Why lived values are becoming a key resource for corporate communication
Communicating your own brand is becoming increasingly difficult to control. Today, people are quicker to recognize the attitudes behind statements and actions - they distinguish between substance and mere marketing. Nevertheless, it remains essential to make communication with the various stakeholder groups plannable and controllable.
In our book "Attitude, Substance, Integrity", we show why traditional PR is losing its impact in times of digital hyper-transparency and how companies can instead convince through authenticity, independence and value-based action. It's not just about the question of how to communicate, but above all about how credible this communication actually is - in other words, how well attitude, substance and integrity are combined. We question common purpose approaches and discuss with renowned thought leaders and practitioners from business, design and research how companies can live and communicate real values - beyond superficial sustainability promises and confusing stereotypes. Using numerous examples and success stories, we will show how holistic corporate and value communication can work.
Credibility comes from consistent action
This includes a new understanding of corporate identity that focuses on dialog and participation. Credibility is not created through fine words, but through comprehensible, consistent actions - and, this is the crucial point, through products and services that create meaning and benefits and respond to the needs and values of stakeholders in order to create realistic and tangible shared values.
Reputation is not created through image cultivation, but is the natural consequence of a lived and pragmatic attitude. This is why companies must learn to listen to their stakeholders in a new way - in order to combine shared values with their own strengths and ability to innovate.
However, this also means that anyone who wants to position themselves credibly in the face of change must see communication as a strategic element: no longer as a mere mouthpiece, but as an empathetic, responsive and authentic mediator of what drives a company at its core, and convey how change can be harmonized with a company's very own values.
Values in times of change
Attitudes do not have to be rigid - on the contrary: they should be soft and flexible enough to be able to evolve in change processes without giving up their unwavering basic orientation, because it is precisely in times of upheaval that it becomes clear whether a company is able to uphold its values even under pressure and find dialectical solutions that can combine and reconcile the goals of the stakeholders and the values of the company. In this way, communication becomes a sounding board for social expectations. In the future, however, companies that take a stance and adopt a position in this way will increasingly be required to make their decisions comprehensible to those whose expectations are not met, even in dilemmas.
On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly important to combine technological possibilities in communication with emotional intelligence in order to find a credible balance. Companies must have the courage to recognize their own contradictions and weigh them against the values of their stakeholders. Those who are able to resolve conflicts of values through genuine innovation and find a balance will not only be more successful in terms of communication, but will also have a positive influence on their customers' purchasing behavior.
Attitude means taking responsibility
In a future in which change becomes the norm, communication must therefore be able to do both: optimize and improvise. It must be adaptive, flexible and dialog-oriented - and must not forget that attitude ultimately means taking responsibility, even when it becomes uncomfortable. This is the only way for companies to generate resonance and remain reliable and trustworthy in the midst of change. Emilio Galli Zugaro, Head of Communication at the Allianz Group for many years, recently gave a keynote speech at the book launch in the F.A.Z. Tower as part of the Corporate Communications Forum. He emphasized a point that, for him, has an almost programmatic power and constitutes the actual core: "Only corporate attitudes that are based on authentic and lived values are assertive in the digital cosmos and are identified as relevant by the target groups."
According to Galli Zugaro, this sentence is the "crux of the matter". Advertising-based communication has lost a large part of its impact because people today recognize very precisely whether there is real substance behind statements, which values they really share with their stakeholders. This is the only way for communication to be responsive, credible and effective.
But proximity alone is not enough. Companies that take their stakeholders seriously not only create transparency, but also participation. It's about not just listening to people, but empowering and involving them. "Trust is created where companies are willing to share responsibility." As one of the most prominent communicators, Dr. Thomas Gauly, emphasizes: communication today is no longer just about interpreting actions - it is about actions themselves. This is precisely where the paradigm shift in digital transparency lies.
