Corporate Communication:

A Guide to Theory & Practice

Joep Cornelissen
 Chapter 2:
Corporate Communication in Contemporary
Organizations
Overview

Historical development of communication

Strategic role of corporate communication
Effective organization of communication
Changing definition, scope and organization of
communication in organizations
Historical background

Early corporate communication

Context
Began at least 150 years ago
From Industrial Revolution 1930s
Era of mass production and consumption
Complex industrial firms sought government support
The public be damned

Activity based on publicity, promotions and

selling activity
Conducted by press agents, promoters and propagandists
Publicity-seeking approach
Answerable to no government or watchdogs
Played on gullible public who wanted to be entertained
Often so exaggerated it was lies!
Early twentieth century

Muckrakers
Investigative journalists who exposed scandals associated
with power, capitalism and government corruption
Raised public awareness of unethical and harmful practices
Response: Large organizations hired writers and former
journalists as spokespeople, in pursuit of public approval
Markets stabilized or declined at this time
Response: organizations hired advertising agents to
promote products
19201930

Economic reform in the US and UK

Intensified public scepticism towards big business
Writers, publicists and advertising agents needed on a
continuous basis brought in house
Start of the development of professional expertise
Public relations and marketing emerge as two separate
external communication disciplines
Need to concern themselves with public concern (PR)
Need to effectively bring products to market
Integration
Before 1980s, marketing and PR were
considered distinct in their objectives and activities:
Marketing deals with markets
Sense, serve and satisfy the customer needs at a profit
Public relations deals with publics
Provide goodwill with the public so that they do not interfere with
profit making
Later, marketing public relations began to develop as an
integrated activity
Using PR to launch products
... branded content
The Body Shop
Starbucks
Since 1980s
PR and marketing have started to be integrated
Pioneered with Kotler and Mindak
Umbrella management function:
corporate communication
Marketing and public relations activities
and their overlap
Models for the relationship
between marketing and public relations
Drivers for integration (1)
Market- and environment-based drivers
Stakeholder roles overlap
Internal communication is inseparable from external
communication
Demands for greater transparency
Drivers for integration (2)
Communication-based drivers
Greater amounts of message clutter
Increased message effectiveness through consistency and
reinforcement of core messages
Complementarity of media and media cost inflation
Media multiplication requires control of communication
channels
Drivers for integration
Organizational drivers
Improved efficiency
Increased accountability
Provision of strategic direction and purpose through
consolidation
Commonalities and overlap between communication
disciplines
The organization of corporate
communications
Disciplines were:
Distinct
Complementary
Integrated
Corporate communication as an integrated
framework for managing communication
The organization of corporate
communication within Siemens
Vertical structures
Used by multi-divisional and multinational companies
Divide each organizations primary tasks into smaller tasks
and activities
Staff function at corporate headquarters
Links to the CEO or senior management
Most senior CC professional likely to have seat at executive
board
Horizontal structures
Allow professionals to respond fast to
emergent issues
Provide control and ensure consistent message
Allow for cross-functional team work and flexibility
Avoid silos, compartmentalization and turf wars
Mechanisms for horizontal work
Multi-disciplinary task or project team
Standardized work processes
Council meetings
Natural work team
e.g. cross-company investor relations team
Taskforce team
ad hoc basis
for specific project
crisis management
corporate restructuring
around an issue in the companys environment
Council meetings
Representatives from different communication disciplines
Meet to discuss strategic issues
Provide ideas for improved coordination between disciplines
Allow personal relations worldwide to develop
Coordinate projects
Share best practices
Learn from mistakes
Should be collaborative
Not just review and evaluation process or control forum
Communication guidelines
Agreed work procedures
Who to contact
Formatting of messages
General design regulations on how to apply logtypes or which
PMS colours to use
House style book

Ericssons global brand book