Corporate Communication PDF

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION CORPORATE COMMUNICATION is a management function that o ers a framework for the e ective coordination of all internal and external communication, with all the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with...

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION CORPORATE COMMUNICATION is a management function that o ers a framework for the e ective coordination of all internal and external communication, with all the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with the stakeholder groups (employees, customers, investors) upon which the organisation ids dependent. It is the orchestration of all the instruments in the eld of organisational identity (communications, symbols and behaviours of organisational members) in such an attractive and realistic manner as to create or maintain a positive reputation for groups with which the organisation has an interdependent relationship (van Riel, 2003). It is the term used to describe a variety of strategic management functions. Depending on the organisation, corporate communication includes: public relations; crisis and emergency communication; corporate citizenship; reputation management, community relations; media relations; investor relations; employee relations; government relations; marketing communication; management communication; corporate branding; image building; advertising (Goodman, 2006). Above all, it is a mindset, an ambition to encompass all communications within one perspective. (…) Corporate communication is the “body” of communication: a “body” that represents the voice of the corporation by including and integrating its many di erent dimensions into one unifying expression. (…) Corporate communication builds on the assumptions that management is able to bring di erent disciplines and elds of practice together to act and speak in unison (Christensen et al, 2008). KEY CHARACTERISTICS From a strategic management perspective: - The broader focus is the organisations a whole - Task of presenting the organisation to all its key stakeholders (internal and external) → integrated approach: “Corporate” refers to the business setting in which CorpComm emerged as a separate function; But also the idea of a “body”: uni ed way of looking at internal and external communication disciplines and stakeholders. - Strategic objective of building, maintaining and protecting the company’s reputation. Corporate communication has two speci c types of activity: managerial activities (planning, coordinating, counselling CEOs and senior managers) next to tactical skills and activities (producing and disseminating messages). The focus is not on single brands or products. It’s more on the brand itself, its values, the personality that the organisation want to present to the public enlarge. Task of overseeing, coordinating this complexity through this integrating approach. Positive reputation. The success of an organisation is as they are viewed by stakeholders. CorpComm as an integrated framework for managing communication → sales promotions, direct marketing, advertising and sponsorship/publicity are activities typical of marketing; media relations, event management, public a airs, issues and crisis management, investor relations, digital/online communication, employee/internal communication, CSR communication and community relations, internal/global communication are activities typical of public relations. Public relations addresses all other stakeholders, specialist areas. Corporate communication has an umbrella coordination function with the aim of ensure cohesion. Corporate communication = all external and internal communications by a company to create dialogue with stakeholders, communicate its values and identity, and enhance its reputation. It is not only advertising (one of the specialist areas); it’s about a company wanting to create a dialogue by presenting its values, its identity and what it stands for. 1  ff ff fi fi ff fi fi ff ff  Examples → lego, 90th anniversary. The legos bricks were not the focus, they wanted to express the values of the company, such as perseverance, consistency, social justice or innovation. KEY CONCEPTS These key concepts are commonly used in relation to corporate communication, and re ect its characteristics. - Mission: overriding purpose in line with the values and expectations of stakeholders. It is a statement, that de nes the company’s objective, mission, and the approach to reach these objectives. It relates to the question “what business are we in?”. - Vision: desired future state, the inspiration of the organisation. It is a vision statement, describing the desired future direction the company wants to go in, the longterm direction. It focuses on tomorrow. Aspirational. - Corporate objectives: statement of overall aims in line with the overall purpose. These objectives for the all organisation are set by the top management, and they come up with these important objectives they want to reach. They provide the focus for setting more precise goals, the direction of the activities of the organisation. - Strategies: the ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into e ect. It is overall a long term with speci c actions to achieve these objectives. - Corporate identity: the pro le and values communicated by an organisation. It’s the way which a company or brand presents itself to the public (customers, employees, investors). Packaging, logos, mottos, following certain rules. - Corporate image: the immediate set of associations of an individual in response to one or more signals or messages form or about particular organisation at a single point in time. It is an individual’s perceptive of an organisation, of its products and services, at any point in time (experience, what you think at this point, the immediate association). It is a mental picture, formed on a good or bad experience. - Corporate reputation: an individual’s collective representation of past images of an organisation (induces through either communication or past experiences) established over time. Overtime, the idea I form about the company or the brand, after several touchpoint or experiences, established over time. It is earned through long term communication. - Stakeholder: any group or individual who can a ect or is a ected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives. All persons or groups who have an interest in organisation and have interactions and relationships with the organisation, involved in the regular functionings of the organisation (employees, consumers, investors and shareholders, community..). Directly involved in the business or frequently interactive. - Market: a de ned group for whom a product is or may be in demand (and for whom an organisation creates and maintains products and services). Marketing communication, the specialists areas devoted to communicate markets. - Communication: the tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal and external groups, to disseminate messages. - Integration: the act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity is e ectively and consistently communicated to internal and external groups. 2  ff ff fi fi fi fi ff ff fl  CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT PHASE ONE: Industrial revolution - 1930s Early corporate communication began at least 200 years ago with the modernisation of society, but it has always been there for any exchange of goods. Any exchange of goods and services required some form of communication, roots. More and more of these groups expanded into business activities which undertook individuals and groups in society. With the modernisation of society, through trade and industrialisation, more complex organisations and communications were created. The Industrial Revolution - 1930s - is a period characterised by mass production and consumption. Corporation was emerging for the rst time in history because it needed professional communications o cers and a more organised form of handling publicity. Walter Lippmann, in his famed book Public Opinion (1922), writes: “The development of the publicity man is a clear sign that the facts of modern life do not spontaneously take a shape in which they can be known. They must be given a shape by somebody, and since in the daily routine reporters cannot give a shape to facts, and since there is little disinterested organisation of intelligence, the need for some formulation is being met by those interested parties” “The public be dammed” → activity based on publicity, promotions and selling activity was conducted by press agents, promoters and propagandists, and was played on gullible public who wanted to be entertained. It was often so exaggerated it was lies. Publicity-seeking approach, answerable to no government or watchdogs. These professionals took advantage of the lack of knowledge and experience of the public. The press agencies could get away with it, as they weren’t controlled by the government. The new century began with the appearance of muckrakers, investigative journalists committed to discover and expose scandals associated with corporate wrongdoing and government corruption/injustice between 1890 and 1920. Exposing wrongdoings to the general public raised awareness of unethical and harmful practices, even though it was a risky business. The term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, who thought