van Riel (2003) has characterized corporate communication as a
fusion of marketing, management, and organizational communication.
But Balmer and Gray (2003) take a much broader view, something they
call ‘ total corporate communication ’ , consisting of primary, secondary,
and tertiary communication. What they define as primary communication
is really indirect communication, the result of such things as product
or service performance, company policy, and employee behaviour.
These do ‘ communicate ’ something about that company and effect corporate
image, but we would not include it directly within strategic IMC
planning