Tag: investor relations

New app today helps brands engage individual investors

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Brands that are also public companies have a new tech tool to help them engage individual investors on a more personal level. And it comes from a PR firm in Grand Rapids.

Tiicker is available for download from the Apple App Store today. It is touted as a way for individuals to invest in the brands they love, and to be rewarded for being an investor.

The new tech tool, an innovation for investor relations (IR) professionals, was developed and launched by Lambert, a Grand Rapids public relations firm with a long-time specialty in investor relations. Lambert Founder and CEO Jeff Lambert spoke about Tiicker with PRWeek for its Dashboard newsletter, a bi-weekly offering of articles about emerging communication technology (registration required).

Lambert notes that such direct and personal communication between companies and individual investors have often been set back by legal concerns, but that there is significant potential for marketing and investor relations teams to work together. The app is a method to convert consumers to investors and vice versa.

In fact, there is research that says many investors make stock purchase decisions based on their own consumer experience, or that of personal acquaintances. The consumer loyalty programs of punch cards, apps, email coupons and more have been around for years. Technology now makes this model possible for investors.

There may be multiple upsides to such a technology, including increasing outstanding shares, driving share price, converting day traders to buy and hold investors, and making consumers and investors complementary vs competitive publics to brand managers.

Whatever happens, it will be interesting to watch how this latest form of communication technology affects a specific area of public relations practice.

The Influence of Ads on Investors

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In the context of a law class discussion of the SEC, I was talking to my students about ads and investors. My own research shows that investors look not only at finance tables and “dry” SEC documents, but all manner of PR and advertising tactics when making investing decisions.

That point came up later today when after class I caught up on reading the daily industry trades and blogs. A review of a Dick’s Sporting Goods ad in Adweek caught my eye for different reasons.

(Disclosure: I do own stock in Dick’s and do not have a daughter).

The review talked about the dads and daughters connection, and making sporting goods seem ingrained in family history. But I was thinking about the class discussion and how as an investor in Dick’s this ad was relevant to me for several reasons.

For one, as an investor, I am hoping the ad does well for the company. I am an investor after all. I’d like to see the ad lead to good sales which in turn boosts the stock price.

I also like the ad for the image quality. It makes Dick’s look like a relevant and caring company. (Some might argue it is just another company exploiting a religious holiday, but we’ll save that debate for another post).

The point is, even when ads push product, they affect more than consumers and purchase intent. They affect other publics, company reputation, and ongoing investor relations efforts too.

I think Dick’s scored.

From the Journals–Latest Research on Investor Relations, PR Ethics, PR Law, Communication Management

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From time to time I catch up on reading a batch of academic journals and like to share a quick overview of some of the articles I find most interesting. Many PR practitioners can benefit from being aware of this research but lots of academic publications are hard to access other than through a university library. Here then are some interesting points from recent research. (Citations provided in case you want to seek out the full article for yourself).

Investor Relations:
Matthew W. Ragas, Alexander V. Laskin, (2014) “Mixed-methods: measurement and evaluation among investor relations officers”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 19 (2), pp.166 – 181
The results indicate that IROs strongly (80 percent) believe that mixed-methods (i.e. both quantitative and qualitative methods) should be used to measure the success of investor relations. Mixed-methods advocates place significantly more importance on measurement than IROs that prefer quantitative- or qualitative-only approaches.
Matthew W. Ragas, Alexander V. Laskin, Matthew Brusch, (2014) “Investor relations measurement: an industry survey”, Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 18 (2), pp.176 – 192
Respondents strongly rebuked using share price as a valid measure of investor relations performance. A factor analysis revealed that IROs use four factors to measure program success (listed in order of stated importance): first, international C-suite assessment; second, relationship assessment; third, outreach assessment; and fourth, external assessment. IROs at large-cap companies place significantly more importance on both C-suite assessment and relationship assessment than their peers at small-caps.
Ethics:
Patrick Lee Plaisance (2014) “Virtue in Media: The Moral Psychology of US Exemplars in News and Public Relations,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol 91 (2), pp. 308-325.
This study looks at journalists and public relations professionals who exemplify good moral character and virtue to construct a profile of ethical professionals in these fields. Findings show that they scored higher than peer professionals on the personality traits of extroversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness. As a group they rejected situational or utilitarian ethical reasoning in favor of a moral absolute approach. Overall, an ethical professional can be described as one who places value on concern for others,  professional duty, and proactive social engagement, all of which demonstrate higher order ethical reasoning.
Steve Mackey (2014) “Virtue Ethics, CSR, and ‘Corporate Citizenship’”, Journal of Communication Management, Vol 18(2), 131-145.
Mackey critiques the PR concept of CSR (corporate social responsibility) and corporate citizenship through the ethical theory of Alasdair MacIntyre, who favors the ancient Greek or Aristotelian notion of character as the only foundation for ethics. He criticizes CSR as being done for strategic reasons and personal corporate benefit rather than as an extension of character. He suggests that PR professionals need to respect and respond to existing social norms and democratic discourse rather than trying to influence them. His points are well laid out, however he tends to have a shallow anti-corporate bias and an assumption of the actual intentions of PR practitioners and collective corporate attitudes and reasons for conducting CSR programs. He cites several PR scholars but does not acknowledge that the notions of two-way symmetrical communication or mutual adjustment based on research in fact are the form of practice he encourages. He also rather naively puts forth government and nonprofit institutions as exemplary of the type of social engagement that would be favored from an ethical standpoint, even though human actors in both of those sectors can lead to greed, selfishness, corruption and unethical behavior as well.
Law:

Cayce Myers and Ruthann Lariscy (2014), “Corporate PR in a post-Citizens United World,” Journal of Communication Management, Vol 18 (2), pp. 146-157.
This is a very interesting and helpful historical review of case law that led up to the Citizens United case, which is in the long line of debate about corporate vs. commercial speech and the recognition of corporations as “persons” in terms of speech rights. In addition to the back and forth arguments and decisions of precedent cases at both lower courts and the Supreme Court, the paper identifies the practical impact of Citizens United on PR practice: 1) corporate PR can now legally include political relations; 2) corporate political issues may take on a more nuanced structure; 3) key publics and tactics will change to include voting blocks, special interest groups and others in the political arena; 4) a changing relationship of public relations departments with the press, particularly an added strain because of the increase in opinion journalism or punditry in political issue coverage.
Communication Management:

Catrin Johnson, Vernon D. Miller, and Colange Hamrin (2014) “Conceptualizing Communicative Leadership: A Framework for Analyzing and Developing Leaders’ Communication Competence,” Corporate Communication: An International Journal, Vol 19 (2), pp. 147-165
Since PR is supposed to be a “management” function, this paper is interesting for identifying four essential communication behaviors of leaders as well as eight principles of “communicative leadership,” a Swedish concept. This is a form of leadership that may or may not be evident in CEOs and other managers, thus making the case that part of a PR professionals role is to counsel management on their communicative leadership, not just their communication. A communicative leader is defined in the paper as: “one who engages employees in dialogue, actively shapes and seeks feedback, practices participative decision making, and is perceived as open and involved.”
Andreas Schwarz and Alexander Fritsch (2014), Communicating on Behalf of Global Civil Society: Management and Coordination of Public Relations In International Nongovernmental Organization, Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 26 (2), pp. 161-183.

Most studies of excellent PR management are about corporations, especially in the international context. This paper takes an interesting look at non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and determines that “excellent” NGOs assign more resources to PR and more frequently consider the cultural context in their communication. More specific characteristics of well-managed PR in NGOs include: communications department contributes to strategic planning and decision making, the head of the communications department is part of the senior management team, the communications department reports directly to the most senior manager, and employees from different gender or race have equal opportunities.

Two Books Offer Insights to Investor Relations Pros

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I recently caught up on some reading, and on my stack were two short books about investor relations. Investor relations, or IR, is a growing specialty within the broader public relations field. Some consider IR to be distinct from, rather than part of, PR. That may be why there is a National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) that is separate from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Either way, there has been an increase in the number of communications professionals who work full-time or at least in part in investor relations–and it’s not all about numbers as the books I read show. One book is by a PR practitioner and the other by a PR professor. Both offer a helpful insights about investor relations.

“Managing Investor Relations: Strategies for Effective Communication” by Alexander Laskin gives an interesting history of investor relations, its current practice, and projections about its future. Laskin, a PR professor at Quinnipiac University, does a good job of giving the big picture about the subject.

“Investor Relations: The Art of Communicating Value” by Jeffrey Corbin takes a practitioner’s approach with steps to communicate specifically in the investor relations realm. The practical advice includes breaking down the typical types of investors and what they look for as well as the tactics to reach them.

Both books were a helpful read, confirming some things for me and adding some perspective and savvy in other areas. I have refreshed some lecture notes for the next time I address investor relations.