they were going too far. Muckrakers came from all levels of society and risked their livelihoods and lives by their work. In many cases, their work didi bring improvements. In response, large organisations hired writers and former journalists as spokespeople, in pursuit of public approval. They started to look for real professionals, hired to be communicators or advertising agents promoting products. Change in the economy and the market. The quality of their corporate communicators was raised, to win the competition battle. PHASE TWO: 1930s - 1980s From the 1930s till the 1980s there was a large economic reform, in the US and UK. Public scepticism towards big business intensi ed; writers, publicists and advertising agents needed on a continuous basis - brought in house. Communication became a real discipline, of study and practice → start of the development of professional expertise. Public relations and marketing emerge as two separate “external” communication disciplines. PR: need to concern themselves with public concern; MKTG: need to e ectively bring products to market. Before the 1980s, marketing and PR were considered distinct in their objectives and activities, and they evolved independently. Marketing deals with markets to sense, serve and satisfy the customer needs at a pro t. Public relations deals with publics (excluding customers and consumers) to provide goodwill with the public so that they do not interfere with pro t making and to make a reputation. 3  fi ffi fi fi ff fi  PHASE THREE: from the 1980s From the 1980s, some organisations realised the need to integrate more these two separate disciplines. PR and marketing started to be integrated (or in any way connected) in organisations and in ways of performing communications. In Kotler’s words (1989): "there is a genuine need to develop a new paradigm in which these two subcultures [public relations and marketing] work most e ectively in the best interest of the organisation and the publics it serves”. Change of mindset → the public is part of the organisation’s preoccupations, for its survival. Integrate and coordinate of the specialist areas, the basic idea was to start looking at marketing and pr not in a fragmented manner, but into something that needs to be coordinated. Umbrella management function → CORPORATE COMMUNICATION. Bene ts of this integration → e ectiveness of coordination, more structured, well organised, consistency and coherence, partnerships among organisations, global markets, stronger corporate identity, more power as a big function, reducing costs. MODELS FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MKTG AND PUBLIC RELATIONS A: distinct in their objectives and activities. They are treated as distinct, no relationship, traditional view, distinct. B: some overlapping, MPR = marketing public relations, using PR tools to launch and promote products, common ground. Selling goods and services. Basic form of integration. C: marketing as the dominant function, leading role. Pr becomes part of the marketing department to sustain costumers’ satisfaction (Integrated Mktg Comm). D: PR is the leading function, strategic pr label used in this department. Marketing is seen as a subpart (Strategic PR). E: marketing and pr merge completely into one single communication function (Vice President of Mktg and PR). It’s very rare in real life, as it is an advanced way of thinking. Holistic prospective, it depends on the nature of the business; there’s a certain exibility. Marketing and PR activities overlap on corporate advertising (focus on the company) and marketing PR (product publicity, sponsorships and branded content). Corporate advertising is where the corporate identity, rather than solely its products and services, is emphasised (e.g. → P&G and the “Thank you, Mom” campaign). Branded content features both product-related content as well as general interest content (e.g. → Net ix and the “hidden promotion” of Orange is the New Black in the NYT). DRIVERS FOR INTEGRATION: factors which led organisations to invest into integration, social and market conditions. 1. Market and environment-based drivers: - Multiplicity of stakeholders and overlap of stakeholders roles (investors are di erent from employees or costumers = you cannot communicate the same content to di erent people. Di erent kinds of communications are needed, distinct roles, to guarantee consistency and coherence); - Internal communication is inseparable from external communication - need for alignment; - Demands fro greater transparency (communication is key to keep the body informed to what you do). 2. Communication-based drivers: - Greater amounts of message clutter → message e ectiveness through consistency and reinforcement of core messages (make the voice of the brand heard in this clutter, confusion, how to break thought this clutter with integration); - Complementarity of media, traditional media cost in ation and new media multiplication → message e ectiveness through more creativity but also control of various channels (same message adapted to di erent channels which need to be controlled). 4  ff fi fl ff ff ff fl ff fl ff ff ff  3. Organisational divers: - Improved e ciency and accountability (it’s di cult to measure the di erences of a communication strategy and to demonstrate the accountability, and its impact on sales); - Provision of strategic direction and purpose through consolidation; - Commonalities and overlap between communication disciplines. INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN → barbie made money out of the campaign which gave visibility to both the movie and to the dolls. Using in uencers and celebrities, they sponsored big events (met gala, pride marches), they created more than 100 brand collaborations (zara, prada, xbox, air b&b), themed boat cruises in Florida. It was one of the biggest integrated campaigns, and it was one of the most successful. In short (the historical path of CC towards integration and stakeholder engagement), from the 1900s to the 1970s corporate communication (publicity, promotions, information dissemination) was rather simple, mainly external communication to build relationships with journalists or the press; the main target was to public these news articles. From being tactical, communication became a strategic tool in the late 80s/early 2000s, not only did it inform, but it became a positioning (in the minds consuming)/reputation management, which focused on accountability and contribution to the org, specialised disciplines and integrated department. Nowadays, stakeholder engagement took over, empowered by new media technologies. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Process of actively involving stakeholders in communication, listening to them, and allowing them to have a say in corporate decision-making. Not merely about sharing opinions and perspectives: interactivity means that organisations must be transparent, acting in character to bring across identity in an authentic way and fostering stakeholders to become genuine advocates. Without this, stakeholders point out lack of transparency and authenticity and may even organise for action at scale. 5  ffi fl ffi ff  CORPORATE COMMUNICATION ORGANISATION Di erent perspectives on the relationship between communication disciplines (marketing and public relations). Each prospective represents a di erent view on how communication can be managed and organised. They generally evolved from being distinct, to complementary, to nally integrated → corporate communication as the dominant perspective and management framework. Corporate communication can be seen as a holistic prospective, di erent specialists areas, management framework, as an “umbrella function”, coordination function for all specialist areas. THE ORGANISATION OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION This is an example of a typical organisation of corporate communication, but every organisation can have a di erent way of organising the di erent specialist areas. Director of Corporate Communications = CCO (chief CorpComm o cer), reports directly to the CEO (chief executive o cer) and the senior management team (or is even member of this team); he’s responsible for the coordination of all teams and function’s activities. He’s part of the top management team, has a say on big decisions/key decisions. Up level management. The task is so di cult because of internal and external changes, they need a solid structure. Manager for marketing communication, reporting to the director of corporate communication. Separate with own specialist teams, with some sort of coordination → subunits. On the right, shared services to all the other units. M&A communications, mergers and acquisitions, two di erent organisations merge and become one. Crisis communications, specialists helping the director, one of the units, with special cries. THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF THE CORPORATE COMMUNICATION OFFICER The eld of communication is much more complicated than what it used to be. The changes are twofold: there are external changes, that have to do with technology that a ect all elements of business, and the stakeholders have multiplied, taking a seat at the stakeholders’ table. The internal changes are much more, by way of links, to marketing, to strategy, to operation that the CCO and its sta need to be aware of in order to implement programs. The CCO needs to have the ear of