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October 11, 2007
Be It, Don’t Buy It
Peter Kim and Josh Bernoff hosted me this morning in Chicago at their annual Forrester Consumer Forum. They asked me to speak about corporate image and brand building in the age of social technologies.
My central thesis is that corporations can’t buy reputation or brand loyalty any more. These are earned through performance over the long-term. The dispersion of media; people’s continuous partial attention from a surfeit of daily impressions; and the lack of trust in traditional institutions and leaders are all driving this evolution.
In this changed environment, I believe that PR can adapt as well as, if not faster, than any other communications discipline. PR should stand for Public Relationships, a transparent effort to advocate our client’s position, supported by depth of content, while offering an open place for dialogue and comment. Our aim is to educate when possible, build bridges when necessary, and respect the new market-based conversations always. We should start at the end point--to dream about where we would like our client to be—and then create a dialogue-based communications program to get them there.
We should encourage our clients (disclosure: all companies mentioned in this paragraph are Edelman clients) to take on issues that are central to society’s good, from environment (GE’s Eco-imagination) to living wage (Starbuck’s fair-trade coffee) to female self-image (Dove’s Real Beauty). We can offer bloggers—enthusiast category leaders-- with access to plans and products in beta, and in return, provide clients with invaluable feedback and counsel (Halo 3). We can create communities (Lower Manhattan.info) and establish platforms for employees (Morgan Stanley) because they are among the most credible sources of information about a company. We can facilitate important links between civil society and companies (Chiquita and Rainforest Alliance).
The pyramid of influence, the classic C. Wright Mills description of the power elite where information moves one way from pinnacle to the mass audience below, has been eclipsed. The new reality for communications is the sphere of cross reference, in which information moves unpredictably among equal stakeholders. Conversations now occur spontaneously, in peer-to-peer discussion, with individuals creating their own webs of trust including people like themselves. Our task in PR must be to facilitate and contribute to the discussion in both the controlled vertical axis reaching traditional audiences such as investors, regulators and mainstream media, and on the horizontal axis to inform employees, passionate consumers, NGOs and communities.
Tom Friedman wrote a column in the New York Times on June 27, 2007 called, “The Whole World is Watching,” that “In this transparent world, how you live your life and conduct your business matters more than ever…Companies that get their ‘hows’ wrong won’t be able to clean up their mess by taking a couple of reporters to lunch…But this also creates opportunities…’how’ you keep your promises … build trust…collaborate…lead…that is where companies can now really differentiate themselves.”
PR is simply a reflection of reality, well presented perhaps but based on fact and behavior. My late colleague, Michael Deaver, said that the organizing principle for PR is “Know Who You Are.” Effective communications should evolve, from controlled messaging towards conversational collaboration. We need to acknowledge the dialectic between control and credibility, encouraging our clients to embrace this new construct without fear and with alacrity. By aspiring to big ideas and helping to change the reality not simply the perception, we move along the continuum from Talk to Action.
Here is the link to my presentation.
UPDATED: What attendees are saying:
http://pop-pr.blogspot.com/2007/10/forrester-forum-corporate-image-in-age.html
http://uwehook.blogspot.com/2007/10/future-of-pr.html
Posted by Edelman at October 11, 2007 1:17 PM
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Comments
Thanks for being a part of our event, Richard.
Posted by: Josh Bernoff at October 11, 2007 6:52 PM
Richard,
Great post. I routinely struggle with the expectation that we "spin" things. Guess the fact that Edward Bernays was called "the father of spin" (at least by Larry Tye) puts us in a hole to start. At least we now have social media as a forcing function to help the craft evolve to its rightful place.
Thanks, Scott
Posted by: Scott Bauman at October 17, 2007 10:38 AM
I spoke with Peter tonight about this forum. I am excited about the opportunity to form a mutually beneficial relationship between sponsors, content providers and consumers. As you write, "effective communications should evolve, from controlled messaging towards conversational collaboration."
Thank you for posting your presentation and highlighting some really great takeaways.
Posted by: Amanda Mooney at October 19, 2007 1:39 AM
Bruce,
Thanks for clarification. Love Joni Mitchell too!
Hi from Beijing,
Richard Edelman
Posted by: Richard Edelman at November 2, 2007 1:51 PM