Marketing communication: principles and practice

I D E N T I T Y
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I M A G E
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A N D R E P U T A T I O N
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interested in all of these factors when considering the relative attractiveness
of the shares as an investment.
Dowling (1994) suggests that corporate identity enhances corporate image
by stimulating recall. The image conjured up in the person’s mind combines
with their prior values and attitudes towards appropriate roles and behaviour
for the particular organization to form a reputation. Fombrun (1996) defines
attributes of corporate reputation: credibility; reliability; trustworthiness;
responsibility. Fombrun makes it clear that he believes that reputation cannot
be defined in abstractions of the enterprise’s publics. Managers must, to
understand the nature and value of reputation, capture the judgements of
their publics.
Grunig (1992) is clear that no one set of characteristics can be appropriate
for the evaluation of reputation for all enterprises which face different
situations among differing stakeholder groups. This reflects Grunig’s situa-
tional theory of publics, and he goes on to suggest that perhaps management
groups should set their own criteria for excellence (1992: 223). For example:
communications behaviours of publics can be best understood by
measuring how members of publics perceive situations in which they
are affected by such organisational consequences as pollution, quality
of products, hiring practices, or plant closing.
(Grunig and Hunt, 1984: 148)
The presence and degree of symmetrical communication practice is signi-
ficant in excellent companies who stay close to their customers, employees,
and other ‘strategic constituencies’ (Grunig, 1992). Heath (1994) also
identifies the importance of symmetrical communication criteria in
considering reputation.
Hickman and Silva (1984) also counsel against standard formulas for
evaluating excellence and reputation. They argue that both objective and
subjective yardsticks are required. The 
Fortune
criteria may need to be
adapted to capture nuances of context. Studies must be situational. Gray
(1986) defends the 
Fortune
approach in identifying that corporations have
been rated on reputation as the perception of important publics and that each
attribute is associated with how the company looks to outsiders.
Varey (1996: 139) has noted that:
Organizational communications management can be conceived as a
core business competence. Communication is necessary for organi-
zations to effect requisite collective work – through co-operation,
experimentation and shared learning.