1Building Belief: A New Model for Activating Corporate Character and Authentic Advocacy

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Viewpoint on the future of enterprise communications.

Contents:

•The changing communications landscape.

•An emergent corporate communications model.

•Implications for communications professionals.

There are also diagnostic questions at the end to help companies understand how to begin taking action in light of this emerging model.

Through its research over the past six years, the Arthur W. Page Society has formed a point of view on the future state of corporate communications.

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Digital technology has forever changed the way people and organizations communicate.

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Upwards of a trillion interconnected and intelligent objects and organisms make up what some call the Internet of Things.

Digital communication technologies are proliferating.

•Approximately two billion people are now connected on the Internet.

•By 2015, 80 percent of the global population will have a mobile device.

•In five years, 5.6 billion personal communication devices have been sold.

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Access to low- and no-cost digital technology makes everyone a publisher, broadcaster and networker.

And they are changing the way people communicate.

•We send 2.9 million emails every second.

•We upload 20 hours of video to YouTube every minute.

•We send 50 million tweets a day.

•We spend 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month.

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Never have word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer influence been more ubiquitous or powerful; billions of individuals now have the means to share their experiences, opinions and ideas – and to organize for action – at scale.

These changes are transforming the media landscape…

•No longer do an influential few control the world’s communications channels.

•U.S. newspaper circulation is at its lowest level since 1941.

•In five years, media generated by individuals will overtake paid media – and it is 10 to 15 times more credible than paid.

•75 percent of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertising.

•61 percent trust family and friends and customer reviews over manufacturers, experts or retailers.

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The digital revolution has brought transparency to every move and action of our companies. It has empowered the world – and every individual – to demand authenticity.

…and are profoundly affecting every business.

•Companies cannot remain invisible behind their consumer brands, formal messages or spokespeople; their behavior is becoming central to how they are perceived.

•Messages to one audience can no longer be walled off from those intended for others.

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Prevailing models of corporate communications and marketing are inadequate in this new reality.

How can we sustainably create value in this new reality?

“Propaganda” theory created in 1928 by Edward L. Bernays

“Purchase Funnel,” developed by E. St. Elmo Lewis in 1898

“Precepts of Brand Management” pioneered by Neil McElroy in 1931

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To have a great and lasting reputation or brand, it is necessary – now more than ever – to be a great and lasting company.

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The new model for corporate communications.

Corporate Character

What makes us unique: Our Beliefs

Our Values Our Purpose Our Actions

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What do we mean by corporate character?

““Character is like a tree, Character is like a tree, reputation is like its reputation is like its shadow. The shadow is shadow. The shadow is what we think of it. The what we think of it. The tree is the real thing.”tree is the real thing.”

– – Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln

““Character is like a tree, Character is like a tree, reputation is like its reputation is like its shadow. The shadow is shadow. The shadow is what we think of it. The what we think of it. The tree is the real thing.”tree is the real thing.”

– – Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln

Corporate character refers to the enterprise’s unique identity, its differentiating purpose, mission and values.

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Here are a couple of examples.

“Touching and improving more lives, in more parts of the world,

more completely.”

“Building a Smarter Planet”

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“Products and services for individual mobility.”

“We’re making sustainable living a driver of everything we do.”

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It is no longer sufficient to manage reputations and brands – our external personas – separately from our workforces and cultures.

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Communications professionals should take a leadership role in this work.

•Defining our corporate character.

•Assessing the current expression of our corporate character.

•Activating our corporate character.

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Defining our corporate character.

First, we should initiate and highlight conversations across the enterprise to define or reaffirm our corporate character:

•What is our mission?

•What is our purpose?

•What do we value?

•Are these differentiating, unique, distinct?

The object of our work is not the management of a situation, but of an institution.

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Assessing our character.

Then, we can apply a simple frame to assess whether we are consistently expressing our corporate character through our behavior and actions. These dimensions of corporate character can be seen not just as individual categories, but as a progression, a system:

At the left side of this series – the “Looks Like” dimensions of character – most of the elements are owned by Corporate Communications and Marketing. They include things like the design of publications, websites, signage, advertising – in some cases, even the company’s products.

As we move to “Sounds Like,” many elements and channels are still within our functions’ control – from executive speeches, to advertising copy, to other forms of thought leadership.

But moving across the spectrum, toward the actual performance of the company, requires deeper degrees of collaboration – with Human Resources, Sales, Customer Service, Product Development and beyond.

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Activating our character.

Because our aim is to fully and authentically live our corporate character, communications leaders should take the lead to collaborate with appropriate leaders across our organization to systematically address gaps and deepen strengths.

Continuous examination of our progress through measurement and listening instruments will allow us to systematically close performance gaps between our espoused corporate character and the reality of our behavior and actions.

Actions are the new words in an environment that is ultimately transparent.

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The new model for corporate communications.