the CEO in order to be e ective. When the CEO considers the CCO a member of the inner circle, to understand the strategy of the company, and, in times of crisis, to have the other seniors managers understand where the CCO advice is coming from and why. 6  ff fi ffi ff ff ffi ff ff ff ff ffi ff ff fi  The second element is authenticity, what di erentiates the work of the CCO from others in the company. The CCO is the voice of authenticity. We should not be undertaking strategy that is not authentically linked to what and who we are. Authenticity is an important part of the avant-garde aspect of corporate communications. (Harvard professor, Stephen Greyser). CCO should not waste too much time showing the e ect on the bottom line, and mostly focus on the variably they’re in charge of, for instance quality of relationship with stakeholders, reputation, identity, and develop metrics about that. These metrics are related to the concept of risk, which is the other important concept that directors care about. CCO must demonstrate their role and how they can contribute by linking themselves with the management of risk, related to an organisation activity. They are in charge of a function that is mature, and it’s composed by an operational side and a strategic side; they also organise the function, and they are able, inside the organisation, to show hoe corporate communication can contribute to the development of the strategy of the organisation. Not only how through communication we can reach the objective to ful l the strategy, but also, and most importantly, CCO are the ones contributing to shaping the strategy of the organisation. (Lugano University professor, Francesco Lurati). VERTICAL STRUCTURE Vertical structure → way in which: 1. Tasks and activities are divided and arranged into departments (units and subunits); 2. Departments are located in the hierarchy of authority. The vertical structure provides clear lines of authority and specialisation. Each single communication unit is in charge of controlling their own subunits, with a manager responsible for each subunit. it’s a chain of command, de ne and clear from the top to the bottom. Some departments have more power than others. Corporate communication as such and chain of command within. HORIZONTAL STRUCTURE Horizontal structure → allows for cross-functional teamwork and exibility, direct conversations and collaborations with other people within the department and outside the department. Mechanisms for coordination and integration for work progresses, between people units and subunits. Can take various forms: - Multi-functional teams, permanent or task force types. They include members from di erent units and subunits who work together to solve a problem or a situation; they create a team, from multiple departments to reach a solution. Taskforce, maintaining relationship with stakeholders; - Standardised work processes ( ow charts, process maps, checklists). Written documents, help people understand work processes, rules. Concrete shared understanding; - Informal channels, (email, phone, videoconferences, co ee machine, canteen, internal conferences, meetings). They facilitate integration and collaboration, to communicate and interact; - Council meetings, to discuss strategic communication issues and evaluate current and past performance. Formal meetings with representatives with di erent communicative units, creating when there’s a strategic issue concerning communication, new strategic direction for the next one to three years, all the managers at the same table. Multinational companies, communication departments spread in di erent countries who have to meet regularly to have these meetings to coordinate their next move; - Communication guidelines, common work procedures, design regulations. Rules on how to use the logo, the brand, message sent out to stakeholders. Preserve the corporate identity → brand book, a manual which every company has. Di erence: vertical → hierarchy, chain of commands; horizontal → mechanism of coordination. 7  ff fl ff ff fi ff ff ff fl ff fi  Summing up, many organisations have consolidated their communication activities into a single department. This allows the CCO’s ready access to the executive decision-making team to coordinate the variety of communication units and activities, vertical and horizontal structures are put into place. The centralisation or decentralisation of communication has relative advantages and disadvantages. There is no one best organisation of CorpComm – it is speci c to each organisation, but should follow the principles of integration and alignment. Important especially for large and/or multinational corporations (practitioners working across time zones, cultures and languages). SARA LEE/DE: organising communication in a multinational corporation Sara Lee/DE, based in Utrecht, Netherlands, is a subsidiary of the Chicago-based Sara Lee Corporation. It is a global group of branded consumer packaged goods companies. The "DE" in the name comes from Douwe Egberts, a Dutch co ee and tea producer acquired by Sara Lee in 1978. In the early 1980s, Sara Lee also acquired the Dutch company Intradel and merged it with Douwe Egberts. In 1989, the newly formed organisation was restructured into two divisions: Co ee and Tea, and Household and Body Care. These divisions now include around 100 business units across 40 countries, with responsibilities tailored to local markets. The restructuring in 1989 brought it about that communication responsibilities were split between a central corporate communication department at the group level of Sara Lee/DE, and smaller communication departments and professionals being incorporated within the various business units. The split seemed a logical division of tasks, and is typical for many multinational corporations, but almost immediately brought clear tensions with it about responsibilities and procedures concerning communication. Particularly in the area of media relations, managers and professionals from across the organisation duly talked with the press on their own initiative, in the absence of clear procedures for media relations. Sara Lee/DE has implemented two initiatives to balance centralised corporate communication with the decentralised structure of its business units: 1. Strategic framework: the central corporate communication department provides a general strategic framework, including themes, messages, and principles, based on corporate strategy. Business units develop their own communication plans but must follow these guidelines, ensuring alignment across the organisation. 2. Internal consultancy: the central communication department acts as an internal consultancy, o ering advice and assistance to business units on communication projects. Sta ed with expert consultants, the department helps ensure consistency and collaboration in communication across the company. These initiatives aim to maintain coordination while allowing business units exibility in their communication e orts 8  ff ff ff ff fl ff fi  STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION Management of relationships with stakeholders → one of the main purpose of Corporate Communication theory and practice. STAKEHOLDERS and RELATIONS, connections between organisations of any type and stakeholders, are so important because they highlight the links between people, organisations of any type and stakeholders. From its prospective, an organisation is seen as a set of connections, a network of relationships among stakeholders. These relationship are the key to develop legitimacy and reputation. Management literature primarily talks about STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT, but we cannot manage stakeholders (people), we can only manage processes, activities, actions. CorpComm literature focuses on communication processes, activities and actions which lead to the establishment of (good) relations with various stakeholders → stakeholder relationship’s management. STAKEHOLDER THEORY (R. Edward Freeman) Stakeholder theory is an idea about how business really works. It says that for any business to be successful, it has to create value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities and nanciers (stakeholders banks and other people with the money). You can’t look at any one of those stakes or stakeholders in isolations; their interest has to go together, and the job of a manager or and entrepreneur is to gure out how the interest of customer, suppliers, communities, employees and nanciers go in the same direction. Stakeholder theory is the idea that each of these group is important to the success of a business, and guring out where their interests go in the same direction is what the managerial task and the entrepreneurial task is all about. Stakeholder theory says “if you just focuses on nanciers, you miss what make capitalism tick; and what makes capitalism tick is that shareholders, nanciers, customers, suppliers, employees, communities can together create something than no-one of them can create alone”. THE EVOLUTION OF STAKEHOLDER THINKING From neo-classical theory/perspective→ traditional way of thinking about stakeholders. The purpose of organisations is to make pro ts; accountability exclusively to themselves and their own interests and shareholders’ (azionisti, institution which legally own one or more parts of the company or a share of stocks) Maximise long-term pro ts, nancial returns for the bene ts and survival of the organisation. Pro t is the only responsibility. “The business of business is business” and the “soulless corporation” (Friedman & Miles, 2006). Business is the only preoccupation of the company, its interest is making money. To stakeholder (or socio-economic) theory/perspective → organisations are not only reasonable to make pro ts for themselves, they also need to handle long term relationships. other groups besides shareholders count, accountability extends to groups important for the continuity of the organisation and the welfare of society. 