Corporate Communications and Marketing Strategy
Respond to each of the following posts in about 200-225 words for each post with at least two journal articles for each post. Include volume, page, and links in references page.
Post 1:Employees are very important for every organization. An engaged workforce is critical for the success of a company, and similarly, a disengaged workforce can cause a company to fail. For a long time, employees have been seen by many corporations simply as “human resources”, one of many resources that are necessary to manufacture or produce a certain good. This dates back to the ancient times of capitalism, where the major production factors were land, labor, and capital.
However, employees are way more important than that. This is why there are several companies that have stopped calling their department “human resources” and have instead proceeded to call those departments “people department”. Gillis states “employees’ perception of how they are treated and how they are communicated with will directly affect their perceptions of their value and contribution to the organization” (Gillis, 2011, p. 240).
Some of the major corporate turnarounds in history have been accomplished because the leaders have learned an effective way to handle people, to deal with people, and to motivate people to give their best. Two I remember are Gordon Bethune’s turnaround of Continental, which is chronicled in “From Worst to First”, and Alan Mullaly’s saving of Ford when it was bleeding billions of dollars. Both leaders recall that when they first got there, employees were ashamed of wearing the company’s badges and felt no sense of identity. It is impossible for a company to be successful this way.
Vinerean (2015) says that “business performance achievement is strictly related to the quality of employees, their competencies, loyalty, and engagement” (Vinerean, p. 76). It is only with the help of employees that a company is able to produce their product or service and sell it to the public. Every employee is valuable, whether their task revolves around assembly, cleaning, marketing, publishing, or any other part of the value chain, as it is all interconnected to help the company thrive.
Opposite to the drawback that brands like Continental and Ford have faced before their turnarounds, Harris (2007) says that “great brands attract talent. People want to be associated with them. They sense the opportunity to display their abilities” (Harris, para. 55). This is why companies that are famous for putting employees first are highly sought-after places to work. The competition for talent is more intense now because talent has so many options to relocate. Therefore, corporations need to be able to genuinely place the interest of employees first and value them so that they can retain their talent, otherwise, they will significantly suffer.
Post 2:
Maintaining market share requires being competitive in the market. Employee recruitment and retention strategy is one of the most important factors that determine how the employees affect the organization’s ability to maintain market share. Successful companies that are focused on increasing their market share attract, recruit and retain talented, skilled, dedicated, and competent employees who can be a source of their competitive advantage. With minimum training costs, this strategy enables the company to focus on producing and providing exceptional products and services and gain a competitive market share (Kramer,2022). According to Li and Ko (2021), internal marketing philosophy which treats employees as internal customers is important to maintain market share. This philosophy leads to a high level of employee engagement, retention, and profitability (Hanna, 2022). Internal marketing philosophy can be manifested in Investing in the learning, development, and training of the employees to create knowledgeable, capable, and motivated employees which give the firm a competitive advantage. Furthermore, Successful internal communication (hierarchical communication, mass media communication, social media, and social networks) is a strategic tool for maintaining market share (Whitworth, 2011) because it builds trust in the workplace, empowers employees, and creates a synergy by aligning the employee’s goals with the company’s overall goals (Brown, 2021).
The concept of Internal branding is another determining factor in maintaining the firm’s market share. It “represents a cultural shift within an organization, in which employees become more customer-focused and more business-focused” (Grady, 2019, p.231). The aim of Internal branding is to create a corporate culture where employees at all levels work as ambassadors for the company and to create a workplace that reflects the larger values of the corporation. This is done by sharing the mission and culture of the company with the employees who will align their work efforts with the firm’s goals (Hudson, 2022). Customers Relationship Management (CRM) can be a source of competitive advantage by creating a customer-centric culture, that is deeply rooted in all the people in the company (Alqershi et al.,2020). “Building up long term relationship with customer and creation of unique customer experience is strongly associated with building up long term relationship with employees through their identification with the corporate core values and corporate culture” (Miroslava, 2015).
