Summary Corporate Communication
Chapter 1 Defining Corporate Communication
Scope and definition
Until the 1970s practitioners had used the term ‘public relations’ to describe communication with
stakeholders. This function, which was tactical in most companies, largely consisted of communication
with the press. When other stakeholders, internal and external to the company, started to demand
more information from the company, practitioners subsequently started to look at communication as
being more. This new function came to incorporate a full range of specialized disciplines including:
o Corporate advertising
o Corporate design
o Internal communications
o Issue and crisis management
o Media relations
o Investor relations (about stocks)
o Change communications
o Public affairs
An important characteristic of this new function is that it focuses on the organization as a whole, and
on the important task of how an organization presents itself to all its key stakeholders, both internal
and external.
Stakeholder: any individual or group who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organisations objectives. Essential stakeholders are:
o Costumers: directly related to sales
o Employees: identity building
Corporate communication is:
1. A management function;
2. That offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external
communication;
3. With an overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations;
4. With stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent.
Corporate communication demands an integrated approach to managing communication. The general
idea is that the sustainability and success of a company depends on how it is viewed by key
stakeholders, and communication is a critical part of building, maintaining and protecting such
reputations. If anything is communicated differently, this increases the difficulty of consistent
reputation.
The essence is that CC is geared towards establishing favourable corporate images and reputations
with all of organizations stakeholder groups, so that these groups act in a way that is
conducive(=bevorderend) to the success of the organization. CC focuses on the organization as a
whole, and the important task of how an organization is presented to all of its key stakeholders,
internal and external. Business communications and management communications are more technical
and applied. They’re also more focussed within the organization and focussed on writing
presentational skills.
,Trends in corporate communication
In the period of the 1980s organizations integrated departments such as media relations, advertising
and sales promotions into more specific working practices. Fragmentation is likely to lead to a process
of sub-optimization where each department optimizes its own performance ‘instead of working for
the organization as a whole’. Around the 1990s communication had to be used more strategically and
organizations became primarily concerned with ideas as corporate identity.
Stakeholders have become much more active in voicing their expectations towards organizations and -
empowered by new media technologies - have also started to expect more interactive and dialogue-
based forms of communication. Individual stakeholders can now share experiences, opinions and
ideas, and organize for action at scale.
Communication was, up until the 1970s, largely used in a tactical support role for other functions such
as finance and marketing in the organization where its role was to announce corporate decisions,
publicize corporate events or promote products and services. Since the 1980s, communication
became used in a more strategic sense to realize the organizations objectives and to build
reputational capital with the stakeholders upon whom the organization depends for its continued
success and survival. The positioning paradigm that emerged at that time is however gradually
evolving into a new era of ‘stakeholder engagement’ which brings with it new points of emphasis
around interactivity, authenticity, transparency and advocacy.
Most recent trends 2010s
o Active stakeholders (voicing, self-organising)
o Media technology: interactive, dialogue-based
o Word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer
o Media wisdom: believability
Current needs
o Transparency
o Characters and narratives to express identity
o Stakeholders as advocates (voorstander) beautygloss for instance
Publicity/
promotions/ stakeholder
positioning
information/ engagement
dissemination 1980s-2000s
2000s-present
1900s-1970s
Key terms in this chapter are:
o Corporate communication = The function and process of managing communications between
an organization and important stakeholder groups (including markets and publics) in its
environment.
o Corporate identity = The profile and values communicated by an organization/the character a
company seeks to establish for itself in the mind of its stakeholders, reinforced by consistent
use of logos, colours, typefaces and so on.
o Corporate image = The way a company is perceived, based on a certain message and at a
certain point in time/the immediate set of meanings inferred by an individual in confrontation
or response to one or more signals from or about a particular organization at a single point in
time.
, o Corporate reputation = The general evaluation of an organization (compared to its nearest
rivals), leading to likeability and preference.
o Fragmentation = The division of the communication department into different specific
working spaces such as media relations, advertising and sales promotions.
o Integration = The act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity is
effectively and consistently communicated to internal and external groups.
o Vision = The desired future state of the organization.
o Mission = The overriding purpose of the organization in line with values and expectations from
the major stakeholders and concerned with the boundaries of the organization.
o Stakeholder engagement = The emphasis on stakeholders around interactivity, authenticity,
transparency and advocacy.
o Transparency = The company lets information flows freely between them and the
stakeholders.
o Authenticity = The quality or condition of communication (e.g. leadership communication)
being authentic, trustworthy or genuine.
o Advocacy = An attempt to try to change stakeholder expectations and public opinions on an
issue through issue campaigns and lobbying.
o Objectives = The more precise statements of direction which are to be achieved by strategic
initiatives or strategies.
o Strategies = Involve actions and communications that are linked to objectives and are often
specified in term of specific functions
o Positioning = The way in which a company is communicated to its target market, describing
the attributes and values of the company and its added value/appeal relative to its customers
and the competition.
Chapter 2 Corporate Communication in Contemporary Organizations
Integrated communication
In the Industrial Revolution there were large industrial corporations. These firms sought the continued
support of government, customers and the public, which required them to invest in public relations
and advertising campaigns. The 1900s began with a cry from investigative journalists who exposed
scandals associated with power, capitalism and government corruption and who raised public
awareness of the unethical and sometimes harmful practices of business. To respond, organizations
hired writers to be spokespeople for them and to announce general information to these groups and
the public as large, to gain public approval for their decisions and behaviours.
Between 1920 and 1930 these spokespeople were brought in house and communication activities to
both the general public and the markets became more systematic and skilled, so marketing and public
relations were discovered. Both emerged as separate external communication disciplines when the
organizations realize that in order to succeed, they needed to concern themselves with issues of
public concern (public relations) as well as with ways of effectively bringing products to markets
(marketing). Since the 1980s these two were brought together under the name of Corporate
Communication.
Most commonly used:
-> Marketing
-> Public relations M
pr
, Marketing communication is about markets and products, while public relations is about publics
issues. It’s about working with publics, talking about challenges and what they expect from the
company. You sell and receive ideas
Companies started in 1980s to make greater use of marketing public relations: the publicizing of news
and events related to the launch and promotion of products and services. It involves the use of public
relations techniques for marketing purposes which was found to be a cost-effective tool for
generating awareness and brand favourability and to use communication about the organization’s
brands with credibility.
As you can see above, ‘marketing’ public relations are the use of what are traditionally seen as public
relations tools for marketing purposing, including product publicity and sponsorship. ‘Corporate’ public
relations are the public relations activities towards ‘corporate’ stakeholders, which excludes
customers and prospects in a market.
This overlap and complementarity between marketing and public relations suggested to organizations
that it is useful to align both disciplines more closely or at least manage them in a more integrated
manner.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) = a concept of marketing communication planning that
recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic role of a variety of
disciplines and combines these disciplines (advertising, sales promotions, public relations and direct
marketing) to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact.
Public relations are reduced to activities of product publicity and sponsorship within IMC.
Drivers for integrated communication
The importance of integrating marketing communications and public relations in this way has resulted
from a variety of factors or drivers as these can be more aptly (toepasselijk) called.
