Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
Chapter 3:
An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
This is the heart of the Corporate Communication text. The chapter has so much
meat that you will probably need two days to cover the text and the case. Read PR! A
Social History of Spin by Stuart Ewen (Basic Books, 1996) and Chapter Two of The
Power of Corporate Communication, by Paul Argenti and Janis Forman, McGraw-Hill,
2002 for more on the history of this field.
To start a discussion of this chapter, I suggest you begin by talking about how the
need for such a function grows logically out of what you covered in the first two
chapters and cases. How else can companies deal with a changing environment and
these sorts of problems unless they first realize the need to deal with
communications strategically (as we discussed in the last chapter) and then try to
create a functional area to work through all of the different aspects of corporate
communication (as is discussed in this chapter)?
You should also spend time explaining the difference between a reaction-based
“flak” or vendor operation and a proactive corporate communication department
that deals with issues before they happen. It is important to reiterate that
communications is much more than just press releases and publicists. Most
companies would never dream of letting others set the agenda for them in finance
or operations, why should they do so for corporate communication?
This leads us to a discussion of how companies have failed to recognize the
importance of a strong corporate communication team. Why do companies put
people in charge of communications who have no experience in the field? As
discussed in Chapter One, it is only recently that corporate leaders have overcome
their past reluctance to fully embrace corporate communications as a key part of a
Another important component in the history of corporate communications is the old
public relations firms. These firms once built nice cozy relationships with
corporations so that it was in their interest to keep the companies coming back for
Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
To Centralize or Decentralize Communications?
The discussion of a centralized function for corporate communication gives you an
opportunity to broaden the discussion to areas such as organization design. You
might want to discuss these issues with your colleagues in organizational behavior
or read some of the materials that I recommend in the suggested reading to this
chapter.
Where Should the FunctionReport?
Again, where the function reports grows out of the same discussion (see the
PowerPoint slides). In my view, the function must report to the top of a company,
The Subfunctions within the Function
I would spend the bulk of my time discussing and demonstrating the power of each
of the sub-functions outlined in the chapter. Start with the PowerPoint slide on the
sub-functions and work your way through each of these subgroups.
For the discussion on identity and image use Wally Olin’s 1989 book, Corporate
Identity, available from the Harvard Business School Press. It covers the field in
great detail and provides endless mini-cases for you to use in going over this area.
You should also show some good examples of logos and identities, which are always
Thomas Garbett’s Corporate Advertising, published by McGraw-Hill in 1981 is the
most comprehensive book written about corporate advertising.. Show a couple of
current campaigns available from any magazine as well.
Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
schools also offer courses on business and society that intersect with this part of the
book. In addition to the articles referenced in the text itself, look for new books
coming out in this new area virtually every month. Philanthropy may only come up
in this class, so you may want to say a bit more than I have in the book. What is the
philanthropic nature of the companies in your local community? Do they follow any
kind of discernible strategy? If not, get students thinking about what they would
suggest. Community relations is similar to, but different from, philanthropy. How
are companies perceived in your school’s community? In what way do businesses
‘give back’ to their community? ‘Giving back’ can include more than simply
generating jobs or tax revenues; a company might sponsor charitable events, offer
local discounts or organize employees to donate volunteer hours. Often students can
think of other more creative ways that companies preserve good community
relations.
For marketing communications, I recommend Marketing Management, published
by Prentice Hall in 2008, by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller. While marketing
communications is definitely an important sub-function of communications, I feel
Try to get hold of some internal communications literature to deal with this area
in the lecture. You can also refer to a current event such as a crisis to make a point
about this sub-function. With the recent financial crisis, there is a wide variety of
corporations such as General Motors, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Times
Company, who are facing a challenging internal communications environment.
Investor relations can be introduced to students by showing one of the more
dynamic annual reports from the crop available. In previous years, I’ve used the
McDonald’s annual report, because it came in a box that opened like a Big Mac, had a
Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
communicate. Especially for students without a financial background, this can be a
challenging sub-function to understand so be sure to bring it to life with real-life
examples. We will cover this in more detail in Chapter Eight.
Government relations is tangential to this area, but is a topic that you can find out
more about by looking at Stephen Nowlan’s book, Leveraging the Impact of Public
Affairs, which provides a wealth of examples. Discuss whatever industry political
Conclusion
If you are using this book for executive education classes, the first three chapters
can be combined to form a great lecture on the emerging functional area. I typically
start with clips from the films I mentioned earlier, show some of the statistics in
Teaching Note
Sweet Leaf Tea
I would teach the Sweet Leaf Tea case as part of an integrated discussion about the
function. So you might imagine that about half to two-thirds of the class will focus
on the material in Chapter Three, as described in the previous section, with the
other half to one-third of the class focused on the issues raised in this particular
case. I also suggest glancing over the Sweet Leaf Tea website or running a Google
News search on Sweet Leaf Tea before you go into this class to find out what issues
the company currently faces.
Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of SLT’s corporate culture in
terms of communications, as described in the case?
A major strength of SLT’s corporate culture is its personal relationship with
its consumers, something that has been in place since the very beginning.
From SLT’s grassroots marketing efforts comprised of sampling at music
festivals to its current emphasis on leveraging social media to build
relationships with customers, SLT has wisely created a “brand personality”
that fits with its family-oriented beginnings and laid-back corporate culture.
A risk of Clayton and David’s deep involvement, however, is about to be
exposed with the former’s departure from SLT. Because the company started
as a tribute to the founders’ grandmother, Clayton’s departure could be seen
2. Considering the relationship the brand had with its audience, should
Clayton have reached out to customers to announce he was leaving?
Given that SLT’s relationship with its consumers was cultivated through
direct contact with them at music festivals and through social media, Clayton
should have reached out to SLT’s customers to announce that he was leaving
the company. Doing so would have enabled him to manage the potential
risks to the brand from his departure and better position SLT to continue its
close, trusting relationship with consumers in his absence. Being
Chapter 03 – An Overview of the Corporate Communication Function
Teaching Notes
3. What challenges do you see for SLT’s new management?
Dan Costello, as a relative newcomer to the company and a member of the
Nestle team, may have difficulty gaining the trust of longtime, loyal SLT
customers. Some of the issues Dan Costello should consider include:
• How could the management transition affect the reputation of SLT?
What are potential barriers to restoring this jeopardized reputation?
• How can we establish a rapport between new company management
and SLT’s consumers?
• Is there damaging information related to Clayton’s departure that
could be released to consumers? How can Dan Costello address these
issues head-on to control the damage?
4. What role should corporate communication play at SLT to help the
company advance its strategic goals?
Besides helping to stave off a potential crisis, corporate communication is an
opportunity for SLT to manage the conversation around its brand. Because
the ability to form personal connections with consumers through social
5. As Clayton’s replacement, would you change the way SLT
communicated with its customers, or who was allowed to? Why or why
not?
As Clayton’s replacement, Dan Costello should try to smooth the transition by
keeping as much the same as possible. The company’s history of
empowering every employee to be a spokesperson for the SLT brand is a
valuable tradition that should be continued, as it will limit the reputational
impact of change at the top of the organization. Loyal consumers have
established relationships with SLT personnel beyond Clayton, and in his
absence it is essential that these other relationships not be disrupted.