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Archives for January 2011

Sainsbury’s Values, CR Reports & the Corporate Website

supermarket-shopping
What is your approach to supermarket shopping?

Some people go in with a list, and stick to it; others prefer to wander around the aisles to see what takes their fancy. For some, the supermarket run is an event, and they try out all the tastings, look for new items, and pick up leaflets; for others, it’s a chore, to be done as quickly as possible. I’m convinced that for a few, it is seen as a challenge: beating your personal best, whether this is time taken to complete your shopping, or price at the checkout.

But how many people pay attention to the corporate messaging which that supermarket run inevitably includes – and, in particular, to the messages about corporate responsibility?

Though we all see these corporate messages, how many of us really notice them? It isn’t always easy to communicate corporate messages in a retail arena, where people are naturally very product focused.

Ben EavisPaul Nixon (CEO at Corporate Eye) recently interviewed Ben Eavis, who heads up Corporate Responsibility (CR) for Sainsbury’s (one of the biggest supermarket chains here in the UK), and I’m delighted to be able to share this interview with you.

It’s fascinating – and wide-ranging, as they cover not only the changes in Sainsbury’s CR reporting, and how that affects the corporate website, but also social media, engaging influential CR bloggers, Fairtrade, the Ethical Trading Initiative, carbon-footprinting for dairy farmers and more…

You’ll also hear Thomas Knorpp, Digital Media Manager at Sainsbury’s, who tweets as @jsainsbury, and who is responsible for the corporate website, talking about how Sainsbury’s are using social media channels. The volume levels on Thomas’ voice were very low, so I’ve amplified those sections, and tried to cut out some of the noise. It’s not perfect, because I’m no sound engineer, but it is well worth listening to.

The references to Lucy? That’s me: coincidentally, in my domestic life, I’m one of the bloggers found by Sainsbury’s blogger outreach programmes.

I’ve broken the interview into smaller chunks, to make it easier for you to listen to the parts you’re most interested in – but the whole interview is also available, so you can listen to Paul and Ben discussing CR while you’re out running, or while you’re warming up those last few mince pies.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it: it’s full of detail about Sainsbury’s approach to corporate responsibility and reporting. Thanks to Ben and Thomas for taking the time to share so much information with us.

Part 1: Communicating Corporate Values

Ben explains how their corporate values fit with Sainsbury’s retail business, and discusses the key communication challenges that supermarkets face and the prioritisation of communication channels.

Surprise point: there are potentially 300 sustainability touch-points for Sainsbury’s to consider. That’s a wide range of CR issues to consider: everything from the amount of salt and sugar in foods, to carbon footprinting, to working with farmers, to the impact on the local communities.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-1.mp3]

Length: 4:45

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 1

Part 2: CR Reporting and the Corporate Website

Just how do you approach integrating your corporate social responsibility reporting and the corporate website? Often the CR section on the corporate site ‘is’ the CR report.

Sainsbury’s have a new approach to reporting: this section of the interview covers CR reporting, the issues around having both a retail and a corporate website, and ways to invite people arriving on the retail site – or on a social media site – back to the CR section to find out more detail.

Surprise point: Sainsbury’s provide their CR report in A6 format – pocket size – and give a copy to all their staff.

Listen for: Thomas explaining how he uses social media to connect the corporate values with the retail products

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-2.mp3]

Length: 5:04

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 2

Part 3: Getting Traffic to the CR Site

Ben talks about how they’ve increased traffic to their corporate CR site by adding interactivity, and by using Facebook, Twitter and their partners and advocates in other organisations to drive traffic. Also discussed: meeting the different needs of different audiences.

Listen for: Ben explaining how the change in frequency and style of CR reporting is boosting web traffic

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-3.mp3]

Length: 5:07

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 3

Part 4: Social Media and CR

Just how much time does social media take? And what about social media governance?

