Page 64 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

Image as a Part of Corporate Strategy 45
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The results? Fombrun provides convincing evidence on how repu-
tation can have a positive impact on growth versus peers in profit
margin, employee morale, community goodwill, investor support,
relationships with vendors and suppliers and overall organizational
pride. He calls it ‘reputational capital’.

Reputations add value over time

Reputations support growth on the way up and also help deflect or
minimize negative events or attacks. Organizations with a good repu-
tation, impeccable history of positive contributions to the community
and leaders who walk the talk in all that they do are given the benefit
of the doubt in negative situations. Their values and history are known
and appreciated. A crisis, then, becomes a one-off situation that its
many publics know the organization will quickly resolve. Stock prices
take minimal hits. Lost sales rebound quickly. The organization
manages the crisis to further demonstrate its core values. New stories
become part of the corporate lore.
Studies over nearly 20 years show that intangible assets such as repu-
tation may well provide companies with a more enduring source of
competitive advantage than its patents and technologies. It speeds
growth on the way up and protects against crises or criticism. But short-
term initiatives or those based on insufficient or misleading informa-
tion don’t work. Achieving the desired position and strong reputation
requires investing in your image over time and providing ongoing
proof of principle – walking the talk.
To quote Charles Fombrun from his book Reputation, ‘achieving
prestige requires a long-term outlook toward building competitive
advantage’. Companies develop winning reputations by both creating
and projecting a set of skills that their constituents recognize as
unique. ‘Achieving uniqueness requires routine actions that demon-
strate credibility and earn the trust of key constituents,’ Fombrun
notes. Studies by Fombrun and others show that the most respected
companies built their reputations by developing practices that inte-
grated economic and social considerations into their competitive
strategies. ‘They not only do things right,’ to quote Fombrun, ‘they do
the right things.’ Their name becomes a valuable asset.