The ICR Westwicke Blog is designed to deliver information and insights into the ever-changing world of healthcare communications.
If your company is publicly traded or a private company preparing for an IPO, then you likely have two separate communication tasks, one focused on reaching investors and financial analysts, the other on reaching customers and the general public – investor relations and public relations.
The 2021 Westwicke / ICR Conference went virtual this year — and like many in-person events suddenly turned remote, attendees found new and unexpected opportunities for connecting with each other. Namely, the ability, finally, to be in two meetings at once.
With coronavirus spread on the rise, we’ve only begun to see the impact in the U.S. and witness its full expression in the world. These are, without question, uncertain times. And people are actively searching for information online: “coronavirus” may be the largest Google search trend in history, and every 45 milliseconds someone searches the term “coronavirus” on Twitter. There is information overload and a serious appetite for more.
Your leadership spends a lot of time developing and writing public messages about your company’s story — whether a press release, the corporate deck, or the script of an earnings call. And while the intended audience is often the investment community, it’s important to consider what other constituencies will read these public documents. Your competitors, the media, and even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will likely read your news as well.
Not long ago I was surprised to discover that a client of mine that had recently completed a rebranding effort had sent out some messaging to investors under its former name. It turns out that the company was still using its old name with some audiences.
In this case, the company had good reasons to hold onto the benefits of its old brand, so it retained it as a subsidiary to its newly named parent company. And that’s not unusual. Many well-known brands or and products are owned by corporate parents you’ve never heard of (just as many well-known corporations have low-profile subsidiaries or product lines).
Your investor presentation is one of the first things that investors and analysts look for (along with SEC filings) when trying to get up to speed on your company. It’s often the first chance to tell your story in a crafted manner.
In other words, it’s crucial.
An effective deck contains a clear communication of management’s vision, the company’s market opportunity, its competitive advantages, and its growth strategy.
Your company’s investor relations website is one of your most important tools for communicating with existing shareholders and attracting new ones. Yet too often the IR website is neglected, with outdated or irrelevant information, multiple versions of the same document, and obsolete design.
In a previous blog post, I discussed why it is essential for companies heading into an IPO to carefully evaluate the sales teams of potential investment banking partners before selecting their banks. Their job is to sell your stock to institutional investors. Yet sometimes the distribution capabilities and differences of each bank is underappreciated.
In this installment, I want to explore the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with that sales force after the initial offering is complete, and to share some ideas about how to do it.
Private firms face few regulations governing public statements, so communication missteps aren’t likely to violate laws and spur law enforcement actions.
For public companies, quite the opposite is true. There are legally binding rules in place, and a failure to comply with them can have serious consequences. As a result, it is vitally important that companies provide their employees with substantive training.
When shopping for a major purchase, say for a new home or car, many people wisely draft lists of must-have features and optional nice-to-have features.
Compiling a list of needs and wants is also valuable to companies searching for an investment bank, especially given how frequently they fail to evaluate a key feature: the banks’ institutional sales forces. During my 18 years on Wall Street, I can’t tell you how often I saw companies make the mistake of considering the right sales force a want-to-have feature, when they should have considered it a must-have.
