Managing the Corporate Brand

One of the core themes of this book has been the need for the corporation to manage the often conflicting and interactive relationships with its various audiences. The differing perspectives of customers, shareholders, employees, local communities and the media all need to be understood; the organisation needs to develop plans to meet the requirements of these audiences, and someone has to make the plans work. This requires an integrated approach: needs cannot be balanced if the focus is on only one group or audience Simply serving the needs of shareholders, which might come under the responsibility of the Group Financial Officer, may impact negatively on the relationship with customers and employees. Yet the reality in most organisations is that relationships are narrowly defined. Marketing Directors’ experience and remit tends to be focused on managing relationships with consumers. They tend not to be experts in shareholder or employee communications, which is far more likely to come under the Financial Department and Human Resources, respectively. Relationships with specific audiences, such as the media and government, will often be allocated to Corporate Affairs. Unless, there is a figure with over-arching responsibility for all communications — a rarity — the only figure with enough weight to integrate the process is the Chief Executive.