Essentials of Corporate Communication: Implementing Practices for Effective Reputation Management

Citation

Hoványi, G. (2009), "Essentials of Corporate Communication: Implementing Practices for Effective Reputation Management", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 No. 3/4, pp. 563-565. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560910935587

The first two commandments of communication are to have clear ideas and to use unambiguous words. And a third fundamental commandment – if you send a more or less lengthy text in your communication – is to build up a logical and convincing structure of your message. This book by Cees van Riel and Charles Fombrun presenting the essentials of corporate communication (CC) fulfils the requirements of these three fundamental “commandments” and is therefore not only a very professional but also an easy and delightful lecture for experts in the field as well as for everybody who is concerned with the planning, organising and/or directing communication systems, strategies and campaigns, or who wants to use their inherent possibilities.

Let us look first at the comprehensive content and structure of the co‐authors' book. Chapter 1 defines the perspectives of CC, stressing its growing importance in conditions of our global world's keen competition. Chapter 2 examines the link between CC and corporate reputation, mainly from the viewpoint and perceptions that stakeholders have of an organisation. Chapter 3 looks more closely at the roots of corporate reputation in the process of generating a company's identity and at the support it offers to the final success of an organisation. In Chapter 4 the authors analyse different methodologies for uncovering identity elements in an organisation. Chapter 5 describes the processes that organisations can use when they strive to develop strong corporate brands. Chapter 6 focuses on the creation of convincing corporate stories to strengthen the efficiency of CC. Chapter 7 targets these stories to the main characteristics of the four primary audiences of CC:

1. 1.

   financial partners;

2. 2.

   employees; the government; and

3. 3.

   the public.

Chapter 8 shows five well‐proven types of communications to carry out successful communication campaigns. Chapter 9 deals with measurement methods to check systematically the effectiveness of a CC system. Chapter 10 reviews important reputation research programmes in use by companies around the world. Finally Chapter 11 examines the organisation of the communication function and explores how internal and external communication can be orchestrated in practice.

In their book the core idea of the authors is that, in these times:

• •

  an integrated communication system has to be built at all really competitive companies, and this system has to include specific tasks and means of internal and marketing communications as well as proper targets and methods when communicating with investors, government and the public;

• •

  integrated communication means not only efficiently tuned (coordinated) vertical and horizontal, internal and external, and more or less even formal and informal information flows, but it has also the task to strengthen the reputation of the company; and

• •

  to fulfil this latter task people responsible for the CC of their company must have a clear view and understanding of their organisation as a whole – including its resources, operation, business targets and management system – and they have to carry on a countinuous dialogue with the company's business strategists.

The authors' significant contribution to the theory and practice of CC is their achievement in creating a solid and coherent intellectual basis for the profession and in constructing an unambiguous conceptual frame to present the different views of other experts as well. Namely there is a rich variety of convincing statements and well arranged models in van Riel and Fombrun's book, based on results of their research and on their far‐reaching experiences (mostly based on their achievements in management consultations) – but also the ideas, experiences and suggestions of other CC experts are included in the text, and the merits and inadequacies of these views are evaluated as well. (It is fascinating sometimes to note the contradictions in the views of well‐known experts in the field.)

The validity of the mentioned core ideas is supported in the book by many examples of companies that are successful not only in their CC activities but also in their business achievements. This offers the experienced reader the possibility to insert the authors' ideas, suggestions and comprehensive models into the characteristic internal and external environments of the companies presented – which can be a creative contribution on part of the reader to the usefulness of the book. And in the text between these examples the train of thought of the authors is always supported by lucidly arranged, logical and convincing figures and tables – the reader is, so to say, stimulated to realise as soon as possible the authors' suggestions at his or her own company. Therefore the book is a really efficient guideline to estalishing a coherent and efficient CC system at the reader's company.

After so many words of praise I have to recount also some critical remarks. I mention only three of my reflections:

1. 1.

   The CC problem is presented in the book basically in circumstances advantageous to the business environment (economic growth, more or less stable competition, etc.); but how does, for example, a recession or an unexpected change in competition influence the concepts, goals, means and programmes of a coherent CC system, including the problem of time, namely the effect of available time?

2. 2.

   It would have been interesting also to read about special programmes and campaigns of CC professionals when they have to build a brand new reputation for their company because it turns out that the existing one is – instead of a real lever – a huge burden for the company.

3. 3.

   Readers of the book would certainly have benefited greatly if the authors had explained in more detail how CC contributes to the innovative capacity of a company, and how it strengthens the innovative mindedness of its employees: this will be a more and more decisive factor in a company's competitiveness on the global market scene – and will therefore be an always stronger argument for the creation of an efficient CC system.

As a final remark, let me assert that van Riel and Fombrun's book on CC – with its holistic view and at the same time with its many practical models – is real further vocational training for CC professionals; it is a basic textbook for beginners in the communication industry and for students taking communication as one of their main subjects; and it is a compass for company managers who can not only find ideas and means to increase the competitiveness of their company without huge costs, but who can learn about methods of how to set CC targets and how to control the hits of the targets by analysing the realised CC processes.