As VP of public relations during the late 1990s at DSL startup InternetConnect, Sally Stewart wanted the corporate mission statement to do something more, something
different. Basically, she didn't want peoples' eyes to glaze over when they read it.
"When it comes to mission statements, people get all flowery, with words like 'process' and other kinds of formal business language. They 'enable process server integration'
and that sort of thing," says Stewart, author of Media Training 101 and president of S.A. Stewart Communications in Santa Monica, Calif. "It fails to humanize the company,
to give it a human place in the world. It may describe what the company does, but not why it does it."
In today's hyperactive media environment corporate descriptions and mission statements are a way for companies to cut through the clutter. But more often than not, such
statements end up as gobbledygook.
Guess the product here: "Our mission is to represent the interests and aspirations of [product] providers, suppliers and users of all types and to act as the catalyst for
change in the pursuit of standards of excellence in all areas of [product] provision and management." Is it fried bananas? Semiconductors? Britain's public toilets? Find out at http://www.Britloos.co.uk.
Such statements fail in their fundamental business purpose, says Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting Group in East Greenwich, R.I. "The whole goal of the
mission statement is to guide the strategic thrust of the company," he says. "It keeps everyone focused on what is to be accomplished." As the wordsmiths and the framers of ideas,
it is up to the PR pros to steer the business description in the right direction.
When descriptions get muddy or silly, "it is usually because the management team is arguing over different interests and different priorities, and it is up to PR to say:
'Hey, we need to get a point on this arrow,'" Weiss says. "PR needs to speak up in that circumstance."
Vague and mushy corporate descriptors don't happen by chance. They are the direct result of bad processes, adds March Jampole, president of Pittsburgh-based Jampole
Communications. He argues that the usual M.O. for creating a business description - the management team hashing it out for hours around the big oval table - is not the most
effective way to get the job done.
"People will want to wrestle over individual words in these meetings, but that is counter-productive. These people aren't writers," he says. "Besides, these meetings are so
tedious, people get bored and they just start accepting everybody's changes."
Here, again, it is up to PR to set things right by establishing a more straightforward process:
- Talk to stakeholders both internal and external about their perceptions and ambitions for the company.
- Bring that information to the management team and craft a first draft.
- Ask the team for comments and input; then take those comments away. Don't try to fix it at the table. Tweaking the wording is PR's job alone. Incorporate the input, then
bring a new draft back for a thumb's up or down vote.
A good mission statement is not free, or at least it shouldn't be. The communications staff at automated-teller-machine manufacturer Diebold, for example, undertook a
12-month study, conducting more than 300 interviews with Diebold employees, customers and investors throughout the world. "The goal of those interviews was to evaluate the
company's existing brand equity, its opportunity to build a worldwide brand and its vision for the future," says Carrie Ann Kandes, media relations manager of Diebold. While she
can't put a price tag on the effort, travel expenses and the dedication of internal resources represented a significant commitment.
Hire an outside consultant and the price tag only goes up. Weiss notes that a mission statement typically evolves as part of a larger strategic-planning initiative, the costs
of which can easily range from $50,000 to more than $150,000.
Yet distributing the new description can be relatively inexpensive. Some companies incorporate the new language into press releases and most display it on their Web sites,
while the main issues are crafted into talking points for the CEO and other highly visible executives. The cost of all this essentially is included within the overall PR
budget.
One more financial aspect has to do with the message itself and what it says about the company's economic ambitions. While the desire to "be the best" is laudable, it doesn't
pay the bills. "They need to acknowledge the importance of the customer, and the investor," says Ned Barnett of Barnett Marketing Communications in Las Vegas. "They
specifically need to mention profit as a key mission [or] goal."
It's a fine line. The company that presents itself as merely in the business of making profit risks alienating potential clients and employees. Yet fail to mention the profit
motive and a business description will ring hollow or unrealistic.
One way to clear the haze is to craft a statement that puts equal emphasis on the process and the product of a company's labors. "It's the difference between saying 'we serve
our clients' and 'we minimize downtime for our clients,'" says Leslie G. Ungar, president of communications consultancy Electric Impulse (Akron, Ohio). This means the PR
leadership needs to find language that focuses on the value proposition to the end user - the "what" - in addition to the how-and-why.
A good clean example comes from Diebold. "We won't rest until we measurably improve the extent to which our customers' customers are delighted with our self-service and
security solutions and we measurably improve the effectiveness and profitability of our customers' business." There is the value proposition to the end user: Measurable
improvement of satisfaction. There also is the product (self-service and security solutions) and the value proposition for the immediate client, "effectiveness and
profitability."
This captures both the general and the specific. It promises more money and more measurable happiness.
As an added bonus, it offers a succinct tagline, "We Won't Rest," which appears in nearly all of Diebold's communications.
One more description that comes up short? "For our clients -- local, national or global -- our mission is to create superior value. By providing them with the best in
strategic, integrated [product] and effective implementation, we will help them achieve the business results they seek."
The culprit? PR behemoth Burson-Marsteller.
CONTACTS: John Baldoni, 734.995.9992, [email protected]; Ned Barnett, 702.696.1200, [email protected]; Marc Jampole, 412.471.2463, [email protected]; Sally Stewart,
310.828.5414, [email protected]; Alan Weiss, 401.884.2778, [email protected]