MNG81001 Report: Corporate Communication, Identity & Reputation

This report delves into the critical aspects of corporate communication, specifically focusing on identity, image, and reputation. It begins by defining these key concepts and their significance in shaping a company's public perception and stakeholder relationships. The report then explores two major issues impacting corporate communication: resource constraints, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the impact of workplace culture on a company's identity and image. The analysis highlights how limited resources can hinder effective communication strategies and how a negative organizational culture can damage a company's reputation. The report concludes by emphasizing the interdependence of identity, image, and reputation, and provides recommendations, such as utilizing corporate advertising, to strengthen a firm's communication efforts and build a positive brand. The report also includes references to support the arguments presented and adheres to the Harvard referencing style.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Corporate Communication
Submitted to (name of your facilitator)
Written by
Date
1

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Abstract
Corporate communication are activities that develops, cultivates and maintains corporate
identity and image and a robust corporate communication approach can provide a security to
a firm’s reputation as well as can communicate its relevance to internal and external
stakeholders, which all together can drive sustained long term positive influence. Through
public relation and widespread corporate communication functions, the consumers, staffs and
clients of a firm can share a firms success. Also as these corporate communication surrounds
procedures that facilitate a firms credential so its positioning and acceptability in market is
quite significant and it includes proper planning as well as execution of interdependent
practices and action that helps to generate better communication with internal staffs as well as
with external clients, consumers and other stakeholders. Thus the intention behind corporate
communication is to project a unified message and consistent corporate identity, image or
reflection which altogether can develop a well-articulated reputation, thus creating an
influence over all stakeholder.
2

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Contents
Abstract................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Identity, image, and reputation......................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Issue 1 : Resource constraint........................................................................................................ 6
2..2 Issue 2 : Lack of culture at work...................................................................................................... 7
3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................. 8
4. Recommendation.................................................................................................................................... 8
5.References....................................................................................................................................................... 9
3

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
1. Introduction
Corporate communication is significant for all enterprises development and progress as it
helps them to stay afloat within dynamic business environment and changing industry needs
and thus ensures maintaining credible reputation among media, client and public. Corporate
communication administers communication needs and approaches for both internal and/or
external, media relation, crisis communication and for internal interaction within a firm, so it
is vital to manage and maintain relations with potential and current stakeholders including for
managing government affairs. Also managers should master corporate communication so as
to promote transparency, build teamwork, minimise miscommunication, safeguard company
branding and to insure improvement in customer service. Corporate communication can be
mastered by caring about employees and leading them with role model. Also updating
information distribution and establishing consistent process can help to deliver proper
corporate communication. In this report, identity, image and reputation which is a sub
function of corporate communication will be discussed and two relevant issues will be
elaborated, following which recommendation to overcome these concerns will be presented.
2. Identity, image, and reputation
Following on from concept of corporate communication, here, discussion will be surrounded
around identity, image and reputation which is sub function of corporate communication.
Image of a corporate is perception through eyes of constituencies and hence can be distinct.
Example, a cigarette company’s image may be reprehensible for many consumers who prefer
healthy living but on other hand may be delight to cigarette firm’s stakeholders due to profits
on same product. Hence managers in order to communicate corporate image of their firms,
should attempt to differentiate from others by ensuring that staffs become visible
ambassadors of branding (Pérez & Del Bosque 2014, p. 16). Also corporate communication
division need to understand and monitor emerging needs and attitudes so as to make
4

