Corporate Eye

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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

Making the most of outposts: Flickr

If you’re looking into the creation of social media outposts, you shouldn’t forget about Flickr.

People have been pointing out the use of Flickr by major companies since at least 2006. I haven’t found anything earlier than that, though if you know of something, please do let me know (Flickr was launched in 2004).

However, there still aren’t very many of the companies we look at on a regular basis that have a link from their corporate site to their Flickr stream. Even GM, who were using Flickr back in 2006, and which still maintains a Flickr stream, doesn’t seem to link the Flickr outpost to the corporate site, though the Fastlane blog does link to Flickr.

TNT Flickr stream

TNT are one of those that do – with a link from the Media Centre, which is perhaps the most appropriate place, though I can imagine that the Graduate Careers section might also be a possibility. Images of happy new recruits, anyone?

The Media Centre is the obvious place on the corporate site to look for corporate images, and Flickr is not a replacement for an image gallery. However, it is another place where people may come across your branding, and as such shouldn’t be ignored. Why not put good quality photos that support your brand out there?

I notice, though, that the TNT images have copyright restrictions. This means that – unlike the images explicitly made available for download in the image gallery on the corporate website – people would not be able to reuse these images without permission. Perhaps these images are actually copyrighted to the photographer, rather than TNT.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting strategy, and I’m particularly impressed that TNT link to their photostream from the corporate site. I like to see these paths between the outposts and the core …

PwC: getting the best out of bar work

PwC employability
PwC

I love autumn: crisp cool days, bright skies, leaves turning to gold, the start of the academic year (clean paper, sharp pencils) … and the launch of the graduate careers sites.

Yes, its that time again. Among others, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have relaunched their careers site and their blogs.

PwC, who always have interesting features on their site, seem to have restructured their graduate site a bit. Of particular note is the page dedicated to interaction, which offers podcasts, careers events alerts and live chat with a recruiter – virtually instantly, with no booking required. These are all ways to keep potential recruits informed and up to date.

Other great features include lots of detail about their offices, including local house prices, which will be of great interest to people needing to move to a new location, and entertaining short videos examining how the experience gained through the usual kind of student jobs – bar, shop, and restaurant work, charity work and even sports teams – improves employability, and, in particular, how this might translate to working with PwC.

Now, this Employability feature is unusual and I think it has a lot of value – and not only to those considering employment with PwC. It will certainly help with answering some of those tricky interview questions …

Drinks Industry : Accidental Leaders In Sustainability

Alcohol – one of the most damaging drugs ever created by man. Excessive use leads to permanent brain damage and organ failure. Marriages, families and communities are continually torn apart by it.

Last year, the Medical Research Council published a report in The Lancet which took into account not only the physical damage but also the social repercussions of drug misuse.

The report names alcohol as the fifth most damaging drug, behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and black market methadone.

Last month, Alcohol Concern released a report showing that nearly three quarters of UK men drink at least once a week, with up to a quarter indulging in binge drinking. [Read more…] about Drinks Industry : Accidental Leaders In Sustainability

Lessons Learned from the LEGO Miniman

In August, the LEGO miniman turned 30 years old.  Brand icons such as the LEGO miniman have a unique way of ingratiating themselves into popular culture.  Consider Ronald McDonald, the Pillsbury Dough Boy or the Michelin Tire Man.  All of these “spokespeople” have become iconic symbols of brands.  Consumers welcome them into their homes like they’re old friends, and that familiarity and relationship leads to comfort with the brand and the products under the brand umbrella.  The end result of popular iconic characters is brand loyalty and a unique form of relationship branding.

According to a LEGO press release, the LEGO miniman is the second successful iconic symbol of the LEGO brand after the LEGO brick.  We’ve established that a brand icon can be powerful, imagine the combined strength of multiple brand icons!  And when one or more of those icons takes on a personality leading to that aforementioned relationship, then a brand has reached nirvana. [Read more…] about Lessons Learned from the LEGO Miniman

Investor Relations and Main Street

In America, the populist press often likes to refer to Wall Street and Main Street.  Wall Street, of course, referring to all those suit wearing Ivy League graduates who prowl the arcane corridors of finance and insulate themselves from the rest of the world with high walls around their mansions, and Main Street being hard working “normal” people who can’t get a break from Wall Street.  While I doubt most IR professionals would subscribe to that view, it does raise the question, can an IR site be helpful to regular investors?

Investor Relations and Molly Mainstreet

Recently, we discussed how to make IR sites more user friendly for employee shareholders, but how does one go about making an IR site more user friendly for the average person?  The number of people who own stock is higher than it has ever been and it is growing.  So, how can an Investor Relations website target those common “Main Street” folk who are becoming a larger group of shareholders each day?

For Dummies versus Dumbing It Down

For many, the first instinct is to “dumb it down.”  This is a recipe for trouble.  By trying to give an investor just the gist of the information, you risk eliminating pertinent specifics and creating legal and ethical issues.  However, much of the space on an average IR website is taken up by what could be considered technical material.  While a prospectus or annual report is indeed designed precisely to provide information to the public, it can seem overwhelming to investors without a degree in finance.  The beloved, retired, widowed, orphaned, school teacher, is unlikely to find much use out of thick, statistics filled financial statements.  So, how do we reach this audience?

