CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

NAME OF INSTITUTE:
NAME OF STUDENT:

1.1: Clarify and discuss the purposes of corporate communication strategies.

The corporate communication strategies refer to the efforts that are made by the company to
communicate properly, profitably, and effectively. It is extremely important for the companies to
develop the best corporate communication strategies because they are the part of the public
relations. Moreover, they also describe the variety of the functions of the management that are
related to the internal as well as the external communication of the organization.
The effective corporate communication is important for the company because the logical
structure of the planned messages can deliver the best idea to the individual who is involved in
the organizational process. Moreover, following the similar structure will also maintain the
culture of the organization and will also make the culture effective. The corporate
communication strategy is important because it develops a proper way to do the communication
with the stakeholder and deliver the objective to them by maintaining the sound identity.
We can also say that corporate communication strategies are important because the multinational
companies operate in a number of different countries but they have to maintain tier services
throughout their business.
1.2: Provide an assessment of how corporate communications link to corporate objectives.
The reason behind the failure of many of the companies is that they fail to set the measureable
objectives for the company. Moreover, if they do set the objective, they fail to link them with the
corporate communication. In order to link the corporate objectives with the corporate
communication, the company must begin with the corporate objectives. These objectives may
include:

Decreased cost of the supplier

Increase in the sales
Decrease in the employee turnover rate
Increase in the share price

These are some of the objectives that the companies have for their future. They can be linked
with the corporate communication to achieve the desired goals. Talking about the increase in the
sales volume, the company will only be able to increase the sales when it will be able to
communicate the message to the appropriate customers. Moreover, the company will have to
create the awareness about the product that it sells so that the potential consumers get to know
about it. For this purpose, they would have to adopt the proper communication style. They would
work with the marketing and sales people or the department and will do the research.
1.3: Provide an analysis of the relationship between corporate communication and
corporate branding.
If we look around today, all the companies are competing with each other and it is a challenge to
give tough competition to all your competitors. Hence, it is extremely important for the
companies to have the strong strategy so that they can augment sales, increase brand
consciousness, enhance the brand equity, and all the tasks that can accumulate to help the
company. This is the reason that the company must develop its strategy that should be very
inimitable, striking, and convincing so that the customers prefer the company over other
competitors.
While developing the strategy, the company must keep in mind that the communication should
be unbreakable throughout the internal customers, the external customers, and all the stake
holders of the company. the brand recognition is one of the most important components of the
company`s success in the long run; hence, it must be developed with the best brand experiences.
The brand communication is the process in which the gap, which is present between the
delivered value and the expectations or the perceptions of the customers, is catered.
2.1: Internal auditing of the corporate communication.
The corporate communication refers to the allocation of the tasks in the business. However, the
internal communication audit as well as the external communication audit is required to perform

the task effectively. The audits will also eliminate all the potential harms to the company
allowing it to operate in a peaceful environment.
2.2: Objectives of the internal audit planning.
The audit plan will be divided into 4 steps or the 4 objectives:
Objective # 1:

The leader of the organization must have the open door policy for its employees so that
they can discuss what they want to. In this way, it would be easier for the authority to

conduct the internal and the external audit as well.

The authority must keep all the Managers, employees, and all the other stakeholders
( those who are relevant ) updated about the corporate successes and the initiatives. It can
be done by sending emails or the messages on the behalf of the CEO of the company. In
this way, the circulation of the information will be frequently.

Objective # 2:

The employees must be given the timely information so that they must know what is

happening in the company and can give satisfactory answers while the auditing is done.
The employees must know about the financial position of the company as well; hence,
they must be provided the financial updates as well monthly, quarterly, semi annually, or

annually.
The employees and the managers must also know about the product reviews, the major
media hits, and all the other new and reviews of the company. In other words, they must
know about the condition of the company.

Objective # 3:

The employees must be appreciated and motivated when they perform good. This will
make them being more productive and efficient in the future.

The workers of the company must be sent on the training and the learning events so that
they can learn new skills.

Objective # 4:

The brand individuality and the brand tactic must be communicated to the employees and

they must be notified about them.

The company must also perform the brand axis also.

2.1: Produce a structured plan for an internal corporate communications audit.

Conduct the corporate communication audit
The communication audit is performed to recognize the weaknesses and the strengths of the
company and to evaluate the exterior communications and the interior communications as well.
The internal audit can be done by the company itself and will be used by the company only just
for its own improvement. Following are the steps that are followed to perform the
communication audit:

Identify the areas that need to be audited.

Collect the materials that are required while doing the communications auditing of the

company.
Use the past data to evaluate the current results as well. The past data can also be used to
compare the performance of the company and the factors that have either made the

performance better or worse.

One of the ways to conduct the audit is to ask queries from the customers or the external
audiences and the analyse them. While doing the analysing of the queries, the company
will have to ask different questions form the customers and check their level of
satisfaction. If they get the answer that the customers are not fully or, at least, partially
satisfied, they are then going to find the reasons behind it. Later, the auditors of the
company will make suggestions to them.
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The staff and the workers of the company are its asset; hence, it is also important to ask
the queries from them as well and then analyse them. They are also called the internal
audiences of the company. The auditors must ask the questions regarding the type of
communication in the company, the negative and the positive aspects of the

communication, and all the other relevant details.

