PRESS RELEASE

• The aim of press releases is to transfer news to journalists so that it can be made
public.
• More likely to be used and placed in a news medium when they refer to newsworthy
events or items that are current and have a human interest or appeal, when the
release is written in a factual manner and with a clear heading and lead to the topic.
• When writing a press release, communication practitioners should keep the
expectations, preferred frames and deadlines of the different media in mind.
• The print journalist, for example, will employ a pyramid scheme where the most
important information is shared first in the article, and as the article increases in
length, the information appearing further down in the news article will be deemed
less important.
• The radio journalist will try to share all of the information early on.
• A reporter who is assigned to a business or financial desk will be concerned about
angles from the perspective of business audiences and the implications for financial
performance and financial markets.
• Television and the internet are ‘fast’ media in the sense that a topic or article, once it
is finished, is published directly, whereas newspapers are slower in that they wait with
publication until the next deadline. Magazines have even longer deadlines.
• The chance of incorrect reporting is greater for these fast media.

PRESS CONFERENCE
• Disseminating information to the news media involves inviting journalists to a press
conference.
• Ex: Organizations release financial results or share corporate information at the
annual general meeting with shareholders.
• Ad hoc press conferences around an issue or crisis.
• Allows journalists to address questions to the company executives gathered at the
event.
• More applicable when information cannot be conveyed in a standardized, written
form or when the information involves a controversial or sensitive issue.

INTERVIEWS
• Journalists often request an interview with official spokespersons or with the CEO or
other senior executives.
• Communication practitioners need to offer executives advice and training on news
angles in relation to corporate themes and on specific guidelines regarding the
interview format.
• Advising staff to keep ‘control’ of the interview by asking the journalist to call or come
at a prearranged time, to brief them about the interview topics in advance, and to
supply them with a copy of the interview transcript and final article so that facts,
opinions and attributions can be checked.
• Need to be trained to be skilled communicators.
• Media training so that they stay on message, synchronize their body language with
their verbal messages, and can anticipate questions from journalists.
• Translate into admiration, respect and trust and a stronger overall corporate
reputation.

VERTICAL & HORIZONTAL STRUCTURE

Vertical Horizontal
• Task and activities divided and • Ensures that tasks and activities,
arranged into department and while spread out over departments,
located in the hierarchy of authority are combined into the basic
within an organization functions that need to be fulfilled
• Occupant of the higher position has within the organization.
the authority to direct and control • Enable companies to respond fast to
the activities of the occupant of the emergent issues, provide control and
lower position. ensure that consistent messages are
 • Staff of this department directly being sent out through all the
report to the CEO and executive various communications channels.
team. • May offset the potential
• Divides each organization’s primary disadvantages of the vertical
tasks into smaller tasks and structure and allow for cross-
activities. functional teamwork and flexibility.
• Take various forms including multi-
disciplinary task or project teams,
standardized work processes and
council meetings.

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMNET & STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Management Engagement
• Fragmented among various • Integrated management approach
departments • Focus on building relationships.
• Focus on managing relationships • Emphasis on ‘bridging’ and creating
• Emphasis on ‘buffering’ the opportunities & mutual benefits.
organization from stakeholders • Linked to long-term business goals.
interfering with internal operations. • Coherent approach driven by
• Linked to short-term business goals. mission, values, and corporate
• Idiosyncratic implementation strategies.
dependant on department’s interest
& personal style of manager.

TAGLINE & SLOGAN

• Brief phrase that highlights the overall positioning of the organization, and distils one
or more themed messages of an organization into a single expression or statement.
• Most memorable taglines are vivid and often a creative play on words.
• Wordplay:
 ➢ Playing with grammar is an easy way to grab attention and to say something
unique and memorable about an organization
➢ Ex: Verbing or verbification of nouns, where nouns are transformed into verbs.
➢ Transform nouns into verbs and invent new phrases such as the classic
example of ‘do you yahoo!?’.
➢ Apple’s tagline of ‘think different’ (rather than ‘think differently’) is a good
example.

