Political reputation and trust for any political leader is most important assets, and must be handled carefully. That is especially true today, as political leaders operate in a unorganised political environment, face an increasingly demanding set of well-informed voters, and grapple with the latest stage of the digital revolution.
Managing one’s reputation in this new environment requires leaders to respond adeptly to a litany of potentially dangerous issues and disruptions while staying focused on their long-term growth and constituency/state/nation goals. While there are numerous risks to consider in this environment, there are also substantial rewards.
Beyond safeguarding a reputation, our findings reveal that politics acquire a greater license to operate as they expand their mission and create more meaningful relationships. By identifying a leader’s assets and weaknesses in the realm of trust, we help political leaders uncover, define, exemplify and amplify their authentic identity in ways that resonate with voters and inspire support of their political mission.
KCM GROUP works with political leaders to earn this license to lead.
Our approach to building holistic trust and reputation management starts with benchmarking attitudes and opinions and indexing the strength of relationships among critical voter groups—party cadre, partners, suppliers, regulators, legislators, NGOs, news media and the community leaders. And then we bring business together with society to help forge critical changes.
Elements of our strategy include:
Developing a research-driven positioning strategy recommending actions that resonate with key electoral stakeholders;
Crafting compelling, rigorously-tested language that articulates this positioning;
Creating a message architecture to align leaders around consistent messaging;
Executing communications programs which ensure that political positioning, internal communications, voter engagement and media relations tell a consistent story.
We use this comprehensive, integrated approach when we are positioning a Political Leader as a constituency thought leader, driving an important change initiative through the workforce, managing voters and restructuring, dealing with a crisis or facilitating dialogue with community groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).