Paul and Ben discuss the benefits and potential difficulties in engaging with social media, building a CR community, identifying influencers and engaging with them both on and offline.

Listen for: Ben talking about the support network around Thomas as he engages in social media, and the significance of the corporate values.

Listen for: Thomas talking about just how much time he spends on social media, and how they spot influencers – not just on retail matters, but on corporate matters too, such as CR.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-4.mp3]

Length: 13:00

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 4

Part 5: CR Issues, Initiatives and the Corporate Website

How does a company select which of the many possible CR issues and initiatives to target?

Paul and Ben talk about the process of identifying the issues that matter most to the corporate stakeholders, and about how to ensure that, once started, initiatives continue to be reported on via the corporate website.

Surprise point: your Nectar card isn’t just for points and targeted vouchers; it’s also used in stakeholder engagement.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-5.mp3]

Length: 4:35

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 5

Part 6: Industry-wide CR Issues and Communication

Retail, like so many other industries, is highly competitive. How should one company react when another in the same industry has a crisis? And what about industry-wide issues?

Listen for: Ben talking about how the corporate value-set can help Sainsbury’s avoid potential issues.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-6.mp3]

Length: 5:27

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 6

Part 7: CR Initiatives and Product Labelling

Paul and Ben talk about how Sainsbury’s helps farmers to become more efficient, by providing them with data about their own farm and about those of their peer group, and why Sainsbury’s believe that translating that kind of information into CR labelling (e.g airmiles, carbon footprint) doesn’t help consumers.

Listen for: Ben talking about working with their supply chain in partnership to address CR concerns.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/sainsburys-part-7.mp3]

Length: 9:00

Download: Sainsbury’s Part 7

Interview in full

The whole interview is available too, and we’ve also provided a transcript for those of you who prefer to read.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/interview-ben-eavis-sainsbury-full.mp3]

Length: 47:30

Download: Sainsbury’s Interview in full

Download transcript: Sainsbury’s Interview transcript

Who were we talking to?

Ben Eavis – Head of Corporate Responsibility, Sainsbury’s

Ben joined Sainsbury’s at the end of 2009 as the Head of Corporate Responsibility and Ethical Trading, to lead Sainsbury’s strategies in these areas. Ben previously worked at Burberry, where he was Director of Corporate Responsibility. Prior to Burberry, Ben worked as Group Social Policy Manager at spirit and wine company Allied Domecq and as the Commercial Manager for Glastonbury Festival. Ben has an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath and a BA honours degree in Geography from Sheffield University.

Thomas Knorpp – Digital Media Manager, Sainsbury’s

As Digital Media Manager at Sainsbury’s, Thomas manages the supermarket’s digital corporate communications strategy, focusing on digital media relations via the Sainsbury’s corporate website as well as blog, social networking and multimedia sharing platforms. Thomas joined Sainsbury’s in March 2010 from AOL, where he most recently headed up corporate communications for AOL Germany. Thomas holds a BA in Media and Cultural Studies from Macquarie University in Sydney and an MA in Media Administration from the Freie Universität Berlin.

CMOs Believe Comments are Most Important Corporate Blog Success Factor

According to research by Blog2Print of Fortune 1000 companies, approximately 1 in 4 companies have corporate blogs.

Respondents revealed that employees within the marketing department are usually charged with writing blog content followed by social media or blogging professionals, but the CEO typically determined the tone used in the blog.  Interestingly, when CMOs in the study were asked what makes a great corporate blog, 46% cited an engaged community who publishes comments on blog posts as the number one factor.  And when asked why they launched a corporate blog for their companies, 50% of surveyed CMOs stated “it’s the cost of doing business today.”

And therein lies the problem. The above findings from the Blog2Print study explain quite clearly why most corporations aren’t getting the results they want from social media marketing and content marketing efforts.

