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Strategic communication practices Communication

practices by
by consultants in Colombia consultants
Angela Preciado-Hoyos
Department of Communication Management, Universidad de La Sabana,
Chia, Colombia 227
Received 14 June 2019
Abstract Revised 18 December 2019
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the perception of communication and PR agency directors 23 January 2020
in Colombia regarding strategic communication and its relationship with consultancy when involved with Accepted 27 January 2020
three types of activities: bringing the context close to the organization, providing new knowledge and
facilitating change.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an exploratory study based on semi-structured
interviews of a sample of 55 communication and PR agency directors.
Findings – Among the directors interviewed, there are different criteria concerning strategic communication
and the services this entails. Although the literature mentions that consultancy should focus on counseling,
accompanying, advising and orienting without making decisions for the client or performing any operative
activities, many Colombian agencies offer these services, in addition to other technical ones. This is because
these are the most requested ones by their clients and so are important in acquiring contracts in the country’s
communication sector.
Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this study is the absence of a regularly and
systematically updated directory and database with the current size of the communications sector and its
yearly revenue in Colombia.
Practical implications – Lack of consensus regarding strategic communication consultancy may lead to
unfair competition on prices and confounding strategic and nonstrategic services in the market.
Social implications – New academic knowledge for the communication practices in communication agencies
in Colombia and Latin America.
Originality/value – This article arises from initial research done in Colombia on the perceptions of the
communication sector’s directors regarding the meaning of strategic communication and key capacities in the
provision of services under that remit.
Keywords Communication consultancy, Strategic communication, Communication agencies, Public relations,
PR agencies
Paper type Research paper

World information market growth, brought about by globalization and technological

development, has impacted the structure of communication companies, has prompted the
creation of new companies and has allowed for any entity or person, and not only big media
corporations, to produce content and disseminate it in the public sphere (De Mateo
P
erez, 2015).
Corporate communication is one of the sectors that have been altered due to these changes.
In this sector, many companies have been established, among them, agencies with specialized
services, following the necessity of other companies to improve their relations and gain
legitimacy in the economic and social environment, as well as achieve positive visibility that
leads to good reputation (Hoffmann et al., 2011).

This article presents results of the research project “Creation and permanence of local communication
consulting companies” (COM-59-2012), carried out in the Research Center of Corporate and Corporate Communications: An
Organizational Communication, Cicco (for its initials in Spanish), and funded with resources from the International Journal
Vol. 25 No. 2, 2020
Research Department and the Faculty of Communication of Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. pp. 227-242
Aknowledgements to Marcela Nivia-Fl
orez and Juan Pablo Correales-Rivas for their help in applying the © Emerald Publishing Limited
1356-3289
interviews. DOI 10.1108/CCIJ-06-2019-0066
CCIJ This tendency has influenced Latin American markets and the Colombian one in
25,2 particular (Dinero, 2012), where there has been limited research on the sector, partially
because of its historical lack of development. In comparison to other consultancy fields,
academic literature on communication consultancy is scarce (Frandsen et al., 2013;
Johansen, 2017), and more so in Colombia, where there are but a handful of studies on
the topic.
The establishment of agencies started in the country with the arrival of Burson–
228 Marsteller in 1997. Hill and Knowlton arrived in 2010, and FTI Consulting in 2011, when it
acquired the local agency Gravitas. In 2015, Edelman acquired Position Comunicaciones
Estrat
egicas and many multinationals now have a presence in the sector. Economic and
political stability has provided a favorable environment for this type of business (Molleda and
Su
arez, 2004). In research on the clients of these companies in Colombia (G
omez Ram
ırez,
2011), the necessity of keeping communication and PR companies on retainer was stated.
These companies were viewed as contributing in a strategic capacity, more than fulfilling
other roles. However, in this research, the characteristics of strategic communication services
were not studied. Alongside this and as a product of the growth of this market in the country
(Parker, 2008), discussions have arisen regarding what could be considered as strategic
communication services. Fundamental to the discussion are important aspects of the sector,
which require clarification, such as the academic background and professional career of the
person who offers this service and their expertise, the types of services on offer and price
allocation (G
omez Ram
ırez, 2011).
It is expected that strategic services are more sophisticated and, thus, more expensive
than the mere production of media content, a practice that has historically been associated
with professional profiles working on operative tasks (Dozier, 1992; Dozier and Broom, 1995;
Beurer-Zullig et al., 2009).
In the interest of helping to understand these concepts and how they are exercised in
practice, this article presents a literature review to identify how they are defined and how
these concepts contrast with the perceptions held by those who provide this service in
Colombia.