9 fi  fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi  Organisations have moral/normative duties, not only economic/instrumental ones. They have to respond to society to give back to society, not only nancial returns, other duties in the business. Input-output → limited number of stakeholders; Organisation-stakeholders relations → equal consideration, interdependency. Companies engage with multiple stakeholders, not just for instrumental reason (economic) but also for normative reasons (environmental performance, impact, use of resources). Give resources to the organisation. When you generate reputation, you c create nancial return to the end, not only for the sake of having a good name, but also for customers. ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE STAKEHOLDER MODEL Instrumental and normative reasons for engaging with stakeholders. A normative approach highlights the following: each group of stakeholders merits consideration for its own sake, being a good corporate citizen is an end in itself that generates reputational returns. MAIN REASON FOR THE EMERGENCE OF THE STAKEHOLDER MODEL - Emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer and environmental activism (activist organisations, movements that put a lot of emphasis on oral issues and duties in business and organisation, which must contribute to the well-being of society); - Increase in the scope of governments and international bodies (acting as watchdogs); - Increasingly hostile media (from the times of muckrakers, journalists or bloggers, social media actives, they expose business practices that are illegal, harmful or just despicable, until someone takes these into consideration and acts against the bad organisation); - Loss of con dence in business (there’s no trust, decrease in trust, either governments or business, skeptical view, they have to be careful). THE NATURE OF STAKES AND STAKEHOLDERS Stake: “an interest or a share in an undertaking, [that] can range from simply an interest in an undertaking at one extreme to a legal claim of ownership at the other extreme”(Carroll, 1996). Basically anything, tangible or intangible, that one person or group has, that is of value to another person or group; a resource. Holder: someone who poses something or has control over something (sth = stake). Stakeholder (stake + holder) → “any group or individual who can a ect or is a ected by the achievement of the organisation’s purpose and objectives” (Freeman, 1984). Interdependency between an organisation and di erent people or groups. TYPES OF STAKES - Equity stakes: held by those with direct ownership, like shareholders, directors, minority interest owners (they posses part of the organisation in some way); - Economic or market stakes: held by those who have economic intents, but not an ownership interest, like employees, customers, suppliers, competitors (relationship or exchange of economic nature); - In uencer stakes: neither equity or economic stake, but have interests of di erent source, like consumer advocates, environmental groups, trade organisations, government agencies. TYPES OF EXCHANGES A company engages in di erent types of exchanges: - With employees, it exchanges money (compensation) for their work; - With suppliers, it exchanges money for their provision of goods or services; - With customers and consumers, it exchanges products and services for their money; - With investors, it exchanges money paid later (dividends) for their monetary investment; - With government, it exchanges money (taxes) for its goods, services and regulations. → giving & taking from society/stakeholders, consume what stakeholders o er, and on the other hand they provide to give something back to the stakeholders. 10  fl fi ff ff fi ff ff ff fi ff  CLASSIFICATION OF STAKEHOLDERS Primary stakeholder: without their continued participation the organisation cannot survive, they’re the most essential for the day-to-day organisations (employees, suppliers, consumers). Secondary stakeholders: can generally in uence or a ect, or are in uenced or a ected by the organisation but are not engaged in nancial-economic transactions. Do have a moral/normative interest and a capacity to mobilise public opinion for or against the organisation (media, special interest groups and NGOs, local communities). Contractual stakeholders: they have some form of contract or formal agreement (written document, formal transaction, contract). Equity and economic stakes (customers, employees, distributors, suppliers, shareholders, lenders). Community stakeholders: they have no formal contract or agreement, however they provide legitimacy for the organisation to function. Legitimate interest without a formal contract (consumers, regulators, government, media, local communities, pressure groups). MAPPING STAKEHOLDERS The stakeholder model of the organisation suggests that the various stakeholders of the organisation need to be identi ed and that they must be addressed according to the stake that they hold. In practice, this comes down to providing stakeholders with the type of information about the company’s operations that they have an interest in. The rst step in development a communication strategy is identifying the type of stakeholders. There are two general mapping devices or tools that managers and communication practitioners can use for this task: the stakeholder salience model and the power–interest matrix. SALIENCE MODEL → in this model, stakeholders are identi ed and classi ed based on their salience to the organisation. Salience is de ned as how visible or prominent a stakeholder is to an organisation based on the stakeholder possessing one or more of three attributes: power, legitimacy and urgency. Power: the ability of those who possess power to bring about the outcomes they desire. In uence an organisation to make decision or to behave in a certain way. Can take di erent forms, such as utilitarian (money) or normative (authority). Legitimacy: a generalised perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper or appropriate (when it possesses authority). Urgency: the degree to which stakeholder claims call for immediate attention, so the organisation must respond quickly. It can attract the attention of media. Dormant stakeholders: those who have the power to impose their will on others, but because they do not have a legitimate relationship or an urgent claim, their power remains dormant (prospective customers). Because of their potential to acquire a second attribute (urgency or legitimacy), practitioners should be aware of such stakeholders and their potential impact on the organisation. Discretionary stakeholders: those who possess legitimate claims based on interactions with an organisation but who have no power to in uence the organisation, nor any urgent claims (recipients of corporate charity). 11  fi fi fi fi fl fl ff fi fl ff fi ff fl  Demanding stakeholders: those who have urgent claims, but neither the power nor legitimacy to enforce them. These groups can therefore be bothersome but do not warrant serious attention from communication practitioners; the ‘noise’ of urgency is insu cient to move a stakeholder claim beyond latency (lone demonstrator who camps near a company’s site). Dominant stakeholders: those who have both powerful and legitimate claims, giving them a strong in uence on the organisation (employees, customers, owners and signi cant investors). Dangerous stakeholders: those who have power and urgent claims, but lack legitimacy. They are seen as dangerous as they may resort to coercion and even violence (wildcat strikes, employee sabotage). Dependent stakeholders: those who lack power, but who have urgent, legitimate claims. They rely on others for the power to carry out their will, at times through the advocacy of other stakeholders (local residents of a community in which a plant of a large corporation is based). De nitive stakeholders: those who have legitimacy, power and urgency. Powerful and legitimate stakeholders who need to be communicated with. When the claim of a de nitive stakeholder is urgent, communication practitioners and other managers have a responsibility to give it priority and attention. The more salient stakeholders are, the more priority they have, and they need to be actively communicated with. They’re the most important to the eyes of the organisation, they have to be engaged with more frequent communication, the most resources must be used. These are not xed categories, situations change, stakeholders could lose or acquire one or more attribute depending on the situation. POWER-INTEREST MATRIX → a second mapping device is based on the same principles as the stakeholder salience model. The general objective is to categorise stakeholders on the basis of the power they possess and the extent to which they are likely to have, or show, an interest in the