Communication is one of the pillars of collaborative work: it is strengthened through the building of bonds, emotions, and experiences; as social beings, people are shaped in daily life according to their experiences, orientations, and contexts—communication allows the “building and managing [of these] shared realities” (Mannuci, 2008: 45).  

In this article, we will learn a bit about what corporate communication is, what its role is, and how important it is by simply understanding how it works.

Corporate Communication – Definition

Corporate or business communication refers to the conversational or information exchange process between a company and its stakeholders; that is, how an organization uses a set of actions and practices that aim to impact all groups of people with whom it relates, from employees to investors.

Ulloa et al. (2015) research shows that Corporate Communication has been studied mainly from a functional approach, focusing on management tools. For this reason, they propose a distinction between their approach and the prevailing instrumental use of Corporate Communication. 

The authors suggest that Corporate Communication is:

“Concerned with the exchange of experiences, knowledge, emotions, and thoughts between subjects that integrate to produce senses, creating symbolic universes and systems of internal and external significance that contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives” (Ulloa et al., 2015: 292).

For Castro (2007: 17), Corporate Communication:

“Is divided in two: Internal and External Communication; the first works in the conception and development of corporate culture, that is, the ideas and qualitative concepts that define the organization. The second is responsible for managing the company’s image to offer to the market or society. In both cases, cooperation is key to achieving profitability objectives.”

Differences between External and Internal Corporate Communication

External Corporate Communication	Internal Corporate Communication
External Communication is used to convey the image of a company to its public;	It is focused on the flow of information among the internal public of an organization, through official channels of the company;
External communication is focused on customers, consumers, competitors, government, and society in general;	It is essential to feed team spirit, keep employees satisfied and increase productivity;
It is not propaganda, nor is it limited to marketing. Instead, it involves media advisory, branding, advertising, and marketing activities used in an integrated way, disclosing its actions, projects, and interests.	Internal Communication aims to simplify and organize relations within the working environment;

In short, business communication, therefore, includes external and internal communication, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of aspects such as the performance, actions, products, and services of their company.

The goal of uniting these efforts across different channels and platforms is to increase our company’s visibility and strengthen your branding for stakeholders.

Therefore, if you plan to use your company’s resources better and apply efficient strategies, it is essential to have a corporate communication job.

Role of Corporate Communication

To use the strategic advantages of corporate communication, each action of the sector must be strategically and integrated. Thus, despite the differences between internal and external communication, they all follow to ensure that the company’s image is not contradictory or inconsistent.

3 Essential Practices in Corporate Communication

Have a corporate communication strategy

Strategy is the path to be traveled and what should be done; meanwhile, communication transmits a message from transmitter to receiver.

On the business level, combining these two words and their meanings becomes what we call the corporate communication strategy, and it’s a plan that helps a company relate to its stakeholders and publicize what it has to offer.

An excellent corporate communication strategy brings results to a brand’s reputation, but it also helps to strengthen ties with its target audiences. In addition, it is the bridge for the company to transmit the desired messages as efficiently as possible.

This way, it is necessary to identify a profile of each public and adapt language and format so that it is understood in the best way by all.

Diagnose the organization’s reputation

Imagine that a company’s sales start to plummet overnight. Or that business is doing well, and it’s time to invest in growth. Or that someone had a promising idea to launch a new product on the market.

Before making cuts to the staff, making plans to set up a new point of sale, or start producing the innovative product, you need to understand the company scenario better.

And which way to get the complete picture and what is people’s perception about our company and what we are willing to offer but doing researches. 

5 Main Types of Corporate Communication Research

TYPE	DESCRIPTION	PURPOSE/ SUGGESTION
Consumption Patterns	Knowing your customer’s consumer habits is vital so you can define actions, strategies, and processes according to your audience’s interests.	Understand which social networks your customers access the most to define your social media strategy;Find out if they make more purchases online or offline by evaluating which media outlets they follow to make media planning.
Customer Satisfaction	Knowing if your customers are satisfied can minimize errors, find improvement points, optimize processes, and manage resources more efficiently.	The best way to do a satisfaction survey is to establish a scale and ask customers to grade different aspects of your business;For example, use a scale from 1 to 5, where one is not satisfied, and five is fully satisfied.
Field Test	The field test allows you to test your communication before launching an advertising campaign. A pre-test communication survey enables you to evaluate the potential and efficiency of an advertising campaign before it is aired on media channels or to distribute a product.	As its name already gives clues, the goal of the field test is to assess whether the public will well receive its actions.For this research sample representing, our consumer is selected to answer some questions about their perceptions about the evaluated piece.
Survey with Collaborators	Measuring employee satisfaction is to understand if your company provides a good working environment and if employees are motivated to increase team engagement with company targets.	Research to assess employee satisfaction, both with your work and with the product the company offers;An exercise that brings excellent results is to apply to your internal team the same brand image questionnaire that was done with consumers.
Trademark/ Branding	The goal of trademark research is to find out what consumers think about your brand. What values and concepts are associated with your image, and how is your brand positioned according to the competition.	Asking what the first word that comes to mind when you hear the brand name, as we did at the beginning of this topic, can offer surprising insights;Assess whether the attributes you consider most important are those perceived by the customer.

Each corporate action is only executed after a strategic plan, and communication should be no different. Therefore, it is vital that the company diagnoses its communication channels and strategies and sets improvement targets.

Monitoring and Evaluating Results

With the constant monitoring of communication processes, the company can visualize which actions or channels have brought the most promising results and still need adjustments. Thus, monitoring is the basis for the next strategic planning, forming a virtuous cycle.

Monitoring refers to a routine process that examines the project’s activities and progress and identifies bottlenecks during the process. Finally, evaluation is a sporadic activity used to conclude the relevance and effectiveness of the project or program.

After we finish monitoring a program or something in the trial phase is time to evaluate how some product, rule, satisfaction, or the lack of matches with the company’s targets, and if not is time to do some changes.

Importance of Corporate Communications

Corporate communication is crucial, and it is it that will ensure that employees work together and are aligned to the company’s objectives, and still make them feel belonging to it, implying increased performance, constant innovation, and creating advocates of your brand.

Companies today, more than just clusters of people seeking profit through an activity, are like living organisms formed by several different and interdependent parts that work together.

In this context, for the corporation to function, both in operational terms and in the business climate, corporate communication is fundamental.

Benefits of Corporate Communication

• With good business communication, you can have effective interaction with your employees and keep them informed about the reality of the company’s situation, avoiding these speculations and making them more connected to it;

• Increases the sense of belonging of the employee as he gains no identification with the place he works, pride to be part of the reality of the company, will seek improvements or defend the company in a time of crisis;

• With good business communication, employees will feel more valued and essential within the organization and, consequently, will have more freedom to answer their questions and propose improvements in the company as a whole;
• Improve the image of your company, ensure the company’s growth and sustainability, productivity will undoubtedly be much higher.

Conclusion

Corporate Communication is an essential activity for an organization to achieve its goals and maintain its reputation, both internally and externally. Good communication improves coexistence and avoids mistakes. 

In this way, today, business communication plays a strategic role for those who wish to remain in the market.

References and Further Reading

What is Corporate Communications? Functions, Careers, and Skills. Northeastern University.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES. TONY ROBBINS.

The role of corporate communication in intelligent organizations. Scielo.