Best sector in H&H Webranking 2009

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Personal goods sector has the highest average score in H&H Webranking 2009, a step forward from last year’s 4th place. Last year's winning sector Gas, water & multi-utilities is placed No 5 this year.
Top three companies in the 28 sectors click here.

B2B vs. B2C

Last year saw the continuation of the ongoing trend of B2B sector companies tending to score higher than their B2C counterparts. However this year’s outcome is far more indefinable, with excellent and poor performers scattered throughout both groups. The industry or sector a company operates in says very little about their online performance or ambitions. The large spread within all sectors, demonstrates that other factors must be at work causing the large variation and disparity between companies.

B2C companies are struggling to communicate with both consumers and investors. Although many of the B2C companies use the Internet as an important channel, they have often neglected to develop their entire online presence, focusing foremost on improving their traditional online media outlet - the commercial section of the website. B2B companies, on the other hand, have only one target group, and therefore enjoy long experience in investor relations. But according to this year’s ranking, B2C companies have managed an enviable performance, communicating very effectively with both target groups. Perhaps this is due to the knowledge and experience they have gained from the commercial part? If this were the case, B2C companies enjoy an innate competitive advantage over those of B2B?

General Financial

The low average score for the General Finance sector is likely due to the fact that many of these companies have a consistent shareholder base. Thus must not work as hard as more “public companies” where IR-managers gets to struggle to meet various demands and keep the dialogue going with various stakeholders. Broad shareholder base often highlights a clear information and transparency strategy.

Sensitive industries

Companies operating in more sensitive sectors usually have a solid and hard working communication department and always perform well in our survey. These companies have for long been targeted by the public and consequently have a lot to gain of meeting the requirements from the capital market. 5 out of the top 10 scoring companies on Europe 500 are operating in oil/energy or the tobacco industry.

International approach

Companies in the International Banks sector also usually get high scores in H&H Webranking. These reviewed companies are considered as global players and are bound to adapt international norms and standards of corporate communication. UniCredit group received the highest score among the included banks in our survey and even though no other bank are in the top 10, most of the large banks get high score.