Leverage your voice on Capitol Hill and in state capitals around the country with communications strategies that engage allies and other third parties.
Issues Management
Burson-Marsteller's Coalition & Issues Management team brings all of the latest communications, technology and public affairs tools together to effectively advocate on our clients' behalf, to manage issues, handle adverse or crisis situations, and protect companies' reputations.
Managing and controlling the existing issues that affect your organization is critical. Anticipating those issues and avoiding or mitigating issues that may crop up down the road are just as important. At Burson-Marsteller, we assist our clients in both anticipating issues and challenges before they occur, and dealing with them effectively if they already exist.
Coalition Management
Sometimes issues emerge that affect an entire industry. Perhaps a new or proposed government regulation threatens to negatively impact companies and the way they do business. Or an issue arises out of conflicting regulations between countries, or a situation occurs where the business community seeks the passage of favorable trade and tariff agreements with other nations. Coalitions are effective vehicles for issues advocacy and eliciting wider support in situations like this.
Burson-Marsteller's coalition management experts provide trade associations and corporations with an instrument to align themselves strategically and politically with other stakeholder organizations, in order to enhance the visibility of an issue and strengthen the effectiveness of communications and advocacy efforts in front of decision-makers. The benefits to building coalitions are to combine forces and strengths with other stakeholders, develop and disseminate common messages and themes, as well as leverage the collective problem-solving and issues management expertise of all parties engaged in the effort.
As an integrated communications firm with a worldwide footprint, Burson-Marsteller has the internal capability of managing all aspects and activities related to coalition-building and issues management, including:
- Stakeholder identification and engagement;
- Conducting opinion research and issue awareness benchmarking, through our opinion research arm, Penn Schoen & Berland Associates;
- Communications outreach activities, including media relations and media monitoring;
- Materials development and distribution;
- Grassroots mobilization and third-party advocacy, through our subsidiary firm, Direct Impact;
- Advocacy advertising and web-based interactive services, through our Marsteller Interactive unit;
- Legislative and Executive branch outreach, through our government affairs unit, BKSH & Associates Worldwide.