Business Communication

Business Communication



Business Communication

Introduction

This essay looks beyond the news media at the various ways institutions within the three sectors—nonprofit, government, and business—communicate public issue perspectives. The theoretical context probes the communications landscape and how it offers the institutional policy entrepreneur new and increased opportunities to move concerns to or from the decision-making domain. The basic idea explored is whether some corporate advertising, particularly “branding” through image advertising that is favorable to the company's business environment, communicates on a mass scale what political issues to think about and how to think about them.

These communication types are value centric and trade in the marketplace of social goods rather than consumer goods. The significance of this topic to civic leadership studies relates to the perspectives, or frame, in which citizens understand issues of public concern. These perspectives form the basis for how people understand public problems, their solutions, if and how those issues should be addressed, and the individual's role in making change.

The chapter begins by exploring the various types of advertising communications that feature a nonprofit or social issue, the nature of the issue/nonprofit itself and its relationship to its sponsor, and, if applicable, the politics of the solution suggested or implied. In some cases, it is possible to see how the messaging may frame an issue from the message sponsor's perspective to move that perspective into the public agenda. Terms for these communications are imprecise, both because they have been studied, but not integrated, among disciplines and because message sponsors may combine several strategies. Here, the communication types are divided between those largely sponsored by government and nonprofits, called social marketing, and those sponsored by business: cause marketing, alignment advertising, advocacy advertising, and market advocacy advertising.

Discussion

Various forms of Business communications tied to social issues share the aim of creating a more favorable business environment by establishing a company brand with its support of, desire, or actions to solve a social issue. The terminology of Business image advertising, or institutional advertising, is blurred within and among disciplines, though most would agree the simplest forms are designed to build and reinforce the benefits of the company's brand image and the importance of the way of life made possible through business. (Crume, 2007)

A brand image is “the configuration of words, images, ideas and associations that form a consumer's aggregate perception of a brand” (Upshaw, 1995, p. 12). A mainstay of brand building is “image advertising,” which emphasizes building a good image for the corporation and its management or keeping the Business name in the public eye (Sethi, 1987, p. 8). Simple image ads contrast with traditional “hard-sell” product and service advertising, where audiences are given authoritative, rational reasons to choose product x over product y or to buy the product because of what it can do for them. An example of a classic institutional image campaign slogan is General Electric's (GE) slogan: GE Brings Good Things to Life. (Crume, 2007)

Four forms of Business advertising linked to social issues are explored here:

Cause marketing

Alignment advertising

Advocacy advertising

Market ...