Public relations that create value

From “creation of publicity” to “creation of value”

Nowadays, new media are appearing one after another, and it is difficult to respond to changes in the environment using
only a conventional public relations approach in which the public relations department responds to all of them and "creates publicity".

Traditionally, public relations/PR departments utilized their secret weapon known as information to accurately grasp the expectations
and concerns of stakeholders, which are the priority targets, anticipate what was coming, and give back to the company.
In the future, it will be more about creating further synergy outside of the company and producing value for companies.
This kind of approach will be indispensable for public relations/PR departments in the future.

From “creation of publicity” to “creation of value”

Today, it is necessary to strengthen public relations activities, come face to face with social issues, and embody new ones
by transitioning to strategic public relations that lead the creation of value.

Why public relations that create value?

Background 1
Shortening the "expiration date" of information and changing the structure of information distribution
The amount of information being disseminated has grown dramatically due to the increase in web news and video sharing sites that provide unlimited amounts of information. Media and devices are also diversifying, and information recipients have 24/7 access to information. With the substantial amount of information available every day, the "expiration date" of information is extremely short, and when a transient topic is shared, it quickly gets buried by other topics.
Furthermore, the structure of information distribution is becoming extremely complicated due to the diversification of media and changes in the ways consumers acquire information through a more active style. In such an era, sincere communication based upon the facts is required to increase the yield of information and gain the sympathy of consumers.
Background 2
Full-scale diffusion of ESG
According to our research, 77.6% of people look at the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) initiatives of a company when considering investing in that company. Indicators that measure economic value such as ROE (return on equity) are obviously important for evaluating corporate value, but in order for a company to continue being evaluated in the medium and long term, diffusion of its non-financial information is also essential.
Social value is becoming increasingly important as a non-financial value that a company should convey.
Background 3
From shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism
The US employers' organization "Business Roundtable" has declared a shift from shareholder-first to stakeholder capitalism.
In our survey in which we asked public relations staff which stakeholder targets they put importance on (multiple answers), "domestic media" fell to 4th place for the first time since our 2014 survey, and "employees and their families," "job hunting students/students," and "local residents" significantly went up in rank. The mission of public relations/PR activities is changing from not only to "create publicity" through the media, but also to create good relationships with important stakeholders.

The focus of the PR/public relations department’s activities is to shift from "creation of publicity" to "creation of value"

In response to changes in the environment surrounding companies, it is essential for companies to shift from the creation of publicity through the media to an approach in which they listen to the voices of important stakeholders and improve corporate value by creating value that builds relationships with society through the dissemination of social and valuable facts from the company.

Facts leading to the dissemination of information that creates value
Social value

Regarding the creation of value, our research institute sees "social value" as the information that a company should disseminate, and defines it as "new value created by taking on the challenge of solving social issues with unique assets, businesses, and philosophies, aiming to achieve both increased corporate value and the sustainable growth of society."

Efforts to extract issues that priority stakeholders sympathize with from the various social issues in the world and realize their solutions lead to the creation of new social value.

Create social value by combining social issues and corporate capabilities to become a company that is attractive to stakeholders

4 solutions for creating social value

In order to create social value, it is necessary to extract issues that important stakeholders sympathize with from the various social issues in the world, and find links with the company's assets and activities or create new activities that will become links.
From here on out, we will introduce the solutions that we can provide to create social value.

Value creation workshops
We hold seminars grounded in case analyses, etc., to deepen the understanding of those involved in public relations that create value. We give lectures to internal staff about the importance of public relations activities that address social issues.
We also hold mini-workshops at the same time to support the involvement of staff in public relations that create value.
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Held for:
Internal staff involved in the creation of value and communication facts from departments related to technology, public relations, promotion (brands), IR, sustainability, CSR, ESG, corporate planning, etc.
Structure (example):
60-minute seminar + 60-minute mini workshop
Example of mini workshop theme:
a) Focused theme analysis on the creation of value
Analysis of focused themes based on the degree of public interest in social issues, corporate ability and facts
b) Public relations strategies 4 step work
A workshop for learning how to use a public relations strategies planning frame
c) Analysis of your company/brand’s appeal
Analysis of your company/brand’s appeal using branding survey data
d) Identifying high-priority public relations activities for your company
Analysis of areas for improvement regarding the company's public relations system using corporate public relations survey data

