Taking corporate reputation off life support
With a few notable exceptions, most professional communicators would agree that many companies’ reputations have been under fire recently. The truth is that the corporate reputation function in most organizations has been in decay for years and that growing public cynicism and high profile corporate melt-downs are only a symptom of a fundamentally undervalued function.
Ironically, the corporate reputation function suffers from its own image issues. In many organizations, professional communicators have historically struggled to draw quantifiable correlations between corporate reputation initiatives and bottom line revenue. This has given executives and CFOs an excuse to siphon resources away from these projects to shore up other branding and advertising initiatives that provide the more obvious revenue streams.
The past two years have therefore delivered a series of potentially fatal body blows to an already weak social contract. As the public either experiences or witnesses companies laying off staff, denying pension benefits to retirees, grabbing tax-funded bailouts or taking unconscionable salaries, the influence wielded by these companies, by virtue of their strong reputations, has evaporated.
On the bright side – their loss could be your company’s gain. Rather than hollowing-out the function, we suggest that professional communicators explore a few of the following ways to get their corporate reputation off life support:
- Redefine your objectives and audiences: Everything you once knew about your audiences has probably changed in the past few years. With different motivations and emotional triggers, you may need to fundamentally rethink your overall corporate reputation objectives, strategies and tactics. But be careful not to change anything that might alienate your already-loyal customers.
- Be transparent and approachable: These two often go hand in hand. The public wants to feel that you respect your mutual relationship, welcome their feedback and are worthy of their trust. Remember though: transparency is about more than posting reams of documents online. You also need to help your audience find, understand and contextualize the information you are providing.
- Leverage social networks: By far the biggest game-changer for communications this decade, recent surveys show that peer-to-peer recommendations hold significantly more influence with audiences than corporate messaging or advertising. Besides a fantastic return-on-investment, social networks have the rare quality of providing measurable outcomes and benefits.
- Maximize your current assets: Many organizations maintain robust Corporate Social Responsibility and community investment programs that carry a fair amount of existing good will. Remember that the most valuable wins will always be won through getting more mileage from current assets rather than creating new ones.
- Start with your employees: It may be a cliché, but when it comes to corporate reputation, your employees really are your greatest assets. Their personal engagement, loyalty and respect for the company can be infectious, and should be harnessed and mobilized into the community.
Ultimately though, the eventual success of any corporate reputation program relies on achieving executive buy-in, demonstrating persistent dedication, and adopting a longer-term perspective.
Taking corporate reputation off life support is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #5 – Process becomes king
