Corporate Communications
Business goals and communications goals. They should match but often don't. Communications strategies should address specific business needs. When Griendling Communications works for you, our first questions are not about what you want to communicate. We ask, "What are your business goals?"
Case Histories
ONLINE RESOURCES
In 1992, Online Resources Corp. was a David among Goliaths, a home banking service company -- with only one customer. The giants of the telecommunications and banking industries had already made highly publicized announcements about similar services.
Online Resources called in Griendling Communications to plan and conduct its media relations campaign. Our first news release resulted in stories in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, the major banking trades, and in more than 80 newspapers nationwide.
When the company was granted a patent, GC orchestrated a strategy of pre-announcement briefings for industry analysts and then offered those analysts as sources to reporters. The result was extraordinary coverage. Virtually every story contacted at least one of the 10 analysts we briefed. Within two weeks, the New York Times alone wrote three stories, including a major corporate profile for its Sunday business pages. That profile coincided with a planned private placement by the company, which then attracted twice the capital the company had expected.
For Online Resources, we secured key roles for executives at industry conferences and wrote and negotiated placement of commentaries by its executives. Leading banking and trade journalists called on Online Resources executives for comment on industry trends, and the company was regularly profiled in such publications as the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, as it grew from a 15-employee start-up when GC was first retained to the publicly traded company it is today.
PROBITA
The challenge for Probita, Inc., a $1.5 million software developer during its early days, was to leverage its one client, albeit a large recognized industry leader, into greater market awareness of Probita's unique capabilities.
Griendling Communications was hired to develop and launch a marketing communications plan for Probita. It was clear from the beginning that the company itself was uncertain of its market potential, direction or its message to the marketplace. After research, planning and message development, GC helped gain a public endorsement from Probita's client that clearly positioned Probita as a company that could have a significant impact on the industry. Press interest was immediate and resulted in some extensive coverage in major trade publications. Moreover, in the six weeks after first announcing Probita's accomplishments and capabilities to the industry, its president was invited to speak at three major industry conferences, and several key prospects contacted Probita about its capabilities.
Subsequently, we were able to secure a commitment from the cable TV publication of record to regularly published a column by Probita's director of business development.
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