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Philip J. Kitchen and Don E. Schultz (Editors) Palgrave, Houndmills, UK; September 2001; ISBN 0-333-92639-0; 407pp; hardback; L27.50
Throughout the last decade, many authors have discussed the increasing importance of corporate branding in today's business environment (see, for example, `The Expressive Organization', discussed in CRR in the summer issue of 2000). The present book by Kitchen and Schultz fits neatly in this stream of discussion. Its central proposition is that all forms of corporate communication should be based on the organization's central values that are shared by virtually everyone within the organization. To readers of CRR, this will probably sound familiar. The added value of `Raising the Corporate Umbrella', is therefore not so much in its conceptual discussion, as in the practical guidelines it provides for conducting day-to-day corporate communication activities.
`Raising the Corporate Umbrella' is a collection of chapters written by a variety of practitioners and academics in the field of corporate communication. The book has two main parts: the first six chapters provide the conceptual background, while the remaining eight chapters apply these concepts to a number of specific corporate communication tools and problems, such as corporate advertising and crisis communication. All chapters start and conclude with case descriptions that illustrate the main points.
The first chapter, by the editors, provides the context for the central proposition: the book is concerned with the communication strategies of large companies, who mostly have a number of (product) brands under their corporate 'umbrella'. The question then becomes how to profile the umbrella itself, as customers and other stakeholders increasingly are demanding companies to be open about their policies and values, rather than to 'hide' behind their brands. The central proposition is illustrated metaphorically by the cloth, ribs and stem of the umbrella: the cloth symbolizes the organization's overall image,...