Internal Audit, Interviews. We begin with a review of our client's existing communications materials. Next, our team spends one to three days on site, interviewing and conducting focus groups with internal audiences (faculty, administrators, students, alumni) to gather input on mission, goals, strengths, and challenges. Our job is to listen and reflect—while creating relationships with those on campus whose support will be critical to the successful implementation of a communications plan.

Report. The next step is a draft report of our findings, including an analysis of competitive messages, strengths, challenges, and opportunities, along with preliminary recommendations for a communications plan. We provide the draft report to our main client contact for review and revision. After incorporating changes, we give a presentation of the final plan on site.

Although we may provide general budget estimates in this phase, final estimates and production schedules are not developed until Phase 1 is completed.