• Figurative Language:
➢ As opposed to literal language is metaphorical, where words and phrases are
used in ways that do not literally apply to the context at hand.
➢ Ex: ‘flying in the face of ordinary’ (Virgin Atlantic)
➢ The word flying here refers directly to the core business of the company.
➢ Part of an idiomatic, figurative expression (‘flying in the face of’) which is read
metaphorically rather than literally (that is, their airplanes do not literally fly
into the face of someone or something)
➢ The idiom however invokes a secondary reading of challenging conventions
and of going beyond ordinary service in the airline industry.
➢ Provide further resonance and which leads a phrase to be better remembered
and to pack more punch.

• Iconic Words:
➢ Bring forth a particular image or scenario in the minds of stakeholders.
➢ Pairing words in a narrative sequence.
➢ Ex: ‘diamonds are forever’ (De Beers)
A timeline in your head that signifies the enduring quality and magnificence of
diamonds.
➢ Ex: Nike’s ‘just do it’
Marks an attitude on the back of a narrative sequence that details the actions
of aspiring athletes.
➢ Ex: Sony’s ‘make believe’
Invokes the company’s imagination and power in innovation.
 POWER, LEGITIMACY, URGENCY

1. Dormant Stakeholder
o Those who have the power to impose their will on others but because they do
not have a legitimate relationship or urgent claim, their power remains
dormant.
o Spend a lot of money or by commanding the attention of the news media.
o Ex: Prospective customers, however, have little or no interaction with the
organization.

2. Discretionary Stakeholder
o Those who possess legitimate claims based upon interactions with an
organization but have no power to influence the organization, nor any urgent
claims.
o Recipients of corporate charity.

3. Demanding Stakeholder
 o Those who have urgent claims, but neither the power nor legitimacy to enforce
them.
o Stakeholders are unable or unwilling to acquire either the power or the
legitimacy necessary to move their claim into a more salient status.
o For example, a lone demonstrator who camps near a company’s site might be
embarrassing to the company or a nuisance to employees and managers of an
organization, but the claims of the demonstrator will typically remain
unconsidered.

4. Dominant Stakeholder
o Those who have both powerful and legitimate claims giving them a strong
influence on the organization.
o Stakeholder groups who regularly transact with or have strong binding
relationships with organizations such as employees, customers, owners and
significant (institutional) investors in the organization.
o Decide to withhold their investment or labour.

5. Dangerous Stakeholder
o Those who have power and urgent claims, but lack legitimacy.
o May resort to coercion and even violence.
o Ex: unlawful, yet common, attempts at using coercive means to advance
stakeholder claims (which may or may not be legitimate) include wildcat
strikes, employee sabotage and terrorism.

6. Dependent Stakeholder
o Those who lack power, but who have urgent, legitimate claims.
o Rely on others for the power to carry out their will, at times through the
advocacy of other stakeholders.
o Ex: Local residents of a community, rely on lobby groups, the media or another
form of political representation to have their concerns voiced and considered
by a company.
7. Definitive Stakeholder
o Those who have legitimacy, power and urgency.
o Powerful and legitimate stakeholders who by definition need to be
communicated with.
o Ex: Shareholder, become active when they feel that their legitimate interests
are not being served by the managers of the company in which they hold stock.
o Imply the removal of senior executives, communication practitioners and
managers of the organization urgently need to attend to their concerns

CONTIGENCY PLAN
• Stage 1
o Minimal planning around a few contingency plans drawn up for an emergency
response.
o Ex: evacuating a building during fire or giving first aid to employees who suffer
injury or sudden illness

• Stage 2
o More extensive planning but is limited to natural disasters and potential
human errors.
o Example: Measures for damage containment and business recovery.

• Stage 3
o Extensive contingency plans which include crisis procedures for probable
natural disasters and human errors and the training of personnel so that
employees can implement these crisis procedures.

• Stage 4
o Involves an organization-wide consultation of potential crises and their impact
on stakeholders.
 o Scope of stage 4 is wider than typical natural disasters and human errors and
includes products defects, tampering and social issues regarding the
company’s supply chain, operations and contributions towards society.

• Stage 5
o Involves all of the previous stages but also incorporates environmental
scanning and early warning systems to identify crises as early as possible.

