Summary by Lize Waeijen, 2022
Corporate communication
A guide to Theory & practi ce
Table of contents
Chapter 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 3...............................................................................................................................................5
Chapter 4...............................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 5.............................................................................................................................................10
Chapter 6.............................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 7.............................................................................................................................................14
Chapter 8.............................................................................................................................................16
Chapter 9.............................................................................................................................................18
Chapter 10...........................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 11...........................................................................................................................................23
1
,Summary by Lize Waeijen, 2022
Chapter 1
Stakeholders: people or groups of people that are relevant to an organization
Reputation: the reputation of an organization depends on a combination of: advertising, direct
experiences and (negative) news.
Public relations (PR) was an old term for corporate communication (CC), and it was more focused on
tactical support and communication with the press. When stakeholders wanted more information
about organizations CC started to form.
Corporate communication: all the communication with stakeholders with the purpose of establishing
and maintaining favorable reputations.
Factors that make CC more complex:
Different goals for different stakeholders
Wide geographical range
Wide range of products/services
Big businesses have various headquarters that needs to communicate etc.
Stakeholders ask for openness, clear values and personal communications from organizations.
Corporate communication covers:
Corporate advertising
Corporate design: Bavaria logo design
Employee communication
Issue and crisis management
Media relations
Investor relations
Chane communication
Public affairs
Publicity and sponsorships
Investors are very important stakeholders.
Words that sound similar but are not:
Mission – vision – objectives - strategies
Mission: the overall purpose of an organization, should be in line with the stakeholders' values and
exportations (who we are, what we value)
Vision: the desired future state of an organization, what direction an organization wants to go (what
we want to become)
Objectives: the overall aims in line with the overall purpose of an organization (how we will achieve
our vision)
Strategies: the ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into
effects (how we gauge our degree of success)
Corporate identity – corporate image – corporate reputation
Corporate identity: the profile and values an organization wants to project to stakeholders
Corporate image: is from the perspective of stakeholders, at a specific time point
Corporate Reputation: collective representation of past images of an organization, takes a long time
to establish
Stakeholder – market
Stakeholder: any group or individual who can affect or is affected by what the organization achieves,
for example customers or employee's
Market (=doelgroep): a defined group for who a product/service may be interesting
2
, Summary by Lize Waeijen, 2022
Communication – integration
Communication: The tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal and external
groups
Integration: the coordination of all communication visuals, logo's, themes and tones
CC in 1980s: consolidated departments
Fragmentation led to each department sub optimizing their own performance
Restructuring trend in corporate organizations
Realization that strategic positioning was needed for stakeholders
CC in 1990s-2000s: positioning
Corporate branding
Corporate identity
Corporate reputation
CC in 2010s:
More active stakeholders
Empowered by new media
Stakeholders share more experiences, opinions, ideas about organizations
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and peer-to-peer influence: challenges and
opportunities
Media wisdom: credibility of the organizations
Chapter 2
Late 18th century – 1930s
industrial revolution: mass production/consumption -> Increased competition -> Rise of marketing
communications
Early 20th century
Muckraking journalism (journalists would expose scandals) -> companies would be more aware
about public relationships
1920-1930
Economic depression -> development of expertise on PR and marketing (PR and marketing as
separate external disciplines)
1980s
Marketing communication (focused on markets and products) and public relations (PR, focused on
publics and issues) integrated more and more
Drivers: factors that caused marketing and PR to integrate more and more
Organizational drivers: more efficient, increases the accountability (reduce costs), better
strategics, there is an overlap between the disciplines
Communication-based drivers: enormous communication clutter, message effectiveness
through consistency, complementarity and multiplication of media
Market- and environment-based drivers : more transparent, internal & external
communication is not separated, overlap between stakeholder roles (employee can be
customer)
3
Corporate communication
A guide to Theory & practi ce
Table of contents
Chapter 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 3...............................................................................................................................................5
Chapter 4...............................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 5.............................................................................................................................................10
Chapter 6.............................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 7.............................................................................................................................................14
Chapter 8.............................................................................................................................................16
Chapter 9.............................................................................................................................................18
Chapter 10...........................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 11...........................................................................................................................................23
1
,Summary by Lize Waeijen, 2022
Chapter 1
Stakeholders: people or groups of people that are relevant to an organization
Reputation: the reputation of an organization depends on a combination of: advertising, direct
experiences and (negative) news.
Public relations (PR) was an old term for corporate communication (CC), and it was more focused on
tactical support and communication with the press. When stakeholders wanted more information
about organizations CC started to form.
Corporate communication: all the communication with stakeholders with the purpose of establishing
and maintaining favorable reputations.
Factors that make CC more complex:
Different goals for different stakeholders
Wide geographical range
Wide range of products/services
Big businesses have various headquarters that needs to communicate etc.
Stakeholders ask for openness, clear values and personal communications from organizations.
Corporate communication covers:
Corporate advertising
Corporate design: Bavaria logo design
Employee communication
Issue and crisis management
Media relations
Investor relations
Chane communication
Public affairs
Publicity and sponsorships
Investors are very important stakeholders.
Words that sound similar but are not:
Mission – vision – objectives - strategies
Mission: the overall purpose of an organization, should be in line with the stakeholders' values and
exportations (who we are, what we value)
Vision: the desired future state of an organization, what direction an organization wants to go (what
we want to become)
Objectives: the overall aims in line with the overall purpose of an organization (how we will achieve
our vision)
Strategies: the ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into
effects (how we gauge our degree of success)
Corporate identity – corporate image – corporate reputation
Corporate identity: the profile and values an organization wants to project to stakeholders
Corporate image: is from the perspective of stakeholders, at a specific time point
Corporate Reputation: collective representation of past images of an organization, takes a long time
to establish
Stakeholder – market
Stakeholder: any group or individual who can affect or is affected by what the organization achieves,
for example customers or employee's
Market (=doelgroep): a defined group for who a product/service may be interesting
2
, Summary by Lize Waeijen, 2022
Communication – integration
Communication: The tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal and external
groups
Integration: the coordination of all communication visuals, logo's, themes and tones
CC in 1980s: consolidated departments
Fragmentation led to each department sub optimizing their own performance
Restructuring trend in corporate organizations
Realization that strategic positioning was needed for stakeholders
CC in 1990s-2000s: positioning
Corporate branding
Corporate identity
Corporate reputation
CC in 2010s:
More active stakeholders
Empowered by new media
Stakeholders share more experiences, opinions, ideas about organizations
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and peer-to-peer influence: challenges and
opportunities
Media wisdom: credibility of the organizations
Chapter 2
Late 18th century – 1930s
industrial revolution: mass production/consumption -> Increased competition -> Rise of marketing
communications
Early 20th century
Muckraking journalism (journalists would expose scandals) -> companies would be more aware
about public relationships
1920-1930
Economic depression -> development of expertise on PR and marketing (PR and marketing as
separate external disciplines)
1980s
Marketing communication (focused on markets and products) and public relations (PR, focused on
publics and issues) integrated more and more
Drivers: factors that caused marketing and PR to integrate more and more
Organizational drivers: more efficient, increases the accountability (reduce costs), better
strategics, there is an overlap between the disciplines
Communication-based drivers: enormous communication clutter, message effectiveness
through consistency, complementarity and multiplication of media
Market- and environment-based drivers : more transparent, internal & external
communication is not separated, overlap between stakeholder roles (employee can be
customer)
3
