Indeed, the increased visibility of star CEOs like Lee Iacocca and the front page wheeling's and dealings of financiers like Carl Icahn has engendered a visibility of the corporate communications art similar to the scrutiny enjoyed or endured by political advisors.
This chapter will provide an overview of the ways that companies present themselves to their constituencies. Corporate communications techniques include: marketing communications, employee communications, community relations, and trade or customer relations.
Getting The Message
By now you're probably confused by all the definitions of corporate communications you've read and heard. Essential to any of these is an understanding of the word "communication." Corporate communications is not merely the process of formulating a message and putting it into a press release. It involves listening to the audience before that message is written and after it is delivered.
Two way correspondence is the underpinning that gives corporate communications importance and value. It always amazes me to see corporate executives forget to trade their advertising/ promotion mentality of one way communication for the two way process of corporate communications contact in which they share information with an audience giving and receiving.
Corporate Communications And The World Around You
Corporate communications can be thought of as the process of safeguarding the company's name, image, and reputation. It includes the creation of philosophies, establishment of principles, development of look or identity, and the forging of image. How the company reacts to the concerns of the public presents an important picture of a company's attitude and commitment. In order for the company to be seen as reacting appropriately, it must realize what those concerns are.
Therefore, the best corporate communicators are attuned to what is going on in and outside the corporation. They have a good sense of what is happening in the world that will directly or indirectly have an impact on the company. They can project how corporate philosophies, principles, and objectives will be perceived by employees, customers, investors, regulators, and the community.
However, they are never naive enough to assume that a company will always be thinking and acting in harmony with the world around it, and so must be prepared to manage dissension among these important constituencies.
Corporate communications takes into account every audience that has a bearing on the company's ability to achieve its objective. The four disciplines described below are the key means by which companies communicate.
Marketing Communications: Part Of The Selling Art
As the name suggests, this discipline furthers the company's efforts to sell its products. Marketing communications focuses on the real and perceived news value of the product or service being offered in hopes of creating media interest and coverage. Such coverage, when positive, implies third party endorsement, the strongest selling proposition possible. As examples, think of automobile reviews in Car and Driver, the mention of a book on "Donahue," the coverage of a computer innovation in business publications.
Like advertising and promotion, marketing communications should be part of the company's effort to create awareness, develop attitudes, and provide information. Marketing communications is a costly process, so it should not be thought of as a means to gain "free publicity." However, it is an excellent way to present a detailed message to a wide variety of target audiences for a modest investment in a reasonable period of time.
Despite what some may think or say, the payoff from marketing communications is measurable. The process is most effective when integrated with a well thought out advertising and promotional plan. Key factors are the practitioner's ability to articulate clearly an objective and to provide a detailed profile of the audience being targeted. This will help determine that media in which the message must appear, so that efforts can be concentrated.
Successful marketing communications relies on frequency of message delivery and credibility of the medium in which the information is delivered, whether it is a newsletter for clients or write ups in trade journals.
Of importance to you is that there is room in this area for entry level professionals, both within corporations and in outside agencies. A big part of this job is the development and placement of press releases describing the company's latest products. Often, when the new product is significant, it will mean the arrangement of press conferences, press luncheons, and the arrangement of interviews with pertinent company representatives.
This job requires the ability to learn about new, unfamiliar areas quickly, to anticipate the needs of reporters and editors, and to persist in your placement efforts until your company's message gets the ink you feel it deserves.
Employee Communications: Developing A Company's Greatest Resource
Employees should never be the last ones to learn something about their company, but, all too often, they are. It doesn't matter if it's good news, like the signing of an important client, or bad news, like a downturn in business.
Smart companies understand that employees can be their best ambassadors. They are community spokespersons, image builders, opinion shapers, and product endorsers. Companies that fail to keep employees informed about policies, philosophies, and plans are overlooking one of their greatest corporate communications resources. Good employee communications, whether in the form of newsletters, bulletin boards, regular staff meetings, or big budget video programs, can result in greater productivity, higher product quality, and better customer service.
Whatever a company invests in employee communications will usually be more than tripled in sales, greater efficiency, and higher product quality.
Satellite communications and the desire among workers for greater involvement in the decision making process will bring about dramatic changes in employee/employer relations. In addition, the wave of "downsizing" that began in the 1980s and the resultant drop in employee loyalty increases the importance and difficulty of the employee communications effort.
