Corporate communications strategies and practices

Corporate Communications

The situation

The company is one of the most regionally successful organizations, widely recognized and praised by its stakeholders. The problem relies however in the fact that, despite its business success, the organization is limitedly known within the community. The main reason of this problem is constituted by the restricted financial resources which have been allocated to marketing endeavors.

The company's issues with limited public awareness can be addressed by the public relations department, which can increase public consciousness of the firm through campaigns with positive results and reduced resource consumption.

The theme

The underlying theme of the public relations campaign would be constituted by the benefits of the product. In this order of ideas, the organizational product represents the core of business success and it would also represent an important theme in the company's public relations campaign. In order to emphasize this, focus would be granted to the benefits of the product and the advantages these generate for the customers.

Aside from product benefits, the message would also be centered on the benefits the company generates within the surrounding environment. In this line of thoughts, the high levels of corporate social responsibility would be emphasized in order to present the company as a responsible and noteworthy member of the modern day business community.

In order to understand this mechanism, it is necessary to distinguish between the company's goals and the means of attaining these goals in terms of their historic evolutions. As such, the historic goal of the company has been that of profit registration and the means of attaining it has been that of production operations. Today, the goal remains unchanged, but what has changed is the approach to the means in which it would be attained. Specifically, the company would now attain its goals through the full satisfaction of the needs and wants of the various categories of stakeholders. This commitment would also be included in the corporate message.

3. Journals

A focal point of the public relations campaign is constituted by the creation of edited pieces to be included in specialized journals. These journals have the benefit of addressing specific industry issues and being as such able to target the desired consumers. Three of the top trade journals have been selected, and they refer to the International Trade Journal, Employee Benefit News and CRM.

The journals are specialized in issues such as globalization and trade, development and trade, commercial policies, employee development and rewards, or the creation of a stronger company-customer relationship. The organization has interesting stories for all three categories of topics and it could as such constitute an interesting source for the journals. Additionally, all three journals welcome contributions from academic researchers, but also business practitioners. They are globally available and highly reputable, meaning as such that they stand increased chances of creating public awareness of the company.

4. Other sources

Aside from the journals, the public relations campaign can also be conducted to raise awareness through other means as well. The most relevant examples in this sense are constituted by interviews in the local media. In this order of ideas, the company executives could participate in interviews with local media representatives and discuss the company's projects, achievements and commitments. The interviews would be transmitted either through television and radio, either through the printed media. They would be characterized by the fact that they directly addressed the various categories of stakeholders in vast numbers.

The campaign and the company would also be promoted -- at a low cost -- within the virtual community, throughout the company's website and throughout its blog. The links to the campaigns would be promoted through various internet websites and sources.

5. The message

As it has been mentioned throughout the previous sections, the company's message would be centered onto two distinct directions -- the product and the organizational commitment to the satisfaction of the needs and wants of the various stakeholder categories. These stakeholders refer primarily to the company staff members, the customers, the customers, the business partners, the general public, the governmental agencies, the not for profit institutions and so on. With these specifications in mind, the public relations team at the organization has constructed the following message to be delivered to the stakeholders:

Our organization has been present within the market for more than a decade now and it has used this period to continually evolve and perfect its approach of the public. We focus on the full satisfaction of our customers' needs and wants and we have, in this sense, sustained innovation and continuous improvement of our products and operations. Today, our item is the strongest competitor in the market and its success is due to a combination of high quality, efficiency and affordability. The commitments we have revealed at the levels of both product quality as well as customer satisfaction are revealed by the testimonies of our blue-chip customers. These clients are our most loyal but also most critical ones and their opinions are as such pivotal for both company as well as public. Some of their testimonies include the following:

The company has been there when I needed them and supported me with my business endeavor like no one else ever could have. I owe them my success and will forever be grateful to them.

The company's product is the highest quality in its class and it has convinced me from the first purchase. 12 years later, I remain a loyal customer.

The company is not only impressive as an economic agent and a retailer, but also as a social entity. I was overwhelmed by their commitment to sustaining the development of my community. Because of their efforts, a class of great children was given enhanced educational opportunities and they themselves will eventually be able to make a positive difference in the community.