B1 business communication

1. CL4 Language and
Culture for Business
Prof. Peter Cullen
Moduel III B1
Business Communication
www.cl4englishlistening.words.com

2. The Communication Process and
Areas of Business Communication
Communication is a natural form of social behaviour
that is largely involuntary and tied to the very
existence of a company expressing:
Identity
Values
Relationships to the outside
Information exchange is increasing – creating
background noise

3. Companies and Communication
Companies and their stakeholders form a process of
significance creation about:
• Economic and financial values
• Ethical and social values
• Commerical values
• Symbolic values
Business and stakeholders are inter-dependent
A business is a:socio-technical
partially open
pluri-purpose economic
SYSTEM

4. Business as a System
A business is a: socio-technical
partially open
pluri-purpose economic
SYSTEM
It is also a:
organic
self-regenerating
relational
cognitive
directed
SYSTEM
A Business is a vital system

5. Companies and Stakeholders
Stakeholders are people and groups who hold an interest
in the existance and performance of a company.
Secondary Stakeholders
Primary Stakeholders
local
institutions community
property financiers employees
suppliers
Company
directors
the public interest
clients competition
groups
business partners
representation groups

6. The New Competetive Environment
Contributing factors:
economic globalisation
technological innovation
key factors of the marketing
environment
increasing pressure from
institutions and civil society on
the activities of businesses

7. Economic Globalisation
Promotes the circulation of capital, goods, and
information
Creates uniform purchasing behaviour and
economies of scale
Promotes market inter-dependence and super-
national markets
In terms of strategy:
The business environment is more complex
Competition is stiffer
There are more variable to control
New key factors for success emerge

8. Economic Globalisation
This means business communication must:
• Face a wider range of agents in the
communications network
• Plan for inceasingly complex interaction
• Develop specifically tailored policies as
well as general strategies
• View brand management as an integral
policy in the portfolio of strategy options
Group A
company
Group B Group C

9. Technological Evolution
Promotes innovation in products and processes,
inducing a convergent trend in the sector and
creating truly new markets
This can lead to adoption of innovative responses to
market needs (market-pull innovation) or may lead
to truly new systems of supply (company-push
innovation)
ICTs and e-business are changing the paradigm
Market
Market
Innovation need
Company
Innovation supply

10. Marketing Environments
Concerns:
the evolution of consumption and consumers
the demand for personal and personalised
relationships between client and company
increase power to large distributors
branded/unbranded dualism
develoment in communications
Demographic change influences markets
(population ages)
Social change influences markets:
Consumption has become a way of expressing
values,identity, and individuality

11. The Marketing Environment
Today:
Large marketing oriented companies increasingly
look towards emerging consumer markets – more so
than toward mature consumer markets
Consumers demand greater service and
personalisation in supply
Mass production/mass consumption paradigm is
outdated – today production systems focus on the
technology-services paradigm
Rise of large distributors pushes companies to direct
marketing strategies and techniques to meet their
needs – encroaching on brand policy (Selex, Conad)

12. Institutional and Civil Society Pressure
Key question: sustainability and sustainable
development
Social responsibilty of business: companies must
internalise the objectives of:
city or regional development
employment levels
human resources development (training)
community outreach
environmental protection (local, regional,
global)
Action groups influence company success in these
areas
i.e. Greenpeace, Consumer Rights Org.

13. Institutional Communication
Macro-area communication applied to:
distinctive facets of the company (vision, mission,
company values)
the set of relations created in the contexts of
the organisation, economic competition, social
and natural aspects
This communication is differentiated according to
target group. The company must adopt responsable
and differentiated behaviour BUT
Institutional Communication is an expression of
synthesis and sustains the strategic path of the
company

14. Institutional Communication
Meta-objectives:
To delineate, reinforce, or modify company
positioning – total image
Stimulate favourable attitude (consensus)
toward the company by its 1° and 2°
stakeholders
Create a climate of credibility, legitimacy, trust
Contribute to the enrichment of the company’s
reputational patrimony, in terms of goodwill
(intangible asset)

15. Instruments of Institutional Communication
Public affairs
Crisis management
“internal” communication
Institutional advertising/promotion (publicity ≠
advertising)
Public relations (sponsorship etc.)
Publication of the company balance sheet
Media relations
Consumer relations
Investor relations
http://www.bp.com

16. Institutional Communication at British
Petroleum

17. Economic and Financial Communication
Interested parties:
shareholders
creditors
clients
state revenue agencies (fiscal structures)
the financial community – particularly when the
company is listed
Stricter regulation of balance sheet reporting (after ENRON)
Faster flow of financial capital between capital markets =
Absolute necessity of more, broader, deeper financial
communication with stakeholders

