Fishburn Hedges

30.09.2010

Interesting to see that yesterday’s Wall Street Journal carried a full page ad trumpeting the work that Goldman Sachs has done in raising capital for a clean energy project. Following the battering the company’s reputation has taken during the financial crisis, including being described as a ‘vampire squid’ in Rolling Stone and executives being hauled before Capitol Hill committees, you can understand why they might want to turn things around. 

Trying to deflect attention and show how their business makes a positive contribution to society and the environment is a good start. It’s definitely a campaign to watch – future ads are rumoured to involve business education for women and providing support for small business owners. Again, not a bad idea given the recent class action law suit from a group of female ex-employees, that resulted in media coverage across the world.

But can a series of adverts really change a reputation and paper over the cracks? It’s an easy way of saying what you want to say, but if Goldman Sachs really wants perceptions to change, it is going to have to start communicating with its audiences in a much more interactive way. The company’s reaction to the criticism it has received over recent months has been a mixture of old school media relations and attacks on the media by its controversial head of communications, Lucas van Praag. An attempt to ‘reach out’ to the media with an interview in the UK media was derailed by an ill advised joke from the CEO. There seems to be a distance from general public, no doubt intentional, which fosters a lack of understanding. The concept of listening and responding is at the heart of any good corporate reputation campaign – really showing that you are interested in stakeholder views, understand concerns and trying to address issues where you can. Otherwise, it’s all a bit of a token gesture.

Question is, given that their next round of multi-million dollar bonuses will generate the usual negative media headlines and probably undo any progress, is it really worth bothering with any of this anyway?

Posted by Jo Bradley