The digital landscape within corporate communications is an interesting place right now. With more and more sites being designed to a higher standard, providing more and more content, with bells, whistles and a few interactive cherries on top, I find myself wondering whether the important messages are being lost.
How does a company stand out? Does it really come down to who has the highest share price? If so, then why not just have a site with a huge share price on it and nothing else? You could even compare it to other companies share prices to show how much better your company is doing when compared to everyone else’s...Oh, but we already have one of those don't we. It's called the FTSE 100.
A share price on the homepage? Great when a company is doing well, but when things go wrong and the share price falls it causes panic and the first thing an investor sees is their investment going down the toilet rather than any kind of communication around how the company are going to resolve the challenges they are facing and why you as an investor shouldn’t take your hard earned money elsewhere.
With such a focus solely on a clients return via highlighting results, profitability and share prices, are they not setting themselves up for a fall?
As we have seen with BP, all it takes is for something to go horribly wrong and investors start selling their shares faster than the ipads “sold out” on the Secret Sales website a few weeks ago (But that’s another story!). Where is the brand loyalty? Is there such a thing within the Investor community? This got me thinking...
An investor is still a person, they will have brand preferences when choosing their clothes, their car, their watch, even when they buy their sofa. So, why not the companies they invest in? Are consumers and investors so different?
We must try harder. Not every company is Apple, or should that be Steve Jobs.
I believe that communicating with investors when attempting to convince them to invest should be based on the same principles as when they are promoting their brand to everyone else. After all, investors are also consumers; consumers companies have to answer to. It is for this reason I believe the brand message to be just as important when reaching out to investors, employees and the wider audience.
They need to buy into a company, its brand, strategy and aspirations. To understand that, it’s going to take time to achieve all of its goals. To care about the company, to believe in what it stands for and focus less on short term returns and more on its potential and the direction it is heading in. This will of course take time, as this is the way it has been for a long time.
Therefore, the message I believe we should be trying to convey is not "why you should invest in us", but "why you should believe in us".
There are some agencies out there that seem to have started thinking around this. The question is, are these agencies actually asking these questions and providing answers or is it just something they say to win the work, with the output being nothing more than a website designed to a higher standard, providing more and more of the same old content?
Just a thought
Leon
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