Page 55 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-02.qxd 10/9/2004 9:04 AM Page 44

44 Mapping the Field

image crisis worsened when it was revealed that the new Chief Executive Matthew
Barrett had been paid £1.3 million (US$ 2.1 million)/(1.8 million ¤) for just three
months’ work. Competitor NatWest has since capitalized on the fall-out from the ‘Big
Bank’ campaign. It has been running adverts that triumph the fact that it has abol-
ished branch closures.
Barclays has since extended opening hours at 84 per cent of its branches and
recruited an extra 2,000 staff to service the extra hours. Together with the new
adverts that will be ‘more humane and more tangible and based on actual products
rather than the brand’, Barclays hopes that the stains from the ‘Big Bank’ campaign
will finally start to wear off.
Questions for reflection

1. What was the exact cause or event that led to this communications crisis for
Barclays?
2. What could Barclays have done better to avoid this crisis? And what do you
suggest the bank needs to do now to repair the damage done to its reputation?

A further trigger for an integrated approach to communications management
involved the heightened competition in many markets, which emphasized the impor-
tance of differentiated product offerings and corporate image, and thus also of an
integrated management of communications. Equally, the greater audience fragmenta-
tion that came to characterize many markets as consumption had become more indi-
vidualized also meant that organizations needed to go to greater lengths than before
to find ways in which messages could be effectively channelled to their target markets.
Both factors again underline the need for coordinated communications campaigns
and consistent messages, a point that is further supported by the communications clut-
ter ruling many markets. Industry commentators reckon that on average a person is
hit by 13,000 commercial messages a day, and suggest that integrated communica-
tions strategies, rather than fragmented or ill-coordinated attempts, are more likely
to break through this clutter and make the company name or product brand heard. 26

Organizational drivers

The opportunities offered to organizations internally to move to an integration of
their communications were considerable. One of the main organizational drivers for
integration was the need to become more efficient. By using management time more
productively and by driving down the cost base – for instance, as research and
promotional materials are more widely shared and used for more than one commu-
nications campaign – organizations could substantially improve the productivity of
their communications practitioners. With the powerful restructuring trend in the
1980s where every function was examined on its accountability,an internal realignment
of communications disciplines such as media relations, advertising, sales promotions