It’s important to remember that the best social media marketing strategies include a variety of branded online destinations where consumers can self-select how they want to engage with a brand.  There is more to social media marketing success than generating a lot of blog comments.  Of course, building relationships should always be one of the top priorities of any social media marketing plan, but blog comments represent a very small part of what makes a successful company blog in terms of building a brand and a business.

Social media marketing efforts cannot operate in silos.  The best social media marketing strategy is a fully integrated strategy, not only between social media initiatives but also with traditional media efforts.

Bottom-line, don’t be tempted to judge your company blog on comments first.  It’s very possible that your audience simply prefers to discuss your content on Twitter, on Facebook, or on another online destination.  The trick is connecting with those people where they already spend time and slowly bringing them back to your own branded online destinations to consume more of your content and deepen relationships with you.  Blogs don’t live on comments alone.  Don’t short-change the potential of your blog to grow and the value it delivers to consumers if you’re not getting hundreds of comments each day.

What do you think are the most important factors that define a great corporate blog?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

You can read more about the Blog2Print study on eMarketer.

Image: stock.xchng

What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 34: Video

I heard a startling statistic the other day; every minute, 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.

When I tracked this down on the YouTube web site, I discovered that not only was the statistic correct, but that 2 billion videos a day are watched on YouTube. I confess to being shocked as I rarely look at a video uploaded to the web. This may be because I spend my day looking at financial web sites and not sites devoted to funny videos about pets. But it did spur me to thinking that perhaps the future of investor web sites should incorporate more video. There is a saying on Wall Street that “You need to feed the ducks” and what the ducks seem to enjoy these days is video.

So I went off in search of finance related videos on investor web sites that went beyond merely running a video camera during the annual meeting or the latest analyst presentation. It was somewhat like hunting for truffles in that I had to nose around a bit (I did not have to use a pig, however), but I managed to come up with a couple of interesting examples.

Dell uses video not only to have their chairman introduce things, but also to feature periodic interviews with management about a variety of topics ranging from quarterly results to business unit strategies.

The videos are usually posted on their investor relations blog, Dell Shares: this is a screen capture of their video featuring a discussion of their storage strategy.

Another company that does a good job with video material is SABMiller, the brewing company. I found that SABMiller had an extensive collection of videos, 147 in all, in the presentations section of their investor site. The subjects of the videos ranged from interim results discussions to interviews with the management team to analysis of the markets for their beers.

In fact, they have so many videos available that they separate them into topic for the viewer to browse, as you can see from the screen shot.

With the technologies and bandwidth available to investor web sites these days, it seems that more companies should be making information available in this manner.

In this series:
Previous post: Management
Next post: Acquisitions and Divestments

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Accounting for Sustainability: Here Be Dragons

Did you ever think you’d hear one Dragon suggesting to another that they should share a bath to save the planet?

I haven’t been to a music festival for – literally – decades, and the first part of this video made me smile: not only because of the apparent incongruity of Dragons and the background setting, but also with nostalgia. Though my thought pattern now was more about the effort that was involved in packing, transporting and unpacking the banners, bunting, mats, carpets, tents, blankets and cushions, delightful though they look… today’s camping style is much more pragmatic.

 

 

Sainsbury’s has announced that it will be the first retailer to fully integrate its corporate responsibility and financial performance in its 2011 annual report. They already issue CR updates with their quarterly reports; this is an interesting next step. Their annual reports come out in early June: one to look out for.

This video was made in support of HRH Prince Charles’ Accounting for Sustainability initiative, which was set up back in 2004: Sainsbury’s worked with Abbott Mead Vickers on the creative idea, and with the team at Accounting for Sustainability to identify the companies to join them on the video.

I thought it entertaining – and very brave of Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis to take on acting roles.

Sustainability accounting does seem to be gaining some traction. A few resources in this area include:

Do watch the video to see dragons as you’ve never seen them before – and to play ‘spot the CEO’ in the second half.

