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(The following post first appeared on My Three Cents, Ken Makovsky’s own blog.)
While m
ore than three in four (77%) financial industry communications and marketing professionals feel their company’s reputation will improve this year, many challenges remain, according to a survey of 150 communications and marketing executives at leading financial institutions, commissioned by Makovsky + Company, and undertaken by Echo Research in February and March of this year.
Chief among the issues they face: negative public perception, which was cited by nearly eight in ten (78%). This is most likely the result of the lingering aftermath of the financial meltdown in 2008, which led to “The Great Recession.” This is borne out by the fact that nearly all of our respondents (96%) said that financial services companies invited negative public perception because of their actions or inactions.
I noted with interest that 74% of those we polled believe that increased regulations of the financial services industry will help their firms improve reputations and trust with customers faster.
This point is both interesting and disturbing. It suggests that their reputations will improve due to external forces (in the form of increased regulation) as opposed to initiatives undertaken by the industry itself and its participants to bolster their reputations.
Should a company’s reputation be left to outside forces? I don’t think so. A company’s reputation is forged by its actions and should flow from its leadership.
Related to this is the fact that the industry and many of the companies in it could be doing a better job, from a public relations standpoint, if they are going to overcome the disease of distrust. In fact, 57% of those polled graded the industry’s public relations efforts as “average,” “below average” or “failing.”
It is at least heartening to note that most respondents believe their departments will grow in importance in the near term.
Ken Makovsky is president of Makovsky & Company and treasurer of the Institute for Public Relations.
(Note: Echo Research completed 150 interviews with personnel responsible for the management and supervision of communications or marketing at large and mid-sized publicly traded and private financial services institutions. The type of companies surveyed included banks, brokerage firms, asset management firms, insurance companies, research and financial technology firms. Respondent titles included manager/supervisor, vice president, director and chief marketing officer. Respondents participated from February 22 through March 1, 2012. The margin of error associated with this level of reporting is +/- 8.0% at a 95% confidence level.)
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Ken, thanks for this research. As I wrote recently on my own blog, there’s a tendency to blame someone, anyone, for the mess, and though the banks share in the responsibility for creating it, the bucket of blame needs to be passed around to a lot of constituencies – government, financial industry regulators, and even ordinary people who bought more house than they really could afford, or opted for a loan that carried unsustainable terms. (this isn’t to excuse criminals who took advantage of the mortgage boom to prey via fraud on elderly or desperately poor people.)
That said, there are times when no amount of classical crisis PR will bring an optimal result. It’s a dirt sandwich, and everybody has to take a bite.
Financial companies bring the firestorm on their own heads when they refuse to see how their actions speak louder than their words — the say-do disconnect harpoons trust, and that’s a big part of why we are where we are.
Thanks again for your post.
I think there are cases where external forces can help firms’ reputation. One case is when an industry is suffering from the bad actions of a few, and only government regulation may force the entire industry to adhere to certain standards. If your survey was representative of the entire industry, I can see how some in the industry who have good reputations may hope that government regulation may force the “bad apples” to behave better, or at least cause the perception among the public.
Also, from an analysis perspective (and not having reviewed the entire survey), just because respondents agree that government regulation may help reputation, I don’t think you can conclude that respondents would agree that only external forces would solve reputational problems. Frankly, as Sean Williams suggests, in an industry with multiple stakeholders and heavily regulated, I think both external and internal factors shape reputation.