Workshop slide image

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Appeal branding surveys
Analysis of how facts about the company’s appeal is or is not conveyed to the general public.
We provide a survey comparison analysis report between your company and two benchmark companies (arbitrarily set from 200 surveyed companies), for a total of three companies.
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Overview of the report:
Provides analysis results on the images, etc. of 200 corporate brands surveyed every year at the Corporate communication Strategic studies Institute
Deliverables:
Analysis report (overview) ・Breakdown and ranking of corporate appeal by industry ・Composition ratio of corporate appeal within industry ・Comparison of 3 benchmark companies
Personal appeal, financial appeal, commercial appeal
Information routes that convey appeal
Expected appeal in the future

Report (excerpt)

Comparison of 3 companies in 36 areas of appeal.
You can compare and analyze in detail the difference in appeal between your company and other companies.

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Survey reports on ESG/SDGs
We provide support with the prioritization of social themes that should be addressed in terms of the degree of popularity and expectation from consumers regarding social issues based on the Corporate communication Strategic studies Institute’s general consumer survey data on ESG/SDGs.
Deliverables:
Provision of sensitivity data of general consumers (comparison by gender and age) for specific social issues

Report (excerpt)

Social issue hunting
By narrowing down the social issues to address through media and employee key person interviews, and by determining the direction of information dissemination through social media analysis, we can identify social issues to address through communication and visualize the important issues.
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Survey (1): Narrowing down the themes of social issues to address
Understand stakeholder sensitivity to social issues in more detail through media and in-house key person interview analysis
Survey (2): Determining the direction of information dissemination
Search for ways to disseminate more reachable information by analyzing social media data, etc.
Through (1) and (2) above,
we provide support with formulating a creation of value concept in corporate communication.

Output image

Survey (1)
Interview form content (example)
・ Evaluation of recent trends of your company
・ View on industry trends
・ Future in-house prospects
・ What is expected from your company (or companies of the industry)
・ Social issues that should be addressed with the highest priority
etc.
Survey (2)
Social hunting report (example)
We highlight actual posts and summarize common content and trends. We discover insights from various perspectives.
Mapping of important issues included in the social issue summary report (example)

*We also utilize the data combined SDGs survey results possessed by Corporate communication Strategic studies Institute (within PR Consulting Dentsu) with vital statistics and annual income, etc.


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Three approaches for realizing public relations that create value

Social value is realized only when each company addresses social issues, solves some of them with their abilities, and that fact is communicated to the world.
Our institute has set the key targets for successful public relations that create value and three typical approaches to the targets as follows.


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1st priority target
Pursuit of social value focused on shareholders/investors
2nd priority target
Building of customer engagement for clients
3rd priority target
Practice of Internal Branding ® with employees and their families

Customer engagement and Internal Branding® are defined as follows.
Customer engagement
Activities that develop complex and two-way communication and create new value that leads to good relationships with customers
Internal Branding®
With the belief that employees are the most important assets of a company, we conduct activities to deepen each employee's understanding and sympathy for the corporate philosophy, permeate that towards the business, and create new value.

What they each have in common is that creating facts that each of the priority targets can sympathize with leads to the new creation of value of the company.
We believe that integrated thinking is indispensable for public relations/PR employees in creating facts.
Integrated thinking in public relations/PR is "the ability to plan and produce attractive value based on the facts buried in various areas of the company."
In public relations that create value, the public relations/PR department is required to play an active role as a producer that enhances corporate value under integrated thinking that transcends the boundaries of internal departments and also integrates external resources.
Why 3 approaches? Changing targets


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Social value program I + C + PESO model
Aiming to achieve both improved corporate value and the sustainable growth of society, these are activities that create new value by taking on the challenge of solving social issues with unique assets, businesses, and philosophies.
*Issue + Creative + Paid Earned Shared Owned Media
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(0) Development of a public relations infrastructure
Grasp the current state of public relations ability to practice public relations that create value

