The Business of Influence: Reframing Marketing and PR for the Digital Age

Mapping the Interactions

Now we can begin to map out the interactions based on this Oxford English Dictionary definition:

• Interaction – reciprocal action or influence.

Working with our definitions of organization, stakeholders and competitors, we have four primary types of interactions:

1. The interactions between our organization and stakeholders

2. The interactions between our stakeholders with respect to us

3. The interactions between our competitors and stakeholders

4. The interactions between stakeholders with respect to our competitors.

I refer to these as primary interactions because one could also look at the interaction between our organization and competitors in, for example, so-called coopetition (cooperative competition), or trade association activities. One could also look at the interactions of our stakeholders with the competition’s stakeholders where they are exclusive of each other, such as those between football fans of opposing teams. I found however that, while these may be important interactions, they didn’t have a material impact on this rethink, and the resultant model works to encompass these interactions accordingly.