Strategic communication
Strategic communication has been understood and performed in different ways. For a time, it
was considered a linear process, which was planned and controlled in detail, to reach a goal
(Marston, 1963); however, in recent years, it has been perceived as a management model that
is under constantly revision, more flexible and, as such, related to dynamic and complex
processes (Van Ruler, 2018; Van Ruler and K€orver, 2019).
It could be said that detailed studies on strategic communication started in the 21st
century, due to the need for application in rapidly changing and complex social
environments. These environments, it is argued, are the ones where it is most appropriate
to undertake these operations because they provide resources that allow the company to
adapt and respond to a reality that is in constant evolution (Mahoney, 2011). Then, following a
review of the literature, there are a variety of characteristics that define strategic
communication:
(1) Its goal is the fulfillment of organizational objectives through communication
(Hallahan et al., 2007). Here, it is worth noting that organizations have multiple
objectives, not only related to production, and that communication serves to achieve
other objectives that relate to constructing and maintaining self-image, improving
interpersonal relations or helping to prompt innovation (Eisenberg, 1984). As stated
by Heide et al. (2018) and Van Ruler (2018), this communication should be understood
as a process that lies at the core of the organization’s establishment.
 (2) Another trait of strategic communication is the promotion and presentation of the Communication
organization’s strategy as well as helping to develop it. This makes strategic practices by
communication a part of entities’ strategic planning and includes the design of goal-
oriented activities by the directors, employee groups and communication
consultants
professionals (Hallahan et al., 2007).
Due to the stakeholders’ active participation and engagement with companies, the design and
execution of communication strategy has turned into an emergent process, by learning what 229
actually works through putting it into practice. This requires constant examination of the
message exchange that takes place through different channels and the interaction modes
with interest groups, as well as a combination of long-, mid- and short-term perspectives (Van
Ruler, 2018).
(3) Strategic communication has been seen as an umbrella term for a variety of
communicative forms and functions, among them public relations, directive and
internal communication, advertisement or marketing communications (Hallahan,
2004). This holistic view emphasizes the design of a strategy as a broad concept and
not as the development of isolated tasks. This concept works in parallel to the tactical
areas that deploy communicative actions.
(4) A fourth characteristic addresses the role of the context, which some have grouped
together under the concept of reflexive communication. This concept relates to the
way in which the context expresses or demonstrates itself in the actions and
behaviors of the organization (Verhoeven et al., 2011). The starting point is not to see
the latter as an entity isolated from social situations but as part of them and with the
capacity to change and impact culture through communication, a power that is
shared equally with other agents in the public sphere.
(5) Some authors (Grunig, 1992; Costa, 2010) have considered that communication
professionals should work as strategists and top-level advisors, rather than as media
creators, as a condition for communication to be deemed strategic. This becomes
evident when communication professionals analyze norms, value and social issue
changes and then advise upper management about how to interact in that
environment (Verhoeven et al., 2011).
Following the objective of this research and bearing in mind that these conditions must be
considered to determine communication practices as strategic, we are able to formulate the
first research question:
RQ1. What does strategic communication mean to Colombian agency directors?

Communication consultancy
The business of communication consultancy began in public relations agencies at the
beginning of the 20th century, mainly in the United Staes, United Kingdom and some European
countries (Buil-Gasol and Rodr
ıguez-Salcedo, 2017). There is some agreement among authors
that communication management in companies became strengthened as a professional
practice, internally and externally, in capitalist democracies, where individuals and
organizations enjoy the same opportunities to bring their interests into the public sphere
(Sriramesh and Vercic, 2003). In the communication field, these strategies have helped their
clients measure, improve and protect the value of their reputation (Fombrun and Nevins, 2004).
Communication agencies support themselves through industrial practices that are
aimed at satisfying the knowledge needs arising from consulting, obtaining and
exchanging information. This in turn aims to elicits attitudes toward brands, people or
CCIJ initiatives of various types (Rodr
ıguez-L
opez and Robles-Alvarez, 2015) and leads
25,2 organizations to making their perspectives visible and legitimate (Von Platen, 2015). These
two qualities go beyond the release and distribution of their information distribution on
technical or technological platforms. Consultants are focused on the commercialization of
ideas and initiatives that, despite often materializing in media output, are mainly based on
advising clients. Therefore, consultancy is an activity throughout which strategic
communication is performed intensively. This is strengthened by three types of activities:
230 (1) linking the organization with the context; (2) providing new knowledge and (3)
facilitating change.