The media, nowadays, is a way to convey your message and communicate with the
customers. Hence, the auditors must also analyse the media coverage of the company and

the media base practices of the company.

The auditors must also perform the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
analysis. Gather all the information related to the SWOT analysis and identify the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company. Later, analyse them to

use them in the betterment of the company.

The auditors must not only audit the company; instead, they have to think as a
communications consultant too. They have to give the suggestions to the company to

eliminate the harmful factors.

After giving the suggestions, they have to plan for the future communications techniques
as well. They may either give a rough or a fair plan regarding the communications

techniques of the company.

Lastly, the auditors must evaluate the contemporary basis of practices and their
usefulness. The current level of the corporate communication practices can be evaluated
and identify the negative points. These points and the aspects must be eliminated by the
corporate communication so that the company can get the better results in the future.

3.1: External auditing of the corporate communication.

Similar to the internal communications auditing, the external communications auditing is also
essential for the company. The external communications auditing is used to tell the outsides or
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the other stakeholders regarding the status of the company so that they can understand whether to
invest to keep the relation with the company or not. Moreover, we can also say that the external
communications auditing can ensure compliance, provides credibility, critique internal processes,
and double-check internal audit.
3.2: Responsibilities of the external auditor.
In most of the cases, the companies perform the internal audit by one of its own experts, the one
the works in the company. On the other hand, the external auditing is done by someone outside
the company and hence he has some different responsibilities that the internal auditor. The
external communications auditor is expected to give his own opinions to the company to the
extent he is allowed to. He can also give his opinion regarding the financial statements of the
company. Moreover, the external communications auditor also has the responsibility to review
and then report on the different aspects related to the communication of the company.
However, they are bounded by the Code of Audit Practice and by the relevant legislation. The
corporate governance arrangements of the company is relate to the detection and the prevention
of irregularity and fraud, the internal control system, the financial position, the detection and the
prevention of corruption, and the code of conduct. In addition to all these, the external
communications auditors are also responsible to check and then report to the Code of Audit
Practice, as much as allowed by the relevant legislation. They have to do this in order to manage
the performance of the company, to secure its economy, and to make the effective and efficient
use of the resources.
3.3: Steps to plan the external communication audit.

Technique of Survey

Here, the survey techniques are used by the auditors and, in most of the cases, these are the
random survey techniques. So, considering the example of the Coca Cola Company, they will

have to draw the extra focus towards the survey. In such cases, the external auditor will have to
take the help of random sampling or other similar techniques. However, the answer that they will
get by doing this type of sampling or survey; they will not be able to get the accurate answer but
the random or inaccurate one only.

Positive Feedback

The Coca Cola Company also performs its external communications auditing with the help of the
positive feedback technique as well. In this technique, they collect the positive feedback from the
people or the associates outside the company so that they can understand what the outsiders think
about the company. Some of the components of the positive feedback are: prompt,
knowledgeable, friendly, informative, courteous, open and receptive, caring and listening,
availability, and accessibility.

Notable Issues

While doing the external communications auditing, a number of issues will be faced by the
company. Hence, it is one of the responsibilities of the planner to note these issues and then use
corrective measures to either eliminate or solve these problems. These measures will help the
company in achieving the betterment or the desired goals in the long run.

The external corporate communication audit

The last step, after the planning of the external communication audit, is to perform the external
communication audit. The aspects that can help the company in performing the external
communication audit are these:

o Availability of the time: Because the external communications audit is one of the
lengthiest processes and requires much time in checking all the procedures on which the
communication is done in the company and then rate the corporate communication
techniques. So, the maximum time span is required to do the proper checking of the
communication.
o Objectivity: The external communication audit basis should be strong enough to
understand the objectivity of the external audit.
o The extent of knowledge from other organization: In the today`s world, the rate of
competition is very high and if the company wants to continue its operations, then it must
do the self- analysis. It will also help the company in understanding the difference
between the company and its competitors; this can be used to enhance the communication
of the company.
o The credibility and expertise of the external auditor: If the external auditor does not
have the credibility, then no one is going to accept the certificates provided by them. It
will also affect the credibility of the company; hence, the company must also be very
careful about the expertise and the credibility of the external auditor.
4.1: Prepare and state the objectives of a corporate communication strategy.
The best blend of the alignment and the integrity is called the corporate communications. It also
incorporated the HR initiatives and chains the management in order to enhance the staff in
making them well equipped and in becoming more efficient.
4.2: Select and state the audiences you need to influence with the strategy
Similar to all the other reports, the audiences are extremely important for the corporate
communications strategies. It is because they are the real beneficiaries of the report and are going
to use it in the betterment of the company. In the Coca Cola Company, there are following types
of audiences:
o Sales Forces
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o
o
o
o
o
o

Employees
Management Groups
Business Partners
Distributors
Shareholders
Internal Customers

4.3: Produce a plan for how you will monitor the effectiveness of the corporate
communication strategy and the measures you will use.
The effectiveness of these audiences must also be monitored by the company in order to make
them better audiences. To do this, the company may take the following steps:
o
o
o
o

Use of multimedia and video

Communication planning
Live meetings and events
Interactive communication

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