Category Archives: Talking to your customers

Corporate citizenship – fact or phoney?

Talking to your customers

Actions speak louder than words they say. Quite so! And while I might not want to overplay that particular saying (I do after all make my living from words), there is no area like corporate citizenship (or corporate social responsibility) that can highlight the seemingly contradictory nature between what a company says it will do and what it actually does.

For instance, I recently received a new piece of audio visual equipment (a dictaphone if you must know). Having broken into the virtually impenetrable plastic sarcophagus shielding the dictaphone from any passing radioactive storm, I was pleased to see that the manufacturer had been thoughtful enough to include printed instructions in English. Unfortunately they had also seen fit to print out and enclose the instructions in at least eighteen other languages in separate brochures.

Turning to their website, I see they’re aiming to have a zero environmental footprint. Great words, but their packaging says something far more revealing about their approach than any expensively produced CSR report.

Thought leadership

Talking to your customers

…is one of those phrases regularly bandied about in the communications world (guilty as charged).

“We need some thought leadership,” they cry and they are right. Any business wanting to put some space between themselves and the competition needs to demonstrate that there is more going on between their ears than between those of their competitors. Otherwise, and this is particularly the case when you’re selling the quality of your people as opposed to an actual product, why should someone buy from you rather than the firm down the road offering the same service?

But strip out the cringe making jargon and what does thought leadership actually mean?

Now there’s a thought
Well, you simply want to demonstrate to your clients and potential clients that all the marketing blurb about your creativity and innovative thinking is more than just words. You want to show them that you can have an original thought.

Why not research a particular area of your business, discuss the key trends, include some original thinking, package it up in a report or white paper and, hey presto, you’ve just sent your clients something that doesn’t tell them how good you are, it shows them.

And the great thing about thought leadership is, it’s free. It’s not like buying advertising space or sponsoring the World Cup. There’s no tax on thinking and if your people are as good as your marketing claims, there’s a willing supply of raw material and ideas just waiting to get out.

Don’t get drowned out by your own sound bite

Talking to your customers, Working with the media

Here’s a fun exercise. Grab your morning paper and see how many pre-manufactured sound bites you can spot.

The modern media is, it seems, obsessed by the sound bite or how you can encapsulate your message in something that is memorable and impactful. It’s the elevator pitch for your story and any media trainer will focus on developing sound bites as a key technique.

Bitten back
Beware though of sound bite overkill. When does your sound bite simply become a cliché? Google ‘perfect storm’ in the news coverage for instance and you’ll see what I mean. In the last few days, perfect storm has been used by companies to describe anything from climate change, the economy, hay fever, the manufacturing of green cars, and even a company talking about a ‘perfect storm of propane’.

If you’ve heard that sound bite you’re planning to use more than a few times in the media think about injecting some originality and come up with your own ‘perfect storm’.

Be authentic in your communications…we can all spot a phoney

Talking to your customers, Talking to your employees

With the party political machines in full flow ahead of this year’s general election, phoney spotting takes on new heights as politicians cajole and persuade in a bid to win our votes in any way they think appeals to the voter. The trouble is of course in the rush to jump on the new media bandwagon, many are tempted to communicate in a way that looks anything but authentic.

I’m reminded of Gordon Brown’s ill fated journey into the world of You Tube in the depths of the expenses scandal. It makes for embarrassing watching. The trouble is, trying to shoe horn a personality like Brown’s into a vehicle like You Tube is a bit like watching your dad dance.   

It doesn’t work. The result? An uncomfortable looking Brown. The message gets lost. The public don’t believe him and we’re back where we started but with even less credibility than before.

Choose your stage
The lesson the corporate world can learn is the need to balance the increasing number of stages where you can play out your corporate message with that of credibility and authenticity. If you put your Chief Exec on You Tube, you’d better make sure that for him/her it’s a comfortable place to be. If not, why do it? It doesn’t mean of course that you can’t experiment and be creative in the use of new media, but don’t do it just to jump onto the latest social media bandwagon.

People, your employees, your clients, your stakeholders want authenticity. If it feels uncomfortable then you can bet it will look uncomfortable and no one likes a phoney.