Relating the organization to the context

For R€ottger and Preusse (2013), a focus on the system is useful to formulate a theory about
communication consultancy because what these consultancies seek is for the organization to
see itself from the outside, and from within the system within which it operates. Thus, when
working as top end consultants, communicators consider which issues from the environment
are relevant to adapt or translate to the organization (Von Platen, 2015).
As an external actor to the organization and by placing its attention on public and
surrounding situations, the consultant’s main skills are research, analysis, idea and concept
generation that entail the presentation of solutions, as well as having the communicative
capacity to present these solutions to members of the organization (Von Platen, 2015). As
opposed to those who make media products or tangible resources, the result of this work is an
intangible asset, whose impact can be verified in the long term. Because of this long-term
orientation, those institutions that look for immediate solutions end up underestimating its
value (Von Platen, 2015).
It is mentioned that digital social media represent an identity crisis for communication
consultants, rather than a vehicle for self-definition in their role. This is because these media
are tools, and relevant literature on strategic communication does not recognize content
management as part of the consultant’s job (Von Platen, 2016). Regarding this change, some
consultancies offer to enhance knowledge on the analysis of big data and Internet
management, viewing this as a source of information about the environment, which then
contributes to decision-making (Moreno et al., 2017). This would in turn strengthen the ability
of the consultant to steer the organization towards maintaining good relations with
stakeholders and understanding how to use social media networks in their favor (Von
Platen, 2016).

Providing new knowledge

The difference between advising and executing has been central in the theoretical
construction of consultancy and in the discussion regarding its main aspects. For some
authors, consultancy implies a process of interaction geared towards providing advice on
decisions, without deciding for the client. This entails optimizing the client’s capacity to act
and cooperating in the search for alternatives to address relevant problems (Von Platen,
2015). It is due to this perception that consultancy is considered to be the product of an
exercise of thought and analysis, rather than being involved with preparing and producing
content or media (R€ottger and Preusse, 2013).
The communication consultant must have ample knowledge about and experience of,
the sector, two characteristics that enable the consultant to recommend solutions to
problems related to communication and to members of all levels in the organization
(Zerfass and Franke, 2013). Consultancies are hired precisely because of the objectivity that
stems from their independence – not being regular employees of the organization – and
because it is assumed that their external perspective contributes more to innovation than
the perspective of those professionals who are used to the company’s routines (Hoffmann Communication
et al., 2011). Consultancies have been considered, in general, as agents that help when practices by
infrequent issues arise, among them the defense of the company’s interests in the face of
legislators, communities or during crises (Hoffmann et al., 2011). This knowledge is
consultants
therefore brought to the specific situation, where it is taken and transformed according to
current priorities, as the knowledge becomes contextualized.
231
Facilitating change
The environment is constantly changing, and many times, organizations do not have the time
to be attentive to these transformations or consider how to address them. The consultant’s
ability to understand and manage communication processes lies in noticing social trends and
selecting, from a wide array of circumstances, those that require attention. The then need to
know how to take advantage of them, since these circumstances are the ones that affect their
clients the most (Nieman-Stuweg et al., 2007). In this way, they help to reduce the uncertainty
that arises from the difficulties brought about by change, providing confidence and support
for their clients to make the right choices and face risks.
Bringing together the aspects mentioned thus far, communication consultancy is defined
in this paper as a professional and specialized practice, which is focused on researching the
environment through a variety of means. It also offers advice, counsel and recommends
solutions and best practices to affect choices related to the institutional communication of
their clients. This in turn enables them to enact changes that allow them to remain up to date,
maintain harmonious relations with their interest groups, protect their reputation and, in this
way, ensure their sustainability.
It is worth adding that in the digital world, there is a difference between the professional
who fulfills a technical role and the consultant. The former is asked to provide content and
ways of disseminating it, whereas the latter assesses the background, and considers what
could be done along with the expected consequences upon related interest groups.
Consultants do not make recommendations without prior analysis, so their tools are research
skills which diagnose potential problems arising in the environment and which include social
media and the effectiveness of the solutions provided for specific problems, which are then
linked to the interactions that take place in different scenarios (Von Platen, 2016).
Having characterized key activities in consultancy practice and their relationship to
strategic communication, two new research questions arise:
RQ2. What is understood as communication consultancy in the case studied?
RQ3. How can the characteristics of strategic communication be recognized in the
consultancy services offered by communication and PR agencies in Colombia?

