interact with the company, which they can use as a support mechanism if they need help or an

information network to guide thinking (Belkin, 1991) making them feel an integrated part of the

organisation.

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4. External Communications

JDWetherspoon have made it clear the main focus of their communication strategy is to address

internal needs (Martin, 2002) meaning the scope of their external communication facilities are

less effective. The external communication tools used focus on social media platforms which

incorporate a smartphone app, pub.banners.and.unique.pub.names which are used to promote

the organisations core values to wider stakeholder groups (Alexandru & Loan, 2013).

JDWetherspoons takes pride in its affordably priced pub culture, with emphasis upon increasing

its customer base and they recognise that their core values need to be understood by the UK

population if they are going to attract more customers.

4.a Banners and Pub Names

Thriving upon the individualism and traditions of its Pub Names, JDWetherspoons uses heritage to

communicate with its customers. Each pub is named after a historic event in the local area or

elements of its name are taken from the previous settlement which it was built upon, for example

Tollemache Inn, Grantham is named after a long standing MP for the town. The use of a themed

message (Shimp, 2003) in every JDWetherspoon pub name gives the company a unique identity

where it has tried to penetrate and reinstate the history of the UK pub culture. This has led to the

firm achieving the largest market share in the industry (32%), where it is seeking to expand its

premises further in the near future. This is effective as using this type of corporate branding

(Schutlz et al, 2005), JDWetherspoons has been able to create an emotional attachment with

customers in the local area, who are more likely to visit their pub as it shows a historical

resemblance which they can identify with. However this may blur the identity of the firm, as using

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different pub names makes the connection between JDWetherspoon pubs and the company

brand harder to recognise. Also the use of large pub banners has helped JDWetherspoons to

advertise the firm, although they don’t use TV advertising campaigns which would increase the

scope of their external communications, they have used billboards and posters to increase public

awareness. Using large banners outside their pubs promoting special offers is effective as usually

their pubs are in central locations so passing trade is high and the advert will catch the eye of many

potential customers. Also using similarly styled banners at every JDWetherspoons pub is effective

as high frequency of exposure and the ability to cut through a cluttered advertising environment

helps the firm to communicate with a large audience (Riordan & Cannon, 1994). Referring to

Appendix.1 the banner uses contrasting colours as well as large and bold text making it easy to

recognise and read, also it uses a strong and dominant message which involves an amusing tagline

that is accurately suited to the target consumer. This is effective as the simplistic message

immediately gets consumers thinking about how it affects them and how they could use this idea

for future plans, persuading young adults and students especially to make the most of the cheap

prices instead of ‘pre-drinking’ (Bernstein, 1997).

4.b Social Media and ‘My JDW’ Search App

With 94,229 Facebook subscribers and 28.7k followers on twitter, JDWetherspoons has built a

large social media following by which stakeholders expectations for more interactive and

dialogued-based forms of communication have been understood (Cornelissen, 2008: 11).

Significantly, JDWetherspoons operates across both social media platforms effectively, regularly

updating both facilities, with competitions, discount codes and new promotions that keeps

followers entertained and engaged (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Also the page layouts and profile

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logos are identical, shown in Appendix.2, whereby continuity enhances a brand image, increases

brand awareness and connects all social media products, benefiting from a synergy (Kaplin&

Haenlein, 2010). This is effective as it connects different communication channels of the brand,

therefore consumers can use both Facebook and Twitter interchangeably. Furthermore,

JDWetherspoons social media Platforms focus on seasonal themes and trends to engage their

followers, for example using Christmas promotion tweets, like in Appendix.3 the company

effectively gets their links trending by using a Christmas hashtag, which increases the potential

scope of their advertising campaign. Throughout both forms of social media the messages are

simple and consistent with the brands core values. Using consistent messages strengthens brand

recognition by creating a seamless, compelling experience across all communication channels

(Kotler & Mindak, 1987). Also JDWetherspoons recently introduced my JDWetherspoons app,

which uses the modernisation.of.technology.to.communicate.with its customers. Offering a

smartphone based app, consumers can communicate with the company ‘on the go’ (Krum, 2010).

