Series of 7: Top Topics from the PROI Gathering of the World’s Leading Independent Agencies:Reputation Management After the Global Economic Meltdown

This is the first in a series of seven blogs highlighting the seven breakout session topics presented at the 2010 PROI annual meeting.  PROI is the largest, oldest and furthest-reaching alliance of independent communications agencies.  The PROI partner office for the Upper Midwest, LaBreche attended the 2010 international meeting in May, which was hosted by its L.A. partner office, mPRm.

 

All PROI agencies, representing the world’s most forward-thinking innovators in the communications industry, participated in a discussion on how reputation management is viewed and managed for companies, as they begin to emerge from the global economic crisis.  Below are the top-ranking insights from these leaders – from Delhi to Copenhagen, Bratislava and NYC.

 

• Research now reveals that the topic of reputation makes it on to the agendas of the meetings of the boards of the world’s largest public companies.  Today’s board members and executives are increasingly concerned about managing their reputations in a new media world, in which every stakeholder has a voice and many are using that voice, after 24 months of decreasing trust in companies, their brands, governments, and world and industry leaders.
• Social networks and the messages they move -- based in truths and untruths – because increasing consternation among leaders, many of which are not yet comfortable adopting, participating in and using networks to proactively engage their stakeholder communities.
• Reputation management processes are becoming more mature, advanced and accepted by companies and their executives.  The best reputation audits, maps and outcomes are measured in tangible values – in languages that can be understood by the CFO.
• As companies move into their next challenge – the fight for talent that is expected to be able to soon act on their desires to change jobs – they will pay more attention to their reputations as employers of choice, and take action to proactively position themselves to compete to retain and attract the human resources a knowledge economy demands.
• Reputation management – a term that first used in the 1980s and never really made it out of the agency’s lexicon – is finally understood by companies, at the highest levels of the organization.  Agencies have seen increases in proactive conversations with clients who want to understand how to manage the perceptions of their companies.  The role agencies now play is connecting what a company does to what it says to lead to what it’s known for.
• CEOs are interested in knowing what stakeholders think about their companies, its leaders, its products, and agencies skilled in reputation management are delivering research that leads to strategic discussions around the current-to-desired path of reputation building.
• Issues management is at the core of reputation work; intelligence mapping and risk management that identifies, monitors, interprets and prompts preventative crisis controls is a given at any well-managed organization.
• Rebuilding credibility will be the mantra for many companies and companies within industries that have taken a beating over the past 24 months. 

 

Next week’s topic:  digital marketing…who owns it?

Old Advice is New Again

I spent part of the holiday break reading over some advice I shared with you one year ago, when we were all facing a very tough year of marketing in a recession. Here's an excerpt from a 12-month-old white paper about how to align your brand's messages to the times... Still seems highly relevant, don't you think?

Only a recession can strip a purchasing decision to its very core. Consumers have nothing to lose if they tell you the truth about your company and brands. In fact, they may be even more motivated to provide substantial input if they believe you’ll use it to make their lives easier by satisfying the basic necessities they have right now – value, return on investment, simple pleasures, reassurance and comfort, safety and health. In the end, consumers want to know that their decision was smart and right for the times.

Spend the time and money to ask them some insightful questions. Assess your recent and current messages. Take a long look at the legacy you’ve built for your brand. Does it – or some of it – speak to today’s concerns and needs? Can your brand, and the products and services it speaks for, speak to the needs of your customers now?

What part of your legacy messaging will be most meaningful today? What messages that may have been relegated to the background of your brand story need to come forward to help carry the torch of the day? What new benefits and attributes can come to the fore because they warrant attention now?

A brand assessment is in order to reprioritize what you have to say with what the customer is ready and willing to hear. Let them tell you what influences them and how you stack up against alternative choices they have in the marketplace. Because you need to use your marketing dollars sparingly and smartly, you will need to refine what your messages are because there is a smaller margin for error. You’ll strengthen your brand’s own voice by listening to what your customers have to say about it.

Always start with a question

What the L? you ask. It’s the LaBreche blog. And it’s all about just what’s going on inside Suite 2020 at our agency. See and hear from our brand communications experts…what they’re thinking and reading, what great things our clients are doing to build their businesses as category leaders, and – most importantly – what’s on your mind. We’ll talk brand strategy, public relations, interactive and design. You’ll see individual blogs from me; our head geek, Jake; and our health care and wellness alliance partner, Pat Kullmann. We promise to earn a spot on your most-visited list by being curious and opinionated, open and authentic.

What the L? is a name that comes from a favorite saying I used while growing up. I haven’t lost my foul mouth, although we’re toning it down here, nor my sense of inquisitiveness, questioning authority for the sake of finding as close to the truth as possible. It’s a phrase that got me in plenty of trouble when I was too young to have such an attitude. But it’s a phrase that has served me well as a counselor who keeps asking the tough questions and rethinking old ways of doing things.

There’s a lot happening right now in business and in our industry that begs the question: What the L? On our blog we’ll explore, question and comment on the communications side of it all. But we can’t do it without you.

Join us.