Methodology
The empirical part of the research was focused on identifying the capabilities that define the
practice of strategic communication consultancy in the services provided by communication
and PR agencies in Colombia. The perspectives of these agencies’ directors were studied, in
order to understand what they think and feel about their work and how they do it. To achieve
this, an interview questionnaire of 20 semi-structured questions was prepared. The
interviews provided important data to build a general profile for the sector and to gather
definitions and explanations that answer the research questions proposed in the first part of
this article.
The interview questionnaire was structured in five parts: demographics and other sector
information, such as company size based on employee numbers, operations reach (local or
CCIJ Dimension
25,2
Strategic communication
232
Consultancy
Activities aimed at
bringing the context to the
organization (reflexive)
Activities aimed at
providing new knowledge
Activities aimed at
facilitating change
Table 1.
Dimensions, activities
and related questions Source(s): Own creation
multinational) and gender of the directors that were part of the sample; perceptions about
strategic communication and key issues related to a communications consultancy; and ways
in which activities (1) were linked to the ability to associate the organization with its
environment; (2) provided new knowledge and (3) facilitated change.
Activity
(1) Communication planning
(2) Supporting organizational
purpose through communication
(3) Participating in organizational
strategy
(4) Context analysis
(5) Working from a vision that
incorporates all communicative
forms (PR, internal
communication, marketing
communication), geared at
communicating the same
organizational purpose
(1) Advising
(2) Counseling
(3) Orientation
(4) Accompanying
(5) Recommending
(1) Researching and analyzing the
environment
(2) Monitoring media and digital
social media using big data tools to
capture information regarding
trends and the behavior of interest
groups
(3) Discovering interest group
expectations and perceptions of
the company/clients
(1) Having a wide knowledge of
organizational communication
(2) Exhibiting prior experience in the
communication consultancy
sector
(3) Providing contextual capacity, to
translate experiences and best
practices from one sector to
another
(1) Undertaking trend research and
analysis
(2) Proposing ideas to undertake
organizational adjustments
Questions
(1) What is strategic
communication?
(2) What do you understand by
strategic level services?
(3) What do you understand by
tactical level services?
(4) What do you understand by
technical or operational level
services?
(5) Who is in charge of company-
client relations?
(6) Who defines the communication
strategy for the client?
(1) Which of the activities you
perform determine that the
services you provide can be
defined as communication
consultancy?
(1) What services do you offer in
your portfolio?
(2) Which services do your clients
request the most?
(3) What activities do you perform
aimed at relating the
environment to the
organization?
(4) Do you use technology for the
development and provision of
services? If so, which?
(5) Are these in-house or hired
developments?
(1) Educational background of the
directors
(2) Level of education
(3) Prior experience in
communication consultancy
(4) Agency’s years in service
(5) Agency’s specialization in one or
more services or economic
sectors
(1) Do you provide consultancy
services for activities centered
on facilitating organizational
change processes?
(2) Do you provide consultancy
services aimed at facilitating
change processes in relation to
external stakeholders?
N Agency name Origin
Communication
practices by
1 ABC Estrategias Local consultants
2 Acceso Directo Asociados Ltda Local
3 Actio comunicaciones Local
4 Aljure and Ocampo Local
5 Avant Garde Multinational
6 Br
ujula Comunicaciones Local 233
7 Burson - Marsteller Colombia Multinational
8 CMS Communication and Marketing Solutions Local
9 Compass Porter Novelli Multinational
10 Comunicaci
on 360 grados Local
11 Comunika Relaciones P
ublicas & Mercadeo Local
12 Corporativa Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas Local
13 Cube Comunicaciones Local
14 Dattis Comunicaciones Local
15 DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc. Colombia Multinational
16 Dos y medios Local
17 E- media Comunicaciones y relaciones estrat
egicas Local
18 Eco Resultores Local
19 Estrategias Asociadas SAS Local
20 Fabiola Morera Local
21 Feedback Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas Local
22 Free Press Divulgaci
on en Medios Ltda Local
23 FTI Consulting Multinational
24 Giomar Jaramillo Comunicaciones Local
25 Gloriza Comunicaciones Local
26 Grupo 13 Local
27 Grupo Hol
ıstica Local
28 High Results Local
29 Hill and Knowlton Strategies Multinational
30 Icono Comunicaciones Local
31 Image and Press Local
32 Inforpress (Atrevia) Multinational
33 J Torres Consultores Local
34 Jimeno and Acevedo Asociados Local
35 JWT Multinational
36 Llorente y Cuenca Colombia Ltda Multinational
37 Margarita Calle Comunicaciones Local
38 Medi
atica Comunicaciones Ltda Local
39 Medios y difusi
on comunicaciones Local
40 New Link Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas Local
41 Opci
on, Imagen and Medios Local
42 Padua Comunicaciones Local
43 Patricia Amaya Comunicaciones Local
44 Plat Comunicaciones Local
45 Position Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas - Edelman Multinational
46 Raquel Sof
ıa Amaya Comunicaciones Local
47 Sensoria Consultores en Comunicaci
on Limitada Local
48 Sentidos Comunicaciones Local
45 S
ıntesis Comunicaciones Ltda Local
50 Stampa Imagen medios y Comunicaciones Ltda Local
51 Strategic PR Group Local
52 T
actica & Estrategia Local
53 The Line Group Local Table 2.
54 Toro Love Comunicaci
on Total Local Analyzed sample.
55 Vega y Jaramillo Comunicaciones Local Communication and
Source(s): Own information PR agencies
CCIJ Each of these dimensions is presented in the first column of Table 1. The second column
25,2 describes the activities associated with each dimension and the third column presents the
questions that relate to those dimensions, and which were used in the interview.
Since there is no registry or database of the companies in the sector, it became necessary
to create one for this research that included the name, address and revenue information.
This was compiled after an open survey made with 1,200 communications professionals
about the agencies they had worked with. Once a first listing had been developed, phone
234 calls were made to corroborate full names of agency directors. During these calls, directors
were also asked about other agencies that they were aware of and which were active in the
national market. In this way, a database of 129 companies was compiled. The headquarters
of these companies are found in the cities of Bogot
a, Medell
ın, Cali, Barranquilla and
Manizales.
Email and phone call contacts were made with the directors of these 129 companies to
invite them to take part in the research. Although all company directors were invited to
participate, only 55 were willing to be interviewed, representing as many agencies. The full
list of participating companies can be found in Table 2. The sample includes ten of the 13
agencies with the highest revenue in the country, according to the ranking established by the
monthly trade magazine Publicidad y Marketing, P & M (2014). These ten agencies account
for 91% of all revenue reported in the ranking [1]. Interviews were face-to-face or via
conference call (Skype) and were 1-h long in average.
Origin, size and age of the companies
Ten companies from the sample are multinational agencies. The remaining 45 were created in
Colombia using national capital, which is akin to the studies carried out in Spain (Estanyol-
Casals and Lalueza-Bosch, 2014) and the United States (Bashir and Fedorova, 2014), where
multinational companies work alongside local ones, with the latter representing the majority
of the market.
According to given employee numbers, 30 agencies have up to ten full-time employees,
and 18 agencies have between 11 and 50 employees. Only five agencies claim to have between
51 and 200 employees, all of these being multinational agencies.
Regarding the length of time since establishment, 25 had been created between 4 and
10 years ago, and 13 were established between 11 and 16 years ago. Five directors
answered that their companies had been founded more than 30 years ago, which
represents the first such agencies created in Colombia. For multinationals, the point of
reference was the establishment of their first agency in their country of origin and this
represents the oldest companies in the sample analyzed. A total of 33 men and 22
women were interviewed.
The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The information gathered was then
organized in a matrix according to the dimensions and activities defined. For each of these,
responses were added until a level of redundancy was reached. Then, in a different box of the
same dimension, responses that did not match the others or showed alternative ideas or
practices apart from those already gathered were brought together. This was done with the
intention of distributing and categorizing the data, leading to the identification of the
findings.

