Appunti di: Corporate communication (in inglese)

Corporate Communication

Notes on Corporate Communication

Corporate communication is:

• Management function
• Coordinates internal/external stakeholders
• Establish/maintain reputation upon stakeholders

Others:

• "The orchestration of all the instruments in the field of organizational identity"
• "A variety of strategic management functions"
• "A mindset/ambition to encompass all communication within one perspective, a body that can talk and act in unison"

Key Characteristics

• Organization as a whole
• Integrated approach
• Corporate as a body
• Purpose of building and maintaining a good reputation
• Managerial activity

Two types of Corporate Communication: managerial (planning, coordinating, counselling) and tactical (create and disseminate messages)

Activities Typical of Marketing

• Sales promotion
• Direct marketing
• Advertising
• Sponsorship

Typical of Public Relations

• Media relations
• Event management
• Public affairs
• Issues and crisis management
• Investor relations
• Digital/online communication
• Employee/internal communication
• CSR communication
• International/Global communication

(In blue = important thing)

Examples

• Google "Year in Search" campaign: empowering video, all people can be heroes
• "Apple for Business" campaign: humorous, using Apple products to create (creation of round pizza box), experience real life situation

Key Concepts

• Mission: what a corporate wants and is
• Vision: what a corporate wants to be in future
• Corporate objectives: directions to achieve the mission (need to be upgraded from time to time)
• Strategies: the ways in which objectives are achieved
• Corporate identity: how the corporate presents itself, profile and values communicated by an organization
• Corporate image: what a single thinks about an organization, set of associations of an individual about an organization
• Corporate reputation: collective representation of past images of an organization established over time
• Stakeholder: anyone who is affected or affects an organization
• Market: customers and consumers, group for whom product may be in demand
• Communication: tactics and media that are used to communicate with stakeholders
• Integration: the act of coordinating all communications (same messages for all the stakeholders)

Historical Development

1. 1900s - 1970s (publicity, promotions, communication with the press, mainly external)
2. 1980s - 2000s (reputation management, focus on accountability, specialized disciplines, integrated department)
3. 2000s - present (stakeholder engagement/active stakeholders/action of involving stakeholders, advocacy, transparency, authenticity, interactivity, empowered by new media technologies)

FROM Communication as a tactical support TO Communication as a tool

Phase 1: Industrial Revolution - 1930s

• Creation of organization and, in consequence, communication
• Mass production and consumption (people sell and buy)
• Need for professional communication officers (people now need to know what they are buying and from whom)

Activity based on:

• Publicity often exaggerated/lies, public-seeking approach (public wants to be entertained), answerable to no-one (government, watchdogs), selling activity, conducted by press agent, promoters and/or propagandists

Birth of Muckrakers: investigative journalists who exposed corporate and government scandals, raised public awareness, SO organizations start to hire journalists as spokespeople (to gain/re-gain public faith)

Examples: child labour, poor working conditions, food and product safety standards, etc.

Phase 2: 1930s - 1980s

Economic reform in US and UK:

• Intensify public skepticism toward big businesses
• Publicist, writers and advertising agent needed on a continuous basis
• Development of professional expertise

Public relations and marketing as two separate external disciplines:

• External = only concerns are external stakeholders
• Public concern (PR): provide goodwill with the public so they do not interfere with PROFIT MAKING, deals with publics
• Bring products to markets (MKTG): serve and satisfy customers AT A PROFIT, deals with markets

Phase 3: From the 1980s

• PR and MKTG started to be integrated/connected
• Umbrella management function → corporate communication
• Birth of Integrated communication… why?

Reasons for integration:

• Market- and environment-based drivers: multiplicity and overlap of stakeholders and their roles, alignment of internal/external communication (they can’t separate), demand for greater transparency
• Communication-based drivers: greater amounts of messages (need of effectiveness, consistency and reinforcement of core messages), need for control over a multiplicity of various media (complementary of new and old media)
• Organizational drivers: improved efficiency and accountability, provision of strategic direction and purpose, overlap of communication disciplines

Different Models for the Relationship Between Marketing and Public Relations

1. (Until 80s) distinct in their objectives and activities
2. (From 80s) MPR, using PR to launch product (they are connected)
3. MKTG as dominant function (PR a part of it) → Integrated MKTG communication (managed by different people)
4. PR as dominant function (MKTG a part of it) → Strategic PR (managed by different people)
5. MKTG and PR merged into a single function → Vice president of MKTG and PR (a single person managed the two of them)

