Developing corporate

communication strategies
Framework : fig.2.1
 based on Aristotle components of speech
The 3 main components of co.com strategy are:

The organisation
Its constituencies
The message

ar
The 3 are interrelated

This interrelation determines which messages will

be effective and will not.

The framework is circular rather than linear

Communication is an ongoing process rather than
one with a beginning and an end.
How to set an effective organisation strategy?

1. To determine the objectives for a particular

communication
2. To decide what resources are available
3. To diagnose the organisation’s reputation
To determine the objectives :
The desired response helps to define the objectives
What does the organisation want each constituency
to do as result of the communication?
Examples: p 29
To eliminate retiree health benefits
A Japanese candy manufacturer
2. To decide what resources are available

How to communicate depends heavily on the

availables resources :

Money
Human resources
time
Money
To aim at the long term solution and the needs of the
audience
This will determine how much money will allocated
But most companies often err on the side of the short
term and inexpensive solutions
Result: difficulty to reach the communication
Example : p. 30
To use the company’s intranet or to hire a consultant
Human Resources:
The people with expertise and experience in
communication
Important to attain the objectives
The limitations put on the human resources needed
to accomplish tasks= failure
Example of Fortune 500 company
Time:
Another critical factor in detrmining an
organisation’s co.com strategy
To allocate the necessary time to achieve the
objectives rather than to seek a short-term solution
Example: the Japanese confectioner p.30
3. to diagnose the organisation’s reputation
To determine what kind of image credibility it has with the
constituencies in question
This image is based on the perception of the constituencies
rather than the reality of the orgnaisation itself.
Damaged image credibility can result from circumstances
beyond an organisation’s control
Examples of: limited image ceredibility and damaged image
credibility (p.31)
Conclusion:
Reputation is an important factor in setting a coherent
communication stategy (see example of Fedex
Analysing constituencies:
Table 2.1 constituents of organizations p.33
To determine:

1. Who your orgnaisation’s constituencies are

2. What each thinks about the orgnisation
3. What each knows about the communication in
question
1. Who your orgnaisation’s constituencies are
 To analyze the relevant constituencies are for a
particular message
 Sometimes, it is difficult to decide who is your main
constituency
 Constituencies come from a group that is primary
to the organisation
 Also a secondary group can be the focus for a
particular communication
Constituencies of any organisation depend on the
nature,size, and reach (global, domestic, local,
national, regional) of their business
Primary constituent or Constituencies may change
over time.
Example in a time of crisis, a company has to focus
on media to manage its reputation to minimize
negative press
One constituent may belong to two different groups
Example: employees can be shareholders
To recognize that constituencies interact with one
another , and organisation must sometimes work
through one constituency to reach another
To drive more loyalty from customer constituency, it
is important to reinforce work with employees
constituency before customers see rsults
The model created by Sears is a good illustration of
interaction
The model is : employee-customer-profit chain
 By means of an ongoing process of data collection,
analysis, modeling, and experimentation, Saers has
developed and continue to refine what it calls “ our Total
Performance Indicators, or TPI—
This set of measures shows Sears how well is doing with
customers, employees, and investors.
 “ Sears understands the several layers of factors that drive
employee attitudes, and it knows how employee attitudes
affect employee retention, how employee retention affects
the drivers of customer satisfaction, how customer
satisfaction affects financials, and a great deal more.”
See the example of Google p.34
To be also aware that constituencies can have
competing interests and different perceptions
Example: cutting employee benefits may be
welcomed by shareholders but will not very popular
with employees
Conclusion:
Communications intended for one constituency
often reach others
Example: VP 34
2. What each thinks about the orgnisation
To analyze the attitude of the constituency toward the
Organsation
It will be easier for an organisation to reach its objective
when it has built goodwill with the constituencies in
question.
When trust is lacking, communication can be a struggle.
Companies cannot expect to be trusted until they prove
themeselves trusworthy through:
 Concerted actions that demonstrate care, concern, and
understanding for constituencies (authentic entreprise » p.35
Conclusion:
Building trust must start from within the
organisation.
 By communicating up and down with employees
 By hearing them out on the topics that concern them
 Making constructive changes based on their input
 Taking the time to clearly communicate the company’s
business goals to employees
 Helping the vital roles they play in achieving those goals
3. What each knows about the communication in question
 To consider the attitudes of the constituents toward the communication itself
 If they are predisposed to do what your organisation wants, then they are
more likely to help the organisation to reach its objective
 If they are not the organisation will have great difficulty in trying to achieve
its goals.
 Companies that try to sell an idea to the public are always in danger of failing
as result of the lack of information or the negative feelings consumers may
have about it
 Understanding what employees know about the topic, as well as how they feel
about it, is critical
 Without this insight, time and resources can be wasted on communications
campaign that ends up missing the mark.
 Example p.36 Japanese confectioner, and p.37
Delivering Messages Appropriately
A two-step analysis is involved:
 How it wants to deliver the message (channel)
 What approach to take in structuring the message

