Corporate Communication Essay

Introduction The organization which this report will be based on is called Mirihi Island Resort. Mirihi Island Resort is a five star resort located in a secluded island in South Ari atoll of Maldives. It consists of 36 rooms from 6 are beach villas and the remaining 30 are water villas. This resort is under Crown Company (Mohamed, 2014). There are total of 145 staffs mixed from all levels. 60% of the staffs are from Maldives and the rest of the staffs are from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, China, Thailand and etc. Their slogan is â€Å"Mirihi as â€Å"unique† as you†. Like as said in the slogan, Mirihi is a very unique resort. No wearing of shoes or sandals, no motorized water sports, no night animation and no TV’s in the room makes their customers feel like being in Maldives and unique (Mohamed, 2014). Vision Mirihi’s vision is to be always on top of all the Maldivian resorts in service and standard wise to make challenging for other hotels. To be most quiet and peaceful resort in the country as well never pushes on sales. Respect all different culture by providing the same levels of services. Staffs will be well trained for an excellence services and try utmost to motivate the staffs by whichever possible way (Mohamed, 2014). Mission In this highly developing tourism industry; their aim is to keep the guests satisfaction up to the standard while providing services in a quick and efficient way. Focus on improving service standard by observing difference between the resorts and from guest’s feedbacks. Maintain the cleanliness of the rooms, increasing the food quality rapidly, continuous updating the information and training for the staffs, flexibility, making customer feels special and as well â€Å"everything is possible† attitude will be the best advantages to achieve the goals. Never stop trying until achieve the goal (Mohamed, 2014). This report will be evaluating and analyzing the corporate communication of Mirihi Island Resort. Discussion Definition of corporate communication Corporate communication is managing an organization’s internal and external communications with the purpose of establishing and maintaining favorable reputations with its various audience to the mutual benefits of both and to its improved competitive advantage (Kalahub, 2009), (Richard, 2000). Corporate communication includes advertising, public relations and marketing, marketing communications, but they all function under a managed perspective (Kalahub, 2009). Functions of corporate communication There are many functions of corporate communication. Among some of them are discussed below. Media Relations Among all the functions this may be the function for which corporate communication managers are well known. It is because they are engaged in the media relation works, where they have to write and distribute news releases with responding to media enquiries. Corporate communication manager have to oversee all planning for news conferences. Also the manager has to arrange everything needed for the spokesperson to appear on the local television and the radio programs. In addition to that the manager also have to monitor all the news broadcasters and other outlets to see what the media is talking about the company and have to advise strategies to address misinformation (Frederick, 2014). Public Relations Under public relations fall, building relationships with customers and responding to studies from the public. Here, the corporate communication manager is responsible for providing all the information needed to the general public through newsletters, brochures and other printed materials. He/she also has to manage the company’s website by monitoring the feedbacks given by the public and responding to inaccurate posts or requests for information in order to build a good relationship between the public and the organization (Frederick, 2014). Crisis Communication If something unexpected happened in a company that will be a threat to public  safety or company’s reputation. For such a critical event all staff should be well trained and prepared for it as it will help corporate communication to prepare for it in a short period of time. Corporate communicators mainly works with their own staff to develop crisis communication before any disaster strikes but in case of developing crisis message they should work with different of people or company, it might be a political officials, attorneys or an emergency response person. Therefore it’s the responsibility of corporate communicators to advise senior leaders in a company to manage the crisis (Frederick, 2014). Employee Communications When a company needs to deliver a message to external audience, the corporate communication manager may has to act as employee communications manager. Being that position they have to design printed publications and write emails to announce company news, important information and training opportunities. Corporate communicator also may have to create a focus group to learn what issues the front-line employees are mostly facing. Also they give advices to the senior leaders on how to improve relationships with their staffs and gain support for the initiatives. In general, the corporate communicator manages a company’s Intranet and internal blogs (Frederick, 2014). Investor Relations The main purpose of investor relations is to reassure shareholders that by investing in the company they have taken a wise move, and even though if they don’t want to buy more shares they should continue to hold onto their shares. The importance of this communication is towards the financial success of the company and the decisions it makes that lead to growth. Therefore the employees involve in investor relations has prepare regular financial and management reports and briefs for the financial media (Scotter, 2014). Internal Communication In the internal communication the corporate communicator has to focus on aligning staff with the organizational values and purpose. Therefore, the corporate communication manager has to arrange staff conferences with senior managers, sharing stories on the company intranet and organizing award schemes to reinforce organizational values. Internal communication often  mediates with media relations, sharing positive coverage internally to raise morale (Scotter, 2014). Corporate Advertising Corporate advertising is any advertisement that focuses more on public relation than sales promotion. The purpose of the advertisement is to build a company’s image, reputation and presence among the general public or within the industry. Corporate advertising is regarded as one of a variety of communication tool that is used to promote the desired corporate brand’s corporate identity rather than promoting company’s specific products or services (Zulhamri, 2012). Public Affairs In an organization at the local, state and federal level, all the sectors are subject to laws and regulations. Therefore, public affairs staffs’ job is to forward organization’s case for amendments to existing legislation. In some cases they have to campaign for new laws as well. For this reason public affairs staff’s job often work with media relations