MKTG and PR activities and their overlap:

Corporate advertising (focus on the company): where the corporate entity, rather than solely its products and services, is emphasized. E.g. Netflix’s "hidden promotion" (NYT talking about female inmates put the image of the show "Orange is the New Black")

Marketing PR (product publicity, sponsorship, branded content): features both product-related content as well as general interest content. E.g. P&G "Thank You Mom" campaign (images of famous and successful people, message = if you use this you will raise successful kids)

Organization of Corporate Communication

Different perspective on relationship between communication disciplines:

• Distinct
• Complementary
• Integrated ("umbrella", all sub-disciplines of communication, they work all towards integration, CorpComm as dominant)

Two different organization of a CorpComm structure in a company:

Always with the CCO (chief communication officer) as head of the department, they respond directly to the CEO (chief executive officer).

Vertical Structure

Way in which:

1. Task and activities are divided and arranged into departments
2. Departments are located in the hierarchy of authority

So it provides clear lines of authority and specialization.

Horizontal Structure

Allows cross-functional teamwork and flexibility

• Coordination mechanisms can have various forms:
• Multi-functional teams: groups from two or more areas (even extern to communication department) that work together for a collective issue, permanent or task force types
• Standardized work processes: detailed written rules or documents (e.g. how to perform a job)
• Informal channels: daily (informal or formal, both important) communication with people extern or intern of your department
• Council meetings: meeting with people of other communication departments to discuss strategic communication issues and evaluate current and past performance
• Communication guidelines: common work procedures (e.g. language or font to use)

Corporate Identity

Originally → focused on logo, visual design

Now → encompasses all forms of communication (not just outward embodiment of an organization but intrinsic traits of the company that provides specificity)

• Projecting a particular positive image (predefined image that characterized the corporate, e.g. logo, color, symbolic language)
• Maintain and protect strong reputation with stakeholders
• Lead to stakeholders supporting the organization

Advantages of corporate image investing:

• Distinctiveness (stakeholders recognize an organization, a strong image motivates employees and creates a "we feeling")
• Impact (being favored by stakeholders as may have an impact on performance)
• Consistency (avoiding conflicting images and messages, important as individuals have more than one stakeholder role (e.g. employees-prosumers))

Corporate personality = symbolism, behaviour, communication

Corporate:

• Identity: objectives
• Image: how you perceive an organization
• Reputation: how you plan to perceive an organization in the future

Corporate image management adds an important symbolic dimension to corporate communication.

Corporate, Organizational and Social Identity

1. How a corporate decides to appear and what it decides to show (e.g. products, logos, slogans), tangible content, images and reaction of stakeholders (symbolic and more external)
2. Contextual meaning of the organization and its identity, subject to change over time, basis for belonging and identification
3. Categorization and judgment of self and others in groups (e.g. departments), basis for identification (cognitive and more internal)

So…

• Who I am = personality
• What I communicate about me = identity
• How I look like = image
• What is perceived with respect to what I communicated = perception
• What stakeholders and public think about me over time = reputation

For a successful organization: Visibility, Authenticity, Transparency, Distinctiveness, Consistency.

Three Different Types of Identities

• Monolithic: products all carry the same corporate name (e.g. Sony, Phillips)
• Endorsed: businesses or products are badged with the principal company name (e.g. Kellogg, Nestlé)
• Branded: individual businesses or products each carry their own name, even if they belong to a bigger company (e.g. Unilever (Dove), Electrolux (Zanussi), Mini (BMW))

Communication is about aligning identity, image and reputation:

We need to align…

• The organizational culture as experienced by employees
• The corporate vision as articulated by senior managers
• Corporate image in the minds of external stakeholders

How?

