Robert Schooling is president for the Americas at APCO Worldwide. He is also chief evangelist for the firm’s Champion Brand. He is this week’s featured guest blogger on PRWeek’s Insider blog. Here’s an excerpt from today’s post.
Corporate brands need to step up. Now is the time to rethink your corporate brand in light of the new expectations and interactions it faces.
Once upon a time, we could categorize stakeholders by their occupations. Today, stakeholders can create themselves by their level of advocacy, and the tools to create that advocacy have become much more democratized and scalable. Individuals can become influencers quickly and with global reach. Their advocacy may be aimed at a particular product, but as often as not, they pierce the corporate veil and go straight to the corporate brand. Why do this? Because people are smart. They understand that products don’t make decisions, companies do; products don’t run afoul of labor standards, companies do; and products don’t have environmental problems, companies do.
Read the full article on PRWeekUS.com.
Leela StakeLeela is a director who helps businesses innovate, collaborate and communicate to be more successful. She’s based in San Francisco, has worked in six Asian countries and is interested in the relationship between long-term business success and community prosperity.
Laura PalantoneLaura is a member of our corporate communications team and is based in New York.
James RobinsonJames is a director who brings ten years of experience working on CR strategy and communications in New York, Beijing, and Jakarta. He looks at how CR is employed as part of broader business strategy and has a particular interest in the evolving role of technology and innovation in managing social and environmental issues.
Julie JackA director in APCO's New York office, Julie works on corporate responsibility with a focus on business strategy and emerging issues and trends. Her currents interests and work focus on sustainable agriculture and supply chain management, the integration of CR and financial communications, and CR in the consumer goods space.
Ellen MignoniEllen is a senior director and helped build APCO’s global corporate responsibility practice. She works primarily with APCO’s corporate clients on business alignment and corporate responsibility, stakeholder engagement and partnership development, and communication and outreach.
It’s time for corporate brands to step up
Corporate brands need to step up. Now is the time to rethink your corporate brand in light of the new expectations and interactions it faces.
Once upon a time, we could categorize stakeholders by their occupations. Today, stakeholders can create themselves by their level of advocacy, and the tools to create that advocacy have become much more democratized and scalable. Individuals can become influencers quickly and with global reach. Their advocacy may be aimed at a particular product, but as often as not, they pierce the corporate veil and go straight to the corporate brand. Why do this? Because people are smart. They understand that products don’t make decisions, companies do; products don’t run afoul of labor standards, companies do; and products don’t have environmental problems, companies do.
Read the full article on PRWeekUS.com.
Catogories Business Alignment/Integration and tagged corporate brands, corproate responsibility, CSR, influence, reputation, stakeholder engagement
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