Business communication refers to the sharing of information within the organizational members as well as with the outsiders. The major aim of business communication is to is to obtain commercial benefits for the organization. The business communication involves marketing, customer relations, event management, interpersonal communication, management of reputation, community engagement and employee engagement. Business communication has close relation with technical and professional communication (Kaul, 2014). There are various channels that businesses use to communicate such as radio, television, internet, newspapers, magazines and many more.
In other words, business communication is the way the management, administration and the employees communicate in order to achieve organizational goals. There are various methods of business communication such as presentations, video-conferencing, reports, telephonic meetings, face to face meetings and web based communications (Gainforth, 2014).
The report compares the efficient use of business communication among the two well known automotive companies namely Ford and Toyota. The Ford Motor Company has efficiently used the various channels of communication to improve their marketing efforts whereas Toyota had faced several issues due to inefficient business communication. The report shall compare the use of business communication by these companies to understand the importance of business communication in the achievement of goals and objectives of a firm. Ford has become a pioneer among the automotive companies by integrating social media into its marketing strategies as well as in its internal culture. Ford has become one of the most followed as well as influential brand on various social media channels (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015). Toyota is the one of the largest automotive companies in the world. However, the company has faced several issues due to faults in communication. One of the severe issues faced by the company was in the year 2010 when the company had to recall millions of cars when the issues with brakes, floor mats and acceleration pedals came into notice.
The examples to be considered in order to understand the importance of business communication are Ford and Toyota. Various reports have shown that Ford has always been more efficient in terms of business communication due to which Ford has been successful in achieving its objectives while Toyota has faced several issues due to its ineffective business communication strategies.
Ford is an American based company that was founded by Henry Ford in the year 1903. The core business of the company is manufacturing of cars and is the fifth largest automobile company in the world. The vision of the company is to become the leading consumer company in the world for automotive products and services. The company focuses on one team, one plan and one goal. The concept of one team states that the customers, employees, suppliers, dealers, investors, Union and community shall be work together in achieving the organizational objectives. The one plan concentrates on development of new products on the basis of the preferences and wants of the customers that shall help the company in achieving organizational goals. The one goal lays emphasis on providing profitable growth to all.
Ford has extensively used social media in in marketing strategies. The company has its own blog namely “The Ford Story”. The company shows the comments of the reader on the front page of the website whenever the company adds a new post (Wilson, 2014). Ford uses various innovative ideas in applying latest technology in their cars and it conveys its innovations to the customers by actively involving them in the communication process (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The company attracts the attention of the customers by uploading attractive images of its cars over social media. The company also encourages the customers to provide their ideas for the improvement in the cars. The company is committed to improve its standards and core competencies by efficient communication with its stakeholders.
Ford has integrated social media into its marketing strategies in order to establish good relations with its customers by active interaction with the customers. The effectiveness in the business communication strategies of the company can be understood by analyzing the sales and marketing funnel of the company. Ford engages its customers in all the levels of the funnel. The company is always active on social media websites and it encourages the customers to share their experiences with Ford.
The company has also realized the necessity of constantly presenting the dealers on the various channels of social media (Bloom et al., 2014). The company also initiated a program namely “Ford Direct” through which it allowed its dealers to view in inventory management and reputation management of the company. The company has efficiently used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to interact with its customers. The company has also efficiently handled the issues related to the customer services by the help of the “Ford Service Handle”.
Toyota is a Japan based automotive company that was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. Toyota is the one of the largest automotive companies in the world. However, the company has faced several issues due to faults in communication. One of the severe issues faced by the company was in the year 2010 when the company had to recall millions of cars when the issues with brakes, floor mats and acceleration pedals came into notice (Agarwal et al., 2014). This recall had severely affected the sales and profits of the company. This had a negative effect on the position and brand image of the company.
Toyota has used various print media, social media and television advertisements to address the customers. However, various reports described that the crisis management of the company was relatively weaker due to which it had to face such issues. Various analysts stated that there was lack of proper communication within the company that resulted in the delays in identification of the problem and addressing the issue. The crisis management team of the company failed to address the issues within time and there was lack of proper communication with the customers. Toyota had been penalized for having failed to recognize the internal issues for more than four months. All these issues in the internal business communication led to the massive recall that had negative impact on the image of the company.
Aim of the research:
The main objective of the research is to critically analyze the effect of business communication on the brand image of Ford and Toyota.
Research objectives:
The objectives of the research are as follows:
Research questions:
The following are the questions related to the research:
Communication methodology includes dealing with various audiences including customers, employees, executive groups and many more. According to Markides & Sosa (2013), Communication methodology is the process that helps in conducting the entire process of communication plan in a systematic manner. The communication methodology helps in understanding the various techniques pertaining to on communication plan. Therefore, communication methodology can also be described as an organized process of conducting research.
Types of investigations:
There are several types of research study. The main types are exploratory research, descriptive research and hypothesis testing research. According to Tesch (2013), when the researcher does not have proper knowledge about the related topic of research then it is said to be exploratory research. In this research, the researcher while conducting the entire process of research considers some scientific viewpoints.
On the other hand, Liamputtong (2013) stated that the descriptive type of research study aids in linking the particular topic of research with the various relevant models and concepts. Therefore, in the descriptive form of research study, the study is conducted with the help of several relevant theories and models.
Lastly, in the hypothesis testing research, the researcher is required to fix the hypothesis initially after which the researcher analyzes the theories with respect to the relevant concepts and models (Bryman, 2015).
Therefore, descriptive form of research study shall be used by the researcher in order to analyze the given topic.
Data collection:
In this research study, the researcher shall collect primary data from the general public to know their views regarding the companies. The researcher shall conduct interviews in which the general public shall be asked about their views regarding the interaction process of Ford and Toyota. They shall be asked which of the companies among Toyota and Ford they find more attractive in terms of their communication with the general public. Some of the potential car buyers shall be interviewed in order to know according to their views which of the company among Ford and Toyota shall provide them better service.
Evaluation:
References:
Agarwal, S. D., Bennett, W. L., Johnson, C. N., & Walker, S. (2014). A model of crowd enabled organization: Theory and methods for understanding the role of twitter in the occupy protests. International Journal of Communication, 8, 27.
Bloom, N., Garicano, L., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2014). The distinct effects of information technology and communication technology on firm organization. Management Science, 60(12), 2859-2885.
Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.
Gainforth, H. L., Latimer-Cheung, A. E., Athanasopoulos, P., Moore, S., & Ginis, K. A. M. (2014). The role of interpersonal communication in the process of knowledge mobilization within a community-based organization: a network analysis. Implementation Science, 9(1), 59.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Kaul, A. (2014). Effective business communication. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), 164-187.
Liamputtong, P. (2013). Qualitative research methods.
Markides, C., & Sosa, L. (2013). Pioneering and first mover advantages: the importance of business models. Long Range Planning, 46(4), 325-334.
Tesch, R. (2013). Qualitative research: Analysis types and software. Routledge.
Wilson, J. M. (2014). Henry Ford vs. assembly line balancing. International Journal of Production Research, 52(3), 757-765.
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