Analysis of Corporate Communication Strategies for Business Success

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SOUTHERN CROSS UNIVERSITY
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Student Names: John Smith (Student No.)
Yu Yan (Student No.)
Akshay Kumar (Student No.)
Vilma Santos (Student No.)
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Title of Report
Abstract
This is the report which is prepared by the four students and each student has worked upon
one single theme and these themes were based on corporate communication. In all this report
is segmented in four sections and there is a certain level of linkage among each section. The
sections discussed in this report include a brand image, identity and reputation, media
relation, internal communication, and crisis management. All these four sections are related
to corporate communication and how these sections are important for the business managers
in order to make their business organization successfully developed. So, overall this report is
highlighting about the corporate communication for the company or organization and
detailing some important strategies and programs which organization or company must
incorporate within their business operations in order to improve the communication
mechanism among the organization.
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Title of Report
Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................4
2. Identity, image, and reputation (Santhan and ID)..............................................................5
2.1: What is Identity, Image, and Reputation........................................................................5
2.2: Creation of Strong Reputation........................................................................................6
3. Crisis communication (Manichand and ID).......................................................................9
3.1 Crisis................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Characteristics of Crisis.................................................................................................10
4. Media Relations (Karthik and ID)...................................................................................12
4.1 Evolution of New Media................................................................................................12
4.2 Growth of the business...................................................................................................13
5. Internal Communication (Vasudeva and ID)...................................................................15
5.1- Internal Communication and Changing Environment..................................................15
5.2 Effective Internal Communication Program..................................................................16
6. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................18
7. Recommendations............................................................................................................19
References................................................................................................................................20
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1. Introduction
In this report, there is detail discussion about corporate communication which is considered
as the need of an hour that is also considered as the vital management function. The corporate
communication is considered as the communication strategy which aims at developing
communication within and outside the company. The corporate communication consists of
various factors which are interrelated to it and these factors include the brand image and
reputation, media relations, internal communication, and crisis management. The detail
discussion about each is done in the sections and subsection which is detailing what is the
importance of corporate communication along with the variant factors that are affecting the
corporate communication. Also, this report is detailing the various communication strategies
in the corporate responsibility section that is detailing the strategies which can be
implemented by the company in order to raise the company awareness and reputation among
the public. So, overall this report is focusing on the corporate communication which
managers and business organization must incorporate within their operation to improve the
organizational benefits.
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2. Identity, image, and reputation (Santhan and ID)
Introduction
Identity, image and reputation are the close links which are related to the corporate world and
all these havegreat importance for the company because it is really essential for the business
organizations to maintain their identity, image and reputation. It is really important for the
business organization to understand the importance of all these components and work
towards building up the better identity, image, and reputation of the company. The identity of
the company includes the visual appearances that include the name of the company, logo,
products or the services produced by the company. The image and reputation is the thing
which the company has to build by performing some extraordinary functions or operations
that will help in increasing the awareness of the company among the people and it will be
beneficial for both internal as well as external people related to the company.
2.1: What is Identity, Image, and Reputation
Corporate image, reputation, and identity are often considered as the same terms but all these
terms have different meaning but they come up with the same motive to make brand
awareness among the people. All these things are dependent on the communication strategies
which are initiated by the company in order to improve the image and reputation of the brand.
It is said that the image of the organization is basically the reflection of the company which is
showing the image of the company from the perspective of the customers or the outer world.
It is basically considered as the impression which the company has created in the minds of
the people. Organization identity is generally the identification image of the company which
includes the company name, logo or any kind of image or tagline associated with the
company. Also, it includes the types of goods or services produced by the organization or the
company. Reputation is something which is an opinion created in the minds of the people on
the basis of the conclusion drawn from all the images or the physical appearances collected
by the company (Hemsley-Brown et al. 2016).
2.1.1 Importance of business reputation
The reputation of the company is really important because it has a great emphasis on the
purchasing power of the customers. The company reputation is considered as one of the great
assets the company can own and also it is really important for the survival for the company to
have a good business reputation. Also, it helps the business companies to outstanding the
competition in the market as the good business reputation will ultimately lead to satisfying
customers and if the customers are happy and satisfied it will automatically lead to building
up the positive image of the company. Some of the benefits of the business reputation are:
 Provides competitive advantage: The most important benefit of the business reputation
is that it helps in setting up the competition in the market for the competitors because of
which company can attract more and more positive response from the customers and it is
also able to stand out of the market which will be a great disadvantage for the other
companies (Xie et al. 2015).
