GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK), Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO), Bayer and Roche are in the Top 10 Online Communicators. This is according to Index of Online Excellence by Bowen Craggs & Co.
Pharmaceutical companies, GSK, Novo, Roche and Bayer, are among the 200 world’s biggest companies evaluated by Bowen Craggs. These companies are separated by market cap and the list is further pared down to thirty in choosing the best online communicators. The list is then finalized with a roundup of the ten best in internet corporate communications.
GSK is at Number 2, an increase by 13 points from last year while the three others, GSK, Novo and Roche, are tied at Number 5. Roche dropped by two points while GSK and Novo got higher scores than last year.
It is worth noting that four of those that topped the list are pharmaceutical companies. According to David Bowen, cofounder of Bowen Craggs, pharma companies exist in an industry where their reputation is not always the best. To counter this, they use their online channels to get to say and focus on the fact that they cure people.
Aside from the four being pharma companies, it should also be noted that they are all not from the US. This was a common trend that was also observed for the top 30 wherein there were only a few US companies included in the list and placed at the bottom.
Bowen further discusses the difference between the US and European companies in group level marketing by comparing their models. Whereas European companies are centralized, US companies do not perceive online communications as part of group level marketing. He pointed out that aside from US companies using the internet only to sell, they also do not have a core web team or if they have, it is not really effective.
Bowen Craggs’ Index of Online Excellence is in its ninth year. The competitors are rated based on all the online aspects of their corporate communications – main website, country sites, social media channels, apps, etc. All of these come to play in group level marketing because the company is marketing the entire enterprise, not only their products or services. According to the consultancy group, people will buy a company’s products based on how well they think of it.
This perception is also affected not only by how the customers receive them but also by other factors such as how much people want to work for them, how much they want to invest in them and how much people compliment them. Bowen Craggs evaluated the comp
