Why does Marketing seem to have all the fun with new media? Brand managers get to experiment with flashy Facebook pages and micro-sites to drive product awareness and purchase. Corporate communicators are often relegated to simply Tweeting the company’s latest financial statements.

Not all Communications teams are accepting their fates as the “corporate” voice of the company! We’ve shared solid examples from Deloitte and MoneyGram who are using Facebook to unite global audiences around the company, not just its brands. Likewise, Kraft Foods’ Company Facebook page builds connections with stakeholders by providing updates on news and global initiatives. 

We like the page because it’s working toward two main social media objectives: ‘listening’ and ‘connecting’ with stakeholders worldwide. This strategy is reflected in the design of its landing page, the choice of tabs, and rich global content.

So, what is it that makes the Kraft Foods – Corporate page ‘liked’ by its followers?

1. Defined raison d’être: Kraft Foods uses its corporate Facebook page as a common platform for all company news and global events and to listen and connect with its target audience. This distinguishes it from other Kraft Foods Facebook pages like the Kraft Recipes and Tips page which focuses on North American audiences or the Oreo page for cookie loyalists. Read More »

Some companies seem to have an edge.  Whether their industry is doing well or struggling, they always manage to outperform.  This phenomenon prompts an endless array of business books and consulting-firm studies explaining why.  “Green Companies Do Better,” says A.T. Kearney.  “Corporate integrity” drives superior share performance and employee productivity says our sister program, the Compliance and Ethics Leadership Council.  Numerous studies point to “customer focus” as the key to competitive advantage.

With most of these sources of advantage grounded in corporate identity and culture, it’s no wonder communications professionals work so hard at strengthening the corporate brand.  But what brand attributes matter?  Should all companies try to be known as green, responsible, and customer focused?

In collaboration with our members, the Council has looked at this issue in depth.  Our conclusion: these attributes are very likely good ones, but defining your brand around them is just as likely a losing brand strategy.  Read More »

Last week, I stumbled upon “What Friends Are For,” a post written by a colleague at Iconoculture. The post, shared below, calls into question the value of our online friendships and makes me wonder if a company can ever really be a friend?

Competitors try to beat Facebook by shrinking the Web
By Robert van Alstyne, Editor, Media/Entertainment/Technology

Facebook is great for perusing present-day pictures of old high school friends, but when it comes to providing information that’s truly useful or relevant, the site is shaky at best. As social media evolves, emerging services are expanding the meaning of “friend” to include savvy informants, not just acquaintances.

Twitter now boasts 200 million users and has become the de facto news hub for millions of Americans (Mashable.com, 16 July 2011). The freshly launched Google+ mushroomed to 20 million users in less than a month by allowing consumers to share digital dispatches broken into discrete social groups (Reuters.com, 26 July 2011).

The number of microblogs on Tumblr has tripled in the last six months, reflecting consumers’ preference for interacting within a circle that’s wider than their Facebook network but equally sociable (NPR.org, 15 June 2011). StumbleUpon, a people-powered Web crawler that presents users with customized search results based on webpage rankings of others with similar tastes, actually topped Facebook in US Web traffic in June 2011 (TechZone360.com, 6 July 2011).

Consumers want to untangle relevant insights from the wild and woolly Web, but “personalized” doesn’t always mean personal. Brands concocting modern marketing strategies must think beyond Facebook and move toward the new social-media power players that prize relevance over randomness. Read More »

A friend of mine, seemingly experiencing one of those periodic moments of personal crisis, has decided to participate in a half marathon – and irritatingly, has been trying to drag me down with him. Personally, I’m much happier with what I call a “placebo” gym membership: I don’t go as often as I’d like, but the mere act of paying my monthly fee makes me feel a little bit fitter!

In spite of my increasingly blunt rejections, my resolve against athleticism did weaken briefly, to the extent that I looked up some of the events in which we could participate; my decision against running was finalized, however, when I stumbled across a Nike-sponsored event and realized that it interested me more as a communicator than it did as a runner!  Here’s why:

Company-Centricity

For 5 years, Nike had been organizing an event called ‘Run London’. It’s a 10km run, no different in kind to the various mid-distance races that your friends and family run, in their respective quests for physical fitness. For years, Nike put their name to the event, encouraged individual Londoners to run their race, and no doubt hoped for some kind of heightened awareness around their brand. One would imagine that they get some benefit from sponsoring a race, but it would be difficult to measure (at best), and negligible (at worst).

Stakeholder-Centricity

However, a few years back, Nike tried a vastly different approach. The race stayed the same – 10km, around a set track. But the communication of the race was different. Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

It’s no surprise that companies feel like their image is being pulled in many different directions. Between tougher competition and increasingly demanding customers—just to name a couple—brand values must evolve to keep up with changing business environments.

But after examining and redefining their brand values…many companies are asking themselves, How do we get our employees to really live the brand?

After facing their own corporate identity crisis, Standard Chartered recognized that a key to getting their employees to “live” the new brand values was tapping into the power of their line managers.

Debbie Whitaker, Head of Organizational Change at Standard Chartered, spoke with us about how they execute change by selecting an influential group of managers and providing them with tools and a support system to navigate the process.