1. Choose a communication channel(See table 2.2 p.38)

 To determine the proper communication channel is difficult for

organisations because the channels available for delivering the
message are several
 Each time a corporate communication is developed, the question is:
 Which channels to use and when to use them shoul be explored carefully
2. structure Messages Carefully
The two most effective message structures are :
 Direct and indirect
 Direct : to reveal the main point first and explain why
 Indirect: explain why first and then reveal your main point
Companies should be as direct as possible with as
many constituencies as possible, because indirect
communication is confusing and harder to
understand; (example of Nissan: Infiniti series)
The third option in message structure is :
To have no message
This approach doesn’t work with public hungry for
information
Th media is always looking for an « angle » on the story
To say « the company cannot talk about the situation
untiol all the facts are in » is better than to say « no
comment »
To some companies, To be direct often means taking
the court of public opinion into consideration,
Constituency response
It is important to assess the results of any
communication
 to determine whether the communication had the
dersired results
In some cases, the feedback can be gathered
inmmediately after the delivery (ex: questionnaire
provided for employees
In other cases, it may take some time to measure the
success of the communication (ex: sales rise in response
to an advertising campaign)
Conclusion
To create a coherent corporate communication
strategy , it is important to respect the following
exapnded corporate communication strategy model :
Figure 2.2
 messages
• WHAT IS THE BEST COMM CHANNEL
• HOW SHOULD THE CORPORATION STRUCTURE
THE MESSAGE

corporation constituencies

 What does the corp want each constituency to do ? who are constutiencies ?

 what resources are available ? what is their attitude about the

 what is its reputation ? company and topic ?

Constituency
responses
did eacy constituency respond in the way the corporation wish
Should the corporation revise the message in the light of the constituency responses?
An overview of the Corporate communication function

A growing number of companies recognize the value

of corporate communication
And adapt their budgets and internal structures
accordingly
A study conducted by GAPshows that:
PR/Communication budgets incread by 10%
between 2002and 2007
2 main ideas will be dealt with in this chapter:
1. The evolution of coporate communication and the
developments in recent years
2. the most appropriate structure for the function
within an organisation, including reporting
relationships
 From PR to CprpComm

PR , the predecessor to the CorpComm grew out of

necessity
Corporations often had to respond to external
constituencies whether to want it or not;
The constant need for a response meant that
dedicated resources were required to manage the
flow of communications
This function was always called:
Public relations or public affairs
What were the role of PR?
To prevent the press from getting too close to
management
To protect the company from bad publicity
By « spinning » damaging news in a positive light.
PR people were used to be described by the term
« FLAK »=shielding top management from
« missiles » fired at them from outside.
The « flak » period lasted for many decades
In the 6O’s, PRs Officials dealt with speechwriting,
annual reports , and the company’s newsletter.
Many companies hired former journalists since this
area involved dealing the print media
Until recently, they were considered as expert in the
area of communication
The 1st Spin Doctors
Outside PR agencies whose work was to help companies to
develop their communication in time of crisis or any other
instances
These agencies helped the PRs function develop from its
journalistic roots into a more refined and respected profession
(Ivee Lee and Eward Bernays , later: Howard Roberstein and
Daniel Ederman)
The fees were very high for the services companies couldn’t
handle in-house
Some top PRs Firms still provide some of the best advice in
some communications-related issues.
But they cannot handle all day-to-day activities for the smooth
flow of communication from organisation to constituents.
The emergence of a new function:
By the 70’s, the business environment required more
than simple internal PR function supplemented by the
external agencies or consultants.
The rise in importance and power of special-interest
groups (Green peace and other NGos) forced companies
to increase their communications activities.
It was crucial to create a new communications function
that changed the nature of communications from odl-
style PRs to the 1st significant CorpComm(the 1st to do
so was Mobil Oil p.47)
In more recent years, the CorpComm function has
continued to evolve to meet the demands for the
ever-changing business and regulatory
environments
The need to maintain the level of transparency has
elevated the coporate communication function
within companies to a new strategic level.
To centralize or decentralized
Communications?
To keep all communications under one officer at
headquaters?
Allow each individual unit handle communications
Centralized model= provides an easier way for
companies to achieve consistency in and control over
all communication acivities
Decentralized model=gives individual business
units flexibility in adapting the function to their own
needs
Centralization/decentralization debate depends on:
The company’s size
The geographic disperson of its office
The diversity of its products and services
The example of Johnson&Johnson: 200 companies
operating in 57 countries= difficult to have complete
centralization of communications
P.40
Global events and economic trends also affect decisions
about the structure of an orgnization’s communication
function.
Unexpected crises (11th september) give decentralized
communication a new appeal for many companies.
Economic downturns can have similar effect (see the
example of the international airline(p.49)
Decentralization allows for more flexibility in tough
economic times
However, dispersing corporate communications across
individual units leads to inconsistency in messages
In decentralized strucutres, a company’s
communication professionals must assure quality,
consistency, and integration of messages across the
board.
As a recommendation:
Finding a middle ground between a complettely
centralized and wholly decentralized structure is
preferable for large companies (how? See the
example of Dell, p49
Where should the function Report?
CEOs generally devote their time to communicating
their company’s strategy plan,
mission,
operating initiatives,
and community involvement both internally and
externally
CEOs themselves are of the corporate brand: their
behaviour and commentary can easily and
marketedly affect a company’s finacial structure
All this evidence implies that the CEO should the
person most involved with both :

