Samenvatting Corporate Communication, ISBN: 9781526491978 Premaster Corporate Communication (825051-B-6-2021 SM2)

SUMMARY CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

Chapter 1: Corporate communication definition

Corporate communication
= A management function | that offers a framework for the effective coordination off all internal and external
communication | with an overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations | with
stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent

 Management function at level the board to be coherent
 Involves optimisation of reputation
 More sale + employees
 Creating brand image
 Integrating marketing (concern themselves with ways of effectively bringing products to markets) and
public relations (concern themselves with issues of public concerns)
 Traditional view: these two things are distinct
 Markets are created by identification of a segment of the population for which a product/service is
demand
 Public are seen as actively creating and mobilizing themselves whenever companies make decisions
that affect a group of people adversely
 Concern themselves with more general news related to entire organization

Corporate communication has changed over time:




Range of specialized disciplines:
 Corporate advertising
 Corporate design
 Internal communications
 Issue and crisis management
 Media relations
 Investor relations
 Change communications
 Public affairs

Tasks corporate communication manager
Managerial tasks and tactical tasks are both needed.
The work of a corporate communication manager is not only writing nice texts, but primarily managerial. The
corporate communication manager has his place close by the CEO and management, because they help to
decide what policy the organization will take from a communication perspective. They need support from the
management, because it takes planning, coordinating between the different departments.

Managerial
 Planning
 Coordinating
 Counselling CEOs and senior managers (=adviseren)


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,Tactical: What to communicate and how to communicate
 Producing messages: texts for the website, for press conferences, who is going to join a talk show and
what is he/she going to say
 Disseminating messages (= verspreiden)

Factors that make corporate communication complex
 Wide geographical range (multinationals)
 Wide range of services and products
 Corporate headquarters and various division and business units
 Consensus within the organisation often hard to establish
 Demands and integrated approach to harness the strategic interest of the organization at large
 Covering all the stakeholder strategies
 Many people and organizations involved

Key concepts

Mission
= Overriding purpose in line with the values and expectations of stakeholders
 Who we are + what we value?
 What business are we in?/ What business are we?
 Stakeholders are needed

Vision
= Desired future state: the aspiration of the organization
 What do we want to be known and appreciated for?

Corporate objectives
= Statement of overall aims in line with the overall purpose
 More short-time and precise
 In line with overall vision

Strategy
= The ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved an put into effect
 Often specified in terms of specific organizational functions (finance, HR)
 How it is done




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,Corporate identity
= The profile and values communicated by an organization
 Integrate all communication to ensure that different stakeholders conceive an organization in a
favourable and broadly consistent manner
In line with the projected identity

Corporate image
= The immediate set of associations of an individual in response to one or more signals or messages from or
about a particular organization at a single point in time
 Related to individual actions
 Damage can be repaired

Corporate reputation
= An individual’s collective representation of past images of an organization (induced through either
communication or past experiences) established over time
 Longer term
 Damage to reputation is difficult to repair




 Positioning in the mind of the
stakeholder




Stakeholder
= Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives
 Neighbour’s, houses, student, the city, the restaurant at the University

Market
= A defined group for whom a product is or may be in demand (and for whom an organization created and
maintains products and services)

Communication
= The tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal and external groups

Integration
= The act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity is effectively and consistently
communicated to internal and external groups




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, Corporate communication trends:
1980s:
 Fragmentation led to each department sub optimizing their own performance
 Restructuring trend in corporate organisations
 Realization that strategic positioning was needed for stakeholders
1990s – 2000s:
 Corporate branding + corporate identity + corporate reputation => positioning in the mind of the
stakeholders
 Downsides of positioning view:
o Gives impression that stakeholders can be managed or even controlled
o Models of reputation management
o Corporate messages to direct outcomes in terms of awareness, attitudes or broader
reputational change
o Implies a linear model of communication
o It neglects the fact that stakeholders are active agents, not passive agents or speakers-in-
waiting




Questions arising from the positioning view:
- Can stakeholders be managed or even be controlled?
- Are models of reputation management all that matter?
- Corporate message always directed towards reputational change
- Are linear models of communication always the best?
- Are stakeholders always passive agents or speakers-in-waiting?

2010s:
 Stakeholders have become more active: voicing their expectations, self-organizing & advocating
(pleiten)
 Empowered by new media technologies that are more interactive and dialogue based
 Gradual shift towards stakeholders sharing experiences, opinions and ideas about organizations
 Challenges and opportunities through word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer influence
Vb: Werknemers kunnen een bedrijf in het slechte daglicht zetten als ze het ergens niet mee eens zijn via bv
social media

Engagement:
 Not merely about sharing opinions and perspectives
 Organization must be transparent

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