Page 64 - Corporate Communication

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Marketing, Public Relations and Corporate Communications 53

are to a greater extent brought together and consolidated in one or two separate
departments, instead of being wholly dispersed over the organization or brought
under departments with different responsibilities (e.g. human resource, finance).
A second change, and in line with the greater consolidation of communications disci-
plines, has been that many organizations now notably use coordination mechanisms
to guide and integrate all of the work coming out of the different communications
disciplines for the strategic interests of the organization at large.A third observation is
that many organizations now place communications at a higher position within the
organization’s hierarchy and appreciate communications practitioners for their input
and strategic involvement in decision making concerning the overall corporate strat-
egy of the organization. A fourth change that corporate communications has brought
is that it has led to a new style corporate communications manager, who in contrast
with the old-style public relations tacticians and advertising executives, is a strategic
generalist and is more business savvy in his/her view of communications and in what
it can do for the organization at large.The fifth and final change is that corporate com-
munications has introduced new vocabulary and concepts to the practice of commu-
nications management. The concepts of stakeholder, identity and reputation are of
particular significance, and these are discussed more fully in the next chapter.

Key terms

Accountability Marketing public relations
Asymmetrical communication Market orientation
Audience fragmentation Press agentry
Clutter Production orientation
Corporate communications Public
Corporate identity Public information
Corporate reputation Public relations
Integrated communications (IC) Sales orientation
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) Stake holder
Integration Strategic management function
Market Symmetrical communication
Marketing Through-the-line/zero-based

Notes

1 Lippmann,W. (1922), Public Opinion. New York: Macmillan, p. 345.
2 Grunig, J.E., and Hunt,T. (1984) Managing Public Relations. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
3 See for instance Ewen, S. (1996), PR! A Social History of Spin. New York: Basic Books;
Marchand,R.(1998),Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery.
Berkeley: University of California Press; Grunig and Hunt (1984); Cutlip, S.M., Center,A.H.,
and Broom, G.H. (2000), Effective Public Relations. London: Prentice Hall, seventh edition.
4 Kotler, P. (1989), in Grunig, J.E., and Grunig, L.A. (1991), ‘Conceptual differences in
public relations and marketing: the case of health-care organizations’, Public Relations Review,
17 (3), 257–278, p. 261.