Corporate communication: the right corporate communication

Companies are constantly in talks with customers, business partners, journalists or with their employees. Regardless of the recipient of the communication, however, it always makes sense to think of a concrete strategy. Using the right tone of voice is essential to convey corporate identity externally . Successful business communication (CC) helps the company to properly control its impact on others.

Index

1. What is corporate communication?
2. The four areas of corporate communication
3. Corporate Design & Corporate Language: corporate communication media
4. Corporate communication measures: internal and external examples

What is corporate communication?

The broad field of corporate communications cannot be determined with absolute precision, given that it also overlaps with other corporate areas such as marketing. In principle, however, corporate communication (in English: corporate communication ) includes any type of communication with the company, whether it is internal communication, such as that with employees, or external, which may concern business partners (e.g. in B2B marketing), customers (e.g. in B2C marketing) or media (e.g. with public relations).

To help the company maintain its identity, corporate communication should create a uniform image across all channels. Corporate culture should be reflected in a homogeneous communication strategy, for example, and specify the type of speech management. The goal of corporate communication is to be able to control the impact of communication with maximum efficiency through a uniform communication approach.

If you do not follow a coherent strategy on all available routes, you will lose potential or cancel your efforts to achieve positive effects. So you must, especially in large companies, put the different departments together in one strategy. That’s why changing corporate communication is never a quick solution: if you want to strategically adapt and align your corporate communications, you must take into account the fact that the process will be quite long.

However, if you decide to take this step, you will get several positive effects:

• Strengthening corporate identity
• Raising the recognition value
• Professionalism improvement
• Efficient control of external effects
• Improvement of the business climate

NB

Corporate communication does not necessarily have to take a written form, although it is certainly more evident there. Even in direct conversations or in phone calls, it is necessary to have uniform corporate communication.

The four areas of corporate communication

Corporate communications cover every contact the company has with others. Roughly, the recipients can be divided into four different areas.

Internal: employees

Although it is often overlooked in a unified communication strategy, internal communication with employees is actually the basis from which to start your efforts. This type of communication is very varied: e-mails, letters, forms and reports, newsletters, are all methods of communication between management and employees and between employees themselves. These measures should be performed and verified in the sense of corporate identity to check if all the elements correspond to the corporate culture.

By using a corporate communication strategy in internal communication, employees can become more loyal to the brand and at the same time communicate corporate values ​​and standards. In addition, well thought-out communication makes employees more serene and improves the working atmosphere.

External: customers

Next to employees, customers are the most important people with whom we communicate. If you do not address customers appropriately, they will not buy anything and cause the company to go bankrupt. A good corporate communications strategy, on the other hand, appeals to customers in the right way and turns occasional buyers into regular customers. Everything related to advertising but also the design of newsletters, brochures, coupons and catalogs and the entire online presence falls in this area.

However, the marketing department is not the only one in contact with customers: assistance and billing centers also communicate with buyers in one way or another. While the advertising sector in most companies still follows a uniform strategy, it is important to align the other customer contact points with corporate communication.

External: journalists

Communication with the press office (an area relevant to public relations) should also align with the homogeneous corporate communication. The company can advertise its corporate identity through the media, especially in the form of press releases and press conferences. Not only the type of communication, but of course the content is also important. For example, it may be useful to incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility measures into the media. This will make it easier to check the external image.

External: business partners

Contact with investors, shareholders and other business partners must be handled with great care: an unsatisfied investor can cause the ruin of a company. Therefore, both the content and the form of communication are also fundamental with them. The contact here takes place not only through e-mails and direct conversations, but also through reports and letters from shareholders. Many companies create special brochures for their business partners to convey information about the company. If these means of communication are created in the sense of corporate identity, this will give a very professional impression.

Corporate Design & Corporate Language: corporate communication media

For a successful communication strategy, corporate communication uses various means. If these tools are coordinated and implemented consistently, maximum efficiency in communication can be achieved. In particular, corporate design, which is generally a pillar of corporate identity, and corporate language play an important role.

As for corporate design, every form of corporate communication must have common graphic elements. For example, we agree on a binding font that must be used in every document. The company logo must be present in every written communication: letters and e-mails, for example in the letterhead or in the e-mail signature . Corporate presentations must also be used in presentations. For example, a range of colors is usually established for the brand.

The corporate language is even more pertinent to the field of corporate communication: a special tone of voice, a form of expression that distinguishes the company both externally and internally. On the one hand the language used by a company must follow general rules and on the other it must have an individual and uniform character. In addition to correcting grammar and spelling, general rules also include the ability to express yourself in an understandable way. As is obvious, it is often the employees of the technical professions who sometimes find it difficult to formulate the concepts in a way that can be understood even by non-professionals.

Usually the individual characteristics of the corporate language concern the search for balance between the salient characteristics and the daily conventions. So usually you should keep a language that is suitable for the target: while for example it might not be a problem to convince employees and B2C customers to say goodbye, investors may feel uncomfortable with such a casual approach. However, the corporate language is mainly reflected in the corporate culture. From the way in which something is formulated, values ​​and norms of the sender can be obtained.

Guidelines must be set up in order for all employees to internalize this language. In these concrete examples, lists of expressions that are not used or to be used as much as possible can be accepted. To help employees better understand the communication strategy, finished texts are also useful for situations that occur repeatedly in daily communication.

Corporate communication measures: internal and external examples

There are many ways in which a company can apply its corporate communication strategy. Both internally, towards its employees, and externally, it is possible to find a wide range of possibilities to use corporate communication effectively. It need not necessarily be written communication.