Corporate Communication - Methods and Tactics

Methods and Tactics

Three principal clusters of task-planning and communication form the backbone of business and the activity of business organizations. These include management communications, marketing communications, and organizational communications.

• Management communications are between management and its internal and external audiences. To support management communications, organizations rely heavily on specialists in 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.
• organizational communications consist of specialists in public relations, public affairs, investor relations, environmental communications, corporate advertising, and employee communications.

The responsibilities of corporate communication are:

• to flesh out the profile of the "company behind the brand" (corporate branding)
• to minimize discrepancies between the company's desired identity and brand features
• to delegate tasks in communication
• to formulate and execute effective procedures to make decisions on communication matters
• to mobilize internal and external support for corporate objectives
• to coordinate with international business firms

A Conference Board Study of hundreds of the US’s largest firms showed that close to 80 percent have corporate communication functions that include media relations, speech writing, employee communication, corporate advertising, and community relations. The public is often represented by self-appointed activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who identify themselves with a particular issue.

Most companies have specialized groups of professionals for communicating with different audiences, such as internal communications, marketing communications, investor relations, government relations and public relations.