24 CORPORATE TRACKING OF IMAGE AND ISSUES

Figure 24.1: What do you see? Look at the figure. I want you to think of the thing in the middle as a company. What do you see? You see the number 13 of course. Think of it as company 13. Note that it is surrounded by companies 17 and 21. Now read on and we will see the relevance of this when we come back to it later. We saw in an earlier chapter that the same person, brand or company can be seen in different ways depending on the frame of reference we bring to it. Image is elusive. Your own image stares you in the face every morning, but do you have in your mind's eye the way you see yourself or the way others see you? Clothes, cosmetics, possessions and reputation can sometimes perform startling transformations of image and completely change the way others perceive us. Image is in the eye of the beholder!

The opponents of corporate image and corporate advertising argue that this is irrelevant for companies; that people buy products, they buy brands, but they don't buy companies. Even if it were true that corporate image has no effect on consumer behavior, how people perceive the company would still be important because a well-known and well-respected company will always enjoy advantages in at least two nonconsumer markets. First, it will attract and retain better quality employees. A well-known and well-respected company is very different from a nonentity. When you are asked where you work, the importance of a corporate image is quickly apparent. If there is an instant recognition of the name and what it stands -258Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 258.

for, the response is very different from a response like: 'Who are they? What do they do? Never heard of them.' Second, corporate image can and does affect the company's stock price. Even the people the company uses in its advertising can influence it. Stock prices often increase when companies sign on a famous celebrity to endorse their brand.1 People do buy companies! At least they buy shares in companies and the price they are prepared to pay for the shares is influenced by the company's profile, image and perceived respectability.2 This is so basic it is difficult to see how it could ever be far from the minds of top management. A company's share price, like any other price, is a subjectively derived valuewhat people are prepared to pay. People pay more for brand-name products than for generics. A Gucci toothbrush is 'worth' more than a Woolworths house brand toothbrush. The physical product may be the same but perceptions of its value can be significantly affected by image. So too can share prices. People perceive more value in, and expect the price to be higher for, something that has a substantial image. This has been very evident in the stock price of the high-flier companies such as Apple, Virgin, Disney, Microsoft, News Limited, Amazon, and eBay. Companies increasingly recognize investors and the stock market as one of their key publics. In recent years it has for example become bene ficial to be seen by the stock market as aiming to be 'green' and socially responsible. Investors know that, increasingly, consumers demand environmental responsibility from the companies they buy from, and

they avoid brands associated with negative impact on the environ ment. Targeting this doesn't necessarily mean using corporate advertising exclusively aimed at investors. GE for example ran an extensive campaign around the theme 'Ecomagination' ostensibly aimed at consumers but which would be expected to impact investors also. Similarly the campaigns for Toyota with its Prius and Ford with its hybrid Escape (that starred Kermit the frog saying 'Maybe it is easy to be green') could be expected to impact buyers of stock as well as buyers of cars. Defense as well as offence Corporate communication plans and corporate image development can be used strategically for both offence and defense. In a protective sense, corporate image is like a condomboth need to be used discreetly. By -259Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 259.

rolling on a strong corporate image and managing it effectively, management can get the prophylactic protection needed to keep out unwanted corporate invaders. A healthy corporate image, along with a strong share price, is what keeps the corporate immune system intact.Private equity companies make a science out of hunting companies with undervalued or undermanaged assets. So top management's attention must be tuned to corporate defense as well as corporate survival. To survive corporately, the management of listed companies needs to keep the share price up and be seen to be effectively managing the company's assets. If the company is undervalued by the stock market compared to the true value of its assets, this invites takeover attention.Corporate raiders target undermanaged companies where changes in strategic direction can dramatically increase the value of the shares. Or they look for companies with high liquidation values relative to their current stock price. If the management of a company is seen to be weak, this can imply to the stock market that the company could be worth more under new management. This too could invite takeover attention. So it is important for the company not only to be well managed but also to be seen to be well managed. Perceived share value is not something traditionally thought of as a marketable entity. But there is no better means of avoiding a takeover than a healthy share price.The most astute companies track the perceptions of their own shareholdersindividual as well as institutional. They realize that it is important to know, week by week, month by month, how they and their management are perceived, what their strengths and weaknesses are. Is the company seen to communicate well with its

shareholders? Is it vulnerable? At what price would shareholders sell out? To what types of communications do they respond best?Forewarned is fore-armed. This type of tracking provides an early warning system of any weakness or vulnerability and forms the basis for managing the corporate image and the corporate communications plan. The basis of image Before you can change or create an image in people's minds you need to know what thoughts and associations are already there. The first step in image research is to find out: Which attributes are important in people's minds with regards to the (product or industry) category? -260Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 260.

Figure 24.2: A Hyundai ad showing the diversity of its products. Which attributes differentiate your company from companies generally?

A key aspect of this is to establish what things people know about, or associate with, your particular brand or company. Research may reveal, for example, that people know you only as a manufacturer of one

product and they are relatively unaware of the much larger scope and size of your company or its product range, or that it competes in many other product categories. In some parts of the world Hyundai is known almost solely for cars. People have very little in the way of associations with the company other than as a car maker. The Hyundai ad featured above shows the company attempting to work on broadening that image by showing the various other products it makes (such as airplanes, ships, etc). When researching people's knowledge and associations in regard to the company you may find that such associations may be blurred, halfformed or even plain wrongbut they exist nevertheless. So the next step is to determine how you want your organization to be seen. Which image attributes does the organization want to have dominate its perception? How does it want people to perceive it? -261Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 261.