This is an area in which I encourage prospective public relations practitioners to get their start. Companies are realizing the increasing importance of this area and, as a result, increasing the budget and staff they devote to it.
Effective employee communications involves finding out what employees are thinking, determining how messages are traveling "top down," and encouraging corporate leaders to respond to employees' complaints and concerns, whether they are expressed in employee surveys, in open meetings, or through the grapevine.
Professionals in this area must have the ability to develop credibility with both management and the line. That is a difficult task. It requires frankness and tact, bluntness and diplomacy. Most of all, it requires skills in listening, interpreting, and presenting.
Community Relations: A Means For Keeping In Touch
Many years ago I received quite a dressing down from my boss, the owner of a major privately held company. The point that was made very clear to me was that the owner believed in a "core out" concept of management my first responsibility was to the ownership, then my fellow employees, and then to the community in which I lived and worked. This list was followed by trade partners and various other audiences influencing the success of the company and its products in the marketplace. I embrace this concept today, for it has proven true repeatedly throughout my career.
Being involved in the community is extremely important to corporate growth. Not only is the community the pool from which talent is selected, it also serves as a pilot market for testing concepts, exploring consumer interests and tastes, and getting feedback on performance.
Corporate America is wise to treat the communities in which it lives and operates the way it hopes to be treated in return.
This seems elementary, yet many times management loses touch with reality and starts to bully its way around. Pushing and shoving works until those who are being pushed and shoved find a way to reciprocate and they always do.
Community relations are an excellent area for facing your first external audience and testing those messages you want to deliver.
Trade/Customer Relations: A Way Of Building Partnerships
Like every other discipline I've discussed here, trade/customer relations is most effective when it is a two way communication or dialogue. A company's customers /trade partners will be as interested or involved in a company and its products as they are invited to be. They can be invited for company tours, allowed to participate in certain training programs, and included in company newsletters.
My philosophy in this area has always been to invite trade partners or customers to share in the day to day operation of the company and to take an active role in strategic planning, new product development and program implementation when and where appropriate.
Customers/trade partners are a great source of information that is all too frequently overlooked. To the extent a company can develop corporate communications tactics to gather facts and make customers/trade partners feel that the company values their contribution, bonds are formed that will pay dividends for a long time to come. I've never seen a company realize its full potential when it was fighting with or lacking the complete trust or commitment of its customers /trade partners.
This is an area of corporate communications for the strong of heart. Realize that many companies don't ask their customers' opinions because they don't want to know. Be prepared to hear the worst. Practitioners in this area will be resolving complaints. They must develop the skills of listening and understanding problems without accepting blame. They must be able to make sure that action is taken on complaints and that information about that action is communicated to this essential audience.
Practical Issues And Answers
Corporate communications is not an easy field to get your start in. The competition is tough, and there are usually far more applicants than openings in the field.
Therefore, it might be difficult or impossible for you to pick and choose a point of entry. If you have a choice, take the job that affords you the most practical experience. The more "things" you do, the more experience you log, the greater your information base and ultimately the greater your value.
The perfect job candidate possesses common sense, an open mind, a willingness to learn, an ability to take constructive criticism and put it into practical application, some flexibility, good organization skills, and lots of energy.
Degrees in English, journalism, marketing, sociology, psychology, mass communication, or even broadcasting serve as excellent backgrounds. Many people with reporting experience on business and consumer publications also enter the field.
Salary really should not be your first priority. Remember that there are a lot of talented people trying to break into corporate communications. Starting salaries could range from $15,000 to $30,000 depending upon the geographic area, your education, and experience and selling ability.
Those deciding to make a career of corporate communications in any of the disciplines I've described can move into some supervisory role within five to seven years. Based upon their abilities and range of experiences, it would be possible to manage or direct all or part of the corporate communications function in eight to ten years.
A career in corporate communications can be challenging and rewarding. It can also lead to new careers or new challenges and greater rewards in journalism, education, politics, sales, or marketing.
But, above all, remember: Even the greatest writers will not be effective in this field unless they learn the most important part of communications listening.
WILLIAM R. DEETER has been in communications for nearly twenty five years. He has spent twenty years in various corporate positions with both multinational industrial and consumer product companies. For the past four years, Mr. Deeter has owned and operated his own public relations/communications firm in Princeton, NJ.
A graduate of the University of Toledo, Mr. Deeter has a BA in Mass Communications.
