Corporate communication, both internal and external, is about the two-fold mission of managing all communication and messaging within corporations. Most large businesses hire and dedicate entire departments to oversee this critically important role.
Internally, communication managers are charged with developing and installing the system of information from department to department as its primary internal communication strategy. They set up a communication chain of command so to speak, and they basically guide that corporation’s flow of information to all necessary parties.
Externally, this communication plays an ever-increasing, vital role of managing the corporation’s message and image to the corporate world and the public at large who are their ultimate consumers.
Here are some valuable insight into how to get the most out of your corporation’s communication efforts.
Achieving Business Objectives Through Corporate Communication
Establishing the business goals for a company should really begin at the same time the company sets its communication model. If the corporate brand wants to be successfully delivered to the target audience, all role players must be informed and trained first. This creates a like-minded attitude within the company.
Presenting a united front within a corporation’s internal communication through the exact same message is what gives the image and brand its footing.
It is difficult to overstate how absolutely crucial this part is. Without unity of message and purpose, understood throughout the company, and bought into by every employee, the corporation will flounder and never achieve its full potential.
Once the corporation’s internal communication is in place and functioning as it should, it is time to take the corporate message and brand to its broader and targeted audience, the public.
Developing Your Brand Image
Do you ever wonder why some corporations are vastly more successful than others? More often than not, it is a matter of employing effective communication strategies. Many great products suffer from poor messaging and presentation. Consequently, sales slump and are nowhere near what they could be with the right brand-building language.
The only standard for how well communication gets received is the response to that communication. Remember that old adage, ‘some people can talk all day and not say a thing worth hearing’?
That is exactly how the public responds to a message lacking effective communication strategies. Without taking the time to craft and structure an effective and attractive message about the brand, communication and branding efforts are wasted. They also doom the company’s growth ambitions.
Common Qualities of an Effective Communication Strategy
With all this talk about effective communication, you may be wondering just what does the right, results-oriented branding sound and look like. Generally, all sales-generating communication shares these traits. Read and carefully consider them below.
1. Demand
Great brand building either addresses an existing demand, or it skillfully creates that demand through its marketing efforts. How likely is a company to sell a product for which no demand exists? That sale is dead before any effort is made. The basic level of a sale is a desire or need for the product or service. On the other hand, a product with demand is often turning away buyers until it can get restocked.
2. Quality
If creating or capitalizing on demand generates sales, it is always quality that causes that demand to either rise or fall. Quality is how products with demand retain and grow sales.
3. Price
It ultimately impacts demand more directly than any other factor. This is a quality-for-purchase, demanding public. Your messaging must convey amazing, overwhelming quality for the price paid if you want your branding to do its best job.
4. Availability
Since your corporate message has been diligent to capitalize on demand with a quality product at a fair price, the next critical detail for your communication is product availability.
If the public is asking, ‘where do I get one’, you had better have a ready supply available. This refers to the initial distribution of a new product. It is how the public develops a desire or need for what your corporate communication is offering.
Once you have established that initial distribution and created the demand, then is the time to start limiting consumer availability. This may sound contrary to company growth, but it works to actually increase future demand.
Have you noticed how willingly phone users wait for the next iteration of their favorite mobile device? Some marketers call that strategic withdrawal to increase demand.
5. Time Factor
This part of corporate communication is related to availability. Time elements create urgency in the mind of the purchaser. Being well aware of that firmly ensconced human character trait of prognostication, buyers are less likely to put off buying when they think they may miss out on the best pricing.
Cultivating Brand Awareness
Building brand awareness always takes time, and it is one of the most important of communication strategies. Word simply must have time to filter out and become a part of the consumer’s purchase choices.
This is the reason marketers flood the airwaves with continual messages about their products. A corporation’s brand, through its communication, continually bombards the mind with its urgency and alluring qualities. Memory then takes over to build that brand awareness if the branding message is to do its job.
Maintaining Corporate or Brand Image
Consistency of message and repetition work hand-in-hand to maintain this carefully designed brand and corporate image to the public. Smart marketers are smart messengers.
Most have learned over time, and some the hard way, to leave the message alone once it has been firmly embedded.
Enhancement Strategies for Corporate Image
Branding and communication staffs are ever striving to improve their corporate profiles. This is an absolute prerequisite in such a competitive marketplace.
Community Profile
One of the most effective enhancement strategies is creating the image of community involvement. People have come to expect companies they spend their money with to show some degree of community involvement with the communities whom they serve.
Charity Events
Corporate charity is one of the most noticeable and positive witnesses to their consumers. Seeing that a company actually cares enough to reach out to those who are less financially able than others creates empathy for the company. Charity can help build corporate awareness and reputation more readily than practically anything the company can do product-wise.
We hope you will use the insights in this post to improve your corporate communication efforts and enjoy the benefits these improved measures can bring. Are you using any of them yet?