CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

Corporate communication is the communication issued by a corporate

organization, body, or institute to all its public(s). "Publics" here can be both
internal (employees, stakeholders, i.e. share and stock holders) and external
(agencies, channel partners, media, government, industry bodies and institutes,
educational institutes and general public).

An organization needs to talk the same message to all of its stakeholders, in

order to transmit coherence, credibility and ethic. If one of these points is
broken, the whole community can make this organization disappear. The
Corporate Communication area will help this organization to build its message,
combining its vision, mission and values and will also support the organization
by communicating its message, activities and practices to all of its stakeholders.

The term Corporate Communication can be defined as the set of activities

involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external
communications aimed at creating favorable starting points with stakeholders
on which the company depends. Corporate communication consists of the
dissemination of information by a variety of specialists and generalists in an
organization, with the common goal of enhancing the organization's ability to
retain its license to operate.

Types of communication

There are three principal clusters of task-related communication activity within

organizations. They are typically classified as management communications,
marketing communications, and organizational communications.

Management communications are the communications that take place between

the management level of the organization and its internal and external
audiences. To support management communications, organizations rely heavily
on specialists in the areas of marketing communications and organizational
communications. Marketing communications get the bulk of the budgets in
most organizations, and consist of product advertising, direct mail, personal
selling, and sponsorship activities. They are supported to a greater or lesser by
organizational communications that generally emanate from specialists in public
relations, public affairs, investor relations, environmental communications,
corporate advertising, and employee communications. Corporate
communication encompasses management communications, marketing
communications, and organizational communications. Corporate
communication means a coherent approach to the development of
communications in organizations, one that communication specialist can adopt
to streamline their own communications activities by working from a centrally
coordinated strategic framework.

Key tasks of corporate communication

The responsibilities of corporate communication are therefore:

• to flesh out the profile of the "company behind the brand" (corporate
branding);
• to develop initiatives that minimize discrepancies between the company's
desired identity and brand features;
• to indicate who should perform which tasks in the field of
communication;
• to formulate and execute effective procedures in order to facilitate
decision making about matters concerning communication;
• to mobilize internal and external support behind corporate objectives.
• to coordinate with international business firms

Tools of corporate communication

Integrated communication can be achieved in various ways. The main four

practices are:

1. application of visual identity systems (sometimes referred to as "house

style")
2. use of integrated marketing communications;
3. reliance on coordinating teams;
4. adoption of a centralized planning system.

An overview of the corporate communication function

According to studies, over half of the heads of corporate communication

departments oversee communications functions that include internal/external
communications, managing corporate reputation and brand, recruiting and
retaining top talent, product launches, developing company strategy, corporate
social responsibility, boosting investor/analyst perception, and managing crisis.

FORMS OF COOPORATE COMMUNICATION:

Corporate communication helps increase revenue. Whether it takes the
form of a socially conscious television ad highlighting a company’s
environmental efforts or an internal promotion to strengthen employee
morale, corporate communication helps increase company revenue. As
consumers become more engaged and interactive with their Internet
use, corporate leaders alter their communication methods, and profits
remain the motivator. A 2008 study of Fortune magazine’s "Most
Admired Companies," conducted by KRC Research, Weber Shandwick
and Spencer Stuart found that more than a third of chief communications
officers identified reputation management as their top priority.

Internal Communication

Regularly meeting with employees helps give them the tools to

carry your brand forward.

Keeping employees interested and satisfied is a primary reason for

internal communication. From weekly newsletters outlining the
organization’s charitable contributions to participation challenges
inviting workers to help name a new product, internal
communications are geared toward getting and keeping
employees invested in the company’s way of thinking and
operating. The key messages in internal communications focus on
making the employee feel like part of the company, so that they
identify the organization’s success with their own

• Consumer Communication

Influencing consumer spending is a major motivation for corporate

communication.

If the true aim of corporate communication is to increase profit,

then the key audience has to be the consumer population those
individuals and groups that a company appeals to for sales.
Outreach to this population must be consistent and ongoing. The
message to consumers is that the brand or product meets a need
they already have in a way that is better than competitors. Using
advertising, sponsorships and charitable relationships helps
enhance a company's reputation, but meeting the first objective
 being essential to improving the life of the consumer is the largest
factor driving consumer communication.

Media Communication

Media coverage of your company can create a credibility that

straight advertising cannot.

Working with the media is a fundamental element of managing

your brand's reputation. Corporations use media communication to
increase product name recognition, establish a brand identity and
align themselves with parts of the demographic they are trying to
reach. Depending on the strategic plan for the product,
corporations may utilize a variety of media communication tactics
that overlap or entirely separate audiences. The message of media
communication is that a product exists and is directly related to the
culture of the intended audience.

Crisis Communication

Crisis communication plans must be implemented quickly in order

to be effective.

When a company faces a crisis, the way it communicates and the

message it uses may change dramatically. Public relations
disasters can be managed effectively if a corporation has a strong
plan for implementing crisis communication. Tactics may be
expanded to reach a larger audience and not just current
consumers of the product, but also casual observers who may
have no positive brand interactions with which to balance the
public relations crisis. Generally, the message in crisis
communications is one of corporate responsibility, awareness and
action