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Organisational culture is largely the result of the interaction between the people of an organisation over time and communication plays a major role in such intra‐organisational interaction. The prevailing organisational culture will reciprocally determine the communication of the organisation, not only internally, but also externally with all of its stakeholder groups, and particularly with its customers. This external communication is particularly relevant to an organisation's ability to render service to its customers. This article investigates differences in the way in which managers and employees perceive the role of communication in an organisation in the automotive industry. The results indicate that managers consistently evaluate prevailing service‐related communication contexts more positively than employees. It is concluded that progress in service quality can be seriously inhibited by a false sense of security about prevailing service related communication procedures and practices among the managers of an organisation.

The processes of consumer perception and decision making remain relatively complex phenomena despite the depth of research undertaken in the area. One way in which these processes may be influenced is through the explicit mentioning of product attributes in advertising. This study investigates consumer perceptions of mentioned product attributes in magazine advertising for a specific product category. Results confirm a clear relationship between attributes specifically mentioned in advertising for the three selected brands and respondents’ rating of those attributes against evaluative criteria for the product category. Factor analyses of respondents’ ratings indicate a clear convergence of factors extracted and the mentioned attributes for each brand.

The view that a visually appealing corporate identity is the most important contributor to a good corporate image is a myth. The process of corporate image formation is regulated by the corporate personality which consists of three groups of elements: conscious behavioural identity cues, such as customer service; need‐satisfying products or services; and visual cues, such as the corporate name, logo, and slogan. Makes a major assumption that a visual design cue, such as a corporate logo, recalls impressions or perceptions in the minds of audiences. These perceptions are based on corporate behaviour which constitutes an overall corporate image. Perceptions measured through a semantic differential subsequently revealed that the following factors contribute to the corporate image of South African banking institutions: dynamism, credibility/stability, customer service, and visual identity. The research results therefore confirmed the assumption that corporate behaviour and corporate visual identity contribute to corporate image.