Council of PR Firms to Focus on Nitty Gritty of Corporate Reputation

When the Humane Society of America caught Burlington Coat Factory trimming its parkas with dog fur, not coyote fur as advertised, both Burlington and its supplier, ACME International landed in the headlines. Burlington and ACME found out the hard way the importance of corporate reputation and why the leadership of a company matters.

Fortune magazine this week released its 1998 list of "America's Most Admired Companies," putting the value of managing reputation in the headlines once again. The list is based on the views of more than 12,000 corporate officers, directors and financial analysts who were asked to grade the companies on eight attributes:

• innovativeness;
• quality of management;
• employee talent;
• quality of product/services;
• long term investment value;
• financial soundness;
• social responsibility; and
• use of assets.

Taking it one step further, the Council of Public Relations Firms will begin a project to analyze the reason why the top 10 most admired hold that place of honor, and the part that corporate communcations and PR play in their status. The Council will compare the insights of other audiences to both the results of this year's poll and the criteria used to rank these companies.

"Intangible factors like reputation, brands, employee loyalty, intellectual capital and public trust are becoming increasingly valuable corporate assets," says Jack Bergen, president of the council. "Public relations is the key business tool for building and leveraging those assets."

Public accolades are one way for a company to gauge the effectiveness of its message to employers, investors and the media. Rob Baskin, director of corporate media relations for Coca-Cola, ranked number three in the survey, says a company needs to be consistent in its message to be successful. This isn't simple for Coca-Cola, since it has 200 companies worldwide with PR representatives in each of those countries.

"Public relations can communicate the benefits of working with Coca-Cola system whether its giving them a product at a price they can afford or giving them a good return on an investment," he says. "It's the consistency in the message that counts."

Coca-Cola calls its PR department Global Communications, which takes on issues management, marketing/communications, annual reports, employee communications and community affairs. Although that seems like standard responsibility for a corporate PR department, Southwest Airline's Ed Stewart says the secret to his company's PR success lies in its simplicity.

"Our PR is really media relations and we're ultimately responsible for anything to do with journalists," says Stewart, director of PR says. "We deal with no human beings - you have to be a reporter to talk to us."

What brings Southwest Airlines, which ranked six in Fortune's survey, such admiration? Stewart thinks a credible company is an admired one. "We aim to be a credible and reliable source for journalists," he says.

Study results will be released March 15. (Bergen, 877/773-4161, http://www.prfirms.org)