Walmart Communications Audit: Channels, Media & Strategy
This communications audit report examines Walmart Inc.'s communication strategy through a case study of its West Hills, California branch. Drawing on document reviews, employee focus groups, and customer interviews involving 75 participants, the audit identifies the channels, media, and technologies Walmart uses to communicate with internal and external stakeholders. Key findings reveal a reliance on written communication (posters, newsletters), electronic media (corporate website, email), mobile apps, and social media. The report also highlights a generational divide in communication preferences: younger employees favor electronic channels, while older employees prefer written and face-to-face interaction. These findings lay the groundwork for recommendations aimed at improving two-way communication and stakeholder engagement.
- Introduction to Walmart and the Audit: Overview of Walmart and audit purpose
- Objective of the Communications Audit: Goals and motivation for conducting the audit
- Nature and Scope of the Audit: Methodology, participant selection, and demographics
- Communication Channels Used at Walmart: Employee and customer channel preferences by age group
- Specific Communication Media Used at Walmart: Tools used internally and externally, including website and apps
- Communication Technologies Used at Walmart: Technologies transporting information to stakeholders
- Conclusion: Summary of findings and strategic implications
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper applies a clear, structured audit methodology — document review followed by focus groups and customer interviews — giving the findings an empirical grounding rather than relying solely on secondary sources.
- The segmentation of employee focus groups by age (20–35 vs. 36+) surfaces a genuine and actionable generational divide in communication preferences, adding analytical depth beyond simple description.
- The report maintains a consistent distinction between communication channels (the means) and communication media (the specific tools), demonstrating definitional precision appropriate to the discipline.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied primary research within an organizational setting: the author combines document analysis with qualitative data collection (focus groups and voluntary customer interviews) to triangulate findings. Quoting or paraphrasing participant voices to support each finding is an effective technique for lending authenticity to qualitative audit reports.
Structure breakdown
The report opens with a company overview and audit rationale, then states its objectives and defines scope and methodology — including a participant demographics table. The body is organized by communication layer (channels → media → technologies), with each layer subdivided by audience (employees vs. external customers). A brief conclusion synthesizes the main findings. References follow APA format throughout.
Introduction to Walmart and the Audit
Walmart is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded in 1962 with the aim of providing discount goods to customers to enable them to live better. It went public in October 1969 to facilitate the achievement of this vision. Today, the company operates over 11,000 stores in 27 countries, dealing in a wide range of merchandise including foodstuffs, groceries, clothing, furniture, apparel, toys, and electronics. It is home to over 2.2 million employees across the world and is regarded as one of the world's most valuable companies.
Walmart is also the world's largest retailer and the world's largest company by revenues. This report reviews Walmart's communication processes, examining the specific channels and media that the company uses to communicate with its stakeholders. The insights provided here were collected through a communications audit involving participants from the company's main stakeholder groups.
Objective of the Communications Audit
The author worked as an associate at Walmart's store in West Hills, California for one year prior to this audit. During that period, familiarity was gained with the organization's leadership, business processes, goals, and operational strategies. Besides providing everyday low prices to customers, Walmart commits itself to maintaining a climate of positive communication with its stakeholders (Walmart Inc., 2015). In recent years, however, a rift has developed between the company's leadership and various stakeholder groups, particularly shareholders and employees. A previously conducted audit into the company's operations revealed that ineffective communication systems were partly to blame for this growing rift. Based on these revelations, the branch manager's permission was sought to conduct a communications audit to determine the effect of these issues on the West Hills branch.
The overriding goal of the audit was to seek facts and perceptions about the organization's communications strategy from customers and employees, and to propose recommendations that could ensure improved public relations management, greater stakeholder involvement, and enhanced two-way communication between the company and its internal and external stakeholders (Downs & Adrian, 2012). This report presents the findings of that audit; the recommendations are still being drafted and will appear in the final report to be submitted to the branch manager.
References
Chandler, D. & Munday, R. (2013). A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.
Downs, C. W. & Adrian, A. D. (2012). Assessing Organizational Communication: Strategic Communications Audit. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Gray, D. (2012). The Connected Company. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media Inc.
Newsom, D., Turk, J. & Kruckeberg, D. (2012). This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Yuan, Y. C., Zhao, X., Liao, Q. & Chi, C. (2013). The use of different information and communication technologies to support knowledge-sharing in organizations: From email to microblogging. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(8), 1965–1670.
Walmart Inc. (2015). Walmart corporate communications. Retrieved from https://corporate.walmart.com
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