Building Company Image and Integrity Through Third-Party Sources

From Nutrition Industry Executive, May 2006

By Jeff Hilton, Integrated Marketing Group

You know that your company is responsible and a contributing member of the business community. But you also know that the trusting nature of the average natural products consumer has attracted some manufacturers and suppliers that employ questionable business practices and who betray customer trust. Unfortunately, such companies can scar the overall legitimacy of the industry and create mistrust among your potential customers and trade business partners. So it becomes crucial to the success of your own company that you maintain a credible image of integrity, regardless of unscrupulous competitive activity. But how do you set your company apart as one that follows ethical business practices and genuinely “walks the walk?”

One way to enhance credibility is to utilize outside sources to help reinforce and communicate the honest practices of your company – the more objective the sources and information avenues, the better. You can convey your company’s credibility to your business audience and potential partners through these tactics:

• Utilize outside educators and researchers to validate your company’s key messages;
• Use resident company experts to educate your various audiences through objective third-party communication channels; and
• Illustrate the staying power of your company through long-term commitments to non-profit organizations.

Use Outside Experts in Company Forums
Third-party experts who have already established their own credibility are excellent resources for elevating the worth of your company’s overall focus. Credentialed experts such as doctors, scientists and professors serve as a good point of reference for skeptical consumers. These experts can be effectively utilized to reach your various target audiences. One way to use an expert to support your company’s key messages is to feature them in company events as a non-partisan “educational guest.” Using an independent expert who is not financially linked to the company is the most objective route to take when planning an educational event sponsored by your company.

Embria Health Sciences utilized such an independent resource at their executive breakfast event at last year’s SupplySide West. Margaret P. Rayman, Ph.D., a published international selenium expert, spoke on “The Role of Selenium in Fighting Cancer and Viral Infections,” and gave added weight to the global importance of the mineral in the human diet, which indirectly helped validate Embria’s high-selenomethionine selenium ingredient, eXselen™. By harnessing the knowledge of an objective, un-paid expert such as Dr. Rayman, Embria was able to align itself with credible, third-party selenium research that supported one of its main ingredient offerings.

Offer Resident Experts to Third-Party Outlets
Another way to lend support to your company is through published contributed articles in either trade or consumer publications. Bylined articles are effective tools to get across a way of thinking on issues relevant to your company’s success. These pieces can take shape in many forms, the most common being, Op-Eds, trend articles and how-to guides. Positioning your company experts’ knowledge through these types of editorial pieces is a strategic approach to building a different type of credibility – it is not an ad; it is part of a publication’s editorial content, and thus carries a higher level of validity.

One natural products company who has smartly participated in wide-reaching bylined articles is Pure Fruit Technologies. Their resident formulator, Wayne Geilman, Ph.D., has contributed several articles on the “superfruit” mangosteen to natural products industry consumer publications in Canada. Dr. Geilman thoroughly discusses the beneficial antioxidant properties of the mangosteen fruit from a scientific perspective; often without specifically mentioning Pure Fruit’s mangosteen product, Mango.xan. Pure Fruit’s contributed articles have helped them stand out as a knowledgeable and respected information source within the crowded “exotic fruit supplements” category. Articles like these can go a long way to substantiate credibility within a specific segment of your company’s domain.

Involve Company Leaders in Non-Profit Settings
Much different than the practice of cause marketing wherein your company donates products or money to a non-profit organization, is the concept of aligning your company on an ongoing basis with an industry non-profit by embarking on commitments that are based solely on expertise. The best way to achieve this is to have your executives participate in some type of non-profit Board or committee. By having your executives offer their long-term expertise to a non-profit organization, it demonstrates that your company has a heightened level of commitment to the overall well being of the industry, not just your company’s bottom line.

Recently, the Vitamin Angel Alliance appointed four industry leaders to their board of directors. Executives from Natrol, Nutrition Business Advisors, Albert’s Organics and Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy reinforce their companies’ longevity in the industry by lending their long-term expertise to achieving the objectives and goals of Vitamin Angel. The fact that a highly credible, non-profit organization such as Vitamin Angel is confident enough in the skills and abilities of those executives to allow them to be decision-makers speaks very highly of their respective companies. 

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By utilizing independent experts for company events, using company experts to educate consumers in third-party venues, and having your senior executives make long-term commitments to support worthwhile causes, you can take your company’s image and credibility to beneficial new levels.

Integrated Marketing Group
(801)538-0777
www.imgbranding.com