■Corporate public relations survey octopus model analysis
■Interview with public relations staff
■ Identifying public relations issues:
(1) Identification of issues
Extract social issues that the company should address
■Five perspectives that identify corporate value and social issues
The stakeholders’ perspective is important.
■Identifying corporate value
Management/in-house interviews
Employee questionnaires, etc.
■Identifying social issues:
Press tone analysis/diet debate analysis
Media/government interviews
Policy/regulatory reform analysis
Social issue extraction AI
Social hunting etc.
(2) Content creation
Create problem-solving facts
■PR perspective consulting case studies,
appeal branding surveys, etc.
that lead to solving social issues
in product development and business development
■Creation of core ideas for communication,
creation of core ideas, planning of PR strategies, etc.
that lead to solving social issues
Personal appeal
Appeal as individuals that compose the company and as a corporation that makes people in their surroundings aware of business activities

・ Leadership (appeal as management, presentation of growth strategy, industry-driving)
・ Honesty, credibility
・ Professional commitment (quality, innovation)
・ Workplace culture (personnel system, corporate culture, work environment)
・ Social issue responsiveness (CSR, environment, CSV, etc.)
・ Identity: Corporate vision, philosophy, culture
Financial appeal
Appeal of excellent management systems and financial performance, and the mechanisms and initiatives that support them

・ Growth strategy
・ Stability/(medium/long-term) profitability
・ Risk & governance response
・ Investment/financial strategy
・ Market dialogue/timely disclosure (financial information, important matters)
・ Social coexistence (culture, region)
Commercial appeal
Appeal transmitted through products and services

・ Solution ability (skilled at solving problems regarding XX, XX times more attractive, etc.)
・ Cost performance
・ Recommendations, trendiness (selling well, hot topics)
・ Empathy (world view, community, etc.)
・ Safety, after-sales service, complaint-handling
・ Originality, innovative (advanced impression)

*This model won the Marketing Society 2017 Best Paper Award.

(3) Communication
Dissemination of information to society using PESO
■Communication planning for delivering content to society ■Promotion and execution of communication plan ■Reputation matrix for measuring communication effects The formula for the Reputation Matrix is "reach x stakeholder reaction", and it is a model for measuring communication effects
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Internal Branding®
Activities that create new value by taking on the challenge of solving social issues with unique assets, businesses, and philosophies, aiming to achieve both improved corporate value and the sustainable growth of society.
*"Internal Branding ®" is a registered trademark of PR Consulting Dentsu Inc.
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(1) Thorough analysis of internal and external feedback
■Thorough analysis of internal feedback
All-employee survey
Key person interviews
Employee group interviews, etc.
■Narrowing down external feedback
Press tone analysis
Media interviews
Business partner interviews
Appeal branding surveys, etc.
■Extraction of communication issues


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Internal branding degree check sheet

(2) Reinforcement/review of vision and philosophy
■ Formulation of communication concepts in line with issues
Employee workshops, etc.
■Employee workshops for creative production that internal and external stakeholders can sympathize with

Quad concept frame

(3) Strengthening of internal communication
■Establishment of an action plan that will improve engagement between the organization and employees in line with the current situation and issues ■Establishment of an external communication plan that will improve employee motivation ■Measurement of internal branding effects
(4) External communication
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Customer engagement
Activities that create new value by taking on the challenge of solving social issues with unique assets, businesses, and philosophies, aiming to achieve both improved corporate value and the sustainable growth of society.
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(1) Customer surveys/analysis
■Customers (including potential customers)
Target surveys
Analysis of customer needs
Analysis of potential customer interests through social listening
Analysis of potential customer needs through general consumer surveys, etc.
■Customer classification
Classification of current customers and potential customers
Customer demographic analysis, etc.


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(2) Story design for enhancing customer engagement
■Building engagement with customers
Consulting on the creation of content and facts that lead to optimal relationships for each customer segment in order to increase engagement between the company and customers
(3) Communication that enhances customer engagement
■Planning and execution of communication plans that reach customers
Practice of communication for delivering content and facts that enhance customer engagement with the company (owned media transmission, fan event design, etc.)
■Measurement of communication effects
Using the reputation matrix, we measure communication effects quantitatively and qualitatively to utilize it for future measures.
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