Book excerpt: The Fundamentals of Corporate Communications gives professionals and students in marketing a comprehensive and incisive overview of what modern corporate communications is, and what it can achieve. The author has drawn on extensive business experience in the area and wide ranging research in major corporations to produce an authoritative account of best practice - backed by numerous cases and examples. The book demonstrates how corporate communications affects today's marketing mix and explains how it can support wider marketing objectives. The key elements are covered in depth: * Who are the key audiences in the present business climate * The role of Corporate Image and Identity in the communications process * How communications informs and affects corporate strategy development * What are the tools of modern communications- from lobbying to brand building * Using communications in a crisis * Who should be communicator and why The book is both highly practical, it is grounded in real business issues, and rigorous in covering the concepts accessibly. It will be an essential text and reference for practitioners and students of marketing.