Samenvatting

The EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a non-profit organisation based in Malaysia. The core business of the Chamber is advocacy through lobbying and events. The Chamber has asked for a visibility strategy to be set. The reason for this is that with many chambers of commerce and business councils in Malaysia it is hard to differentiate and get companies to become a direct member. Another reason is that the Chamber is not recognized as an authoritative voice by the media. The following central question has been set up:
How can the Chamber increase visibility among European and Malaysian companies -established in Malaysia- resulting in an increase of the number of direct members? In order to answer this question desk research, literature study, observations, an in-depth interview with the general manager and a survey among the direct members has been done. Guideline was the following research question: How successful is the current external communication of the Chamber? Research has shown that one of the main reasons why it is hard for the Chamber to differentiate and why they do not have contact with the media is that they did not have a Communications Manager for a long time. Because of this, the field of communications is not developed in the way it should have been. There is no vision or communications strategy and therewith there is no clear view what to communicate, to whom and why.
A good strategy for the Chamber would be to position itself as the advocacy chamber with unique services and aspects. Although it is highly recommended to first get a clear view as to what to communicate, to whom and why, by defining a vision and overall communication strategy, a visibility strategy based on the outcomes of the research has been written. Target group for this visibility strategy are the (potential) members of the Chamber and media relations. Knowledge, attitude and behavioural objectives have been established in order to define what the Chamber should achieve in the future. There are three strategies formed to achieve the objective for the Chamber.