Marketing communication: principles and practice

M A N A G I N G W I T H S T A K E H O L D E R S
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Corporation
Markets
Stakeholder network
Global society
Figure 5.1
Nested subsystems of society

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A business enterprise operates within the context of a network of people
who have differing interests and stakes, often with conflicting motivations
and values. The value star is a development of the value chain concept
(modelling the organization of value production as a series of specialist
transformations) that recognizes that a network of interdependent people
have some stake in what the marketer does and why.
Nowadays, the stakeholder system should be thought of as a negotiated
environment in which relationships have to be carefully managed. The cor-
poration is only one of a set of publics that must maintain contact. The
management task in the twenty-first century is to ensure mutually productive
relating. This is highly significant for marketing, since the climate of these
relationships – with customers, suppliers, regulators, shareholders, commu-
nities, professional groups, and so on – can strongly affect the performance
of the enterprise in aspects such as brand image, product acceptance,
customer service, competitor behaviour, employee relations, and corporate
reputation.
AUDIENCES, MARKETS, AND PUBLICS
Many unsatisfactory situations arise (we tend to refer to many of these as
‘communication problems’) because the definitions given by one party of 
the other party are incompatible. For example, traditional ‘corporate
communications’ treats the employee group as an audience, when the
employed individual sees him/herself as part of a public.
An audience has a focus on and loyalty to the content or medium, and its
members are consumers of the information, music, etc. This communication
system operates on the basis of personality (of the ‘performer’), its genre,
and an author as source. The relationship is transient, based on some
normative attachment through identification and involvement. A fan club is
an example, as is a newspaper. The response sought from communication
effort is primarily attention.
A market is an aggregate of individuals engaged in consumption behaviour
that is calculative and concerned primarily with self-interest. A market is
defined by the producer of a good or service through offer to consumers or
users. Gratification is the primary motive for communicating. Product
endorsement is an attempt by producers to shift the relationship into the
audience mode.
A public forms normative ties (in a sharing mode) with a sense of identity
and purpose, and is defined by its members. Communication is necessarily
seen as arising through interaction. The primary motivation is conflict
resolution.
These modes of relationship may be located within the internal
environment of the corporation or span the boundary with the ‘external’
environment.
Our intended mode of relationship with another communicator (person,
group, corporation) may be mismatched and dysfunctional. Figure 5.2
identifies some consequences.