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
conscious efforts to regularly maintain an influential communication practise to drive
company’s image.
As opined by Balmer (2017) unlike image, a company’s identity should remain consistent
across all markets and includes their defining attributes like vision, values, people and
product/service. Example, people across all markets of McDonald’s are aware of their
identity i.e. golden arches in front of their outlets irrespective of location whether it is China
or USA. As opined by Illia and John (2012) managers in order to build and maintain
company’s identity need different set of expertise including creating strategies and
developing appealing brochure designs so as to communicate company’s unique self-
representation from others. So corporate communication on a firm’s identity presents the
reality of firm while image is a firm’s reflection. On other hand, reputation is established
when there is alignment between image and identity of a firm and is developed with time and
is not an anticipation (Abratt & Kleyn 2012, p.1048). Reputation of a firm defines how all
stakeholders view them and hence corporates should oversee on building and executing
strategies that integrates image and identity to build a good reputation in market. Managers
can facilitate a firm’s reputation through corporate advertising where company sell’s itself to
different customer (Syed 2015, p.360). Example, GE in their Ecomagination campaign
promoted not only their environment friendly products but also positioned themselves as eco-
friendly company and leader in corporate responsibility which helped to create its unique
image, identity and reputation to improvise sustainability with cutting of greenhouse gas
emissions.
5

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Fig: A model of the way corporate identity, image and reputation works
Source: Self
2.1 Issue 1 : Resource constraint
The primary issue that are faced by majority of firms specifically small and mid-size is lack
of enough resources at their disposal so as to ensure mass corporate communication functions
appropriately as desirable. As most of the small and mid-size firms certainly focus on
building their business size, so anything beyond these serves as undesirable additional burden
on resources, so specifically these SME’s go for advertising and promotions for their
cooperate communications, which means that only as local level of awareness is generated
(Mazzei 2014, p. 216). And for promotions these SME’s most rely on word of mouth and
networking and do not opt for costly, strategic process for generating corporate
6

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
communication. Also due to lack of resources these SME’s particularly depend on
conventional reputation management so these can act as a problem, where scale, impact and
absence of wider industry recognition can often result into overlooked issues (Huang-
Horowitz & Freberg 2016, p. 197). As these SME’s too are open to same threat as larger
firms, but due to lack of sufficient resources, very often they encounter additional and very
distinct issues related to image, identity and reputation, where most of these issues are
generally addressed with more informal ways rather than having focus on strategic ways.
Further as opined by Salvioni and Bosetti (2014) maintaining a corporate communication
professional is often difficult for these SME’s so most of the sub function of corporate
communication like identity, image and reputation are managed internally through low cost
means, which results into different issues as these cannot be easily traded into open market.
2..2 Issue 2 : Lack of culture at work
As stated by Baccarani and Bonfanti (2015) there exists interdependence between culture,
image and identity which is a circular process that includes mutual reliance and hence
organisational identity, image as well as reputation are product of organisational culture.
Culturally integrated corporate identity offer symbolic material from which image is
developed and with which it can be corresponded, so when a poor culture is demonstrated by
a firm it is projected outwards and then absorbed back which symbolically reflects what a
corporate is doing and how others contemplate what is being done. For example, a negative
depiction of a company’s image by the press can adversely affect the company’s identity as
news reports are anticipated as genuine reflection of a firm’s intention or actions. So these
news messages which are communicated can become a symbol to be contemplated or
rejected (Gyrd-jones, Merrilees & Miller 2013, p. 571). In this manner, a firms’ identity and
image is open to the impact of opinions and reputation being forged beyond the company’s
direct sphere of influence. Example, when Body Shop’s image as green retailer was criticised
by allegation made in press, then company’s strong value and culture statement was
communicated in defence, in an attempt to secure company’s identity, image and reputation
which was made possible due to strong culturally embedded internal influences, which
helped to eliminate negative external image.
7

