One important thing I learned about corporate communication this week is that companies should be very careful about how they manage their relationships with various communities. This is important to consider because companies are often viewed as being members of the community in which they operate. As such, they are often expected to adhere to a specific set of rights, duties, and responsibilities if they are to stay on good terms with local community members (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 252-254, 261-263). This adherence to these types of guidelines can also influence a company’s reputation, revenue, brand value, and its ability to grow (Argenti, P. A., 2006, p. 365; Cornelissen, 2017, p. 255).
Another important thing to remember is that corporations no longer have full control over how their messages are dispersed, interpreted, or perceived. Simultaneously, however, the general public now has a “greater access to information” than they ever did before. As a result, the information on what a company has said or done in the past and the information on what others have said about the company have both become more accessible (Argenti, P. A., 2006, p. 357-359).
This increased accessibility of information is largely due to the changes that have come with technological advances such as the internet, blogs, email, social networks, and so forth (Argenti, P. A., 2006, p. 360-362). Because of these factors, companies must now be a lot more vigilant and consistent in their communication efforts if they are to properly protect their identity and reputation against negative forces (Argenti, P. A., 2006, p. 364).
One great example that shows a positive relationship between a business and its local community is the story of the Cadbury company before it was acquired by Kraft in 2010. When the Cadbury company was founded in 1893 by George Cadbury, the company was highly focused on engaging with and caring for the local community of Bournville in the U.K. This engagement had a huge impact on the city of Bournville (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 265-268).
Some of the things the Cadbury company did to show its desire to be a good citizen included building houses for its workers, creating parks and recreational areas, and providing educational facilities for every employee. Cadbury also tried to be environmentally friendly by “reducing excess packaging” and by decreasing their water and energy use. These efforts strengthened Cadbury’s reputation with the local community by making people feel like the company would take care of its workers and the community’s needs (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 265-267).
As it turns out, this increased trust would come in handy later when the company experienced a crisis situation with worms getting into their products. When this happened, Cadbury was able to “address the crisis head-on and consumers judged it to be an incident rather than a breach of trust” (Cornelissen, 2017, p. 265-266). This more favorable turnout to a bad situation was probably possible because Cadbury had spent so long building up positive community relations in the area where their company operated. Had they not built these positive relationships beforehand, I doubt this crisis situation would have turned out as good as it did.
References:
Argenti, P. A. (2006). How technology has influenced the field of corporate communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 20, 357-370
Cornelissen, J. P. (2017). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice. London, GB: SAGE Publications.
