We can recommend readers look at Reputation Constitution, Issues Monitoring and Issues Management in Media Society (published by the University of Zurich). Pleon, the European PR wing of the DDBO advertising agency, is developing a European Centre on Reputation Management with Zurich academics. One Zurich research project on the topic argues that “media-broadcast communications are advancing to become the dominant mechanism of constituting reputation”. It seems to us that that is is too sweeping. Business to business compaies often find that their key stakeholders are not influenced by the broadcast media but by other channels. A firm selling to doctors, or CIOs, for example, would not find that the broadcast media was the dominant mechanism. On the other hand, a PR agency that is aligned to an advertising company should be — other things being equal — better that broadcast media than anything else. So perhaps this is a case of enlightened self-interest?
Duncan Chapple is a leading authority on international analyst relations and maximising the value created by analyst firms. As analyst relations lead at Elisa Industriq, he builds programs that strengthen relationships with industry analysts and sourcing advisors across the company's growing portfolio of automation software brands.