Closing the three gaps the most:

• Vision-Culture gap (need to align values communicated and values perceived on the intern)
• Image-Culture gap (need to align outside and inside thought)
• Image-Vision gap (need to align how an organization is perceived outside and what an organization communicates about itself)

Social Media Communication

Social media (SoMe) = internet based application that allow the creation and the exchange of user-generated content

Web 2.0 = ideological and technological shift in the use of online technologies, it provides the platform for SoMe

SoMe change the way people communicate:

• Democratization of the production and dissemination of news
• Widespread internet and mobile access
• Every individual can become a global publisher of content (availability of technology)
• Citizen journalist (everyone that has a camera can document something on the internet, it can lead to fake news)

…also about organizations: (e.g. Starbucks)

Social media can be good because:

• Online campaigns that can be reached immediately
• Exchange of feedbacks and ideas directly with customers

But also they can be bad because:

• Unhappy employees and customers doing hating online
• Sucks pages and accounts

SoMe change the way organizations communicate:

From: exclusive and official news channels, command-and-control model and professional corporate communicators only.

To: online sites offering contents on organization, interactive and free-flowing conversations with stakeholders (no more control on what people say) and also employees becoming informal corporate voices (happy employees as ambassadors to build a positive image of the company).

Examples

• Companies use selfies too → "Muttbombing" using the Oscar’s selfie for advertising on social media.
• "Social media take-over" by employees → Danske Bank’s employee publish a photo on the official account talking about her role in the company.

SoMe Famous Marketing and Communication Trends in 2022

• Stakeholder relationship building through organic (organic ≠ paid) engagement (presenting the brand on social media in a way that people can reshare posts)
• AR- and VR-based social media campaigns for immersive experiences (intensify the customer experience, e.g. Sephora, try products in VR)
• Live video
• Using video-based platforms to drive talent acquisition
• Leveraging employees as advocates (ambassadors and content creators for the brand)
• And emphasis on giving back and finding deeper meaning (brand for sustainability, community, etc., contribute for the well-being of society)

Traditional VS New Media Environments

Owned Media

E.g. website, twitter account, youtube channel

Controlled by an organization.

Role = generate interest, stakeholders engagement

Benefits = control, cost efficiency, ways of engaging stakeholders

Challenges = no guarantees of engagement, potential skepticism towards organization

Paid Media

E.g. display ads, paid search, sponsored links

Paid for content or exposure on non-paid online media

Role = direct advertisement of the organization, feed owned (and sometimes earned) media

Benefits = immediacy, control

Challenges = clutter (internet infinite information), declining reach and response rates, credibility

Earned Media

E.g. word-of-mouth, viral spread of content (people talking about an organization online)

Stakeholders online word-of-mouth about the organization.

Role = generate traffic to owned media, may be strengthened by owned and paid media through viral content

Benefits = most credible and authentic, stakeholders may become advocates of the organization

Challenges = no control, can be negative, hard to measure

Examples of "Unconventional" SoMe Campaigns

• Man lives in Ikea: a YouTuber told that his dream was to live at Ikea, they used this information and transformed it into an opportunity to do advertising, they realized the dream of this YouTuber and they got the chance to publicize their brand and engage with their fans
• Barbie computer engineer: when a girl plays with Barbie she imagines all the things she can be in life, for the past 60 years Barbie has taken underrepresented roles, now it's the moment to demonstrate to girls they can be what they want in life.

Classifying SoMe

Four theories based on:

• Media research (social presence, media richness)
• Social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure)

1. Social presence theory: contact that can be achieved between individuals as they are communicating, influenced by the intimacy and the immediacy of the medium.
   • Intimacy = interpersonal (direct conversation) or mediated (you use a medium for conversations)
   • Immediacy = synchronous (chatting, call) or asynchronous (email)
2. Media richness theory: amount of information that can be transmitted in real-time (instant messages, face-to-face conversation), effectiveness in reducing ambiguity in communication
3. Self-presentation theory: how a social permit to transmit our image and to form a positive image of us
4. Self-disclosure theory: conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information that is consistent with the image one would like to give

1 and 2 first dimension, 3 and 4 second dimension.

Classify SoMe

1. Blogs (and vlogs) = low first dimension and high second dimension, controlled web-based medium, diary/journal style.
   • CorpComm opportunities: engage with influential bloggers, maintain a corporate blog.
2. Collaborative projects = low first dimension, low second dimension, simultaneous collaboration between individuals online (two main types: wikis (Wikipedia) and social bookmarking applications (Pinterest))
   • CorpComm opportunities: company-specific wikis, one of the most used tools to connect within day-to-day groups.
3. Social networking sites = medium first dimension and high second dimension, personal profiles, community of friends, rich medium (you can use videos, pictures, links, etc.)
   • CorpComm opportunities: campaigns, brand communities, research on consumers, social distribution channel.