The effectiveness of this app, with 350,000 downloaders in 2014, is ‘average’ according to the

manager at Tollemache Inn Grantham. He recognised that it is both easy to use and can be a very

helpful tool to find the locations of JDWetherspoons pubs, with the advantage that pub locations

can always be saved on a phone making it easily accessible to the consumer, unlike the split second

interaction when consumers engage with billboards (Azark, 2011). However being a relatively new

feature, the app has received some criticism, with a review rating of 3.7/5, shown in Appendix.4.

JDWetherspoons marketing department have recognised that a lack of app promotion means

currently the amount of consumers using the app is much lower than they want. According to

Anthes (2011) insufficient app promotion means the signal of the communication facility is

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restricted and this leads to a consumer unawareness, where the apps communication potential is

unexploited. Overall JDWetherspoons has utilised social media facilities effectively,

communicating with a larger consumer audience than that available on traditional media

platforms (Colliander & Dahlen, 2011) and the simplicity of each social media platform makes

them appealing to all age groups.

5. Conclusion

JDWetherspoons prioritises there internal communications strategy, where the effectiveness of

their 3 key facilities; ‘Tell Tim’, My JDW and Staff Meetings, have helped to communicate the

company’s core values throughout the whole organisation. These features have been a success,

recognising that through employee engagement and the use of a two way communication model,

the relationship and communication channels between employees and managers have created a

positive internal communication climate. An internal communication strategy which encourages

contribution and engages all employees, ultimately brings a workforce together (Thomas et al,

2009).

On.the.other.hand, JDWetherspoons external communications strategy is less all-round, although

they use social media and banners effectively reaching a wider audience than one which solely

focuses on passing trade, the breadth of their external communication facilities is less impressive.

According to O'Donohoe (2008) missing the.TV.audience.and.choosing.against celebrity brand

ambassadors restricts the signal of a company’s external advertising campaign. However without

this, the facilities currently used have been able to positively communicate with external

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stakeholders, leading to the firms overall success during a difficult period for the ‘British Pub’

industry.

6. Recommendations

It appears the internal communications of JDWetherspoons are strong and therefore developing

such features, while understanding the needs of their employees is something which they are

continuously adapting. While externally, the breath of their advertising campaigns are limited to

social media platforms. Introducing a TV advertising campaign, with the potential to reach 25% of

the 31million UK TV viewing public in one hit (Hollis, 2013) JDWetherspoons would benefit from

widespread brand awareness. They could use TV advertisements to promote the firms affordable

food and drink prices, this would help increase the recognition of the JDWetherspoons brand,

outperforming competitors such as Yates who cannot compete on price, helping JDWetherspoons

develop its competitive advantage. Also the UK pub industry is built upon heritage, if

JDWetherspoons was to produce a TV advertising campaign based upon its traditions which

promoted its British values, viewers would be able to identify with the firm, forming an emotional

attachment built upon being ‘British’. Viewers would therefore.see.a.similarity.between

JDWetherspoons values and their own personal morals, which would encourage them to support

their services (Lee, 2009).

Also Canning and West (2000) believe celebrities positively multiply the scope and effectiveness

of an advertising campaign which could also benefit JDWetherspoons. Looking at Iceland and there

acquisition of Peter Andre as a brand endorser, they managed to communicate to the British Public,

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using a well-liked and well-known celebrity role model, which increased the power and

penetration of their advertising message (Goldsmith et al, 2000). JDWetherspoons looking to use

a celebrity focal figure to promote their brand would help their advertising campaign ‘stand out’

and ‘be remembered’ (Elberse and Verleun, 2012).

Word Count= 2997

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Appendix

Appendix A. JDWetherspoons Banner

Appendix B. JDWetherspoons Twitter Page JDWetherspoons Facebook Page

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Appendix C. JDWetherspoons Seasonal Tweets

Appendix D. App Reviews