Corporate Communication – Summary
Chapter 1: Defining Corporate Communication
Content:
– Leadership
– Stakeholders (customers)
– Corporate social responsibility
What is the importance of Corporate Communication?
>> “CEO’s and senior executives of many large organisations and multinationals
nowadays consider protecting their company’s reputation to be ‘critical’ and as one of
their most important strategic objectives.”
A reputation is affected by different types of communicative input:
– Advertising
– Direct experiences
– (Negative) news
Until the 1970s, people preferred to refer to corporate communication as PR (Public
Relations); it used to be strategic and mostly tactical. Nowadays, it isn’t seen as one
separate function within a company, but rather an entrenched objective.
What is Corporate Communication?
>> “A management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all
internal and external communication with an overall purpose of establishing and
maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the
organisation is dependent.”
Managerial Activities VS. Tactical activities
- Planning - Producing messages
- Coordinating - Disseminating messages
- Counselling CEO’s and senior managers
Complexities within Corporate Communication:
– Disciplines have different stakeholders, goals, etc.
– Wide geographical range.
– Wide range of products and/or services.
– Corporate headquarters and various divisions and business units.
Trends in Corporate Communication since the 2010s:
– More active stakeholders: voicing, self-organising, advocating.
– Empowered by new media: interactive, dialogue based.
– Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and peer-to-peer influence: challenges and
opportunities.
,Terminology:
Mission = The overriding purpose in line with the stakeholders’ values and
expectations (What does the company do and what is important to them?).
Objectives = Statements of direction that are much more specific and measurable
(How we gauge our degree of success in accomplishing our mission?). Overall
objectives can be specified in different parts of an organisation.
Vision = The desired future state or aspiration of the organisation (What do we want
to become?).
Strategies = Ways to achieve the vision and live up to the mission (How will we
achieve our vision and objectives?).
Corporate identity = The profile and values communicated by an organisation.
Corporate image = An individual’s immediate set of associations in response to (a)
signal(s) or message(s) from or about a particular organisation at a specific point in
time.
Corporate reputation = An individual’s collective representation of past images of
an organisation (reduced through either communication or past experiences
established over time).
Stakeholder = Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the
achievements of the organisation’s objectives (employees, consumers, investors,
shareholders, suppliers, governments, NGO’s, etc.).
Market = A defined group for whom a product or service is (or may be) in demand,
and for whom an organisation creates and maintains products and services.
Communication = The tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal
and external groups (newsletters, promotion packages, advertising campaigns, etc.).
Integration = The act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity
is effectively and consistently communicated to internal and external groups.
, Chapter 2: Corporate Communication in Contemporary Organisations
Historical Developments:
1. Industrial Revolution >> Mass production and consumption >> Increased competition
>> The rise of Marketing Communications
2. Muckraking journalism >> The rise of Public Relations
3. Economic Depression >> Development of expertise on Public Relations (PR) and
marketing >> PR and marketing separate as external disciplines.
After the economic Depression, marketing communication and PR slowly started integrating
again with one another, seeing that there is a huge overlap between the two disciplines.
Overlap between marketing and PR:
Key:
A. Corporate
Advertising
B. Direct Marketing and
Sales Promotions
C. Distribution and
logistics, pricing,
and
development of
products
D. Corporate Public
Relations
E. Marketing Public
Relations and
Branded
Content
F. Mass Media Advertising
Drivers for integration of marketing and PR
– Organisational drivers
Efficiency.
Accountability.
Strategic direction and purpose.
– Communication-based drivers
Enormous communication clutter.
Message effectiveness.
Complementarity and multiplication of media.
– Market- and environment-based drivers
Transparency.
Inseparability of internal and external communication.
Overlap between stakeholder roles.
Chapter 1: Defining Corporate Communication
Content:
– Leadership
– Stakeholders (customers)
– Corporate social responsibility
What is the importance of Corporate Communication?
>> “CEO’s and senior executives of many large organisations and multinationals
nowadays consider protecting their company’s reputation to be ‘critical’ and as one of
their most important strategic objectives.”
A reputation is affected by different types of communicative input:
– Advertising
– Direct experiences
– (Negative) news
Until the 1970s, people preferred to refer to corporate communication as PR (Public
Relations); it used to be strategic and mostly tactical. Nowadays, it isn’t seen as one
separate function within a company, but rather an entrenched objective.
What is Corporate Communication?
>> “A management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all
internal and external communication with an overall purpose of establishing and
maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the
organisation is dependent.”
Managerial Activities VS. Tactical activities
- Planning - Producing messages
- Coordinating - Disseminating messages
- Counselling CEO’s and senior managers
Complexities within Corporate Communication:
– Disciplines have different stakeholders, goals, etc.
– Wide geographical range.
– Wide range of products and/or services.
– Corporate headquarters and various divisions and business units.
Trends in Corporate Communication since the 2010s:
– More active stakeholders: voicing, self-organising, advocating.
– Empowered by new media: interactive, dialogue based.
– Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and peer-to-peer influence: challenges and
opportunities.
,Terminology:
Mission = The overriding purpose in line with the stakeholders’ values and
expectations (What does the company do and what is important to them?).
Objectives = Statements of direction that are much more specific and measurable
(How we gauge our degree of success in accomplishing our mission?). Overall
objectives can be specified in different parts of an organisation.
Vision = The desired future state or aspiration of the organisation (What do we want
to become?).
Strategies = Ways to achieve the vision and live up to the mission (How will we
achieve our vision and objectives?).
Corporate identity = The profile and values communicated by an organisation.
Corporate image = An individual’s immediate set of associations in response to (a)
signal(s) or message(s) from or about a particular organisation at a specific point in
time.
Corporate reputation = An individual’s collective representation of past images of
an organisation (reduced through either communication or past experiences
established over time).
Stakeholder = Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the
achievements of the organisation’s objectives (employees, consumers, investors,
shareholders, suppliers, governments, NGO’s, etc.).
Market = A defined group for whom a product or service is (or may be) in demand,
and for whom an organisation creates and maintains products and services.
Communication = The tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal
and external groups (newsletters, promotion packages, advertising campaigns, etc.).
Integration = The act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity
is effectively and consistently communicated to internal and external groups.
, Chapter 2: Corporate Communication in Contemporary Organisations
Historical Developments:
1. Industrial Revolution >> Mass production and consumption >> Increased competition
>> The rise of Marketing Communications
2. Muckraking journalism >> The rise of Public Relations
3. Economic Depression >> Development of expertise on Public Relations (PR) and
marketing >> PR and marketing separate as external disciplines.
After the economic Depression, marketing communication and PR slowly started integrating
again with one another, seeing that there is a huge overlap between the two disciplines.
Overlap between marketing and PR:
Key:
A. Corporate
Advertising
B. Direct Marketing and
Sales Promotions
C. Distribution and
logistics, pricing,
and
development of
products
D. Corporate Public
Relations
E. Marketing Public
Relations and
Branded
Content
F. Mass Media Advertising
Drivers for integration of marketing and PR
– Organisational drivers
Efficiency.
Accountability.
Strategic direction and purpose.
– Communication-based drivers
Enormous communication clutter.
Message effectiveness.
Complementarity and multiplication of media.
– Market- and environment-based drivers
Transparency.
Inseparability of internal and external communication.
Overlap between stakeholder roles.