Results and analysis

In this section, each of the dimensions of strategic Communication and the practices that
characterize the consultancy service are analyzed according to the characteristics that define
them in the theoretical part of the article. The number in parentheses following a text refers to
the number of the agency in Table 2 at which that director works.
Strategic communication Communication
Responses regarding the question about what directors believe strategic communication to practices by
be point to a predominant definition associated with the planning of communication
activities. It is said, in that regard, that strategy is the guiding light, the route map that points
consultants
to the expected destination (19). This map is set up in advance, making strategic
communication “. . .a thought exercise through which the resources to be employed are
determined, with the strengths of the client as the departure point and with an ultimate goal
set in the possibility of growth” (31). 235
Apart from planning, the directors consider that strategic communication is expected to
help the organization attain its goals, a perspective that aligns with the one found in the
literature review, according to which strategic communication aims to support the
organizational process from a communication standpoint, which in turn, provides business
differentiation and a communicative strategy itself. Thus, for some of the directors
interviewed, communication strategy is “. . .imagining something unique and different for the
company, a proposal that can be put into practice, through which actions aimed at [brand]
positioning can be deployed” (44). The latter perspective is similar to those that state that
strategic communication is concerned with “enabling the achievement of the client’s goals,
applying a wide array of communication tools” (17), and it is understood as a process through
which, in parallel to global strategy, another strategy is created, aimed at providing value for
the client’s public, from a communication standpoint (8, 20, 28 and 51).
The focus of strategic communication as the integration of different tactical areas of
communication (PR, marketing and internal communication) comes up less often. Similar
perceptions are those where the directors define strategic communication as an exercise
aimed at increasing intangible capital value of the companies, which includes image, brand
and reputation.
There are, as well, replies from those who believe that strategic communication refers to
“positioning activities that become news” (20) or “determining what needs to be done to get
covered by the media” (22). Here there is a substantial difference between these directors and
those who see such activities as previous stages in the development of the professional field
and so consider that placing news and working on media relations are not strategic
communication:
. . .what the first agencies in Colombia used to do was to offer very basic services, [such as] free press
and event management, so they were basically PR; there was no practice of crisis management, not
for a lack of crises, but because there were no companies dedicated to provide these services in a more
sophisticated manner and with the depth that we now know is central to strategic
communication (23).
For directors like the one quoted, strategic communication is a wider practice, linked to a
deeper knowledge of communication and its diverse functionalities, as well as the long-term
needs and interests of the clients. Although academia considers public relations to be more
than just free press or media relations (Wright, 2013), for the directors who took part in the
interviews, there is a considerable difference between public relations and strategic
communication. By noticing that the current public is better informed, by having the Internet
at its disposal and with more ability to apply leverage against organizations, the directors
claim that the best perspective to focus their work nowadays is strategic communication
instead of public relations. This is due to them associating PR with basic services that
journalists or newcomers could easily address.
In their comparison of tactical and operational actions, the interviews provide no clear
distinction between them, but two trends are evident: (1) thinking of tactics as methods to
execute the communications plan or as parts or segments of the communication plan and (2)
executing and implementing actions that develop this communication plan. For the directors
CCIJ of the smaller agencies, oftentimes called boutique, there is not much of a difference between
25,2 tactical and operational activities because for them, both activities address task execution,
free press, content and media production, resource allocation, deployment of communication
logistics, day-to-day work, instrumental tasks, paying attention to detail, application of
plans, etc.