 developing the overall strategy for communcations

 And delivering messages to constituencies.

The corporate comunication function will have a

direct line to the CEO as shown in the following
figure:
 Ideal structure for CorpComm function

Chair/CEO

Vice President Vice President

Vice President Vice President Vice President
Production
Marketing Finance Corporate Human General Counsel
Communication Resources

Director Media Director

Director Investor
Relations Internal
Internal Director
Director
Relations
Communication Government
Relations
Even if reporting lines do not go directly to the the CEO, it is vital
that:

 the head of coporate communciation have access to the highest level of senior
management

 & those executives believe in the value and necessity of corporate

communication as means to achieve corporate goals

When senior management places value on the function,

 employees will begin to perceive communications rightfully as a crtical

management tool
 The subfunctions within the function

Identity and image

It’s difficult to classify image, identity, and reputation as a

separate function

It is the critical part of any corporate communcation function

What is the difference between image, identity, and reputation?

How do they shape the operations of a CorpComm

department?
Image:
 the corporation as through the eyes of its constituencies.

 An organisation can have different images with constituencies

 (ex : cigarette companies in the eyes of consumers looking for

healthier lifstyle& philip Morris shareholders reaping profits
from international sales)
To determine what the organisation’s image is with
diffrent constituencies is usually less obvious
Why?

There are blurring lines that seperate one

constituency from another

The corporation department should conduct

research to understand and monitor each
constituency’s evolving needs and attitudes
The organisation cannot please everyone

but monitoring what constituencies are thinking

about, it can make a conscious effort not to create
hostility within a particular group.

It can also regularly gauge the impact and success of

the company’s communication activities.
Identity:

 The company’s defining attributes: its vision and values, its

people, products, and services.

 Unlike its image, the organisation’s identity should not vary

from one constituency to another.

 Each company has some kind of identity based in part on the

reality it presents to the world
How can identity be built and maintained?

 Through variety of skills:

 Developing strategies
 Ability to conduct research, to design attractive brochures, and
to enforce identity standards and cohesion
 It should be spread around several different functions in the
absence of a single, centralized coporation communication
function.(p55 image)
 To determine how a firm wants to be perceived with diffferent
constituencies and how it chooses to identify itself= the cornerstone
function of CorpComm

 Identity: the reality of an orgnisation

 Image: its reflection by key constituents

Reputation:
The sum of how all constituents view the organisation
To manage the reputation is unrealistic
What can be done?
Corporations should focus on developing and
implementing strategies in an integrated fashion across
constituencies
Corporate Advertising and advocacy:

