The question of which business function ‘owns’ the management of the company brand is a an ongoing one. Is it the CEO? The Executive or Senior Leadership Team? Marketing? Communications? For me, there’s an easy answer: Communications. Minari Shah, formerly of Amazon where she was director of International Owned Content and Channels for APAC, EU, and LATAM, agrees.
“We in communications must be the custodians of a company’s reputation,” she said. “Reputation, a word often used interchangeably with company brand, is complex and multi-layered. For example, reputation encompasses as many as 15 individual stakeholder groups, from customers, shareholders and investors to regulators, activists and employees. Communications is best suited, trained and positioned to take a thoughtful approach to all audiences and all angles.”
To be sure, many functions play significant roles in a company brand. Marketing and Customer Service are critical for myriad reasons including that they are both primary customer touchpoints. The CEO and other members of the C-suite set the overall vision, and the CEO is typically the face and voice of a company. But, for day-to-day brand ownership and stewardship, that should be Communications. Following are three reasons why:
- Reputation is not transactional, the way sales or marketing is. Growing reputation is different from growing customer leads or sales.
- Reputation should be thought of like a mosaic that includes opinions, actions and position on key issues like sustainability, inclusion, and forces impacting the everyday lives and work of stakeholders.
- Trust is a significant underpinning of reputation. Minari and I talked at length about trust, and how she nurtured it at Amazon. “I worked for one of the most customer-centric companies in the world. Our communications were core to the trust in our brand, in large part because of our careful, nuanced and intentional approach.”
Another important consideration is this: Communications often serves as the conscience of a company – essential to creating a brand stakeholders can count on. And when it comes to managing issues—those that come from inside or outside a company, whether business or societal– It is the Communications team that is at the table deciding when and how a company leader should step proactively or reactively, or even when to stay silent.
Communicators have the tools. Here, it is impossible not to consider our careful and judicious use of AI as well as how we leverage its benefits in helping deepen human connection. (Note to reader: For more information here, see my Shifting Sands article from February 5).
“AI is exciting, but I worry that is becoming kind of a buzz word now,” said Minari. “Yes, the data we now have at our fingertips has the potential to transform the way we work.”
The ability of AI to streamline the process and use advanced analytics to deepen our insights faster is a game changer. But Minari also points out that guardrails must still be in place for a company’s AI use in reputation work and feels Communications is the right and maybe the only function to set them.
As companies navigate evolving political landscapes, evolving customer demands, shortening attention spans and opinions that can shift in a heartbeat, now is a good time for Communications teams to be front and center in the work of reputation.
Here are ways to stay in the driver’s seat:
- Be fearless in speaking up
- Prioritize honesty, transparency and integrity
- Be a problem-solver
- Keep in mind tangible and substantial business impact
- Always remembering that ‘people’ are our audience
- Lean into our natural ability to collaborate
Ongoing attention to reputation helps ensure companies don’t disappoint stakeholders. The scale and speed of social media, misinformation and disinformation, together with the potential for a misstep to become amplified, makes falling short a seriously tangible risk that is instantly painful. Companies that consistently deliver what they promise, communicate authentically and with intention, don’t lose sight of what the company stands for and ask nothing of the stakeholders except their attention and their trust mitigate the risks and experience the benefits. For all this and more, to quote the iconic song from the 1984 film, ‘Ghostbusters,” ‘Who You Gonna Call? Communications.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Sandra Stahl has created and led communications solutions for many of the world’s leading pharma, biotech, diagnostic, device and consumer healthcare brands over a 30+ year career. Her skills as a strategist and developer of compelling narratives have enabled organizational-and market- readiness, powered investment, enhanced profiles, amplified landmark data, built reputations and influenced opinion. She is a recognized thought leader regularly published in industry, national and international media, and author of the award-winning book, The Art & Craft of PR (LID 2018). Additionally, Sandra is founding faculty in the PR track in the Branding + Integrated Communications master’s degree program at The City College of New York, now in its 10th year, has delivered lectures at university communications programs around the world including Columbia University in New York and Xavier Institute of Communications in Mumbai, India.
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