Draft of corporate communication
Introduction
Corporate communication is about business relationship and reputation of firms with
their key internal and external stakeholders. A good reputation is an excellent calling card: It
opens doors, attracts followers, brings in customers and investors – it commands our respect.
Watson, Tom & Kitchen, Philip. (2008). Corporate Communication: Reputation in Action.
10.4324/9780203931943.ch7. A good reputation is an excellent calling card: It opens doors,
attracts followers, brings in customers and investors – it commands our respect. Corporate
communications are an essential vehicle for growing brand value, increasing revenues and
building credibility with all stakeholders, whether it’s customers, investors, government
bodies, employees or business partners. In an increasingly global marketplace with so many
customer touchpoints, offline and online, it’s crucial that your reputation and brand is managed
expertly. According to Jackson (in Van Riel and Fombrun, 2007), corporate communication
(without ‘s’) is defined as ‘the total communication activity generated by a company to achieve
its planned objectives”. Van Rel and Fombrun (2007) define corporate communication as ‘the
set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communication
aimed at creating favourable starting points with stakeholders on whom the company depends”.
Corporate Communication is a key function dedicated to managing and controlling
of information flows to different stakeholders, the communication of corporate
strategy and the development of information for various purposes.
It supervises internal and external communication, media relations, reputation
management, corporate social responsibility, investor relations, government affairs
and to some extent, marketing communication.
The Bachelor of Corporate Communication (Honours) provides students strong
understanding of communications theories and processes in an organisation. Key
research, communication and media handling skills are taught so that students can
manage challenging projects confidently. They will be trained to communicate
effectively in the local and global business world.
The programme will expose students to communication management and creative
problem solving strategies, role of ICT in corporate communication and use of ICT
in addressing corporate communication issues. Students are placed under an
industrial training programme to gain practical experience.
2.0
Samsung's probe into its Galaxy Note 7 fiasco has found that the overheating and burning
of the phones was caused by faults with their batteries.
The firm had axed its iPhone rival in October last year after an earlier botched recall and re-
release. The recall is thought to have cost $5.3bn (£4.3bn) and was hugely damaging for the
South Korean firm's reputation. On Monday, Samsung said that neither software nor hardware
were at fault, only the batteries.
Internal and independent investigations "concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of
the Note 7 incidents", the South Korean technology giant said in a statement.
So what went wrong? The company said that errors both in design and manufacturing affected
batteries by two different manufacturers.
According to the findings, the problems centered on insufficient insulation material within the
batteries and a design that did not give enough room to safely accommodate the batteries'
electrodes. Samsung said it was "taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and
verify the issues arising out of the battery design and manufacturing process".
The smartphone giant did not name the battery suppliers during their Monday presentation,
though last year had identified them as their affiliate Samsung SDI and Chinese company
Amperex Technology. Samsung said it did not plan to take legal action and that it accepted
responsibility for asking the suppliers to meet certain specifications.
"Samsung has done what they needed to do for now but the true test will need to happen over
time," analyst Bryan Ma of IDC told the BBC.
"If successive products can be delivered consistently without incident in the next year or so, then
they will be in a better position to regain consumers' trust."
Launched in August 2016, Samsung's Note 7 device was marketed as a large-screen top-end
device and positioned as a rival to Apple's iPhone. But in September, Samsung had to recall
about 2.5 million phones after complaints of overheating and exploding batteries.
The firm insisted that all replaced devices were safe. However, that was followed by reports that
those phones were also overheating.
Lessons to learn
The company said there would be no repeat of the fires in future devices such as the upcoming
S8. "We look forward to moving ahead with a renewed commitment to safety. The lessons of the
past several months are now deeply reflected in our processes and in our culture."
The firm also said it would not unveil its upcoming Galaxy S8 phone at the Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona, as had been expected, suggesting the flagship model's launch may be
later in the year. The head of the firm's smartphone business, Koh Dong-jin said the phone
would not get a launch event at the event in Barcelona in February unlike previous Galaxy S
smartphones.