organisation’s activities. Practitioners would estimate stakeholders on these two variables and plot the location of the stakeholders in the matrix. power: actual ability to a ect the rm - interest: desire to in uence the rm. The more powerful and/or interested stakeholders are, they have priority and need to be actively communicated with. DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES Both mapping devices provide an overview and ordering of the importance and in uence of particular stakeholders to an organisation in general terms. Based on this ordering, organisations know how intensely they need to communicate with particular groups and also often already have a sense of what the key messages should be. 12 fi  fi fl ff fi fl ffi fi fi fi fl  In other words, these mappings give an insight into whether stakeholders should only be kept informed of decisions of the organisation or its stance on a particular issue, or instead whether stakeholders should be actively listened to and communicated with on an ongoing basis. There are three types of communication strategies: - Informational strategy: providing or disseminating information to stakeholders (clarify a decision you made, deliver a message). Stakeholder e ects → awareness (newsletters, reports, memos, free publicity). - Informational/Persuasive strategy: convincing stakeholders about something, in uence knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of stakeholders in a way which is favourable to the organisation. There’s a strategic aim behind. Stakeholder e ects → understanding (discussions, meetings, advertising and educational campaigns). - Dialogue strategy: interactive, involving stakeholders with consultation debate through commitment, listening, exchanging ideas. Increase in the level of engagement. Expensive in resources. Stakeholder e ects → involvement (consultation, debate) or commitment (early incorporation, collective problem-solving). Informational strategy is a one-way symmetrical model of communication, with no possible feedback from stakeholders. Low richness in the strategy, in the media you use, no real exchange, no interaction. Persuasive strategy is a two-way asymmetrical model of communication: there’s a feedback, asymmetrical because in this exchange the interests of the organisation are emphasised at the expense of the organisation. The aim is to change the stakeholders’ attitude and behaviours. Dialogue strategy is a two-way symmetrical model of communication: feedback is incorporated, it involves listening and commitment, and changing behaviour or decisions. High richness, you need richness in communication and feedback. Discussions, meetings, engage in conversations and exchanges in the media you use. The choice and the use of these strategies will depend on the reliance and the power, or on the situation itself. Summing up (characteristics of the “old” and the “new” approaches to organisation-stakeholder relationships) → stakeholder management is fragmented among various departments, it focuses on managing relationships, it emphasis on “bu ering” the organisation from stakeholders interfering with internal operations, it is linked to short-term business goals and has a idiosyncratic implementation dependent on department’s interests and personal style of manager. Stakeholder collaboration is an integrated management approach, it focuses on building relationships, has an emphasis on “bringing” and creating opportunities and mutual bene ts, it is linked to long-term business goals and has a coherent approach driven by mission, values, and corporate strategies. STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION IN A CRITICAL SITUATION: Greenpeace spar over Arctic drilling safety zones. Royal Dutch Shell PLC wants safety zones around its Arctic drill eet. Shell: one of the petroleum corporation in the world, engaging in crude oil and natural gas exploration, production, re ning. (Shell is not a stakeholder, decanter of the case dealing with some important groups having relationships; attorneys are part of shells). Issue - April 2015: Greenpeace USA activists approach (and board) Shell vessels to protest against harmful drilling in the Arctic. Consequence: Shell involves US authorities to request safety zones around its Arctic drill eet in order to prevent activists from endangering company workers and themselves. Shell’s claims regard maneuverability + distraction to crews focusing on safety. KEY STAKEHOLDERS GROUPS Employees = they want that the company continues drilling/their operations because they need a job; they are also worried about their safety. Greenpeace/environmental activists = they want the company to stop their operations because they want a cleaner and healthier environment. Regulators = they want to preserve the environment but also sustain corporate activities that generate pro ts and jobs. 13  fi ff fi ff ff ff fl fi fl fl  POSSIBLE SOLUTION: SALIENCE MODEL Employees = high power (can have a strong in uence on the organisation), high legitimacy (contractual relationships), high urgency (job, safety) = de nitive stakeholders. Greenpeace/environmental activists = high power (sabotage), low legitimacy (moral relationship + sabotage → corporate perspective!), high urgency (environment) = dangerous stakeholders. Regulators = high power, high legitimacy (legal relationship), high urgency (Shell has involved the, the issue is on their agenda) = de nitive stakeholders. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: POWER-INTEREST MATRIX Employees = high power, high interest. Greenpeace/environmental activists = high power, high interest. Regulators = high power, high interest. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES Employees = de nitive stakeholders, key players → active and frequent communication, informational type. Greenpeace/environmental activists = dangerous stakeholders, key players → active and frequent communication, persuasive type. Regulators = de nitive stakeholders, key players → active and frequent, dialogue type. 14  fi fi fi fl fi  CORPORATE IDENTITY, BRANDING AND CORPORATE REPUTATION In the last few years, communication has grown fast; new communication strategies and theories are invented and studied each day. Internet and arti cial intelligence are changing the hole landscape of communication. Reputation starts from perception. It is an asset for a company or a brand, the only one that is not really in the hands of the company. Logo: thing you perceive about a company or product, the rst point of connection. From a simple sign you can depict the traits and the values of the brand; there’s a story behind it. A logo can change over time: a brand is like a person, it changes frequently. Nike → taken from the statue of Nike, in the Louvre, it’s a lady with two wings that spread. In ancient greek, nike meant victory. The swoosh is a symbol of dynamism. CORPORATE IDENTITY: strategically projecting a particular positive image (which re ects the reputation and values) of the organisation to build, maintain and protect strong reputations with stakeholders leads to stakeholders accepting and supporting the organisation. It gives organisations rst-choice status with investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders (those who are important) and build a relationship with them. Originally corporate identity focused on logos and visual design; now it encompasses all forms of communication → it is the most immediate touchpoint you have with the company. Not just outward embodiment of company but also intrinsic characteristics/traits of company that provides speci city. It means that it’s not only about the symbols, but also about the messages and the kind of style the communication has. ADVANTAGES OF CORPORATE IMAGE INVESTING Distinctiveness → stakeholders: recognise an organisation; employees: a strong image helps raise motive and morale, creating a “we” feeling. Strong reputation → potential employees, trust in the company. Reputation and trust are pretty much connected: trust, is knowing that the outcome is safe and truthful, and it is connected with being alive. Mistrust means damage. Building a positive reputation means its behaviour needs to have the people interested. Impact → being favoured may have an impact on performance. If you trust a company, you buy the products (appreciation). Consistency → avoid con icting images and messages, especially important as individuals have more than one stakeholder role (employees). Consistency is important because the kind of signs and messages that a company shows should be coherent, geographically and in time. Logo → if it keeps changing in di erent ways, you would not recognised that company with that logo. THE BIRKIGT AND STADLER MODEL OF CORPORATE IDENTITY The German corporate design specialists Birkigt and Stadler proposed one of the rst models of corporate identity management in 1986. This speci c model de ned corporate personality (inside of a company, values and behaviours which put the company, or the brand, in contact with stakeholders) as consisting of: - Symbolism: corporate logos and the company house style; - Communication: all planned forms of communication, including corporate advertising, events, sponsorship, publicity and promotions; - Behaviour: all behaviour of employees that leaves an impression on stakeholders. Through these three attributes, organisations communicate and project an image of themselves to their stakeholders, which is often also the way in which they are perceived by them. CORPORATE IDENTITY MANAGEMENT PROCESS Corporate image management adds important symbolic dimension to corporate communication. If personality and identity belong to the company, image and reputation belong to you, because it’s something happening in your minds. 