BM Survey: Role of Purpose and Performance

The current recession is deeply related to a loss of confidence and trust and, in many cases, is negatively impacting corporate reputation. Purpose & Performance in a downturn makes business sense; it helps restore trust, provides focus for business strategy, is a reputation differentiator, and can motivate employees and give them a sense of direction.

To find out more about how companies communicate Purpose and Performance (P&P), Burson-Marsteller conducted a Europe-wide survey of 200 leading corporate executives and opinion-makers in 11 countries. Highlights from the survey were:

  • Purpose and Performance is relevant to all businesses
  • Business reputation is driven mainly by Performance – but Purpose is gaining ground
  • More than 90% see corporate Purpose under increasing scrutiny compared to five years ago
  • CEOs are key to the oversight of P&P
  • 98% say CEOs need to drive a broader sense of Purpose with employees
  • 69% believe that companies that focus on P&P are seen as role models, and even deflect criticism
  • Nearly 3 in 5 see a tension in focusing on both P&P

Purpose is key to both internal and external communications. Employees need to understand, engage and take ownership of this corporate purpose. External stakeholders need to be aware and convinced by it.

“Companies need to ensure that trust and confidence is maintained. External stakeholders will need fact-based evidence that the corporation is serious about its commitments as a corporate citizen, including corporate governance,” said Joanna Corsaro, Head of Burson-Marsteller Geneva and Vice-Chair of the EMEA Corporate Practice.

“This is a difficult exercise, and Burson-Marsteller’s Purpose & Performance Diagnostic Tool can help understand where the corporation stands in the eyes of different stakeholders and where it wants to go in the future.”

Find out more about Burson-Marsteller and their Diagnositc tool >

Melitta

By | March 26th, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments
Read More

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR

Brian Solis, author of PR 2.0 and Deirdre Breakenridge have published a book titled: “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR.”

3072356842_0be8353a6a_m1PR, as we know it, is a dying practice having evolved away from the public and instead concentrating its energy on broadcasting disconnected messages to “media and analysts.”

What we’ve learned and what we know are quickly fading into irrelevance and obscurity. Reporters and analysts are now sharing the stage with a new generation of influencers. In addition to a still relevant process of media relations, we now need to expand our scope of participation and outreach by also identifying, understanding, and engaging the everyday people who have plugged-in to a powerful and democratized online platform for creating and distributing information, insight, and opinions – effectively gaining authority in the process.

The very people we had always wished to reach through traditional channels are now the very people we need to convince and inspire directly in order to remain part of industry-defining and market making conversations. This is a new era of influence and in order to participate, we have to rewire our DNA to stop marketing “at” audiences in order to genuinely and intelligently humanize our story to connect with real people and the online communities they inhabit.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is a critical and mandatory process to shine in today’s social economy. It will help businesses forge meaningful relationships with those who will bridge specific benefits to distinct groups of consumers in order to cultivate a loyal, vocal, and hyper-connected community of customers and influencers.

By | March 23rd, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments
Read More