The same may be true of an issue that critically impacts on the organization's success. The organization needs to find out the consumer's current perception in order to then be able to 'engage the consumer in a dialogue' and put forward another way of seeing the issue. The timber and oil industries have for years engaged the environmental movement in a dialogue. More recently companies involved in producing genetically engineered foods have done the same thing. The objective is to begin setting the agenda by giving people specific facts about the issue and playing the focal beam of attention on those facts. The starting point is finding out how people currently perceive the company or the critical issue. Attributes like size, credibility, stability, national interest, human, caring, responsible corporate citizen, non-polluter, environmentally conscious are all possible associations that a company might want to position on. In choosing an attribute to position on, organizations need to develop a unique and consistent positioning around that attribute dimension and resist the temptation to chase every other positive dimension to its burrow. Trying to position on more than one or two at a time is fraught with the danger of image diffusiontrying to do everything and accomplishing nothing. Being seen as a good corporate citizen is an increasingly common goal of many companies especially, but not exclusively, those working in environmentally sensitive fields. For

example companies such as BP ('Beyond petroleum') and Toyota ('Aim: zero emissions') have tapped into the energy environment issue. When an organization decides on the image it wants to communicate, and confirms that it can deliver on that image, it should then track public perceptions and closely monitor the effectiveness of its corporate com munications. The image dimension may be of the 'good corporate citizen' type or it may be focused on more pragmatic platforms that address different types of customer concerns. Often it is a matter of keeping people focused on the positive side of what you offer corporatelykeeping the perspective on the 'half full' rather than the 'half empty' aspect. If you don't keep the focus on the positive perspective, the way is left open for your opposition to emphasize the negative. For example, Microsoft is a huge company and being number one can be a positive (see Chapter 4, 'Conformity: the popular thing to do'). But at the same time, people can also think of big companies in terms of abuse of that power. -262Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 262.

Thus lurks a negative in the background potentially open to be exploited by competitors (e.g. the 'Stop giving a bully your lunch money' campaign for Sun OpenOffice software suite from Sun Microsystems). Changing an image There are three elements in an image, whether it is a brand or corporate image: 1. That image is a function of the attributes which are associated with it; 2. The degree of those attributes it is perceived to have; and 3. How important that attribute dimension is in people's minds when they make a decision. What advertising or corporate communications are trying to do is: Move the organization along an attribute dimension e.g. honesty or corporate citizenship; or Add a new attribute dimension to the image e.g. environmentally responsible, financially secure; or Influence the perceived importance of an attribute dimension for the public in evaluating organizations i.e. change the importance that people place on a particular attribute.

By monitoring each of these three elements over time, an organization continuously knows how well groomed it is and this acts as an 'early warning system' for any changes. Image, like grooming, is something that needs continuous attention, not a once-a-year inspection. Tracking the agenda of concerns In this era of environmental concern and corporate responsibility, the 'green' movement has had a real impact on corporate communication philosophy. Some organizations deliberately undertook to keep their heads down. Holed up in the trenches, they hoped that by keeping a low profile they would avoid being targeted by environmentalists. Others took a more proactive approach and mounted specific ad campaigns that took their case to the people. I would argue that whatever approach is taken, there is usually a need to know what is going on outside the trenchesto at least know -263Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 263.

how many people are out there firing at you, and what they are most concerned about. To this end, a number of organizations (corporate, government and industry groups) track what might be called the agenda of concerns among the general public in regard to their particular organization or industry. By asking people what concerns if any they have in regard to organization X (or industry Y) an agenda of concerns is generated. For example, see Table 24.1. Table 24.1: Agenda of concerns Concern % spontaneously mentioning the concern Too big and uncaring 24% Pollutes the environment 12% Poor handling of its industrial relations 8% This agenda is monitored continuously. It changes over time in response to the topicality of the environment, to strikes and to the organization's own news releases and radio and TV

appearances. The important thing about this is that the information allows the organization to detect events that have had a positive or negative impact on people's perceptions and concerns. Furthermore, it allows the detection of these at the earliest possible moment. This is crucial if an organization is going to take a proactive approach to managing corporate com mun i cations and corporate image. Image: you can't leave home without it Image is not something that companies can choose to opt out of. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the human mind. If an organization doesn't effectively communicate the way it sees itself and its beliefs and what it is assoc iated with and what it stands for, then the public will do so for it. The environment will fill the vacuum and allow people to construct their own image of the organ ization based on whatever evidence is around and what things the company seems to be associated with. To illustrate this, take a look at Figure 24.3 below. What do you see? The image changes when its associative context is letters rather than numbers.3 -264Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 264.

Figure 24.3: When the context is changed, the middle figure is now seen as a B. In the middle is the same organization you met at the beginning of this chapter. Do you now see it in a different way? With a few changes to the associative context you now see this company as it sees itself. It is company B. Now with a few changes to the way the company presents itself you see it in its true light as company Bnot to be mistaken for that unlucky organization 13. Summary Note that the two perceptions, the letter B and the number 13, are as different as you can get. Yet it is the same physical stimulus that you were looking at in the beginning of this chapter. What has changed is your perception of itinfluenced purely by its associations, the things that it is paired with. Changes to the way that real companies are seen are not as immediately dramatic but over time can end up just as substantive. There is a lot to be said for a proactive, continuous tracking approach in the management of corporate communications and corporate image.

-265Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com Publication Information: Book Title: Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn'T, and Why. Contributors: Max Sutherland - author. Publisher: Allen & Unwin. Place of Publication: Crows Nest, N.S.W.. Publication Year: 2008. Page Number: 265.