Corporate marketing communications are the various advertisements, branding images, and external interactions that together make up a company’s image to the outside world. Marketing communications can be thought of as the net total of a company’s advertising and client outreach efforts. Each commercial, billboard, and web site that a company maintains is a part of that company’s larger corporate marketing communications strategy. So, too, is every trade show appearance, every client outreach letter, and every community sponsorship opportunity.
A key goal for corporate marketing communications is consistency. Most of the time, companies play several different roles at any given time. They are employers, of course, and they are usually also service providers. Depending on the setting, corporations can also be industry representatives, ambassadors, and community sponsors, among other things. A sound corporate marketing communications strategy will ensure that the company’s mission, brand, and central advertising tenets are consistently conveyed across all aspects of corporate interaction.
Promotion of a service is usually part of the goal of corporate marketing communications, but it is not everything. Usually, the focus is on promoting the company as a whole through the advertising of individual products and services. Corporate marketing communications focus on advertising, but the things being advertised are usually only vehicles for conveying some larger corporate message.
Most of the time, corporate marketing communications start with certain brand names, slogans, or logos. These are often presented in a certain font or in a specific color for easy recognition. If these elements appear in enough different places and in the context of enough different corporate statements, they can become ingrained in a target audience’s mind. Very often, then, they can take on a meaning or trigger an association all on their own. This is the science of corporate marketing communications.
Corporate marketing communications can also deal with the management of a wide variety of assets. A company that owns many subsidiaries may need a consistent and unified advertising scheme, for instance. Similarly, an online business with a large Internet presence will likely need a streamlined way to manage its various digital assets. Integrated marketing communications — that is, the use of one marketing strategy across a variety of advertising platforms — is particularly useful in these situations.
Consistent phrasing is also an important part of marketing communications. The vocabulary that a company uses to interface both with its clients and with the public is in many was a part of the corporate image. Most of the time, corporate marketing managers, known in the industry as marcom managers, are the ones tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of these sorts of marketing communications, as well as with determining when marketing communications need an overhaul. Companies may also elect to retain outside marketing services consultants for various projects.