Samsung Note 7 - how events unfolded
24 August: The first report of a Note 7 "exploding" appears in the news, soon followed by
images of more smouldering Samsungs.
2 September: Samsung announces a voluntary global recall of 2.5 million Note 7 phones,
citing faulty batteries. It offers refund or replacement.
8 September: US aviation authorities and many airlines tell passengers not to turn on or charge
the phone on planes.
9 September: The US Consumer Product Safety Commission tells people to stop using the phone
and on 15 September issues a formal recall.
5 October: Reports emerge of a replacement Note 7 overheating on a US flight. In the
following days more reports appear and major US carriers stop selling the device or issuing
replacements.
11 October: Samsung permanently stops production of the Note 7. It tells people to turn them
off and stop using them.
Since then: With some users still hanging on to their phones, Samsung pushes out updates that
limit or prevent charging.
Airline
Hospitality and tourism industries have become one of the prominent industry globally.
According to Tourism Malaysia (2019), the figures showed that Malaysia’s tourism industry
performance portrayed a positive development as the arrivals of tourists went up by 3.7% within
a year, where it has helped to support the aviation industry of Malaysia. Hence, service quality
plays an essential role, especially in the airline industry, as its performance and quality of
services will directly affect the reputation of the company (Agyapong, 2011). This has further
supported the notion of Hapsari, Clemes, and Dean (2016) that service quality has been globally
recognized as an important factor in many industries worldwide as it aids in enhancing a
company’s profit and retaining the consumers.
According to Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies Vol. 6, No 2, June
2020 790 Archana and Subha (2012), if the customers are unsatisfied with the service quality,
they might hesitate to travel wit h the company in the future. Therefore, this will surely affect the
corporate reputation of the company. In Malaysian, the airline industry has faced a lot of peaks
and troughs in the past decade. Among the unfortunate events include increase of fuel prices,
increase of security insurance, and natural disaster that ranges from disease outbreak to volcano
eruption in neighbouring country that interferes the operation of air travel industry (Mun &
Ghazali, 2011). Besides, the most notable ones are the cases of MH370 and MH17 crisis that
shook the entire world in 2014 whereby up to 30,000 cancellation of tickets occurred after the
MH370 went missing because it has caused a severe loss of trust among the fliers towards
Malaysia’s airline companies as a whole (Mohd Ayob & Masron, 2014), whereas, the crisis of
MH17 had resulted in serious reduction ticket booking placement for about 33% weekly (News
Straits Times, 2015).
In addition, although airline companies strive to deliver high service quality to all their
customers, they most often fail to do so because it is unable to fulfill the expectations of various
types of passengers (Kandampully, Zhang, & Bilgihan, 2015). This is because customers are
particular towards their needs and the likelihood of switching to the rivals that provides better
services are high. Although there are many challenges faced by the airline industry, Hasim,
Shamsudin, and Ishak (2018) argued that airline transportations’ demands were still existing
despite the unforeseen tragedies and economic crisis. In fact, there are an increment of airline
passenger escalated from 6.0% in 2014 to 7.4% in 2015 based on the compound annual growth
rate (IATA, 2019). According to Delbari (2016), due to emergence of tough competitors and
unforeseeable crisis, airline companies have to think how to improvise the quality of their service
to ensure customers are satisfied and favorable corporate reputation can be built (Gupta, 2018).
Based on the discussion above, this suggests that AirAsia’s service quality has to focus more in
terms of responsiveness, assurance, and empathy in order to be competitive and sustain while
being financially stable in the Malaysian airline industry. As the findings of the current study
suggest that responsiveness is one of the predictor variables that contribute to corporate
reputation, this situation can be explained through the demographic profile of the respondents
wherein majority of the respondents in this study fall under the age group of 20-25. Hence, it is
clear that these young adults are extremely busy with their hectic lifestyle, thus, they expect a
quick and fast response from AirAsia’s service provided. Besides, results suggested that
tangibles and reliability were not the predictors of corporate reputation. This might be due to the
fact that since AirAsia is a low cost airline that aims to save costs by not offering free lounge
services and free meals on board, thus, respondents’ perception and expectations towards
tangibles and reliability is relatively low because they are more focused on obtaining their flight
other than the extra services offered.