15  fi fi ff fl fi fi fi fi fi fl  The aim of corporate identity management is to establish a favourable image, or reputation, with the organisation’s stakeholders which it is hoped will be translated by such stakeholders into a propensity to buy that organisation’s products and services, to work for that organisation or to invest in it. In other words, a good corporate reputation has a strategic value for the organisation that possesses it. It ensures acceptance and legitimacy from stakeholder groups, generates returns and may o er a competitive advantage as it forms an asset that is di cult to imitate. A good corporate reputation, or rather the corporate identity on which it is based, is an intangible asset of the organisation because of its potential for value creation, but also because its intangible character makes replication by competing rms more di cult. Corporate identity mix (symbolism, communications and behaviour) is based on the organisation’s core values in its history and culture and which inform every part of its strategy. Reputation is the sum of di erent perceptions; both are strongly in uenced by culture or relationships. The kind of message you have to give is always consistent to the di erent kinds of stakeholders, and being knowledgeable to what they want to hear, thinking about the company’s values (employees are di erent than investors). Communication is about building bridges, being considerate in the shift inc cultures. CORPORATE, ORGANISATIONAL AND SOCIAL IDENTITY - Social identity: individual’s knowledge that they belong to certain groups together with the emotional and value signi cance of that group membership (internal, what I’m really prod about my company); - Organisational identity: the shared meaning that an organisation is understood to have that arises from its members’ awareness that they belong to it (in the middle, knowledge that the organisation has of itself); - Corporate identity: the distinctive public image that an organisation communicates that in uences stakeholders’ image and reputation of that organisation (external and symbolic, how the company shows out to the public). To recap: who I am = personality; what I communicate about me = identity; how I look like = image and visibility; what is perceived with respect to what I communicated = perception; what stakeholders and public think about me over time = reputation CORPORATE BRANDING: TRAITS COMMON TO SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATIONS Other than visibility, distinctiveness and transparency: - Authenticity: every communication that you make should be connected to your personality. You shouldn’t communicate in a di erent way to what you feel; - Transparency: you need to be transparent while communicating, otherwise you cannot be trusted. MONOLITHIC, ENDORSED AND BRANDED IDENTITIES - Monolithic: single all-embracing identity (products all carry the same corporate name) → when the name of the organisation is the name of the product. Ex: Sony, BMW, Philips, Ferrari; - Endorsed: business and product brands are endorsed or badged with the parent company name → the brand and the organisation are connected and visible at the same time. Ex: Kellogg, Nestlé, Ferrero; - Branded: individual business or product brands each carry their own name (and are seemingly unrelated to each other) → one organisation have a speci c name, the brand is totally separated from the producer. Ex: Unilever (Dove), Nespresso (both branded and endorsed). ALIGNING IDENTITY, IMAGE AND REPUTATION In order to manage the company’s reputation it is strategically important for an organisation to achieve ‘alignment’ or ‘transparency’ between its internal identity, its external image and its reputation. Importance of alignment between: - The organisational culture as experienced by employees; - The corporate vision as articulated by senior managers; - Corporate image or reputation in the minds of external stakeholders. 16  fl ff ff fi ff ff fi ffi fi ff ffi fl  TOOLKIT TO ASSESS THE ALIGNMENT ETWEEN VISION, CULTURE AND IMAGE A useful way of analysing the alignment between an organisation’s vision, culture and image or reputation is the toolkit developed by Hatch and Schultz. The toolkit consists of a number of diagnostic questions based on three elements: - vision: senior management’s aspirations for the organisation; - culture: the organisation’s values as experienced and shared by all employees; - image: an image or impression that outside stakeholders have of an organisation. Embodied inside the company. Internal communication, build a culture inside the organisation aligned with the vision of the manager. DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS Vision-culture gap → manager-employees Does the organisation practise the values it promotes? Does the organisation’s vision inspire all its subcultures? Are the organisation’s vision and culture su ciently di erentiated from those of its competitors? Image-culture gap → stakeholder-employees What images do stakeholders associate with the organisation? In what ways do its employees and stakeholders interact? Do employees care what stakeholders think of the organisation? Image-vision gap → stakeholder-management Who are the organisation’s stakeholders? What do the stakeholders want from the organisation? Is the organisation e ectively communicating its vision to its stakeholders? KEY CONCEPTS - Corporate identity: the pro le and values projected or communicated by an organisation (= the character an organisation seeks to establish for itself in the mind of its stakeholders); - Corporate image: the way the company is perceived, based on a certain message and at a certain point in time; - Corporate reputation: the general evaluation of an organisation, leading to likeability and preference; - Organisational identity: the set of values shared by members of an organisation (see also corporate personality); - Corporate branding: highlights the importance of distinctiveness and is about aligning vision, culture and image; central role of employees compared to traditional models. 17  ff fi ffi ff  MEDIA RELATIONS Media relations involves managing communication and relationships with the media - all the writers, editors and producers who contribute to and control what appears in the print, broadcast and online news media. Media relations are a key area of corporate communication, a must-have of any organisation and a strategic tool to create, strengthen and shape public opinion. They’re used to defend the reputation of the organisation, as channels for gathering and generating publicity, in uencing important stakeholders, including investors, customers and employees. The most important answer to the question “Why do we need media relations?” was brought by Harold Burton, modern inventor of public relations. “If you don’t get out and tell your story, someone else will and you won’t like the way they tell it”. Empty space in the repetitional area/level, you need to ll it yourself. - Media will eventually speak about us, whether we decide to cooperate or not (media will decide autonomously); - We can either decide to tell them our point of view or we can let them come to their conclusions (if you let them decide, you cannot complain); - If we are able to assist them when asked for information/interviews, it is much more likely (never sure) that the resulting news coverage will project a strong and uniform corporate message and enhance the company’s reputation. They’re independent, but, if given trusted content, you can cooperate. Opportunities (media is not advertising). “Media logic” = ideological frame of reference of a news organisation, which in uences how editors and journalists see, interpret and cover political, corporate and social a airs. Agenda-setting hypothesis = the frequency with which the media report on a public or political issue determines that issue’s salience in the minds of the general public. “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”. Who is involved in the process? - Companies/institutions/organisations; - Journalists: independent party, are working for media and are presenting content; - Media; - Pr agencies: private companies that work as a connector between an organisation and media world. They’re made of professionals, network of journalists, shaping content in a di erent way so it can be relevant for media and journalists; - Advertising sales agencies: advertising plays an important part, dedicated sections within media that are bookable. Who are the media? - Newswires: team of journalists whose main task is to report quickly what’s happening at all levels (economically, politically, environmentally …). Quick and well-connected, have lots of sources and information; - National/international newspapers: newspapers mostly read in a speci c country, nationwide. Strong economic angle, geopolitics, stability; - Economic periodicals: economy is a subject which can easily become a global outlet; - Trade media/press: specialised media that focus on a speci c industry, are expert in that speci c area. They’re crucial, they know better the competitors and stakeholders. They explain the most complex aspects of a industry to the external world; - Regional newspapers: local media, focused on smaller speci c areas; - Radio: conversation, di erent level of detail; - Tv: producing video content, self explanatory; - Online news outlet: online version of physical media, their identity is still evolving in time, they’re shaped based on our tastes; - Blogs: traditional digital media (innovative 15 years ago, then it became less relevant in time), now are actually becoming more popular. In the beginning, it was the rst option of not traditional media, then there was a huge wave of innovation (overload of information). 