Reputation is everything

Corporations are exquisitely sensitive to public opinion. They exist via a social contract in an economy where over 70% of market value comes from impossible-to-quantitate assets such as brand equity and consumer goodwill. And it’s estimated that a corporation’s public reputation is responsible for over 60% of their revenue. It’s no wonder that corporate annual expenditures for public relations and reputation management exceeded $100 billion in 2024.

There are numerous recent instances of adverse publicity negatively impacting a company’s bottom line, including Tesla, X (Twitter), Bud Light, Uber, Delta Airlines, and Krispy Kreme. In each instance, consumers perceived that the company’s conduct and values did not align with their own. So, they changed or entirely stopped purchasing those goods and services. Some of these were as a result of coordinated boycotts, while others were less well organized. Regardless of their beginnings, in each instance, these companies felt their costly sting.

The impact of a poor public reputation extends throughout a company’s financials. They include the need for higher wages to attract and retain quality employees, as well as increased costs for risk management, insurance, and legal fees. And when the public’s opinion of a company falls, so does its stock price.

Their sensitivity to public opinion makes these companies vulnerable to external pressures, but it’s difficult, if not impossible, to sustain such impact without an organization coordinating and continuing the effort. Online petitions are able to send a signal of public opinion, inform the media about a potential story, and build a list of interested individuals. Their effectiveness is increased if the petition is crafted with an unambiguous goal and is addressed to a specific decision maker. 

For example, petition-based climate and human rights advocacy organizations have garnered massive online support. But their actual impact has been limited because of the inherent inability of petitions to exert adequate long term follow-up pressure. This allows corporations to easily ignore mere e-signatures.

That’s why Advance ESG is different.

Our unique online community program allows us to create, coordinate, and sustain campaigns designed to exert public pressure on a company’s decision-making processes. The Advance ESG community program is a safe, supportive and accessible environment that provides individuals with a sense of purpose and a clear course of action. 

This program includes robust outreach and engagement activities that give our members the information and tools needed to directly impact the decisions that corporate management makes by targeting their bottom line. And it allows our members to help choose where we should direct our advocacy efforts.

The risk-adverse nature of corporations makes them uniquely sensitive to public opinion. By leveraging our members to support our shareholder advocacy efforts we can substantially impact corporate behaviors. 

Part of Advance ESG’s mission is to develop, coordinate, and sustain these targeted public-pressure campaigns to create the kind of corporate change that will benefit us all. Our efforts may include other tactics and actions that offer a range of ways for the community to participate and to make our voices heard.