Fairly or unfairly, certain sectors suffer are cast in a bad light. Companies within them are realising that, to turn round public perceptions, they need to look beyond their own business and communicate on behalf of their whole industry. David Benady reports:

Everyone knows that downing large quantities of alcohol can be harmful, scoffing snack foods makes you fat and that banks are probably not the best places to invest your money at the moment. But for companies operating in these sectors, deciding the best way to tackle such negative perceptions is a delicate task. 

There is barely a company operating today which has not got some pressing social or environmental issue which can benefit from a cleverly constructed awareness campaign. “Every industry has a skeleton in the cupboard,” says Mark Hill, a director of The Group, which creates corporate responsibility websites for FTSE 100 companies. “This is an age when companies are being held to account by stakeholders, there are no grey areas any more. Businesses have to show they are good corporate citizens and be seen to be playing their part in society,” he adds.

There is a strong temptation for companies to bury their heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away. It won’t. Far-sighted businesses are tackling these toxic questions head-on. Luckily,the internet provides an effective tool to deal with
the contentious issues. Companies in some of the most controversial sectors are building websites and campaigns which address public concerns and provide a forum for those with a stake in the industry to discuss the solutions.

The Group has created a number of responsibility websites for top companies to help them address the issues that affect their wider business. Hill has recently worked with global brewer SABMiller to create a site promoting responsible beer drinking.
Talkingalcohol.com is aimed at all those with an interest in sensible drinking from the drinkers themselves to doctors, policy makers and academics. It offers information on beer and how to drink sensibly. It showcases speeches by doctors and politicians about the problem. Kristin Wolfe, SABMiller’s head of alcohol policy who is a member of the beer giant’s corporate affairs team - says that discouraging irresponsible drinking is: “The number one sustainable development priority for our business, wherever it is located.”

Talkingalcohol is promoted through search engines, media coverage and marketing messages such as postcards. Crucially, it has been created as part of a long-term commitment to addressing the issue of problem drinking and its success will be measured over years or even decades. One doctor speaking on the site says the problems of persistent and binge drinking and the liver disease and accidents that go with it are growing more severe in the UK compared to other European countries. He goes further, arguing that the crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better. “The end game is pretty simple,” says Wolfe. “It is to get adults to enjoy our beer sensibly.”

One potential drawback for companies pursuing their own responsibility initiatives is that the world can rapidly become awash with campaigns and sites all promoting the same issue but with little joined-up thinking. ere is a plethora of websites on sensible drinking. Launching a company specific site builds brand reputation, but will it clarify or cloud the issue? Is going it alone the most efficient use of resources or would the money be better spent promoting existing websites? Diageo launched its own responsible drinking site in September called DrinkiQ, while industry body The Portman Group has created a site to promote sensible imbibing among drinkers called Drinkaware.co.uk.Portman claims drinkaware.co.uk is “the primary source of sensible drinking information for consumers.”

But SABMiller’s Wolfe plays down the idea that launching yet another site blunts the effectiveness of these campaigns.
“Whether someone reads information on our website,The Drinkaware Trust’s or anywhere else isn’t really important. What
matters is that the information is accurate and balanced and gets people to think about the choices they make,” she says.
Meanwhile, Diageo’s social responsibility manager Rebecca Perry says that its DrinkiQ site will in no way detract from
its support for the Drinkaware website. Diageo - the world’s biggest distiller - promotes drinkaware.co.uk on all its product
packaging and marketing material. While Drinkaware is aimed at the public, Perry explains, DrinkiQ offers resources for educators, parents, law enforcement agencies and retailers. She says it is intended as a global resource to combat alcohol misuse.

US healthcare giant Cigna has made a concerted effort to demystify the health insurance industry, talk to customers in language they understand and give them advice about medical insurance and health matters. The company has also recognised the need for change in the overall health insurance system, which many Americans believe should be radically overhauled. Working with public relations consultancy Doremus,Cigna has created a website called itstimetofeelbetter.com. This offers holistic advice on insurance, health matters and other issues related to health and employment. “We understand that health insurance is complicated and that the system is broken, and  we know we can’t fix it alone,” says Chris Curran, Cigna’s
director of corporate affairs. “It will take the combined efforts of doctors, hospitals, governments and business,” he adds. Cigna is working with other organisations to make it easier for people to deal with the company. He says the impetus to make Cigna more transparent and user-friendly is seen across the business, affecting marketing, communications, sales and provision of services. For instance, the company has introduced transparency into the costs of doctor’s visits and procedures so people know how much these cost before they undertake them. It has also modified much of its language to resonate with the way its users speak. “We the people at Cigna are also consumers of healthcare just like the people we serve. We understand what it is people are looking for and how they like to be spoken to or dealt with,” says Curran. The company has changed “insurance-ese” words calling “providers” simply doctors. It has stopped calling customers “members” instead referring to them as “individuals we serve.” Curran concludes: “There is a lot of weariness with health insurance. We are trying to change that.”

