Marketing communication: principles and practice

I D E N T I T Y
,
I M A G E
,
A N D R E P U T A T I O N
210
and arrogance. Little was known about Shell’s published business principles and about its
commitment to sustainable development.
Shell decided therefore to enter a dialogue with stakeholder groups to raise awareness
of issues surrounding the energy industry and to present Shell’s point of view as a way of
stimulating debate around the issues. Critical to this process was a policy of open and honest
presentation of facts and the adoption of an adult-to-adult tone of voice. No attempt has
been made to bypass opinion-former audiences by adopting a direct-to-customer approach.
Implementation
The process of engagement started with the publication of the 
Shell Report
– a yearly
investigation of Group performance from an economic, environmental and social perspec-
tive, first published in 1999. The 
Report
– widely acknowledged as best practice in the field
of corporate reporting – is distributed to key stakeholder groups and aims to inform and invite
feedback on issues that impact on Shell’s business and the energy industry in general.
This initiative to promote transparency and accountability was then supported by a
number of other stakeholder engagement initiatives:
•
stakeholder forums
: in a number of key markets between different interest groups and
key Shell personnel
•
press and Internet advertising
: designed to raise the profile of issues and invite open
debate with stakeholders
•
television advertising and proactive media relations
: to provide evidence of positive
Shell action on all the issues
•
a direct mail, insert and database management programme
: designed to ensure
maximum awareness of the whole range of communication tools in the programme
Results
Early tracking of target audience opinions of Shell conducted by the research agency BPRI
indicate that of the fifteen long-term performance metrics identified by the group, five have
already been achieved by the campaign. The remaining ten metrics have all shown
significant improvement.
In brief, overall favourability towards Shell increased by 40 per cent, positive advocacy
increased by 66 per cent and confidence in Shell’s ability to meet the world’s energy needs
in 2050 increased by 40 per cent.
(See www.shell.com)
Note
: 
a
The assistance of Froydis Cameron in providing this summary is gratefully acknowledged

---

based on a review of available published material, on the management
process that led to this decision.
3 How do you distinguish the concepts of identity, image, and reputation?
4 Given that Shell has been working on their corporate identity and
reputation for several years, what benefits seem to have accrued to the
corporation and their customers and other stakeholders?
5 Try to explain the nature of a corporate personality. Why is this
significant for marketing communication?
6 How would you rate your local supermarket’s reputation? At what level
is the main influence on your judgement?
7 Consider the idea that image and reputation may arise for corporation,
product, or person. How does this differ from the concept of brand?
8 It has been said that corporations can do well by doing good. What might
be meant by this?
9 How does marketing communication impact upon brand name?
10 Consider the notion of the marketing communication system enabling
and fostering impressions of both marketer (provider) and marketer
(buyer/consumer). How might this be managed in practice?