236 Communication consultancy

In regards to the way agency directors understand the business of communication
consultancy, three clear approaches can be recognized: (1) advisory, counseling and
accompaniment; (2) advisory, counseling and accompaniment and, in addition. the execution
of recommendations and (3) the execution of the client’s communication activities (practical
execution).
For the first group, communication consultancy is an integral and specialized approach,
with implications in three stages: (1) communication integrated into marketing, (2) public
relations and (3) media relations. In other words, they conceive the communication strategy as
an umbrella concept, which includes all the specialized functions of the field. It is a group that
directly addresses the president and upper management at the companies they consult,
among which there may be communication directors. The job of these consultants is to
advise, recommend and understand the communication of the products and services at a level
above the operational (7, 12, 14, 23, 32, 35, 45 and 52). They think of their profession as the
provision of a service that exceeds the expectations of those who hire them with results that
can be seen in the client’s reputation.
For the second group of directors, consultancy refers to accompaniment in the
establishment of the communication strategy of the client but also to the execution of this
strategy (5, 6, 18, 10, 25 and 29). In the literature review, this accompaniment is recognized as
relevant because it implies that there is an interest in determining business strategy
according to the implications it has on day-to-day relations with interest groups. In this case,
however, and drawing on the responses, the perspective has a different focus. It is more
connected to help the organization to clarify its strategic approaches to be able to proceed,
with this clarification, to propose a communication strategy and implement it.
One of the directors in this group states that more than consultancy services, the company
provides advisory services which “. . .refer to understanding what it is that the clients need to
develop in regards to communication, [and] to make a plan of the whole process, in which it
becomes clear what the organization has to do and how the agency does this for them” (5).
Therefore, the services involve thinking, but also action. Similarly, there are those who claim
that consultancy is a broader activity, concerned with designing strategies and interacting
with diverse audiences, where relationships are established alongside the organization. They
call this an integral approach to communication (40) because they offer all services. From the
business perspective, this thinking responds to the interest of preventing loss of income in the
country’s communication industry. It must be added, though, that it is the senior consultant
who proposes but the junior consultant who executes.
The third and last group considers that consultancy implies executing the totality of the
communication actions of a company. In this case, some describe themselves as “marketing
agents, hired by the companies to develop press relations, manage events and protocol
activities as well as communication activities that promote marketing and sales” (41).
Similarly, they also define their business as developing specific tools and methodologies that
can be carried out directly with the client. This is achieved by deploying a team from the
agency in the client’s company, which they refer to as in-house services (54). According to the
literature, this perspective entails an operational orientation because despite making media
products and managing digital platforms, this activity is not undertaken with an analytic or
research purpose aimed at offering recommendation but as an effort to generate and Communication
disseminate content. practices by
Relating the organization to the context. The activities the consultants undertake to achieve
this usually refer to enabling the company to reach their public in the way they wish to be
consultants
perceived, as well as accompanying the organizations so they are able to comprehend the
communication environment they are in (18, 32 and 33). The reflexive property of strategic
communication is linked to statements such as “guide the companies to have an excellent
relationship with their interest groups and with other opinion groups that influence or are 237
influenced by their activity” (1), through which they widen the scope of relations to people or
collectivities beyond classical definitions of “strategic” groups for the organization. In spite of
this, there is more emphasis placed on the correct dissemination of ideas, values and interests,
on the part of the company. In general, the task of researching the environment to bring
elements from it into the organization is undertaken by the external consultants, since the
employees of the company focus on day-to-day communication tasks, geared to send
information into the environment. This result falls in line with prior findings on this topic in
Colombia (Preciado-Hoyos et al., 2013).
Some consultants analyze situations that may have a bearing on brand positioning,
research and apply follow-up indices and other measures to assess the current state of
stakeholder perception about the companies, but they also determine the impact of their
communication efforts on various audiences,. With this input, they prepare recommendations
for their clients. This task is mentioned more frequently by those who agree that consultancy
is not intervention based but advisory.
Regarding the use of ICTs to undertake research on the environment and interest groups,
multinational directors mention that their companies have acquired and used specialized
software for some years now. This is used to perform digital social media monitoring,
although the directors recognize that today, almost all consultancy agencies have this type of
tool. They add that access to these technologies was seen, for a long time, as a competitive
advantage. However, as all agencies can gain access or develop these tools themselves, the
most relevant difference between the services they provide, resides in what is done with the
information gathered in this way in relation to big data and following social media
conversations (6, 10, 29, 32, 43 and 45). They all understand that journalistic media
monitoring is not enough to have a clear view of the whole landscape of what stakeholders are
thinking, so they have turned to digital social media, and digital technology is used
significantly to measure the state of public opinion.
Providing new knowledge. According to 54 directors of the sample, the factor that provides
the most differentiation is the reputation of the executives, along with know-how, experience
and prior agency work, followed by the agency’s business model. This was understood by the
multinational agencies (7, 9, 15, 23, 29, 32, 35 and 36) as the capacity and preparation to bring
together the integration of services with the geographic, social, cultural or political variables
of public interests of their global client companies, a capacity unmatched by smaller agencies.
These elements are highlighted in Molleda et al. (2015), as specific to multinational agencies.
Research is a way to identify trends and, on many occasions, find the source of a problem.
It demands analytical thinking and an understanding of the use of information and data
collection techniques, which can be developed through formal training (higher education) or
by practical experience. Thus, the directors were asked about their educational background,
to find out if there is accumulated knowledge, likely to be transferred and adjusted to the
needs of the client.
In the sample, 40 directors hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Social Communication
and Journalism. The remainders are business administrators, advertising majors or lawyers.
Regarding postgraduate studies, 26 of them hold a specialization (in the Colombian
educational system this refers to a one-year applied postgraduate course aimed at updating
CCIJ field knowledge), 12 hold a master’s degree, 12 have no postgraduate studies and only two
25,2 hold a PhD. In general, research skills are developed in master’s and PhD programs, degrees
that only 14 of the interviewed directors hold. This is a weakness in training that some of the
directors consider may be compensated by long-term consultancy experience. Accordingly,
the majority of responses regarding the number of years working on the provision of this type
of services are 4–10 years, 16 directors; 11–16 years, 17 directors and 17–21 years of
experience is reported by 12 of the directors. That is, 29 people have at least 11 years of work
238 experience of in this sector. This group includes senior consultants. Among them are
directors who hold a specialist degree in digital media, database management, reputation and
crisis management, free press, media relations, marketing and internal communication.
New knowledge is put to work, most of the time, in forecasting how stakeholders will react
to conversations in the companies. Communication consultants can therefore provide
arguments that support a plan of action to address a communication challenge or problem.
Regarding this skill, one of the directors defines consultants as
. . .experts in organizational communication who, because of our knowledge and experience, are able
to help companies develop strategies that enable them to complete their commercial and social goals,
especially when this involves specific or global junctures and solving situations which may or may
not be problematic, when [the companies] do not have the tools for these solutions at their
disposal (24).
Some of the interviewees state that it cannot be said that they have reached a significant level
of maturity in this professional field in Colombia, because even though most agencies seek to
move away from a technical perspective, services such as event planning, media relations and
free press are the ones most requested by clients and those which are most common in the
market. This has a negative effect on this business sector, associated with the participation of
companies that compete on prices rather than quality (as stated by directors in agencies 6, 23,
34 and 52).
Facilitating change. Results related to the third strategic capacity of the consultants show
low variety in the responses. For some directors, the job of the consultant is “to dynamize
processes that lead to cultural transformations within the organizations” (46). This vision is
offered by those whose services are focused on the improvement of internal communications.
In communication with external agents, this capacity is focused on the modification of
behavior, perception and opinion to alter the content and orientation of messages as they
endeavor to “. . .change the perceptions of audiences to support the goals of our clients” (9).
The tool that is most mentioned to propose changes and adjustments is a communication
assessment because it provides information about the current situation and, from that point,
improvement options are offered to the client. That is, both advice and a strategic plan are the
tools for the consultant to propose changes (48).