to run integrated campaigns (Scotter, 2014). Definitions of Identity, Image and Reputation Identity A company’s identity is what the company is, the way the company is being recognized and the characteristics that defines the company (Corp, 2014). For example the company’s name is a part of its identity. Image An image of an organization is the perceptions that different people hold of an organization. Such perceptions differs depending on how well people know the organization. Some perceptions are derived from people’s individual experiences and impressions of the organization and also by the marketing and communication activities (Bailey, 2008). For example when someone says Rolex watch the first thing that comes to the mind is the quality and the price of the product. It is because the Rolex watch is commercialized in such a way that people believes that it is expensive hence a quality product. Reputation It is the collection of perceptions about a company that is hold by the stakeholders with whom it relates, both internal and external† (Munich, 2008). For example Apple Company is a very high reputed company, hence they provide high quality products and they have been continuously trying to keep on their standard. Analysis Analyzing using Rep Track Model In every organization it is very important to analyze their image, identity and reputation in order to be successful. To analyze these three things the best tool or model is the Rep Track Model. It is the world’s first standardized tool for tracking reputation of globally across stakeholder groups. It tracks 23 key performance indicators grouped around 7 reputation dimensions that is effective in getting stakeholders to support the company that has been proven by researchers. The following diagram shows an illustration of Rep Track Model. The seven reputation dimensions will be used to analyze the reputation of the selected company, Mirihi Island Resort. Product/Services Mirihi is a service oriented company. Reviewed by many customers that has been to Mirihi, they have a high quality service which fulfills customer requirements and their needs. Compare to other top most leading resorts, Mirihi has high prices for their packages, compare to their service. Because in Mirihi there are no televisions available in the room and the rooms are not so big. It’s not because they can’t afford it or they don’t want to give that service. It is because they want their customers to get the chance to be relaxed without being engaged to the news and other media entertainments. On the other hand they provide high speed Wi-Fi so they can be in touch with their family and friends. However their customers are very much comfortable and happy with their service. Innovation Mirihi is the first resort in the Maldives who provided the service of encountering whale sharks for their customers. And they keep trying to come up with new innovations to make their services more and more unique. They are very flexible for their customers, can come up with their own ideas of  different activities or services. Also they always try to change their way of giving services. Workplace If any one goes through the reviews about Mirihi Island Resort it will see from all the comments about their wonderful staffs and their fantastic service. This shows that how happily the staffs are working in order to build the reputation of the company. Mirihi management always make sure that their employees are well trained and highly motivated. Therefore they frequently conduct training sessions for all the staffs including top management staffs. They don’t discriminate between their staffs, they distribute early bonus and salary increments equally and fairly. Mirihi gives full support for the staffs who wants to invent things and those who wants to study as well. Mirihi staffs has the opportunity to internally change their positions. Governance In Mirihi they have general session in every month to share their achievements, financial situations, about the allowances starting from the last four years so that it is easy to compare and about all the upcoming programs or events. They are very transparent as they always tell exactly the situation with the government regarding the taxes to their staffs. And they prepare annual report and submit it to the government and also they pay taxes on time. They make sure that their staffs are aware and follow the rules and regulations public by the government. Citizenship Mirihi is a very environmentally friend company. They never cut down the trees and according to their policy cutting down the trees are prohibited unless it is very necessary. They have very strict rules for the guests not to stand on the corals, not to collect anything from the sea, not to put anything in to the sea and not to feed the fishes. And the guests are Leadership In Mirihi they have charismatic Managers. From the management they always make sure that they keep on the standards or improve their level to get on the top most. Whenever they face any issues or threats they overcome it making suitable strategies. They make sure that their staffs are comfortable  with their given resources. Performance They have been as the top resort on the famous travelling website for almost one year. At the moment also they are in the top six. From this clearly can be seen that they performed well with high profitability. Monthly and annually they make huge profit compare to their expectations and therefore they are able to provide early bonus to their staffs with an amount of around MVR10,000 for each staff. Their market share has been growth, still being among the smallest resorts in the Maldives. Recommendation Even though Mirihi is a profit gaining and reputed company, there are few things that they need to improve. †¢They need to have corporate communication department to analyze their re †¢They should conduct performance appraisals or evaluate their staffs performance more frequently and give feedbacks on their performance so that they know what are things that need to be improved. †¢Mirihi should provide a 24 hour room service to make their service better since they don’t have a 24 hour restaurant or a bar. †¢There are not enough sun beds on the beach for the guests to enjoy the sun bath. So they should provide more sun beds on the beach. †¢Finally the guest Wi-Fi and the staffs Wi-Fi is very slow and the guest Wi-Fi is not available most of the areas like specially in the spa. So they should provide Wi-Fi to the most areas so that their service could be more improves. And the Wi-Fi should fast. Bibliography Bailey, S. R. (2008). InternationalEncyclopedia of Orgnaization Studies. SAGE publications, Inc. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956246 Corp. (2014). Your Dictionary. Retrieved from Your Dictionary Web site: http://www.yourdictionary.com/identity Frederick, A. (2014). Small Business.chron. Retrieved from Small Business.chron Web site: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/functions-corporate-communication-department-23716.html Kalahub. (2009, November 07). Slide Share. Retrieved from Slide Share Web site: http://www.slideshare.net/9924927019/corporate-communication-2444333