CEC members, check out our new online resource, which illustrates how Standard Chartered uses front line managers to drive brand values among employees.  You’ll also hear firsthand from Debbie Whitaker  and read excerpts from our conversation with her.

Related CEC Resources:

Corporate Brand Management Topic Center

Implementation Pack for Standard Chartered’s Brand Values Activation

What’s so damned funny about water, barley, hops and yeast?  Apparently, just about everything.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love an icy cold one as much as the next guy  — and that guy happens to be my old college roommate, Earl.  But when I analyze how the big beverage companies communicate to the world, it’s increasingly apparent that their (not-quite-said-out-loud) message is:

“If you’re a dude, and you wanna have fun — your go-to move is to drain a few racks of [insert billion-dollar beer brand name here].”

Did you watch the Super Bowl this year?  Seemed like half the commercials were for beer, and most of them were designed to appeal to a juvenile, goofball, male sense of humor. True confession: Commercials like that make me laugh.  LMAO.  And if that’s the goal, then…mission accomplished.  I love humor that’s as bawdy, sophomoric, and jejune as it comes.

Problem is:  so does my 17-year old son, and most kids like him.

And therein lies the question:  Who’s the target audience for these commercials?  The big brewing companies will tell you “they are aiming exclusively at adults aged 21+.”  And they’ll also tell you they spend hundreds of millions on their corporate responsibility campaigns.  Hey, I’m not saying they don’t.

But if you spend billions on messaging that encourages behavior that often ends up causing immeasurable human tragedy, then you justify it by spending (let’s be fair and say) one-tenth that amount on messaging that urges caution when engaging in those same behaviors — what does that make you? Read More »

Tom Brady might not have played in this year’s Super Bowl, but we saw some Patriot Games in Sunday’s advertising. Recent CEC research demonstrated the importance of emotional connections in driving advocacy, and at least two dueling Super Bowl advertisers tapped the concerns, pride, and exceptionalism of America to engender such support. Surely patriotism has always been a profitable message but as the economy teeters between growth and gridlock we may be seeing a surge in such sentiments.  Did Sunday offer a lesson to communicators on how to Americanize their messages?  An instant replay follows:

Read More »

On Monday night, Michael Vick put on one of the most incredible individual athletic performances I have ever witnessed – racking up more than 400 yards of offense and six TDs in a record shattering Monday Night Football game for the Philadelphia Eagles.

As a Philly native, I gobbled up hours of post-game commentary lauding Vick as the season MVP and perhaps the game’s best player.  And yet, less than 24 hours later, as I have my professional hat back on, I can’t help but marvel at the equally phenomenal comeback in his reputation following a conviction for horrific crimes centered around dog fighting.

Let’s examine how Vick seems to demonstrate the capacity for well-directed reputation recovery efforts to redefine a media narrative. First some perspective via the always insightful Google News search results as of Tuesday afternoon: Read More »

How does the world’s largest beverage company prevent its 92,800 worldwide employees from engaging in unauthorized interactions with external stakeholders?

They don’t.

How do the proprietors of the “best-known product in the world” ensure that the uncontrollable Wild West of social media won’t be used by employees in ways that could instigate waves of litigation, damage the company’s reputation, or devalue the net worth of its multi-MULTI-billion dollar brand?

With just five words:  Have fun, but be smart.

Recently, I spent some time perusing Coca-Cola’s online social media principles.  For what it’s worth, here’s my review:  Crisp, bubbly and refreshing.

More specifically, here’s the paragraph that jumped out at me…see what you think:

The Company encourages all of its associates to explore and engage in social media communities at a level at which they feel comfortable.  Have fun, but be smart. The best advice is to approach online worlds in the same way we do the physical one — by using sound judgment and common sense, by adhering to the Company’s values , and by following the Code of Business Conduct and all other applicable policies. Read More »

Raise your hand if…you would say that instead of “putting the customer first,” your company actually puts the customer second or even third (behind such goals as chasing profits, serving internal interests and responding to the capricious whims of your executives.)

(SFX:  The sound of zero hands being raised)

Of course, every company in the known universe says “…oh, yes, we are definitely and proudly customer-centric.  Always have been!”  And I’m sure every company sincerely believes they are.

But let’s challenge the truth behind that belief.

Take the following three-question quiz and see if you have to honestly answer YES to any of the questions:

1) Are there a lot of rules and regulations in your customer contracts (fine print, legalese, clearly-spelled-out exceptions for things like “force majure“)?
Whose interests are being served by this tortured language?  Your legal department?  Finance?

Does your company have any clauses to ensure the customer always gets the best end of the bargain, even if it means the company has to take a hit?  (If so, I’m gonna stop blogging immediately, and run over there to sign up!)

2) Does your company measure “net promoter score” (NPS)?
NPS is based on a customer’s willingness to recommend your company, and many companies use this system to measure the overall loyalty of their customers.  Every company wants loyal customers, right?

But has any customer ever said, “I hope that after my transaction with this company, I’ll be willing to recommend them!”?  Companies want loyalty and recommendations.  Customers just want what they want, an interaction that benefits them in some way. Read More »