Page 54 - Corporate Communication

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Marketing, Public Relations and Corporate Communications 43

organizations, greater public scepticism and government interference has, together
with increased competition in many markets, created a situation where organizations
now need to meet the demands of multiple and diverse stakeholder groups, while at the
same time expressing a coherent image of themselves. In 1994, Robert Heath, a
communications scholar, formulated this challenge as follows:

Some companies and other organizations are well known for their ability to conduct a truly
integrated communications campaign designed to get the message across even though it is
tailored to various stakeholders. Not only is the matter one of providing a coherent and
consistent message that fosters an understanding of the company as its management and
employees want it to be understood, but it also means that key audiences are addressed in
terms of the stake each of them holds with regard to the organization. 24

The guiding idea here is that ever since the early 1990s organizations have needed
to communicate with a whole range of stakeholder groups; not only with stake-
holder groups that they depend upon in economic or market terms (e.g. suppliers,
investors and stockholders, employees, customers), but also with groups that are of
moral or social importance (e.g. government, communities, NGOs), so that the
organization and its operations are found to be ‘legitimate’ by all of society. Meeting
such dual market and social demands, while at the same time providing a clear and credi-
ble image of oneself, has ever since forced organizations to put considerable effort
into integrating all their public relations and marketing communications efforts.This
integration of ‘public’ and ‘marketing’ communications is even more important in
consideration of the multiple stakeholder roles that any one individual may have, and
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the potential pitfalls that may occur when conflicting messages are sent out. Box 2.1
illustrates this problem, and emphasizes the importance of managing and coordinating
all public relations and marketing messages that may originate from very different
parts of the organization.

Box 2.1 Case study: Barclays Bank (UK)

Early in 2003, Barclays, a UK-based financial services group engaged primarily in retail
banking, investment banking and investment management, appointed a new adver-
tising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH). BBH was hired to spearhead a ‘more
humane’ campaign, after the bank was lambasted for its ‘Big Bank’ adverts in 2002
that featured the slogan ‘a big world needs a big bank’. Barclays had spent £15
million (US$ 24.6 million)/(21.5 million ¤ ) on its ‘Big Bank’ campaign, which featured
celebrities such as Sir Anthony Hopkins and Tim Roth. The adverts were slick and had
received good pre-publicity, but they turned into a communications disaster when
they coincided with the news that Barclays was closing about 170 branches in the
UK, many in rural areas.
One of the earlier adverts featured Welsh-born Sir Anthony Hopkins talking from the
comfort of a palatial home about the importance of chasing ‘big’ ideas and ambi-
tions. The adverts provoked a national debate in the UK when junior minister Chris
Mullin said that Barclays’ customers should revolt and ‘vote with their feet’. Barclays’