Corporate communication

Further information: Corporate propaganda

Corporate communication is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point of view among stakeholders on which the company depends.[1] It is the messages issued by a corporate organization, body, or institute to its audiences, such as employees, media, channel partners and the general public. Organizations aim to communicate the same message to all its stakeholders, to transmit coherence, credibility and ethic. Corporate Communications help organizations explain their mission, combine its many visions and values into a cohesive message to stakeholders. The concept of corporate communication could be seen as an integrative communication structure linking stakeholders to the organization.

Methods and tactics

Three principal clusters of task-planning and communication form the backbone of business and the activity of business organizations. These include management communication, marketing communication, and organizational communication.

The responsibilities of corporate communication are:

A Conference Board Study of hundreds of the US’s largest firms showed that close to 80 percent have corporate communication functions that include media relations, speech writing, employee communication, corporate advertising, and community relations.[2] The public is often represented by self-appointed activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who identify themselves with a particular issue.

Most companies have specialized groups of professionals for communicating with different audiences, such as internal communication, marketing communication, investor relations, government relations and public relations.[1]

Components

Corporate branding

Main article: Corporate branding

A corporate brand is the perception of a company that unites a group of products or services for the public under a single name, a shared visual identity, and a common set of symbols. The process of corporate branding consists creating favourable associations and positive reputation with both internal and external stakeholders. The purpose of a corporate branding initiative is to generate a positive halo over the products and businesses of the company, imparting more favourable impressions of those products and businesses.

In more general terms, research suggests that corporate branding is an appropriate strategy for companies to implement when:

Corporate and organizational identity

There are two approaches for identity:

Four types of identity can be distinguished:[8][9]

Corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility (often referred to as corporate social responsibility), corporate citizenship, sustainability, and even conscious capitalism are some of the terms bandied about the news media and corporate marketing efforts as companies jockey to win the trust and loyalty of constituents. Corporate responsibility (CR) constitutes an organization’s respect for society’s interests, demonstrated by taking ownership of the effects its activities have on key constituencies including customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the environment, in all parts of their operations. In short, CR prompts a corporation to look beyond its traditional bottom line, to the social implications of its business.[10]

Corporate reputation

Main article: Reputation management

Reputations are overall assessments of organizations by their stakeholders. They are aggregate perceptions by stakeholders of an organization's ability to fulfill their expectations, whether these stakeholders are interested in buying the company's products, working for the company, or investing in the company's shares.[11]

In 2000, the US-based Council of PR Firms identified seven programs developed by either media organizations or market research firms, used by companies to assess or benchmark their corporate reputations. Of these, only four are conducted regularly and have broad visibility:

Crisis communications

Crisis communication is sometimes considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity. The crisis for organizations can be defined as follows:[10]

A crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally or as a result of human error, intervention, or even malicious intent. It can include tangible devastation, such as the destruction of lives or assets, or intangible devastation, such as the loss of an organization's credibility or other reputational damage. The latter outcomes may be the result of management's response to tangible devastation or the result of human error. A crisis usually has significant actual or potential financial impact on a company, and it usually affects multiple constituencies in more than one market.

Internal/employee communications

As the extent of communication grows, many companies create an employee relations (ER) function with dedicated staff to manage the numerous media through which senior managers can communicate among themselves and with the rest of the organization. Internal communication in the 21st century is more than the memos, publications, and broadcasts that comprise it; it’s about building a corporate culture on values that drive organizational excellence. ER specialists are generally expected to fulfill one or more of the following four roles:[12]

Investor relations

Main article: Investor relations

The investor relations (IR) function is used by companies which publicly trade shares on a stock exchange. In such companies, the purpose of the IR specialist is to interface with current and potential financial stakeholders-namely retail investors, institutional investors, and financial analysts.

The role of investor relations is to fulfill three principal functions:

Public relations: issues management and media relations

Main article: Public relations

The role of the public relations specialist, in many ways, is to communicate with the general public in ways that serve the interests of the company. PR therefore consists of numerous specialty areas that convey information about the company to the public, including sponsorships, events, issues management and media relations. When executing these types of activities, the PR Specialist must incorporate broader corporate messages to convey the company’s strategic positioning. This ensures the PR activities ultimately convey messages that distinguish the company vis-à-vis its competitors and the overall marketplace, while also communicating the company’s value to target audiences.

Issues management

A key role of the PR specialist is to make the company better known for traits and attributes that build the company’s perceived distinctiveness and competitiveness with the public. In recent years, PR specialists have become increasingly involved in helping companies manage strategic issues – public concerns about their activities that are frequently magnified by special interest groups and NGOs. The role of the PR specialist therefore also consists of issues management, namely the “set of organizational procedures, routines, personnel, and issues”.[13] A strategic issue is one that compels a company to deal with it because there is “ a conflict between two or more identifiable groups over procedural or substantive matters relating to the distribution of positions or resources”.[14]

Media relations

To build better relationships with the media, organizations must cultivate positive relations with influential members of the media. This task might be handled by employees within the company’s media relations department or handled by a public relations firm.

Company/spokesperson profiling

These "public faces" are considered authorities in their respective sector/field and ensure the company/organization is in the limelight.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Riel, Cees B.M. van; Fombrun, Charles J. (2007). Essentials Of Corporate Communication: Abingdon & New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415328265.
  2. ↑ “Managing Corporate Communications in a Competitive Climate,” a Conference Board Study, by Kathryn Troy, 1996.
  3. ↑ Nayyar, P.R. (1990) "Information asymmetries: a source of competitive advantage for diversified service firms", Strategic Management Journal, 11: 513-519.
  4. ↑ Aaker, D.A. and Myers, J.G. (1991) Advertising Management, New York: Prentice-Hall.
  5. ↑ Brown, T.J. and Dacin, P.A. (1997) "The company and the product: corporate associations and consumer product responses", Journal of Marketing, 61 (1): 68-84.
  6. ↑ Gray, E.R. and Balmer, J.M.T. (1998) Managing Corporate Image and Corporate Reputation, London: Long Range Planning.
  7. ↑ Pratt, M.G. and Foreman, P.O. (2000) "Classifiying managerial responses to multiple organizational identities", Academy of Management Review, 25 (1): 18-42).
  8. ↑ Balmer, J.M.T. (1997) Corporate Identity: Past, Present and Future, International Centre for Corporate Identity Studies, Working paper series 1997/4.
  9. ↑ Balmer, J.M.T. and Wilson, A. (1998) "Corporate Identity: there is more to it than meets the eye", International Studies of Management & Organization, 28 (3): 12-31.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Argenti, P.A. (2009) Corporate Communication, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
  11. ↑ Charles, F. (1996) Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
  12. ↑ Krone, K., Jablin, F.M., and Putnam, L.L. (1987) "Communication theory and organizational communication: multiple perspectives", in F.M. Jablin et al (eds), Handbook of Organizational Communication, pp. 18-69, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
  13. ↑ Dutton, J. and Ottensmeyer, E. (1987) "Strategic issue management systems: forums, function and context", Academy of Management Review, 12: 355-365.
  14. ↑ Cobb, B.W. and Elder, C.D. (1972) Participation in American Politics: the Dynamics of Agenda Building, boston: Allyn and Becon