Earning Public Understanding and Acceptance
Customers, employees, and suppliers all want to work with a reputable company: A positive reputation makes it easier to hire and retain employees. It provides access to quality suppliers. And, perhaps most importantly, it helps open doors to high profile customers.
Like trust, reputation is sometimes hard to earn; it's important to maintain, and it can be very hard to recover once it falters.
A Knowlton/Yankelovich Partners study found three primary elements determine a corporate reputation: Perceived quality of the company's products and services; Perceived trustworthiness of the company; and Perceived competency of company management.
To shepherd a company's reputation, consider an effective public relations (PR) program to communicate with key audiences, including:
> Financial Relations— focused on stockholders, brokers, analysts, and the financial press
> Public Affairs/Community Relations— to reach government agencies, lobbyists, associations, nonprofits, educators, and community leaders
> Internal Communications—for employees and related business units
> Crisis Communications—communicating in an emergency
> Media Relations—communicating with and through the media
When beginning a PR program, dedicate someone to stay in touch with trendsetters shaping your industry. And, although only a few people may be official company spokespeople, everyone should act as ambassadors, representing the brand and contributing to its reputation.
— Heather West, owner, HWPR, heatherwest@earthlink.net