Thus, this further explains the reasons why tangibles and reliability were not the contributing
factors of corporate reputation. 6. Conclusion In summary, the findings of present research
showed that all five (5) dimension of service quality has a positive and significant relationship
with corporate reputation. In addition, responsiveness, assurance and empathy were the
predicting factors of corporate reputation of Air Asia. This study had provided insights for airline
companies to strive through extremely competitive environment. Responsiveness, assurance, and
empathy found to have significant influence on corporate reputation. Therefore, AirAsia’s
management team needs to plan out their marketing strategies by focusing on the prominent
three dimensions highlighted. In addition, the airline company should focus more on empathy as
research findings show that empathy recorded the highest influence on corporate reputation.
Moreover, the management team should concentrate on improving their service quality such as
working on delivering services at a quicker rate, hire employees who are more knowledgeable,
and provide better training for them and most importantly maintaining the technicalities of the
airplanes on regular checks to make passengers feel safe and secured to travel using Air Asia.
Investing in all these will certainly aid to build a better corporate reputation. In addition, the
sample was only limited to the Malaysian customers who were having experienced with Air
Asia. Hence, future research can carry out similar studies by testing with foreign customers or
various stakeholder group such as employees and media to make comparison between the
stakeholder groups about their perception on the service quality of the company. Future studies
may also include other variables such as corporate image, perceived safety, trust, and other
demographic variables to test the moderating or mediating effects to the current framework to
provide new perspectives to the body of knowledge in the marketing communication studies.
3. Identify the types of media use
Corporate communications departments play a key role in how investors, employees and the
general public perceive a company. They often report directly to a company’s chief executive
officer and serve as advisers in managing a company’s reputation. They help leaders prepare
for media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest
new initiatives to keep companies on the cutting edge of communication with their
stakeholders.
Media Relations and Communications
This may be the function for which corporate communication managers are best known. Media
relations work includes writing and distributing news releases and responding to media
inquiries. Corporate communicators oversee all planning for news conferences, including
selecting the site for an event, arranging for banners and other graphics to be displayed at the
event, preparing packets of information to distribute to the media and preparing executives to
speak at news conferences.
Media relations also involves arranging for spokespersons to appear on local television and
radio programs. Corporate communicators monitor newspapers, television news broadcasts and
other outlets to see what the media is saying about the company and to devise strategies to
address misinformation.
Customer and Public Relations
Building relationships with customers and responding to inquiries from the public fall under
the public relations function of corporate communications. Duties in this area include
producing newsletters, brochures and other printed materials designed for the general public.
Corporate communicators also manage a company’s website and social media presence, which
includes monitoring what customers and clients are saying about the company on social
networking websites and responding to inaccurate posts or requests for information.
Communication professionals may respond directly to calls and emails from citizens and
customers with questions about a company’s plans or activities. They arrange for speakers
from the company to make presentations to local community groups and may facilitate group
tours of a company’s operations.
Advising in Crisis Communication
When an event occurs that threatens public safety or a company’s reputation, corporate
communicators function as advisers to CEOs and senior leaders in managing the crisis. Special
training in the issues unique to crisis communication helps corporate communicators prepare
for events such as chemical spills, violence in the workplace, an accidental death on the job,
layoff announcements and allegations of company wrongdoing. They often work with staff
throughout their organizations to develop crisis communication plans before disaster strikes.
A crisis may require communications staff to work with attorneys, government regulators,
political officials, emergency response personnel and communications staff from other
companies when developing crisis messages.
