(This is the first story in a series of articles covering effective partnerships between PR and other areas of the company. Is your firm doing things differently with PR as it
relates to the rest of the enterprise? If so, please contact [email protected].)
For years, Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. was known as a manufacturer of automotive parts that rolled right along with nary public relations in the mix. Like many manufacturers
born in the Rust Belt, the company didn't sense much value in PR.
That all changed in 2000 when new chairman-CEO Alexander "Sandy" Cutler came in to pick up on the efforts started by his predecessor to transform the company into a global
diversified industrial manufacturer. Around the same time, Kristen Bihary was recruited to the firm from Shell Chemicals to run corporate communications and Siisi Adu-Gyamfi was
brought in from Cummins Inc. to head up marketing. (As a testament to the company's commitment to change, Eaton didn't even have a VP/marketing before Adu-Gyamfi came aboard.) And
rather than placing PR below the marketing function - the general rule in corporate America - Eaton put PR and marketing on the same organizational level (see chart on page 4).
Four years later, Eaton's partnership between PR and marketing is still a work in progress. But one thing is clear: the relationship is not an either/or proposition where, for
example, most of the responsibility of pushing product lies with marketing and PR comes in at the 11th hour to knock out a press release or PR executes a plan without a net from
marketing. With an endorsement from the C-level, Bihary and Adu-Gyamfi have been working jointly to meet overall business goals. And while media relations still plays an important
part of communications, it takes a backseat to more strategic efforts that can build on Eaton's $8.1 billion in sales in 2003.
"We're more about addressing corporate goals and strategies than promoting products," says Bihary, who has nine people on her PR staff. "What's different about our relationship
is that we're all geared to the Eaton of tomorrow and marketing and communications are creating new ways of operating and new ways of thinking so we're more customer focused
rather than an internally focused organization."
Marketing communications "didn't exist at Eaton [prior to the changes in 2000] because the culture didn't support it," she adds. "Here, we started from scratch and are working
to change the organizational mind-set. This is not just about training classes." Adu-Gyamfi says: "We are joined at the hip. We're focused on key strategies and how to promote
them to customers and shareholders."
Bihary and Adu-Gyamfi work together on several fronts. (See sidebar.) These include maintaining the corporate Web site, which the two reinvented in 2002. Previously, the Web
site, eaton.com, simply ran a laundry list of Eaton's products. "After two levels you didn't know you were on the Eaton site, Adu-Gyamfi says. Now, the site is more "strategic
than a recitation," he says, adding that the site is much more user-friendly to Eaton's 4,000 sales reps who sell product in 51 countries. After two levels you didn't know you
were on the Eaton site." The company also is using the Web site to reinforce its message to Wall Street that it runs the business as an integrated operating company.
The duo also works in concert to improve the communications of Eaton's sales force. Adu-Gyamfi initially supplies the raw content for sales and products and then Bihary creates
tools that are more customer-focused, such as the Eaton Presentation Builder, which enables sales execs to tailor customer presentations instantaneously.
One of the most challenging aspects of the partnership is Eaton's brand tracking research, in which PR plays the lead role. The new research system was created to get a better
handle on how customers in each of Eaton's 15 markets - including electrical power and commercial and military aviation, think about the Eaton brand. The information is then given
to Eaton's Marketing Council to take into account as each marketing VP develops strategies for his or her line of business. "Customer research in the past was product-oriented
rather than brand-oriented," Bihary says.
Another change: working business/growth goals into every communications, whether it's a monthly column from the chairman or a newsletter (both electronic and hard copy) that
promotes the "marketing value cycle" of each product rather than wedding and birth announcements.
Bihary says the changes have improved the company's financials. With the exception of a few dips, Eaton' stock price has climbed steadily in the last year to about $58 from
$43.
Asked if the changes at Eaton could provide an example for other legacy companies grappling with a furious pace of change in communications, Bihary says: "It's a model in terms
of two functions working at the level of corporate strategies and goals. Everything Siisi and I do is in direct support of moving the company where it wants to go. This is not
about the status quo but achieving goals for financial performance."
Eaton's Communications & Marketing Partnerships
- Strategy & communications plan for launch of value-based marketing initiative
- Corporate Web site
- Brand tracking research with customers
- Digital communications vehicles for sales force
Contacts: Kristen Bihary, 216.523.4783, [email protected]; Siisi Adu-Gyamfi, 216.523.4602; [email protected]