 a company’s reputation can be enhanced or altered

through corporate advertising

This subfunction is different from product

advertising and marketing communication function
in 2ways
1. unlike product advertising, corporate advertising
doesn’t sell a company’s particualar product or a
service.
It tries to sell the company itself- often to a
completely different constituency from customers
General Eletric =$90 million corporate advertising
budget to «Ecomagination »= the aim was to
position GE as an eco-friendly company and leader
in corporate responsibility.
The campaign was GE’s promise to improve its
energy efficiency 30% whiile cuttin greenhouse-gas
emissions by 1% by 2012
The use of the internet « blogosphere to create viral
marketing campaigns that can influence consumer’s
opinions (p56).
Corporate advertising is also used by areospace and
defence firms.
For example: in the 1980’s, their advertisments in
the New Republic were not trying to sell F-15s to
liberals bu rather to influence public opinion and
facilitate approval for increases or allocations in the
defense budgets
2. product advertising is the purview of the marketing
department in many large companies
Corporate advertising is usually run from the CEO’s office or
through corporate communication
A subset of corporate advertising is issue advertising= it tries
to influence the attitudes of a company’s constituencies about
specific issues that affect the company (Recall Mobil during
oil crisis)
Issue advertising is risky:
 taking a stand on a particular issue, the company is
automatically creating a negative image with one or several
constituencies
Corporate responsibility
Many companies have:
 separate subfunction in the HR area to deal with community
relations
 A foundation close to the chairman taht deals with philanthropy
 But these should be tied together because companies take more
responsibilities in communities in which they operate
 Taking on these social responsibilities has a number of positive
outcomes for corporate leaders:
 Confidence and trust (externally and internally
 ( see the survey od Edelmen 2007) 57
 Survey of Net Impact
Corporate philanthropy has become increasingly
important as companies are expected to do more
than just give back to the community
There is a greater obligation to donate funds to
organisations that could benefit the firm’s
employees, customers, or shareholders.
(ex p57 donations to universities )
With increased globalisation and international
corporate expansion, constituents’ expectations for
corporate citizenship have grown more global
See example p58 companies’ donations for Asia
2004
In turn, many companies are publishing
environmental and social performance
information in the same manner as they
would report financials (see the study p58
Media Relations
This function is still central to the corporate
communication effort
The person in charge of the communication
deprtment as whole must be capable of dealing with
the media as a spokesperson for the firm
Today, the best corporate communication
departments actively set the discussion agenda of the
firm in the media
Technology has helped companies communicate
through the hundreds of media services from
anywhere in the world
Despite these advances, the relationship between
business and media remains largely adversarial

Since media and media rely on each other to acertain

extent, most companies try to make the best of these
relationships
Marketing Communications
The marketing communications department:
 coordinates and manages publicity relating to new or existing
products
 deals with activities relating to customers
 It may manage corporate advertising
Product publicity always includes sponsorship of
events for major corporations(golf tournaments, car
race…)
Because such events and sponsorship agreements
are important in shaping a company’s image,
corporate communication experts are often involved
in setting the agenda
Also, customers activities have become a part of
corporate communicationas a result of:

 Pressure groups among consumers that try texert their

influence on an organisation(ex: p59
Today, consumers are more informed than they used
to be.
They are able to examine the messages and
advertising presented to them with a diserning eyes
So, marketing communications teams must ensure
that product and brand promotions are sending the
right message
Internal communications
As values and demographics change, companies have
to think strategically about how to communicate
with employees through intenal communications
The collapse of several American companies andthe
increase of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries
have led to lack of trust and loyalty among
employees
This has necessitated strong communication
channels between management and employees to
win back employee trust and loyalty
Internal communication is a collaborative effort
between the corporate communication and HR
departments

Difficult times, layoffs, and uncertainty require open,

honest communication from senior management to
all employees
Investor Relations
It is the fastest-growing subset of the corporate communication
function
It is area of intense interest at all companies
The focus in recent years has moved from « just the numbers » to the
way how the numbers are actually communicated to various
constituencies
IR Professionals deal primarly with shareholders and securities
analysts
They interact heavily with both individual and institutional investors
They are highly involved with the financial statements and annual
reports that every public firm must produce (Regulation Fair
disclosure)
 ²

Government Relations
Referred to as public affairs.
It is more important in some industries than others
But every company can benefit by having ties to
legislators on both local and national level
Many companies have also established offices in
Washington to keep a finger on the pulse of
regulations and bills that may affect the company
As comapnies expand internationally, building
governement relations in key major foreign hubs has
become equally important (EU legislation)
Crisis management
Crisis communications should be coordinated by the
corporate communication function
Communications professionals should be involved in
crisis planning and crisis management
While companies lawyers typically need to be
involved in crises, this presents problems for both
the organisation and the corporate communication
Lawyers often operate with a different agenda than
that of their communications counterparts
Conclusion:
A company must have a strong corporate
communication function to support its vision and
mission