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Against society's growing anti-business sentiment, corporations are failing to capitalize on, and properly promote and publicize, the many good things they do as a by-product of their main goals of survival and making profits.
What are the good things?
employment
Millions of small businesses provide employment for millions of workers, medium-sized companies employ hundreds of workers each and large corporations each employ thousands, tens of thousands or even millions of workers. Yet the public is mainly made aware only of how many workers are being laid-off, downsized or outsourced. Why? Because the media tends to report the "bad" news; "good" news is not often considered news. When was the last time you heard or read or saw the news reporting that such-and-such company hired X number of new workers or didn't lay off or downsize or outsource their workforce?
Corporations need to publicize the number of workers they DO currently employ.
corporate giving
Punctuated by billion-dollar big business scandals, the public's prevailing image of corporations, especially big business, is one of greed, fraud and worker exploitation. Uncaring of anything other than maximizing profits. In truth, corporations and top business executives give many millions of dollars each year to local and national charities, support the arts, support many worthy causes and donate time and effort to their communities. These good works are rarely featured by the corporation and all too often are relegated to minor public relations efforts, short press releases, back-page corporate communication blurbs and unheralded website announcements buried where no one sees them. This is often due to a lack of strong senior executive or CEO support and direction.
Corporations need to better publicize their generosity and giving.
benefit to society
What does your company really do? Beyond providing goods and/or services in exchange for making profits what overall valuable real benefit do people derive from doing business with you? What is the tangible or intangible benefit to society? Do your products or services help people? If so, how? How is your company compassionately enriching people's lives, enriching the community in which they live, enriching society? A mission statement is not enough. Your mission statement may appear to properly put forth the goals of your organization but most mission statements are horribly "corporate" and lack compassion.
Corporations need to create and use a new type of corporate statement. A more humanized, more compassionate statement, possibly called something like, "How We Are Helping".
How to be perceived as a compassionate corporation
1. publicize the number of workers you DO currently employ
2. publicize your corporate generosity and giving
3. create a corporate How We Are Helping statement
These are 3 simple, easy and fast actions which can be taken, utilizing your public relations, advertising and corporate communications, to help promote the image of your company as a compassionate corporation.
Try them and reap the rewards!
Andrew Lawrence Salad is a Los Angeles based private consultant. Through his creation of a customized How We Are Helping statement he helps companies, advertising agencies and PR firms utilize compassion potential. Email: andls@aol.com
© 2004 Andrew Salad This article may be reprinted free-of-charge by online publishers provided it is published in its entirety, including author resource box
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