 It helps in promoting the brand by word of mouth marketing: The publicity or
marketing of the brand is really important because it helps in creating positive image
opinion about the company. So, if the customers are well aware of the business reputation
it will lead to publicity of the company.
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 It helps in facilitating engagement: The engagement with the customers is really
important for which it is important that company must have a good reputation because if
the reputation of the company is not good, it will require more efforts on the part of the
company to come up with better engagement strategies which involve more engagement.
2.2: Creation of Strong Reputation
As it is mentioned above that building a strong reputation is really important and also some of
the advantages of the same are also listed above but now the point comes that how one can
build a strong brand reputation which involves various functions or strategies which company
must perform in order to improvise the reputation of the company which is detailed below:
 Improved awareness about the brand: It is really important for the organization to
improve the awareness about the brand and it is also very vital that brand is well aware of
the market trends because it will help the company to produce the goods or services on
the basis of the customer requirement and it will help in gaining customer satisfaction
(Rozanova 2017).
 Make improvements: The brands should be able to make improvements in their services
or the products because it will stand out the brand from the other companies and
competitors and the awareness about the brand will be improved that will ultimately lead
to improved brand reputation.
 Offering creative and useful ideas to the clients: If the customers are provided with the
real-time good or services it will help in bringing out the empowerment among the clients
and also the clients will be more educated which will improve the brand reputation.
 Developing the personality of the brand: The personality of the brand must be strong in
order to build the strong brand image for which it is essential that customers are
encouraged to promote the brand and making the brand awareness with the increased
engagement (Lim et al. 2015).
 Customer experience must be focused: The brand must pay emphasis on the experience
of the customers for which it is important the company must train its employees with the
in-depth training and the members must be capable to interact with the clients and their
needs and requirements are well understood.
2.2.1 Role of employees in building brand reputation
Employees are really important assets of the company the customers of the business are
attracted through the medium of employees because it is employees who are having direct
contact with the customers. So, employees can play a major role in building the brand image
and they should be trained in the way so that they can build up the long term relationship with
the customers and should have the ability to understand the needs and requirements of the
clients. Given below are some of the important roles which are played by the employees:
 Inform employees in detail about the brand: If the employees are given proper training
and education about the brand it will increase the knowledge level of the employees about
the company and also it will be helpful for the company because if the employees are well
aware of the brand they can convey the same to the customers which will lead to
improved brand image (Bang et al. 2014).
 The company goals must be stated to employees: The employees if are well aware of
the organizational goals and objectives it will lead to promote the brand image and the
employees will be promoting the brand by keeping in mind the organizational goals and
objectives.
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 The required tools must be provided to employees: The employees must be given the
required tools and they must also possess the skills within themselves that will help the
employees to promote the brand. For example, the usage of social media tools will be
helpful for the employees to promote the brand online (Kogler et al. 2017).
 Evaluation of the employees: It is important that employees are evaluated and the
feedback is collected from the employees because the feedback provided by them will
help in making some changes to the current policies and programs.
 Motivate employees: If the employees are motivated enough to work hard for the
company or brand it will definitely bring out the positive results. The motivation can be in
the form of the monetary terms or any other promotional benefits will motivate them to
perform better and build up the strong image of the organization or the company
(Pellegrini et al. 2011).
Figure 1: Corporate Reputation Reporting Framework
Source: (Khan &Digout, 2018)
Conclusion
So, having a detail discussion on the company image, brand and reputation it can be seen that
how much it is important for the organization to have the positive image or reputation. There
are various factors or determinants which are affecting the brand image. So, a business
organization must work hard towards building the brand image and it is all about effective
communication that must be used effectively and efficiently in order to build up the brand
image. Also, the employees play a major role in this because ultimately they are a connecting
point between the customers and the company. In the coming section, there will be discussion
regarding the corporate responsibility which is also inter-linked with the brand image as the
responsibilities done by the organization in the name of social responsibility is also building
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an image of the company. The detail discussion about corporate responsibility will be done in
the next section.
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3. Crisis communication (Manichand and ID)
Introduction
As the previous section discussed about the social media relations with the business, its
impact on the success of the business and the ways to develop strong social media relations
and platform. This section includes the discussion about the crisis communication. The
discussion includes different ways in which the company can deal and communicate at the
time to different type of crisis. A number of the business organizations are using social media
tools and applications for crisis communication with their internal and external stakeholders.