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Hence manager need to strengthen their organisational culture so as to align with corporate
identity, image and further project a strong reputation in industry as these are not only
interdependent but are vital to demonstrate corporate communication externally to public
(Mihai 2017, p. 103). Hence, any kind of poor cultural representation can result into poor
internal influence and interpretation which altogether can have wider negative influence over
a firm’s image, identity and reputation when situation of crisis or poor visibility is
encountered.
3. Conclusion
Thus as intended from earlier sections it can be inferred that a firm’s identity, image and
reputation are vital for organisational success and credibility in market and by applying
advertising successfully in all these sub functions of corporate communication, a firm can
strongly communicate its presence. Also the biggest barrier in way of strong corporate
communication function is lack of understanding for corporate image, identity and reputation
and its underestimated value which results into underestimated mass communication. But
managers as well as leaders should contemplate that an outdated identity and image can be
damaging or of no good to reputation so, managers need to seek for consistent efforts to drive
perceptions, identity and reputation amongst all stakeholders so as to project reality and make
all stakeholders fully aware of real influence of identity, image and reputation. Moreover
managers also need to learn how critical resources should be managed, so as to appropriately
handle any crisis condition faced by business that can be damaging to a firm’s identity, image
and reputation. Thus it has been evident that success of a firm’s corporate communication
approach is largely dependent on the manner their communication approach is related to
business strategy as a whole, in addition to appealing design and careful planning. Also as all
other functions such as investor relation, human resource relation and customer relations all
depend upon communication function so to ensure appropriate communication approach it is
essential that corporate communication managers must be interested to perform a wide kind
of subfunctions within the main function as well as must be willing to demonstrate their roles
and continue to broaden or diversify as per changing needs of information flow from wide
range of source demand so that these corporate communication functions can be made more
strategic and purposeful.
8

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
4. Recommendation
On manner through which firms can demonstrate appropriate communication of image,
identity and reputation of a firm is through corporate advertisement where managers can
decide to run a campaign based on a firm’s overall communication approach. Whether the
firm is altering its image, is suffering from erroneous anticipation in market or simply seeks
to continue a successful, well acclaimed campaign that projects robust identity, image and
reputation, their corporate advertising can play a tremendous resource in positioning this goal
of a firm to ensure future success (Zerfass & Viertmann 2017, p.69). Hence, irrespective of
communication strategy, a firm which has clear corporate identity that presents underpinning
reality and is aligned with its image held by all its stakeholders will be rewarded through
strong representation of reputation communicated carefully with corporate advertising. These
reputational success on other hand, will bring pride, commitment from staffs, customers and
public and will act as irreplaceable assets which can serve as differentiator to beat intense
competition from others in global business environment.
9

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
10

Corporate Communication
5.References
Abratt, R & Kleyn, N 2012, ‘Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate
reputations’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 46, no. 7, pp. 1048-1063
Baccarani, C & Bonfanti, A 2015, ‘Effective public speaking: A conceptual framework in the
corporate-communication field’, Corporate Communications, vol.20, no.3, pp. 375-390.
Balmer, JM 2017, ‘The corporate identity, total corporate communications, stakeholders’
attributed identities, identifications and behaviours continuum’, European Journal of
Marketing, vol. 51, no.9, pp.1472-1502.
Gyrd-jones, R, Merrilees, B & Miller, D 2013, ‘Revisiting the complexities of corporate
branding: Issues, paradoxes, solutions’, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 20(7), 571-589.
Available: doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/bm.2013.1 Accessed on 26/5/2019
Huang-Horowitz, N & Freberg, K 2016, ‘Bridging organizational identity and reputation
messages online: A conceptual model’, Corporate Communications, vol.21, no. 2,pp. 195-
212.
Illia, L & John MT Balmer 2012, ‘Corporate communication and corporate
marketing’, Corporate Communications, vol. 17, no.4,pp. 415-433.
Mazzei, A 2014, ‘A multidisciplinary approach for a new understanding of corporate
communication’, Corporate Communications, vol. 19, no.2, pp. 216-230.
Mihai, R 2017, ‘Corporate communication management. A management approach’, Valahian
Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 8, no.2, pp. 103-110.
Pérez, A & Del Bosque, I R 2014, ‘Organizational and corporate identity revisited: Toward a
comprehensive understanding of identity in business’, Corporate Reputation Review, vol. 17,
no. 1, pp. 3-27.
Salvioni, DM & Bosetti, L 2014, ‘Sustainable development and corporate communication in
global markets’, Symphonya, no.1,pp. 1-19.
10

Corporate Communication
Syed, TA 2015, ‘Company slogans, morphological issues, and corporate
communications’, Corporate Communications, vol.20, no.3,pp. 360-374.
Zerfass, A & Viertmann, C 2017, ‘Creating business value through corporate
communication’, Journal of Communication Management, vol. 21,no 1, pp. 68-81.
10