So far, the site has launched in the UK, Ireland and the United States and the aim is to launch over 25 sites globally with 14 of
them in local languages. Clearly, these initiatives are driven in part by fears about greater legal restrictions being placed on the promotion of alcohol. The European Union is asking drinks companies to give evidence showing how they are combating problem drinking while the UK Government has cracked down heavily on alcohol advertising. Global brand owners are worried that other countries may follow suit.

But The Group’s Mark Hill says such considerations are secondary. “Heading off regulation is a side-issue. Most campaigns are rooted in the idea of treating the corporate brand as a strategic asset. It is protected and enhanced through the actions the corporation takes to engage with issues affecting its customers and business,” he says. In this age of corporate social responsibility, the biggest companies act as lightening conductors for controversy. Brand leadership can be a doubled-edge sword. It bestows unrivalled benefits in public recognition, but this can rapidly become a disadvantage when an industry faces criticism. So it is vital for leaders such as Diageo and SABMiller to take steps to assuage public criticisms and show how they are tackling the controversy.

Many companies have followed the tried and tested route of creating an industry-wide response to toxic issues through a trade body or lobby association. But there are many reasons why the trade body route may lack bite. In competitive sectors, companies may be suspicious of sharing information with each other. e bodies often lack funds or credibility and it can appear that the companies involved are hiding behind the trade association to deflect controversy from their individual brands. Above all, companies can reap huge benefits from putting their heads above the parapet and becoming identified as providers of
solutions rather than creators of problems. In the snack food industry, the main players have come under increasing criticism for promoting salty, sugary and fatty products to children and encouraging obesity. This year, they have started a fight-back with the launch of the Change4Life strategy in conjunction with the Department of Health. This features an anti-obesity advertising campaign paid for by the Government but also encourages many of the companies concerned to launch their own anti-obesity drives. PepsiCo will create a star-studded ad campaign to promote healthy living while Kellogg is rechristening its on-pack swimming promotion as Swim4Life.The Change4Life campaign offers the best of both worlds by providing an industry response alongside a chance for individual companies to show how they are part of the solution to obesity.

Healthy living is just one more area where corporate social responsibility has emerged as a growth area. Of course, the most pressing issue for most companies is about reducing carbon emissions and waste. InterContinental Hotels has worked with The Group to launch a website to research how environment innovations are viewed by hotel guests. The site uses an animated illustration of a hotel where people can click on icons to find out about energy saving innovations that are being implemented. For instance, clicking on the bed in a hotel room brings up energy saving suggestions such as not giving guests freshly laundered linen every day. Users can click to rate the idea from one to five and also submit their own thoughts on the idea plus any suggestions. IHG’s senior vicepresident for corporate responsibility David Jerome says competition is increasing in the area of environmental compliance and it is vital for hotel operators to show leadership since many corporate clients are under pressure to reduce environmental impacts. Jerome is wary of sector-wide responses to the problem. “ere is no lack of initiatives across the hotel industry but there is a lack of clarity,” he says. He thinks waiting for the industry to come up with common standards for combating waste and pollution is leaving it too late. “I would rather take the position of being much more pro-active. We are trying to respond to where the consumer is than the latest Government legislation,” he adds.

Over recent years, much corporate responsibility has focused on sustainability and the environment. But in the finance sector,
the banking crisis triggered by last September’s collapse of Lehman Brothers has focused the political and media spotlight on the policies of some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

The banking crisis is still in its infancy. The immediate priority is to fix the problem. But when the dust settles, communications chiefs in the sector will have to work hard to repair the damage done to bank brand reputations and the blame apportioned by the media. This is a high-stakes game as banks fend off calls for full nationalisation. Given that the Government has bought stakes in many of them, there is a question mark over when those stakes will be sold off returning the banks to shareholders. Detoxifying the contentious issues is all part of the public relations battle the banks must win to retain or regain their independence from the state.

While most bank chiefs have gone to ground, Barclays’ chief executive John Varley has emerged as something of an industry spokesman. He has accepted that the banks need to recognise their role in the crisis, but also need to explain how their participation is vital to finding a way out of the gloom. This should do much to bolster Barclays’ own reputation with the public.

Varley appeared on a recent Panorama programme looking at the banking crisis and candidly accepted that millions of people feel
confused about what has happened. “They need somebody to take responsibility and I think it is important that the industry as a whole is prepared to do that,” he said. In the interview, he told the BBC that the focus of the next twelve months would be on finding a remedy for the crisis. “The banks will only have a seat at that table if they are humble and contrite. Risk taking is an important feature of economic growth and the banks have to continue taking risks,” he said. Barclays is
trying to decontaminate the banking industry to ensure its own future independence.

This is just one of the many routes companies can take to de-toxify damaging issues their sectors face. There is nothing like standing up and being counted. Putting a company’s name behind an educational campaign - rather than pursuing a sector
wide response - is a smart brand-building move. It might even help save the world.