This section includes the need for management of crisis along with defining their types and
impaction the organizational performance. Along with this, the main characteristics of crisis
are also defined briefly to provide a clear understanding related to the context. The traditional
approaches and studies of crisis communication able to present the importance of crisis
management with the help of effective leadership and programs. This report is contributing
towards deep understanding of the crisis, it’s meaning, needs for management, type of crisis
and their features. At the end a conclusion has been drawn summarizing the main findings of
the discussion.
3.1 Crisis
The organizational crisis can be described as the perception of a changeable or unpredictable
event that may threaten the significant expectancies od the stakeholders. The crisis is
unwanted events but such can be managed if they are treated with immediate effects and
responsiveness. Such events can impact the performance of an organization in a very serious
manner that can result in generating negative outcomes. The poor communication and
management of the crisis may result in creating financial, mental, health and physical harms
for the stakeholders of the organization (Austin et al. 2014).
3.1.1 Need for managing the crisis:
 Crisis management can help the business to face unexpected and adverse
developments and conditions with a proactive plan.
 Employees can find ease in adjusting themselves in the sudden changes occurring in
an organization.
 Employees can analyze and understand the reasons for a crisis to deal with them in
the best possible manner.
 Crisis management policies can help the managers to deal with the uncertain
conditions in an effective manner and to decide future actions accordingly.
Crisis Communication
Crisis communication can be defined as a special wing which contracts with the reputations
of the employees and individuals along with the reputation of the organization. It can also be
described as an initiative which aims at securing the organizational reputation and
maintaining its image in public. A number of factors such as government investigations,
criminal attacks, and inquiry of media can smudge the organizational image (Hittle et al.
2011).
3.1.2 Types of Crisis
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There are many types of crisis which can impact the organization in a different manner. The
main type of crisis can be defined as follows:
Financial Crisis: There type of crisis can be occurred in a business organization because of
its predominant conditions. The financial crisis can impact the business largely and it may
also result in creating other types of crises within the organization. Financial crisis can be in
form of losses, non-availability of the funds and financial resources, increase in the cost of
material and services, unable to pay back loans, bankruptcy etc. Financial crisis impacts the
business for a very long time and thus it is required to have an effective and efficient crisis
communication policy so that the employees and other stakeholders can get aware from the
organizational conditions and can support accordingly (Ireland et al. 2011).
Technological Crisis: Technological crises can arise due to the human application of
technology and science. This occurs at the time of system breaks down and the complexity of
the technology. Industrial accidents, software failures, technology up gradation, are some
examples of the technological crisis. The problems in corrupted software and machine may
lead to loss of information and breach of data which can become a serious problem for the
organization.
The crisis of Malevolence: When miscreant or opponents individuals tend to our high level
of tactics for seeking gain and for articulating anger from an economic system or a company
with the aim to destroy it, it results into generating malevolence related crisis. The main type
of these type of such crisis includes product tampering, malicious rumours, kidnapping,
terrorism etc.
Natural Crisis: Natural crisis can be defined as natural disasters which are also measured as
‘acts of God’. Such a crisis can be defined as the sudden and extreme level of events which
are caused by the environmental factors that can result in the injury of property and people.
These crises can impact the functionality of the business organizations if they occur in the
area in which the organization is providing its products and services.
The crisis of deception: These type of crisis being faced by the organization when the
management tampers information and data intentionally or purposely. When management
makes fake promises and commitments to the customers and communicates false information
about the organizational functioning, its products, and services, the crisis of deception can be
occurred and can impact the image of the brand as well as the whole organization in a
negative manner (Roshan et al. 2016).
Workplace Violence: These type of violence can be predicted up to some extent if the
management has properly managed its activities in the organization. Workplace violence can
be termed as any type of threat and act of harassment, violence, disruptive behaviour and
intimidation occurring at workplace It includes threats, verbal abuses to the employees and
the workers, physical harassing, bullying etc.
3.2 Characteristics of Crisis
A crisis can either be occurred suddenly demanding the immediatere4covery or response or
smoldering which develops gradually. If the crisis occurs suddenly, it can result in occurring
external threats to the organization while the smoldering crisis generally results in creating
internal problems to the organization. Smoldering crisis can be controlled if they are
recognized at earlier stages and thus the amount of loss can also be minimized up to an
extent. Both sets of the crisis have their own characteristics which can be defined as follows:
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