The importance of communication has increased in enormous extent over the past decades. Communication has become a very essential part of our lives. We are living in the information age, which means that having the right information on time or sooner than others, gives you a competitive advantage. Therefore, companies have to use every means of communication available in order to stay competitive or in the best case, to gain competitive advantage over the others.
People nowadays come very early into contact with channels of information. Still the most popular is the TV. Even little children know how to use it, and as we all know it has enormous power in terms of influencing people, because not the medium itself, but the persons acting through this medium, such as news-reporters, have become opinion leaders and can influence people in their decision making. So if someone is told certain things by the media from little age on, his opinion about those things is very likely to be biased in advanced age. So companies have to use those channels as well in order to defend their image and reputation. Relationships are to be established with the media people, in order to be able to use those channels effectively. Besides advertising, which can be very effective if the campaign was realized well, positive report by opinion leaders such as mentioned before can immensely improve a company’s image.
Of course, the direct communication to the various stakeholders is very important. Various channels can be used within a company, for internal communications, for communication among employees. Other important stakeholders are customers and investors. An appearance in the internet in form of a web site is the most important information channel to provide in formation for those two important stakeholders. Another advantage of the internet is that it addresses also to the general public and helps communicating a corporation’s identity, and thus enhancing its image and reputation. But for customers and investors any necessary information can be provided through this channel, and for any further contact the company can provide, address, specific phone-numbers (hot lines) for each constituent, such as the media, investors, and customers; those are the most important.
Finally, the case where a company is most depended on communication is when a crisis occurs. In this situation the company has to set up an effective communication strategy in order to manage the crisis. All channels of communication should be considered in this case, and will probably be needed.
Everything mentioned in this entry may only show the surface of Corporate Communication Relevance, but it already displays how essential and inevitable communication is for today’s business.
Examples/Experiences:
The best example I know, that displays that a company has to embrace communication is the case of Coors. Coors has been a very conservative company and revealed any kind of information it could from the public. When Coors was in a crisis, they realized that other groups used the media and other communication channels to get Coors into this crisis. The only way out of it was to use the media and any other channel available to communicate with the public and overcome the crisis. Coors realized the importance of communication for the company and immediately switched to an open door policy; this all happened in the late 1970’s. Today Coors has a Communication department and an informative and well structured internet appearance.
References:
Argenti, Paul A. (2007). Corporate Communication (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Links:
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html
http://resources.bnet.com/topic/corporate+communications+and+marketing+and+survey.html
http://annualreport07.mla.com.au/corporate_communications.php
http://www.relevantcommunications.com/whyrelevance/relevanceinuse.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Relevance-of-Medical-Metaphor-in-Corporate-Turnaround&id=328329
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS146011+13-May-2008+BW20080513
People nowadays come very early into contact with channels of information. Still the most popular is the TV. Even little children know how to use it, and as we all know it has enormous power in terms of influencing people, because not the medium itself, but the persons acting through this medium, such as news-reporters, have become opinion leaders and can influence people in their decision making. So if someone is told certain things by the media from little age on, his opinion about those things is very likely to be biased in advanced age. So companies have to use those channels as well in order to defend their image and reputation. Relationships are to be established with the media people, in order to be able to use those channels effectively. Besides advertising, which can be very effective if the campaign was realized well, positive report by opinion leaders such as mentioned before can immensely improve a company’s image.
Of course, the direct communication to the various stakeholders is very important. Various channels can be used within a company, for internal communications, for communication among employees. Other important stakeholders are customers and investors. An appearance in the internet in form of a web site is the most important information channel to provide in formation for those two important stakeholders. Another advantage of the internet is that it addresses also to the general public and helps communicating a corporation’s identity, and thus enhancing its image and reputation. But for customers and investors any necessary information can be provided through this channel, and for any further contact the company can provide, address, specific phone-numbers (hot lines) for each constituent, such as the media, investors, and customers; those are the most important.
Finally, the case where a company is most depended on communication is when a crisis occurs. In this situation the company has to set up an effective communication strategy in order to manage the crisis. All channels of communication should be considered in this case, and will probably be needed.
Everything mentioned in this entry may only show the surface of Corporate Communication Relevance, but it already displays how essential and inevitable communication is for today’s business.
Examples/Experiences:
The best example I know, that displays that a company has to embrace communication is the case of Coors. Coors has been a very conservative company and revealed any kind of information it could from the public. When Coors was in a crisis, they realized that other groups used the media and other communication channels to get Coors into this crisis. The only way out of it was to use the media and any other channel available to communicate with the public and overcome the crisis. Coors realized the importance of communication for the company and immediately switched to an open door policy; this all happened in the late 1970’s. Today Coors has a Communication department and an informative and well structured internet appearance.
References:
Argenti, Paul A. (2007). Corporate Communication (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Links:
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html
http://resources.bnet.com/topic/corporate+communications+and+marketing+and+survey.html
http://annualreport07.mla.com.au/corporate_communications.php
http://www.relevantcommunications.com/whyrelevance/relevanceinuse.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Relevance-of-Medical-Metaphor-in-Corporate-Turnaround&id=328329
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS146011+13-May-2008+BW20080513