18  fi ff fi fi fi fi ff fi fl ff fl  THE CREATION OF A NEWS A story on the media can be created starting from di erent points, but these elements are generally involved. - Event/fact; - Company message; - Journalist (subjective in uence); - Media/editor (objective in uence); - Story; When corporate communication practitioners propose a particular story (ex: a press release) to a journalist, they engage in two separate but related processes. The rst is to solicit interest in the story topic itself. The second is to make sure that the story is framed in a way that is consistent with the organisation’s preferred framing. FRAMING = selection and salience. To frame is to select some aspects of perceived reality and make them more salient in the communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem de nition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item described. SOURCES OF THE MEDIA - Newswires; - Trade unions; - Associations; - Consumers association; - Institutions/ruling bodies; - Public authorities; - Judges; - Politicians; - Financial analysts; - Social media; - YOU → journalists look to nd news and points of view that will be of interest to their readers. They may decide to write about you because you are doing something interesting, or you have an interesting point of view. Before they consider a story, they will qualify an item as “newsworthy,” ensuring that it has relevance, or helps illustrate something they are already working on. They want: News; Experts’ opinions or interesting statements; Innovation; Simpli ed complexity; Numbers (fresh, new and meaningful), which create reality; Impacts (economic, local, scienti c…). Media often get completely di erent things: - Marketing/promotional/ sales documents: no news inside, just selling proposition, no readers will be seduced by promotional material; - No news: nothing interesting or speci c, making loose time; - Corporate “machines”, robots; - People who allude to future news and then don’t deliver it; - People who give false information; - People who speak in jargon, speci c slang, colloquial; HOW TO BE RELEVANT? Journalists work with very strict deadlines: those who make them waste time will rarely get a second opportunity → always in a rush, if journalists don’t obtain the information directly from us, they will nd a di erent source (even a competitor) to nd the information they require. Press conferences are rarely held and only when there is major news. 19  fi fi fi ff fl fl fi ff fi fi fi fi ff fi  Be informed! Try to know: - As much as you can about the journalist you’re talking to; - Which other journalists have already spoken about your topic; - The main news of the day; - What has the journalist you’re talking to written in the last days, which topics have been dealt on his outlet in the past week. Data rules! → data support the story you’re telling. Most up to date facts and graphs, future trends, calculations on operations and the marketplace, examples or case studies are always interesting. If you don’t have your own data, refer to public sources. If needed, refer to certi ed third parties. Bring examples! → examples make your story real, human and tangible. Journalists love stories about people. Use a quotable language! → journalists want quotes, unusual and “spicy” declarations. Examples are a great source to report. Avoid negative or defensive sentences (they’re great to be reported, too!). Always use a positive language and avoid jargon. Common mistakes! → not having clear in mind what you are selling. Overestimate your relevance. Ignoring what is happening in the world when you call a journalist. You generally don’t have direct phone numbers! It’s part of your job getting them. Switchboard operators can make your call fail very quickly, or guide you trough towards success. Switchboard operators are a source of information. There is always more than one way to look at the same thing. At least you’re going to have: 1. Your frame; 2. The journalist’s frame. When a journalist writes an article the process goes through several steps. The journalist rst must sell the news to the editor, then the article is edited and the title writer writes the title. The article may be cut to make room for an advertisement, a photo, an image or a last minute piece of breaking news (if in a daily publication). Keep in mind that journalists are sometimes specialists, but often they are not. They can often get things wrong. We can combat this by preparing for interviews, and using facts, gures and anecdotes to back up what we say. But you can never be sure of the result in advance: you’ll discover it once it is de nitely out. HOW TO APPROACH THE MEDIA Quickly but clearly: they are always in a rush but they are curious. If you ignite that curiosity they’ll listen to you. Softly but steadily: don’t push too much, you’re not a salesman, but you still need to sell your story and win over dozens of other stories. Eyes on the news! Reality gives you the best news hooks you can get. Be quick and take advantage of them through a real time press o ce activity (there’s a big di erence between proactive and reactive relations). Mapping the editorial calendars, knowing anniversaries and «world days» etc. helps you plan in advance, but sometimes you’ll need to work on breaking news to make the greatest hits. Opinion placement is also made this way. BUILD YOUR NETWORK Relations with journalists should be meant to last for the long time. It is fundamental to gain mutual trust. Once a dialogue with a journalist has begun you shouldn’t suddenly stop communicating. The relations must be cultivated: meet them! Sometimes it is necessary to assist a journalist even if the company will not be mentioned in the article. It is about investing in the relation - good relations can result in regular, balanced press coverage. However, don’t assume a friendly journalist will write a positive story or that an aggressive one will write a negative story. 20  ffi fi ff fi fi fi  PR AGENCY: organisation specialised in protecting, strengthening or building the reputation of its clients, mainly through the media but not limiting to that (institutions, associations, public authorities etc.). why hiring a PR rm: - Extensive multi-industry expertise; - Wide network; - Extreme focus; - Dedicated consultants. Especially in the event of a communication crisis, appointing the right PR rm might prove decisive to solve it in the best way. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES - Press release: used to circulate o cial public information to media. Need to be factual and essential to be newsworthy (supposed to be supporting the full story). Can reach a wide network of contacts (but it is preferable to di erentiate the approach); - Press conference: public moment where journalists are put in front of representatives of companies/institutions. At a press conference, journalists can ask questions and interact. They’re increasingly rare due to the tight deadlines journalists are facing. Good but challenging because it exposes you to risks with opportunities; - Interviews: one-to-one moment between a journalist and a company/institution executive. Highest quality, often a great opportunity to deliver tailored, in-depth content. They can become the worst professional nightmare. - Online newsrooms: standard reports, speeches and press releases, but also tend to host dynamic content including videos, news feeds, widgets, podcasts and searchable archives of content. They provide journalists with information when they need it and help drive tra c to the company’s website. In addition, they allow a company to get its content out in a way that responds to the way in which journalists nowadays search for company information on the internet; - Media monitoring and research: gate-keeping research and output analysis: Gate-keeping research: analyse the characteristics of a press release or video news release that allow them to ‘pass through the gate’ and appear in a news medium. Both content and style variables are typically examined; Output analysis: measure the amount of exposure or attention that the organisation receives as a result of media relations. - Syndicated media-monitoring: media-monitoring packages which focus on measuring the total circulation or audience reached, the tone of the news stories or articles on the organisation, the extent to which key messages are picked up and communicated and the share-of-voice compared to competitors or other comparable organisations. JOURNALIST STYLES Be prepared to communicate with di erent types of journalists, but never let the journalists style a ect how you answer the question. Media training can teach you how to do this. Journalist techniques/styles include: - Interrupter: won’t let you nish a thought or a sentence. Respond with: “I’ll be happy to address that but let me rst nish what I was saying about …”; - Machine gunner: rapidly res questions. Pick the question you want to answer; - Paraphraser: puts words in your mouth. Says: “So what you’re actually saying is… Correct wrong paraphrases and re-state what you actually WANT to say; - Dart thrower: attacks with hostile language. “So you really don’t care about the residents then?” Don’t go on the defensive as more darts will come. Be calm and go back to your positive message and position; - Pauser: stays quiet after you answer a question. Makes you feel you need to add more. Don’t unless you have something positive to say. This can be a good time to go back to key messages; - Hypothesiser: Will try to get you to join him in speculation. The “what if” line of questioning. Always goes for bad angles. Don’t fall into the trap; - Disarmer: Mr. Schmooze. Wants to be your new best friend. Be careful: you can easily agree with him and be totally disarmed. 