Strategic Corporate Postioning

"Greater than the threat of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come."

Victor Hugo
1852

A good strategy is based on an understanding of the environment, corporate objectives, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and the appropriate tactics you need to reach your goals.

How does the community perceive you? How does the market perceive you? Is that perception consistent with the strategic objectives you have defined? We can help you establish communications objectives and build a disciplined strategy.

• Establish goals and objectives
• Identify stakeholders and target audiences
• Select your message and tactics
• Position the right people to successfully manage the strategy
• Implement, evaluate, adapt

Spotlight has extensive experience in public consultations, public opinion research, and government relations. We have affiliates in Ottawa and across the country to bring together the team that can keep your business focused on your bottom line.

Products & Services

"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember, it didn't help the rabbit."

R.E. Shay

Sometimes you just need a little help with a special project, or an extra pair of hands to supplement your communications team. We can help with:

• Annual Reports
• Press conferences and media events
• News releases and media kits
• Meeting and agenda planning
• Writing reports
• Employee and Stakeholder Newsletters
• Speechwriting
• Communications Plans
• Strategic Advice and Counseling
• Government Relations

Whether you need a complete communications strategy or a specific communications task, call us first!

 

Media Training

"What a chief executive says before TV cameras or in print can affect a company's reputation by as much as 50%. Given what is at stake and that there are any number of gleeful bloggers out there to pounce on a verbal misstep, media training has become very important to the corporate world."

"When the CEO is on the record"
Gigi Suhanic, Financial Post
February 12, 2005

Ensure your corporate spokespeople have the skills to get your message to your audience clearly, correctly, and concisely - the first time. The media professionals at Spotlight Strategies will work with individuals or small groups in a full-day session, complete with:

• message development
• on-camera training
• personal coaching

Sessions are conducted by experienced professionals who have run the media gauntlet in New York City, Ottawa, Toronto, Chicago and other major markets.

Community Investment

"The public is merely a multiplied me."

Mark Twain

Companies exist in communities. Communities make buying decisions and investment decisions. They influence decision-makers - whether in government, or amongst special interest pressure groups. They decide whether the best and brightest want to work for you, or your competitor. Are you going to be perceived as the respected pillar of the community, or the bully on the block?

Many corporations are generous in their support of worthwhile community projects, but it is no less philanthropic for the company and the executives to receive appropriate public recognition for their support.

The selection of appropriate causes, the negotiation of the right profile in return, and the leverage of those activities into an enhanced reputation are legitimate benefits of a corporate giving strategy.

• Develop an effective community relations strategy
• Gain "earned media" for your community activities
• Ensure your image within the community matches the one that you want for your company
• Use effective communications strategies to market your message

Crisis Management & Damage Control

"If you don't know where you are going, you're liable to end up somewhere else."

Casey Stengel

Sometimes things go wrong. Or could go wrong. That is when all eyes are watching how you perform. Rapid response is imperative. The scope of media exposure escalates exactly when you have the least time to deal with it. Corporate reputations are defined - and destroyed - in seconds. Are you prepared? Do you have the expertise to react? What you do is only part of the solution. How you explain it to people makes all the difference.

• Pre-emptive crisis communication planning
• Crisis media relations
• Public information
• Controlling negative fallout
• Converting the incident to a positive

A crisis only gets worse if you are not prepared. Stakeholders expect companies to be able to deal with evolving situations. Spotlight can help you establish the right plans in advance and implement them adeptly during an actual crisis.

 

Media Relations

" I seek words that grab the truth and cast it courageously before the crowd, intent always on directness and light, avoiding the dank darkness of delusion."

John Merrill

The media is the single most important means of communicating to most of your audiences, including government, investors, customers and special interest groups. Today's highly fragmented and specialized media with the 24-hour news cycle means your audiences have multiple sources of information, all influential. The response rate to breaking news has never been quicker; and the volume of media has never been greater.

Managing the media professionally is one of your best investments. Spotlight will ensure that your perspective gets covered.

• Media monitoring and analysis
• Experienced, well-connected personnel
• Messaging the media
• Media Positioning
• Press releases, press conferences and other tactics
• Media training and coaching

Government & Stakeholder Advocacy

"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it."

Elbert Hubbard

No one operates a business without the government taking an interest. Understand how to affect government policy. Influence decision-makers and the stakeholders who influence government. Anticipate issues, communicate with legislators and regulators, and when necessary, build coalitions and wage a public debate.

• Monitor issues - never be surprised by the public agenda
• Know how to influence decision-makers
• Plan information campaigns
• Build relationships and coalitions
• Influence legislative action
• Get your perspective heard
• Communicate with governments and stakeholders in both of Canada's official languages
• Manage public consultations
• Mobilize public opinion

Spotlight Strategies has the networks you require to be effective in dealing with all levels of government, whether in Edmonton or Ottawa, or when taking advantage of our unique relationships with Atlantic Canadian provincial governments.

 

Investor Communications

"If you are strong enough, there are no precedents."

F . Scott Fitzgerald

Investor confidence and public trust in a company and its CEO impacts your share price and access to capital with both institutional and retail investors. A precise communications plan targeted to investors, governments, regulatory bodies and the financial media pays a dividend.

• Annual Meetings
• Annual Reports
• Newsletters
• A strategic plan to communicate with shareholders
• Presentations
• Speechwriting

Spotlight can help ensure that your message gets to the market.

Reputation Management

"But it is zero tolerance time in corporate life these days."

Margaret Wente, Globe and Mail
March 8, 2005
On the firing of Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher

Customers and investors heed corporate reputations. Senior executives have become the public face of corporations. Public positioning and media savvy are essential for the success of your business and the satisfaction of your shareholders. An effective reputation management strategy is based on:

• Ensuring your preferred reputation is how people actually think of you or your company
• Enhancing executives' personal reputations
• Raising the profiles of the public faces of your company
• Positioning the corporation
• Conducting research, including polling and focus groups
• Building relationships with stakeholders and governments
• Managing public issues
• Being prepared for crisis management and damage control
• Managing media relations
• Planning community investments strategically
• Building community relationships
• Media Training

Your bottom line is impacted by what people think of you.

The 24-hour global news cycle and the power of the internet have had a profound effect on how businesses communicate with their stakeholders, whether they are shareholders, customers, suppliers, government officials or the marketplace itself. A business no longer has hours or days to react - it has minutes.

CEOs and other senior corporate officials have a new role in the information age. They are the public face of a corporation. Industry stakeholders place them under tremendous scrutiny. Building the profile of key corporate officials is as important as building the reputation of a company. Spotlight understands the importance of your reputation and we can help to protect and enhance that reputation.

Consumers are faced with information overload. The challenge is to stand out, to differentiate itself from the clutter, and to get its precise message into the hands of its target audience.

No business operates without government taking an interest. Spotlight Strategies provides clients with a thorough understanding of how governments operate at all levels, and superior service to build, protect and enhance reputations. Spotlight has a national network of affiliated companies coast to coast to design and implement your advocacy needs.

We maximize your potential by helping you and your company to manage the spotlight.

Spotlight Strategies has launched a new events branch - Events by Spotlight! Visit www.EventsbySpotlight.com for more info!