Conclusions
The conceptions and practices of the communication agency directors interviewed show a
variety of approaches, which mainly go in line with those found in the literature review on
strategic communication and the practice of consultancy in this type of services. Concerning
strategic communication, there is no mention of the direct participation of the consultant in
the development of the general business strategy and nowhere are all the characteristics that
define this form of communication and communication management included; the element
that the directors most commonly use to define this is planning, but it is also recognized that
the service includes tasks at the operational level, since they do not want to lose the stake in
the other parts of the business, namely execution, which is also the service most contracted by
clients. The difference blurs, basically, because senior consultants take over the strategy,
while junior consultants are in charge of operational response.
 Consultancy services are thought of in diverse ways, which are not exhausted by those in Communication
the literature. The responses can be aligned with three key stages in the practice of strategic practices by
communication: research, advice and execution. It is worth noting that senior consultants,
more experienced and with greater know-how, are in charge of researching and advising,
consultants
whereas those with less experience execute, even if they both work for the same agency. This
demonstrates the strategic vs technical difference presented by studies on the role of
communication professionals, quoted in the theoretical background of this article (Dozier,
1992; Dozier and Broom, 1995; Beurer-Zullig et al., 2009). 239
In regards to the three capacities that are identified here as the characteristics of the job of
a consultant (1) relating the organization to the context; (2) providing new knowledge and (3)
facilitating change, there is more focus on activities associated with the first one. The tasks
that are considered routine and simple are undertaken by communication professionals that
work as direct employees of the client and not by the consultants. Concerning big data, the
most consulted source is digital social media, which is monitored to perform a follow-up of the
interest groups that generate opinions about the company.
New knowledge comes from assessing the current situation but also from the educational
training of the researcher (his or her academic background) and the accumulated practical
experience of the consultant. The result of this analysis is the knowledge given to the client in
the form of advice or counsel. In this case, they pass on more implicit knowledge, materialized
in concepts and not tacit knowledge represented by the carrying out of operations and
through instruction, teaching and education. This type of relation is not mentioned in the
literature as typical of the job of a consultant.
The capacity to facilitate change is centered on achieving cultural transformation within
and outside the client company and modifying that which may be altered from a
communication standpoint: perceptions, opinions, routines and the behavior of public interests.
To sum up, strategic service is determined, in the case studied here, by research and
analytical tasks that are carried out mostly by senior consultants. These people have more
accumulated knowledge, which is the product of their experience, and they are in charge of
relations with clients. The agencies approached here also provide other services that could
stem out from these systemic services. Those other services would not be considered strategic
communication, despite being provided by the same agencies.
The directors in the sample recognize that, as has been the case in other countries
(Triantafillidou and Yannas, 2014), digital media have promoted new roles in working
practice. These new roles help to make the management of client reputations more effective,
although there is still room to expand these tools as key factors in differentiation between
agencies or as an important measure to assess the environment. As Tech et al. (2013) found in
European communication professionals (Ecopsi), the interviewed directors acknowledged
weakness in social media management, that they need to improve in. In this case, as research
tools more than just for spread information.
The most significant limitation of this study has been to determine the size of the sector,
due to, among other factors, the lack of an official registry or up-to-date and accurate
information on the number of companies that provide this type of service and the lack of data
on the revenue figures of all agencies.

