ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims at practitioners responsible for corporate communications in profit and non-profit organizations, public relations managers, marketing staff, human resources managers, communications agencies and others who in their professional careers deal with corporate communications and manage company or brand identities, most prominently members of the board and chief executives. The phrase corporate communication, and company departments dealing with it, first emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century when corporations started to realize that success is much more than merely selling products and services. Across the Atlantic, in times of rapid industrialization and in the context of modernism, European companies similarly began to understand that to be competitive in the market, a recognizable and consistent appearance was needed.
