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Ragan Communications Features Imperial Sugar, News Strategies

DH | May 12, 2011 | 0 Comments

For the second time in a couple of weeks, Chicago-headquartered Ragan Communications reports on how the reputation of a company has been enhanced through the use of legitimate news stories delivered by online news sites. The latest story is about how Imperial Sugar Company enhanced its messages and brand image, working my firm, News Strategies.

Here is an excerpt of the story on Ragan.com by reporter Russell Working – “How an online newsroom helps Imperial Sugar enhance its message … Website uses a more journalistic style in covering itself, its employees and the industry.”

Imperial is a $1.2 billion company that provides 16 percent of the U.S. sugar supply, and no doubt it has the means to find any bullhorn it chooses to urge you to stir more sugar into your latte. But it has embraced a model that is being hailed by advocates as “brand journalism.”

John C. Sheptor, Imperial Sugar Company's CEO

Imperial is reaching out to contemporary consumers who get most of their news about the industry by typing words into a search window.

“If you’re going to proactively influence what stakeholders think and believe about you,” says CEO John Sheptor, “then you need to communicate with them in the places where they’re receiving information.”

Different from traditional website

The newsroom differs from Imperial’s traditional website, which offers what you might expect: coupons, recipes for pralines and lemon meringue pie, the history of the company—which dates back to before Texas was a state.

But the newsroom seeks to be an information source for the industry. It focuses on production in the U.S. and Mexico, where Imperial does its business, but also posts stories relating to areas beyond its market reach. Imperial sells only cane sugar, but it has covered sugar beets and discusses news from as far away as China.

The Imperial newsroom has drawn praise from Andy Briscoe, president and CEO of the Washington-based Sugar Association, a trade group. He calls the site unique, adding that it’s good for both producers and consumers.

Journalist Russell Working of Ragan.com.

The company’s decision to create a newsroom was indirectly related to a series of explosions that killed 14 workers in the Imperial Sugar manufacturing facility in Port Wentworth, Ga., in 2008. When a tragic event occurs, misinformation abounds and a company takes a hit in its reputation, Sheptor says. Imperial was looking at ways to improve communication.

Sheptor called on David Henderson, CEO of News Strategies, to create his website. Henderson, who has been promoting brand journalism in the United States and in Europe, advocates communication that is transparent and makes use of storytelling techniques rather than press releases.

“You have nothing to fear with putting the good and the bad out,” Henderson says, “because you never have the opportunity to control through brand journalism or PR or strategic communications or anything else. You do have a better opportunity to manage perceptions and brand image by credibly presenting both sides.”