Corporate Character

What makes us unique: Our Beliefs

Our Values Our Purpose Our Actions

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It is harnessing the power of peer-to-peer and word-of-mouth advocacy.

Today’s low levels of public trust represent opportunities for game-changing solutions that can lead to greater efficiency and value creation.

What do we mean by advocacy at scale?

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What does it take to create advocacy?

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This virtuous cycle begins with belief.

Beliefs matter. They drive your behavior, habits and choices. Here is a simple example.

“I believebottled water ishealthier thantap water.”

“I believebottled water is bad for the environment.”

“I believetap water ishealthier thanbottled water.”OR OR

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Enabling advocacy requires that we first understand, then act.

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What causes people to believe?

Hearing it from people I trust.

Seeing persuasive evidence.

Experiencing something myself.

Using the full spectrum of paid, owned and earned media at our disposal, we can:

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Enabling advocacy requires that we first understand, then act.

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What causes people to act on their belief?

Teach me how. Show me role models.

Equip me with skills and tools.

We can spur people to act on their belief by:

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Enabling advocacy requires that we first understand, then act.

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What gives people confidence in their action and will transform behavior?

Seeingpeers who are succeeding.

Seeing how they are deriving value and benefit from their decisions.

Receiving positive reinforcement from peer networks.

Specific actions we can take include:

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Enabling advocacy requires that we first understand, then act.

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Why will people advocate on our behalf?

It enhances their identity and reputation.

It is easy for them to share their opinion and experiences with their personal network.

They have adopted a new social norm and joined a new peer group.

We can build and scale advocacy by:

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Ultimately, this means we must go beyond the development of messages, positioning, policy – and become actively engaged in the day-to-day management of the enterprise.

To play this expanded role, we must develop new skills:

IntegratorsThe CCO must integrate skills and responsibilities across the C-suite to make a company think and perform like its corporate character. The CCO can help formulate formulation, develop management systems, identify opportunities and implement insights.

System designersA social media strategy, for example, is inherently cross-enterprise and systemic. It must be designed and optimized like any complex system.

Masters of data analyticsCCOs will need to build the capabilities to understand a broad range of their enterprise’s data, as well as the growing mountain of information produced in social networks – and they will need to be able to do so in real time.

Publishers and developersCCOs can provide facts and evidence, create opportunities for stakeholders to have a personal experience, produce applications that show “how to” and present role models of desired behavior. This can be done through a combination of paid, owned and earned media.

Students of behavioral scienceNow that our job has expanded to include shaping cultures, attitudes and beliefs, we must be skilled in how those dimensions of organizations, societies and individuals are formed and evolve today.

Curators of corporate characterThe CCO must lead the company in establishing and implementing management systems to define and activate corporate character.

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Corporate communications

professionals are uniquely positioned

– and have a historic responsibility –

to lead the defining and activating of

corporate character to enable

advocacy at scale for their

organization.

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AppendixHere are a few diagnostic questions to help determine how to begin adopting this new model.

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Do we have a corporate character (a unique, enduring and differentiating purpose, mission and set of values)?

Q:

I don’t know. Yes, but it hasn’t been codified.

We do, but no one knows about it.

We do, but only a few of us know it.

We do, and it’s well-ingrained and understood.

Rank yourself

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How well do employees understand our company’s character?

Q:

Not at all. Bits and pieces. Broad strokes. They get it. They get it and can articulate it well.

Rank yourself

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How well does our organization consistently enact and express its corporate character?

Q:

Very poorly. Not very well. To a limited degree. Pretty well. Extremely well.

Rank yourself

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How often do we partner with other functions – HR, Sales, Product Development, Customer Support, etc. – to activate our corporate character?

Q:

Not at all. Rarely. Sporadically. Often. All the time.

Rank yourself

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Do we use measurement and listening instruments to provide ongoing feedback and sensing to manage our efforts and track progress?

Q:

Not at all. Rarely. Sporadically. Often. All the time.

Rank yourself

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Do we design our communications strategy and programs to forge beliefs that pertain to our products, services and policies?

Q:

Rank yourself

Not at all. Rarely. Sporadically. Often. All the time.

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Do we design our communications strategy and programs to spur action based on those beliefs?

Q:

Rank yourself

Not at all. Rarely. Sporadically. Often. All the time.

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Do we design our communications strategy and programs to enable advocacy on behalf of our products, brand and policies?

Q:

Rank yourself

Not at all. Rarely. Sporadically. Often. All the time.

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Have we established the capacity to create and distribute “owned media” to individuals through modern channels such as social networks and smart devices?

Q:

We have not begun. We just started. We have momentum. We have made significant progress.

We are world class.

Rank yourself

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Have we engaged the C-suite to establish progressive social media policies, programs and management systems?

Q:

We have not begun. We just started. We have momentum. We have made significant progress.

We have created new policies, programs and

systems.

Rank yourself