Implications for practice and future research

Based on the results of this research, it is worth undertaking further research on the changes
taking place in the definition of the professional roles of communicators.
The relevance of social media in the strategic communication of organizations has led to the
blurring of borders between a professional work, based on technical skills of content production
and a strategic one, rather conceptual in nature and with a long-term vision. Nowadays,
strategists have to intervene in contents produced on a daily basis and they have to work
CCIJ hand-in-hand with those who produce that content, so that they can respond with the speed
25,2 demanded by social media communication exchanges. It is unthinkable to separate strategy
from the conversations that arise constantly in different scenarios and with different people, not
limited to communications with journalists and employees only. The strategist must analyze
constantly the contents arising from conversations with these and other interest groups.
From the standpoint that communication is at the core of all organizations, the job of the
consultant and the communication professional is becoming more and more relevant. This is
240 so because constant adjustment of the communication strategy predicated on conversations
with stakeholders, demands for the business strategy to be adjusted accordingly. No
organization achieves their goals by disregarding those of their stakeholders nor by ignoring
how each of them adds value to their business (Freeman, 1984).
Communication consultants in Colombia, and wherever they exhibit similar results as
those presented here, must be fully aware that the main aspect in strategic communication
nowadays is not only long-term planning but an analysis of the environment to keep the plan
constantly updated. Digital social media are spaces in which important resources are
gathered today regarding the interests of stakeholders and other groups, to provide
responses, initiatives or short- and mid-term solutions, as the current speed of conversations,
influences and opinions demands.
Note
1. The ten agencies are: FTI Consulting, Imagen y Relaciones P
ublicas, SAS (Burson-Marsteller), Dattis
Comunicaciones, GC Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas (Compass Porter Novelli) Jimeno Acevedo
Asociados SA, Llorente and Cuenca Colombia, Ltda., Position Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas,
Medi
atica Comunicaciones Ltda., High Results Ltda. and Corporativa Comunicaciones Estrat
egicas
Ltda. This ranking refers to revenue values in 2013. The sources of P&M for this ranking are the data
from Superintendencia de Sociedades [Superintendence of Societies] and Superintendencia
Financiera [Superintendence of Finance]. The ranking and the indexes are audited by KPMG
Advisory Services Ltda.

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Corresponding author
Angela Preciado-Hoyos can be contacted at: angela.preciado@unisabana.edu.co

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