Facebook and LinkedIn Going Public Sooner Rather than Later

Two insightful articles from Reuters this week paint an interesting picture for the top social networking sites.  As the articles explain, LinkedIn could go public in 2011 and Facebook in 2012.

Rumors of the planned IPO for LinkedIn in 2011 come from sources familiar with the company’s recent efforts in securing financial underwriters.  With 85 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site for business people and career-minded individuals.  It’s a focused brand with a great deal of value that is distinctly different from the broader social networking brand of Facebook that boasts over 350 million users.

It was as early as September 2010 when Facebook insiders leaked news of a possible public offering in 2012, but that timeline might speed up if regulators find reasons to require an earlier IPO.

Of course, with a new breed of dot-com IPOs comes reminders of the dot-com bust that happened just over a decade ago.  Will the huge investments and valuations for a brand like Facebook help or hinder other dot-com IPOs?  Is Facebook really worth the $1.5 billion in investments (at $2 million a piece) Goldman Sachs expects to raise in the next year?  Facebook’s valuation is $50 billion.  Is that realistic or is it an inflated number that sets expectations for subsequent IPOs that are completely unrealistic and unsustainable?

As Reuters writer Alexei Oreskovic explains,

“For Facebook, which Bloomberg and others have estimated to have generated $2 billion in revenue last year, the $50 billion valuation means investors have awarded it a multiple of 25 times sales, compared with a nine-times multiple for Google and Amazon.com’s 2.5-times multiple.  In the first nine months of 2010, Facebook generated $1.2 billion in revenue and earned $355 million in net income, according to unaudited financial details released by Goldman to its private wealth clients. Facebook generates $4 per user, compared with Google’s $24 per user and Yahoo’s $8 per user, according to a recent report by JPMorgan.”

Facebook’s value is being marketed as potential over hard numbers.  Since Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited website and the site displaying the most ads, the value of Facebook might just be at the beginning.  Or is it?  Only time will tell.

What do you think?  Are inflated valuations appropriate for dot-com brands like Facebook?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Stock.xchng

What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 33: Introduce Management

One of the catch phrases from the Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was the question “Who are those guys?” asked by Butch to Sundance as they were being relentlessly pursued by lawmen following a train robbery. I bring this up not to prove that I am a fan of old movies (I do admit that I will watch almost anything with either Paul Newman or Robert Redford in it), but rather as a way to think about how shareholders may feel about the people running their company if some efforts are not made regarding management visibility.

Modern corporations are complex organizations and it is understandable that management should feel that it is the entity and not individuals that should garner the attention of investors. And to a degree, I think this is correct, as one does not want to cultivate the cult of the CEO as the be all and end all of the firm. Yet investors are people, and people relate to other people, not a faceless business entity. So some effort should be made to introduce management and the board to investors. Putting a name and face to the people in charge of running the enterprise is a simple thing that companies can do to help humanize the investing process.


Click to enlarge

One very simple approach to this is taken by Associated British Foods.

Accessible from a list of links on the left hand side of their main investor page is a link to “Key management biographies”, which takes you directly to a page, shown right, with the biographies of the Chief Executive, Finance Director and the Board of Directors.

Following the classical economics theory that “More is better”, my personal preference is for companies to show more of the management team than just the chief executive and the finance director. After all, a finance director usually doesn’t know much about marketing or sales.

I find that when companies offer an expanded list of management, they place the listing in a separate section, usually within the “About Us” section and labeled “Our People”. I don’t wish to seem dogmatic about investor pages being the center of the company’s website, so this approach is perfectly acceptable as well.


Click to enlarge

Set out right is an example of an “Our People” page from Marks and Spencer’s web site. Clicking on each individual brings up a short pop-up biography of the member of the management team, and it gives you a good sense of the experience underpinning the management of the company.

As a final thought, I think that a simple link on the investor main page to the Our People section would allow investors to quickly navigate there and to have an expanded list of management, although I have not seen this approach used.

In this series:
Previous post: Governance
Next post: Video