Reputation is everything

One way that Advance ESG works to change corporate behavior is by using the power of our membership to launch campaigns designed to pressure a corporation to make decisions that are more environmentally and socially responsible.

Because the fact is that corporations are extremely sensitive to public opinion, and their brand image and reputation hinges on consumers’ goodwill. This goodwill comes when consumers see a corporation working to support the greater good and not just their own bottom line. 

It’s even estimated that a corporation’s public reputation is responsible for over 60% of their revenue. It’s no wonder that annual expenditures for public relations and reputation management exceeded $100 billion in 2024.

All publicity is not good publicity

There are numerous recent instances of adverse publicity negatively impacting a company’s bottom line. You’ve probably heard about controversies and boycotts involving Tesla, X (Twitter), Bud Light, Uber, Delta Airlines, and Krispy Kreme. 

In each instance, consumers perceived that the company’s values did not align with their own. So, they reduced 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, companies’ bottom lines suffered when faced with consumers’ wrath.

And the impact of a poor public reputation can have wide-ranging impacts on a company’s financials. These can include the need for higher wages to attract and retain quality employees, along with increased costs for risk management, insurance, and legal fees. And of course, when the public’s opinion of a company falls, so will its stock price.

Keeping up the pressure

Despite being vulnerable to external pressures, it can be difficult to sustain this pressure without some way to coordinate and continue driving the effort. Online petitions are a way to amplify public opinion, inform the media about a potential story, and build a list of interested individuals. But people’s attention can be fleeting.

For example, many organizations that work to limit climate change and human rights abuses have garnered massive support through online petitions. Unfortunately, their actual impact has been limited because the short-tern nature of makes it difficult to exert meaningful long-term pressure. This allows corporations to easily ignore mere e-signatures.

How 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. 

This program includes outreach and engagement activities that give our members the information and the tools they need to influence the decisions that corporations make. In short, these programs succeed because they target a company’s bottom line. And our programs are designed to allow our members to have a say in where we direct our advocacy efforts.

Advance ESG’s mission is to create the kind of corporate change that will benefit us all, and these targeted and sustained public-pressure campaigns are just one way we do it.