By Bihongoye Erica, BAPRM 42535

 Methods and tactics of corporate communication

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

• Management communication takes place between management and its internal and external audiences. To support management communication, organizations rely heavily on specialists in marketing communication and organizational communication.
• Marketing communication gets the bulk of the budgets in most organizations, and consists of product advertising, direct mail, personal selling, and sponsorship activities.
• Organizational communication consist of specialists in public relations, public affairs, investor relations, environmental communications, corporate advertising, and employee communication.

The responsibilities of corporate communication are:

• to promote 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

Corporate branding

A corporate brand is the perception of a company that unites a group of products or services for the public under a single name, a shared visual identity, and a common set of symbols. The process of corporate branding consists creating favorable associations and positive reputation with both internal and external stakeholders. The purpose of a corporate branding initiative is to generate a positive halo over the products and businesses of the company, imparting more favourable impressions of those products and businesses.

In more general terms, research suggests that corporate branding is an appropriate strategy for companies to implement when:

Corporate and organizational identity

There are two approaches for identity:

• Corporate identity is the reality and uniqueness of an organization, which is integrally related to its external and internal image and reputation through corporate communication
• Organizational identity comprises those characteristics of an organization that its members believe are central, distinctive and enduring. That is, organizational identity consists of those attributes that members feel are fundamental to (central) and uniquely descriptive of (distinctive) the organization and that persist within the organization over time.

Four types of identity can be distinguished

• Perceived identity: The collection of attributes that are seen as typical for the ‘continuity, centrality and uniqueness’ of the organization in the eyes of its members.
• Projected identity: The self presentations of the organization’s attributes manifested in the implicit and explicit signals which the organization broadcasts to internal and external target audiences through communication and symbols.
• Desired identity (also called ‘ideal’ identity): The idealized picture that top managers hold of what the organization could evolve into under their leadership.
• Applied identity: The signals that an organization broadcasts both consciously and unconsciously through behaviors and initiatives at all levels within the organization.

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