Internal Employee Communications
In addition to conveying a company’s messages to external audiences, corporate
communicators may also be called on to function as employee communications managers,
which includes designing printed publications and writing emails to announce company news,
benefits information and training opportunities. Corporate communicators may facilitate focus
groups to learn what issues matter most to front-line employees. They advise senior leaders on
how to improve relationships with their staff and gain support for their initiatives. The
corporate communications staff may also manage a company’s Intranet and internal blogs.
In the press agent/publicity model, communications professionals use persuasion to shape the
thoughts and opinions of key audiences. In this model, accuracy is not important and
organizations do not seek audience feedback or conduct audience analysis research. It is a one-
way form of communication. One example is propagandist techniques created by news media
outlets in North Korea.
The public information model moves away from the manipulative tactics used in the press
agent model and presents more accurate information. However, the communication pattern is
still one-way. Practitioners do not conduct audience analysis research to guide their strategies
and tactics. Some press releases and newsletters are created based on this model, when
audiences are not necessarily targeted or researched beforehand.
The two-way asymmetrical model presents a more “scientifically persuasive” way of
communicating with key audiences. Here, content creators conduct research to better
understand the audience’s attitudes and behaviors, which in turn informs the message strategy
and creation. Still, persuasive communication is used in this model to benefit the organization
more so than audiences; therefore, it is considered asymmetrical or imbalanced. The model is
particularly popular in advertising and consumer marketing, fields that are specifically
interested in increasing an organization’s profits.
Finally, the two-way symmetrical model argues that the public relations practitioner should
serve as a liaison between the organization and key publics, rather than as a persuader. Here,
practitioners are negotiators and use communication to ensure that all involved parties benefit,
not just the organization that employs them. The term “symmetrical” is used because the
model attempts to create a mutually beneficial situation. The two-way symmetrical model is
deemed the most ethical model, one that professionals should aspire to use in their everyday
tactics and strategies (Simpson, 2014).
Some experts think of public relations more broadly. For instance, they may argue that
political lobbying is a form of public relations because lobbyists engage in communication
activities and client advocacy in order to shape the attitudes of Congress (Berg, 2009).
However, this book focuses on a public relations approach based particularly on writing for
the media. Furthermore, the goal is to disseminate communication based on the two- way
symmetrical model presented by Grunig and Hunt (1984).
Discussion PointDo you think the two-way symmetrical model is plausible? Consider this
example from Dr. William Sledzik, associate professor of journalism and mass communication at
Kent State University:“Can we realistically serve multiple stakeholders whose needs conflict?
For example, can we represent the interests of loyal employee groups while our shareholders
demand layoffs in favor of low-cost offshore suppliers?” Why Do Companies Need
Public Relations?
There was a time when many companies did not see the value of public relations, unless a
crisis happened. Even now, some public relations professionals face challenges in convincing
key executives of their value to the function of the company.
With the abundance of information readily available to audiences worldwide, companies are
more vulnerable than ever to misinformation about their brand. An audience’s attitudes and
beliefs about a company can greatly influence its success. Therefore, the public relations
professional helps to monitor and control conversations about a company or client and manage
its reputation in the marketplace. Viewing public relations as a key management function of a
business or an essential strategy to manage one’s individual reputation will help accomplish
important goals such as establishing trust among key publics, increasing news media and
social media presence, and maintaining a consistent voice across communication platforms.
For more on the impact of reputation on business success, take a look at this article from The
Entrepreneur. Public Relations Versus Marketing Versus Advertising
Many people confuse public relations with marketing and advertising. Although there are
similarities, there also are key differences.
Probably the most important difference between marketing, public relations, and advertising
is the primary focus. Public relations emphasize cultivating relationships between an
organization or individual and key publics for the purpose of managing the client’s image.
Marketing emphasizes the promotion of products and services for revenue purposes.
Advertising is a communication tool used by marketers in order to get customers to act. The
image below outlines other differences.
