Corporate communication

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Corporate communication(s) is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating a 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 ethics.

Contents

Corporate communication helps 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 organisation.

1. It enables people to exchange necessary information and 2. It helps to set members of the organisation apart from non-members.

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. [3] The public is often represented by self-appointed activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which 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

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 involves 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

Corporate offices with multiple communications to try to motivate employees. Interior of Verisure company in Trigone building at Angers in France - 2021-09-20.jpg
Corporate offices with multiple communications to try to motivate employees.

There are two approaches for identity:

Four types of identity can be distinguished: [9] [10]

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. [11]

Corporate reputation

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. [12]

Crisis communication

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: [11]

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 communication

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: [13]

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

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". [14] 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". [15]

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.

  • Managing content of corporate websites and/or other external touch points
  • Managing corporate publications – for the external world
  • Managing print media

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public relations</span> Management of public communication of organizations

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization to the public in order to influence their perception. Public relations and publicity differ in that PR is controlled internally, whereas publicity is not controlled and contributed by external parties. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The exposure is mostly media-based, and this differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. Public relations aims to create or obtain coverage for clients for free, also known as earned media, rather than paying for marketing or advertising also known as paid media. But in the early 21st century, advertising is also a part of broader PR activities.

A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public. The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also include things like product design, advertising, public relations etc. Corporate identity is a primary goal of corporate communication, aiming to build and maintain company identity.

The reputation or prestige of a social entity is an opinion about that entity – typically developed as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance.

In marketing, corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services. The activities and thinking that go into corporate branding are different from product and service branding because the scope of a corporate brand is typically much broader. Although corporate branding is a distinct activity from product or service branding, these different forms of branding can, and often do, take place side-by-side within a given corporation. The ways in which corporate brands and other brands interact is known as the corporate brand architecture.

In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors.

In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization. It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often via the media. The subjects of publicity include people of public recognition, goods and services, organizations, and works of art or entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebranding</span> Marketing strategy

Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, and other stakeholders. Often, this involves radical changes to a brand's logo, name, legal names, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes. Such changes typically aim to reposition the brand/company, occasionally to distance itself from negative connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand upmarket; they may also communicate a new message a new board of directors wishes to communicate.

Marketing communications refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.

Investor relations (IR) is a "strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation." as defined by National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). IR is also function to assess the impact of a company actions on the company's position in the capital markets.

Reputation management, originally a public relations term, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. The growth of the internet and social media led to growth of reputation management companies, with search results as a core part of a client's reputation. Online reputation management, sometimes abbreviated as ORM, focuses on the management of product and service search engine results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal communications</span>

Internal communications (IC) is the function responsible for effective communications among participants within an organization. The scope of the function varies by organization and practitioner, from producing and delivering messages and campaigns on behalf of management, to facilitating two-way dialogue and developing the communication skills of the organization's participants.

Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships. Business development can be taken to mean any activity by either a small or large organization, non-profit or for-profit enterprise which serves the purpose of ‘developing’ the business in some way. In addition, business development activities can be done internally or externally by a business development consultant. External business development can be facilitated through Planning Systems, which are put in place by governments to help small businesses. In addition, reputation building has also proven to help facilitate business development.

The public relations officer (PRO) or chief communications officer (CCO) or corporate communications officer is a C-suite level officer responsible for communications, public relations, and/or public affairs in an organization. Typically, the CCO of a corporation reports to the chief executive officer (CEO). The CCO may hold an academic degree in communications. A Public Relations Officer has a positive public opinion of an organization and increased brand knowledge as their first concern. They access and monitor their client's online presence to prepare the right message to convey. They can also coach clients on the importance of self-image and how to communicate with the media. A Public Relations Officer aims to positively handle and communicate information internally and externally.

Strategic communication can mean either communicating a concept, a process, or data that satisfies a long-term strategic goal of an organization by allowing facilitation of advanced planning, or communicating over long distances usually using international telecommunications or dedicated global network assets to coordinate actions and activities of operationally significant commercial, non-commercial and military business or combat and logistic subunits. It can also mean the related function within an organization, which handles internal and external communication processes. Strategic communication can also be used for political warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand ambassador</span> Person employed by an organization or company to represent a brand in a positive light

A brand ambassador is a person engaged by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the corporate identity in appearance, demeanor, values and ethics. The key element of brand ambassadors is their ability to use promotional strategies that will strengthen the customer-product-service relationship, influence a large audience to buy and consume more.

Cornelis Bernardus Maria (Cees) van Riel is a Dutch organizational theorist, consultant, and Professor of Corporate Communication at Rotterdam School of Management and Director of the Corporate Communication Centre at the Erasmus University, known for his work in the area of corporate communication and reputation management.

Employer brand is branding and marketing the entirety of the employment experience. It describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers. The term was first used in the early 1990s, and has since become widely adopted by the global management community. Minchington describes employer brand as "the image of your organization as a 'great place to work' in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market. The art and science of employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing your company's employer brand."

Business relations are connections between stakeholders in the process of businesses, such as employer–employee relationships, managers as well as outsourced business partners. The association of businesses began relationships that have been constructed through communication channels such as the likes of telephones, personal contacts, and e-mails. These types of contacts are maintained and deepened through similar channels in internal businesses and organizations.

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

A chief reputation officer (CRO) is an executive-level position at a corporation, company, organization, or institution, typically reporting directly to the CEO or board of directors and belonging to the executive board of directors.

References

  1. 1 2 Riel, Cees B.M. van; Fombrun, Charles J. (2007). Essentials Of Corporate Communication: Abingdon & New York: Routledge. ISBN   9780415328265.
  2. ↑ "Marketing Communication". August 2021.
  3. ↑ "Managing Corporate Communications in a Competitive Climate," a Conference Board Study, by Kathryn Troy, 1996.
  4. ↑ Nayyar, P.R. (1990) "Information asymmetries: a source of competitive advantage for diversified service firms", Strategic Management Journal, 11: 513-519.
  5. ↑ Aaker, D.A. and Myers, J.G. (1991) Advertising Management, New York: Prentice-Hall.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Gray, E.R. and Balmer, J.M.T. (1998) Managing Corporate Image and Corporate Reputation, London: Long Range Planning.
  8. ↑ Pratt, M.G. and Foreman, P.O. (2000) "Classifiying managerial responses to multiple organizational identities", Academy of Management Review, 25 (1): 18-42).
  9. ↑ Balmer, J.M.T. (1997) Corporate Identity: Past, Present and Future, International Centre for Corporate Identity Studies, Working paper series 1997/4.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. 1 2 Argenti, P.A. (2009) Corporate Communication, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
  12. ↑ Charles, F. (1996) Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ Dutton, J. and Ottensmeyer, E. (1987) "Strategic issue management systems: forums, function and context", Academy of Management Review, 12: 355-365.
  15. ↑ Cobb, B.W. and Elder, C.D. (1972) Participation in American Politics: the Dynamics of Agenda Building, boston: Allyn and Becon
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