FRAMING
• Focuses on how messages are created in such a way that they connect with the
underlying psychological processes of how people digest information and make
judgements.
• Framing involves processes of inclusion and exclusion of information in a message as
well as emphasis.
• Framing theory suggests that communication practitioners frame a particular
corporate decision, issue or event in such a way that it furthers and promotes the
interests of the organization.
• News framing refers to the way in which news is selectively portrayed by the media in
an effort to explain news or ideas about organizations in familiar terms for a broader
audience.
• Because of their different interests, communication practitioners and journalists may
frame the same decision, issue or event in completely different ways.
• Market models of journalism suggest that journalists will deliberately strive to frame
stories in ways that resonate with what journalists perceive to be the largest segment
of their audience.
• For example, in July 2006, a trader with Citigroup committed suicide by climbing over
a barrier and jumping from the 16th floor of the bank’s Canary Wharf offices. Despite
evidence that the trader had committed suicide because of mental depression, many
newspapers (including the Telegraph) framed the suicide in inverted commas (i.e., as
 ‘suicide’) and openly suggested a link to work pressures in the investment banking
industry.
• Journalists from these newspapers chose to frame the news in what turned out to be
a biased and inaccurate way because of a link with reader expectations and despite
any evidence of trading irregularities or substantial losses.

5 STYLE of CORPORATE MESSAGE TO STAKEHOLDER

• Relational Message
o Definition: Superiority claim based upon actual accomplishments or delivered
benefits by the organization
o Conditions: Most useful when point of difference cannot be readily matched
by competitors
o Content: Informational in the form of a claim that is supported with
information as the grounds for the claim
o Example: BMW claims a superior ability in engineering aesthetically pleasing,
high performance cars that is backed up by the company’s long-standing
emphasis on innovation and aesthetics in the design process

• Symbolic Association Message

o Definition: Claims based on psychological differentiation through symbolic
association.
o Conditions: Best for homogeneous organizations where differences are
difficult to develop or easily duplicated or for messages around areas such as
CSR or social capital that are difficult to communicate in concrete and rational
terms.
o Content: Transformational in the form of endowing the organization with a
particular image through association with culturally shared and recognized
values or symbols.
o Example: Kingfisher has associated itself with Ellen MacArthur’s record-
breaking sailing attempts around the world, which, through association,
 created a positive image of the organization with attributes of freedom,
challenge, ambition and leadership.

• Emotional Message
o Definition: Attempts to provoke involvement and positive reactions through a
reference to positive (or negative) emotions.
o Conditions: Effective use depends on the perceived authenticity of the
professed emotion and on the relevance of the emotion to stakeholders.
o Content: Appeals to specific positive or negative emotions (e.g., romance,
nostalgia, excitement, joy, fear, guilt, disgust, regret).
o Example: Starbucks, incorporates emotional appeals around love, joy and
belonging into its in-store communication which has led to consumers
associating the Starbucks brand with community, individual expression, and ‘a
place away from home’.

• Generic Message
o Definition: Straight claim about industry or cause with no assertion of
superiority.
o Conditions: Monopoly or extreme dominance of industry.
o Content: General claim (stimulate demand for product category or raise
awareness of cause).
o Example: Campbell’s soup dominates the prepared soup market in the United
States, selling nearly two-thirds of all soup. Based upon its market dominance
the company has run advertising campaigns that stimulate demand for soup in
general, rather than Campbell’s soup in particular. The rationale behind this
message style was that any advertising that increased overall soup sales would
also naturally benefit Campbell’s sales.

• Preemptive Message
o Definition: Generic claim with suggestion of superiority.
o Conditions: Changing industry allowing a company to take a position on an
issue connected to that industry.
o Content: Claim of industry-wide leadership on a relevant issue or capability.
o Example: ExxonMobil’s claim of ‘taking on the world toughest energy
challenges’ which invokes its superior operational efficiencies and capabilities
in drilling for oil in hard-to-reach places. In doing so, the company
differentiates itself from its nearest competitors on a relevant industry-wide
capability and suggests that it is leading the initiative to meet the increasing
demand for energy.