21  ff fi fi fi fi fi ffi ff ff fi ffi  THE MESSAGE HOUSE Think about the headline you want to see on the media: that is the roof (your story, the nal outcome). Group your arguments and key messages: they are the walls. In order to build your story, you have to put a ground, using facts, gures, pictures, infographics and examples → the foundations of your house. You start from the ground, you generate the pillars of your house, and when you put them together you have your story, which you can tell to the media. O the record is not an option (“I’m telling you but don’t speak about it”). Not attributing the quote to you, but still have it in the interview. HINTS AND TIPS - Get familiar with the environment as fast as you can; - Be yourself; - Look at the journalist into his/her eyes; - Look at the camera only when asked to; - Look and talk at your best; - Remember: you don’t communicate with words alone. EXCLUSIVES AND PREVIEWS Sometimes it might be useful to give an exclusive interview/content to a journalist/media or to give the same content in preview. Such a choice has however pros and cons. - Exclusive: the media covering the news will dedicate a good amount of space to it. Due to media rivalries, though, it is likely that the competing newspaper/Network etc. won’t cover it; - Preview: the media getting the news in advance will beat the competition. This choice is likely to annoy other media/journalist who will arrive late on the news. OTHER TOOLS AND ACTIVITIES - Media monitoring services: agencies providing the collection of all the media clippings, calculating the total circulation or audience reached by your news; - Coverage analysis: quantitative/qualitative analysis of the media exposure, useful to understand how much and in which way your message has been received; - Online newsrooms: a place where media can autonomously nd several materials on multiple supports when they need them. This solution also drives tra c on the company’s website. CRISIS COMMUNICATION: a crisis is simply any negative event that could have a detrimental impact on the reputation or image of a company and/or its brands. Crisis preparedness: - Assess Risks; - Appoint Crisis Team; - Create or Update Crisis Manual; - Build internal Competency; - Roll Out & Train; - Continuous Review and Update. Media are obviously in the front line in shaping public opinion (agenda setting). In today’s complex contest, though, professional communicators can have as much in uence in generating/shaping opinions through their relations with media (agenda building). Together with media they have the ethical duty to do their job responsibly (battle against fake news). Media relations are a challenging but stimulating activity, in a constant evolution, requiring to always be up to date on the latest events happening in the world. 22  ff fi fi ffi fi fl  KEY CONCEPTS - Agenda building: the process by which corporate communicators feed corporate news to journalists with the aim to increase awareness of a news item or topic; - Agenda setting: the process by which the media report on an organisation priming awareness of this organisation and certain content about it; - Frame alignment: occurs when an organisation’s perspective (on a certain decision, issue, event etc.) coincides with the way journalists think about and report it; - Frame contest: the (often di cult) negotiation between corporate communicators and journalists about the preferred angle to a story about an organisation. 23  ffi  CORPORATE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLANNING THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Communication startegies involve: - Bringing stakeholder reputations in line with the vision of the organisation; - Reinforcing existing reputations of stakeholders if broadly in line with how the organisation wants itself to be seen. Strategic intent: change or consolidation in the company’s reputation that is intended. It suggests a set of communication tactics and activities that ai to a ect awareness, knowledge and behaviour of important stakeholders. Strategy formation: combination of planned and emergent processes. Strategy involves a general direction and not simply plans or tactics → organisation and its environments. Strategy formation characteristics (paradigms on the process of strategy-marketing): - Visionary; - Deliberate and planned; - Ad hoc and spontaneous; - Analytical; - Bottom up; - Top down. The link between corporate strategy (translating) and communication strategy (informing) Communicators Communication technician: generally not involved in strategic management decision-making and strategic decisions concerning communication strategy and programmes. Communication manager: makes strategy or policy decisions and is held accountable for programme success or failure. The content of communication strategy Starts from an organisation-wide assessment of the organisation’s reputation in the light of its vision at a particular point in time. Reputation-vision gap forms the basis for the formulation of a strategic intent. Motion Audience-centric and focused on understanding - through data, insight and empathy - how we deliver purposeful “change”. - DELIVER the plan for impact and optimisation - the growth opportunities (execute and evaluate to optimise impact and grow success); - DEFINE what success is - the value outcome (the key business challenge or opportunity and who to move, where and why?); - DISCOVER a strategy to move people - the moving people idea (hoe people think, feel an act today, to in uence how they think, feel and act tomorrow); - DESIGN and make ideas & plans to engage - the moving engagements (integrated campaigns across the right touchpoint, driving the audience journeys). Age of values - the BCW values archetypes - Success seeker = driven by a desire for power, personal achievement and social status. Pursues pleasure, as well as fun and indulgent experiences; - Adventurer = seeks stimulating experiences and embraces novelty and exploration. Open- minded, independent and creative; - Visionary = values independence, personal freedom and creativity. But they always consider the needs of others and the environment; - Protector = prioritises people and planet and strives for equality for all. Feels a duty to act on important issues and appreciates other people’s perspectives; 24  fl ff  - Good neighbour = places great importance on the welfare of family, friends and community. Seeks harmony and treats people with loyalty and respect; - Traditionalist = prioritises the welfare of other and values stability, safety and harmony. Wants to protect the status quo for the bene t of self, family and society; - Conformist = prioritises more conservative values and wants to t in above all else. Follows the rules, and avoids confrontation in order to succeed. Stages in formulating the content of a communication strategy 1. Strategic intent: the general direction of an organisation, often articulated in objectives and related actions. It derives from the reputation-vision gap; 2. Themed messages: a message that id de ned ad central to the organisation’s reputation and is designed in line with how the organisation wants to be known; 3. Message styles: the way in which a message is given form and delivered to a target audience. - Functional orientation → rational message style; - Symbolic orientation → symbolic association style, emotional message style; - Industry orientation → generic message style, pre-emptive message style. A strategic planning model Planning programmes and campaigns - Communication programme: a formulated set of activities towards targeted internal and external audiences, which may include outreach activities, community initiatives and other ways in which organisations and their employees communicate with stakeholder audiences, and has no pre-set endpoint; - Communication campaign: restricted to the use of a mediated form of communication (mass media advertising) towards speci c stakeholder audiences and is restricted to a single point in time. The process of planning communication programmes and campaigns Planning and executing programmes and campaigns 1. First step: strategic intent → formulates a change or consolidation of stakeholder reputations of the organisation. It is based upon the gap between how the organisation wants to be seen by important stakeholder groups ad how it is currently seen by each of those