Building and Protecting Brand and Reputation

The strategic role of corporate communications
Tony Langham introduces the Forum’s new corporate communications special interest group
The role that corporate communications plays within a financial services organization has never been more crucial. In the too-much-information world, the power of the brand is paramount, and corporate communications professionals are at the forefront of building brands and protecting them from overnight destruction.
Our work rests on getting the messages right and co-ordinating communication with audiences that include government, regulators, intermediaries, media, consumer interest groups, customers, employees and, increasingly, the general public as well. This is a complex task, as a company’s reputation generally rests on what others say about it, and not on what it says about itself. 2006 promises to be a big year for our industry. The FSA initiative on treating customers fairly is intended to change the way the industry behaves – and the way it develops and markets products. The parallel track of financial capability is meant to lead to a more capable and therefore more responsible consumer. As corporate communicators, we have a big role to play in influencing the new environment – and also in educating our own companies.
At the same time, increased media scrutiny puts all of an organization’s activities in the spotlight, and continues to contribute to the decline in trust of financial services brands.
With this in mind, the Forum has launched a corporate communications special interest group (SIG). This will create an independent space in which senior corporate communications, public relations (PR) and media relations professionals can meet their peers in financial services and address the specific issues and challenges facing them. We also intend to cover issues vital to the efficient functioning of a corporate communications department, including the struggle to secure sufficient resources, recruitment and internal credibility.
To read the full article, please download the PDF above.