18. Economic and Financial Communication
Investor relations: specialised in relations with
investors and actors in the financial markets,
particularly analysts and portfolio managers
Information needs are:
Legislative requirements
External needs – of market intermediaries (analysts,
managers etc.
Internal needs – of interested stakeholders =
Two levels of communications:
Basic = obligatory for financial transparency
Voluntary = to satisfy stakeholders informational
requirements

19. Economic and Financial Communication
Key Concept: TRANSPARENCY
Financial intermediaries and managers require increasing
amounts of information regarding company’s activities to
assist clients and investors RISK MANAGEMENT
Risk affects investment – transparency affects trust
government regulation enforces transparency but does not
guarantee trust
G. Bush at
Trust is a long-term investment signing of
Sarbanes-
Oxley Act
2002

20. Marketing Communication
Management of relationship with the market
(intermediate and final clients) aimed at improving the
perceived value of the company and its ability to
meet the needs of selected demand segments
Fundamental to market-driven companies to improve
defendable competetive advantage and the ability to
create value in the medium-long term
Two fundamental dimensions:
Relationship Content

21. Relationship in Marketing Communication
Managerial process to create and activate
relationships involving the business, distributors, and
end-users (final clients)
Aimed at: commercial intermediaries
(sales reps., wholesalers, purchasing centres,
retailers etc.) = push strategies involving the
actor who makes the transaction
purchaser/consumer
(the actor who actually uses the good or
service) = pull strategies
supply side partners
(research institutes, co-designers, IT
consultants) = relational logic rather than
transactional logic

22. Relationship in Marketing Communication
Two models:
mass communication
one-to-many transmission of the message
TV, Radio, Newspapers etc.
works with both differentiated and
undifferentiated marketing
one-to-one communication
two-way involvement in the message
telephone, face-to-face, other?
aimed at focused and personalised
markets

23. Content in Marketing Communication
The customer is at the centre of the company’s interest
Marketing involved at transmitting the marketing concept
Production oriented
typical where demand > supply. Needs are obvious.
Focus is on distribution rather than communication
Sales oriented
persuasive communication aimed at convincing the
market to purchase (if meets real demand need)
Market oriented
customer satisfaction at the centre
PV > EV; RV > 0 (PV= perceived value; EV= exchange value;
RV= rendered value)

24. Content and Marketing Communication
By favouring the point of view of the client rather than the
company, marketing communication becomes one of the
founding components of services offered to the target
market – creating perceived value product offering.
This allows the client to understand the system of attributes
associated with the good or service
AND
Enriches this system with symbolic structures such as
BRAND IMAGE

25. Objectives of Marketing Communication
Economic objectives
• aimed at modifying the demand curve
d1 d2
p1
q1 q2
The communication mix stabilises sales over time
(mitigating seasonal differences)
Increase of customer value (extending customer
interaction with the product)

26. Economic Objectives
On the supply side, given perfect competition,
there are some particular effects at the sector
level:
Evolution toward monopolistic competition with a
large number of competitors and highly
differentiated products =
marketing comm highlights diffs.
The only companies autonomous in price
show in town
Evolution toward differentiated oligopoly =
communication produces high
barriers to market entry
The
increasing sales volume and
business
reinforcing brand loyalty
district

27. Communicational Objectives
Feedback: crossing the “perceptivity line”
Subjects apply attention selectively
The communications agent must influence the
subjects “perceptive filters” to activate perception
Objectives:
non-behavioural response
behavioural response
evaluational response
relational response

28. Communicational Objectives
Cognitive objectives
Emotional objectives
Gl
Top
Strength of awareness
ob
of the
a
lb
mind
ra
nd
Unaided recall
aw
a
Aided recall
re
ne
ss
Brand recognition

29. Communicational Objectives
Behavioural response objectives
Behavioural
responses
Sphere of Search for information
action Purchase
Consumption
Word of mouth
Non-behavioural
responses
Internal
sphere Rational
Emotional
Ideal

30. Communicational Objectives
Valutative response objectives
based on behaviour = a mental state that describes a
subject’s relatively stable evaluation of brands,
products, companies, ideas, and included rational,
emotional, and behavioural components.
The learning process shapes behaviour
Communication may influence learning through:
Association
Reinforcement
Motivation

31. Communicational Objectives
The Foote, Cone, and Belding model
High degree of involvement
II I
Learn Feel
Feel Learn
Do Do
Intellectual Emotional
learning learning
Do
Do
Feel
Learn
Learn
Feel
IV
III
Low degree of involvement

32. Communicational Objectives
Relational response objectives = constructed from
valutative response base
Principal phases of the relational life cycle:
Satisfaction
Individual factors
Trust Structure of needs
Behavioural loyalty Taste and innate aesthetic
preferences
Mental loyalty
Value systems
Loyalty
Consumer characteristics
Situational factors
Social group influences
Media used and messages communicated
Broader marketing context

33. Communicational Objectives
Flow chart of communications objectives
Relational Objectives
Valutative objectives
Non-behavioural
Behavioural
objectives
objectives
Influencing factors
individual situational