The popular “For Dummies” book series has achieved success by taking one concept and sticking to it religiously, provide the necessary information, but do so in a manner that is friendly, accessible, and straightforward, with minimal use of jargon.  This same concept is the secret to success with the regular investor.  However, the time required to rewrite financially technical materials can be significant, not to mention the need to re-approve everything.  It would be great if there was a source of such material already available.

News, Lots of News

There is one area where some information has already been reduced to a digestible level.  When a company issues a press release, the information cannot be long and unwieldy.  The average reporter would not bother with it, and the affect of the release would be squandered.  So, press releases are, by design, developed as understandable information in an accessible size.  In addition, press releases are also already vetted by the legal and compliance departments before their release, so there is no worry about the information being improper in some way.  In other words, they are the perfect information pieces for our Main Street investor.  Make such news articles and press releases and integrated part of your IR site without pushing them off to the corner where they look like something no one really wants to see and the accessibility issue is already much improved.

Just Talk to Us

The other major focus for dealing with Main Street investors is accessibility.  The image of large companies standing in their towers behind guarded lobbies is a powerful one.  An Investor Relations site can reinforce this image by having contact information buried under various link levels, or silently placed elsewhere on the web site.  To provide the maximum benefit for the common investor, contact information specific to investor relations should be prominently displayed on the IR pages.  This information should include both email addresses (a general catch-all email account is fine) as well as a regular mailing address and if possible a phone number.

Also helpful is the method for ordering standard printed versions of investor related material.  Since many investors may be working from knowledge gained in the world of mutual funds, a similar concept to the prospectus can be a comforting idea to someone branching out into direct stock ownership.  The three lines of text on an IR site stating how and where to order such materials will be of much use to these investors.

Remember, many people are still more comfortable with a phone call than an email, and the number of people who feel better if they have something “in writing” is still significant.  You can reach out to both groups with a nice contact list.

Tate & Lyle Analysts List Makes the Grade

Recently, we covered the SEC’s Interpretive Release in some detail.  One area of concern in that document revolved around companies providing links to third-party information.  The particular example cited by the SEC was a company that provided links to just a few analysts, all of whom had favorable opinions of the company.  The suggested solution to such concerns is to list several analysts without regard to their opinion of the company.

Here we take a look at Tate & Lyle’s list of analysts as displayed on their Investor Relations website.  Such links provide valuable information for investors.  Not only do the links allow investors to quickly find professional analyst coverage of a company, but they also demonstrate to some extent the kind of coverage the company gets from the analyst community.  Thus, the concern of the SEC that someone might see such a list and assume that the two or three analysts listed represent the whole universe of coverage.  So, if a company can provide very beneficial information to investors while at the same time not running afoul of any hint of underhandedness, then we have a winner.

First, the Tate & Lyle page includes a disclaimer at the top of the page frame before the listing of analysts.  This is good positioning as it ensures that any investor who reaches the page should see the disclaimer.  The disclaimer specifically states that Tate & Lyle only provide the links for the investor’s convenience and that the do not warrant the accuracy of the information behind them.  Further, the disclaimer also points out that the list is not comprehensive.  We’ll turn a blind eye to the phrasing, “…nor does it endorse or accept any responsibility whatsoever…”  (Has a court ever ruled that not accepting responsibility is a weaker standard than not accepting any responsibility whatsoever?)

The one concern is the decision to make the disclaimer a light gray text.  While this is standard procedure for disclaimers in general and especially for those in printed text, in the case of IR, it may be better to error on the side of blaring, rather than aesthetically pleasing.  Frankly, it would be preferred if the disclaimer were both in full black color, and a larger font.  In fact, going all the way to bold may even be advisable.

Still, the disclaimer certainly makes the grade.

What about the list?

The list of analysts covers 15 names and companies.  Fifteen names most definitely can be considered a broad list assuming that the 15 were not cherry picked for their positive views.  If there were 20 analysts with coverage and the only five with negative comments were the ones missing, I think we can all see how that would be a flashing red light.

The analysts and companies listed represent a cross section of the biggest names in the investment and analysis world in both Europe, and the U.S.  One can hardly fault a list with these kinds of names.

What is particularly intriguing is that Tate & Lyle has chosen to link analysts via email address.  Many companies that provide a list of analysts fear to link at all.  Even the mighty Google, whose bread and butter are Internet links, chooses to not link to the analysts or even the main page of the companies they work for.  The tactic by Tate & Lyle is an interesting one.  By providing an email link, the IR site is more helpful than a simple list, or even a list with names and addresses as other companies have done.  At the same time, Tate & Lyle does not explicitly link to any information regarding the company, but rather only to information about how to contact people who cover the company.

So, the list gets a passing grade as well.

Best Practices

The Tate & Lyle site provides a solid example of what an analyst coverage page might look like for an IR site.  Using a large list, and a well positioned and well worded disclaimer are the keys to success with this form of investor information.  As an added bonus, it always looks good when your company seems like it is not afraid of the analysts.