Andre Manning – Tata Steel

Andre Manning is the Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at Tata Steel in the Netherlands. Tata Steel is one of the world’s most geographically diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and commercial offices in more than 35 countries. The location in the Netherlands is Tata Steel’s largest production facility.

Transition in technology and communications

In recent years, Tata Steel has gotten involved in a lot of disturbance, especially around topics concerning the nitrogen debate, the natural gas problem, and polarization permits, which is ‘food’ for negative news reporting. Andre explains that Tata Steel aims to put steel in a more positive light by changing its communication. Andre mentions an example: “We are currently operationally working on the entire hydrogen route. This route is primarily technological and innovative, with highly skilled technologists working to achieve major progress. If we switch to hydrogen, we can communicate this in a technical way, but we can also disclose it fundamentally. How will hydrogen contribute to the climate objectives and improve the climate around the IJmond, the Netherlands, and the rest of Europe? We are catching up to get this message across to the people. To realize this, we need to show them every step and our transition.”

“Our ultimate goal is that people learn and acknowledge that Tata Steel is transforming into a green company, by changing to green steel production and arranging all the permits that go along with it.”

Reputation and campaigns

Due to the fact that Tata Steel is involved in a lot of unfavourable news reporting, they regularly conduct reputation research. Andre explains: “Every six weeks, we do a reputation survey. In the IJmond, the given figure is an average of 6 or 7 because people see the economic values ​​of our company here. In the rest of the Netherlands, we score approximately 4 or 5 out of 10, mainly because people outside the region only see reports about pollution, impact on health, and nuisance, without added economic value.”

Andre explains what has mainly encouraged Tata Steel to change as a company: “We operate below-the-line, but partially want or may need to switch to a more consumer brand way of communication. After all, many of our products are incorporated into end products. However, our brand image is formed by the general public in addition to our customers, so our operating licence is primarily determined by citizens. For this reason, we realized that we need to change our communications.”

Andre elaborates on the campaigns developed by Tata Steel: “We are working on awareness campaigns about the role and importance of steel in the manufacturing industry, and about the clean manufacturing industry. We are about to launch a  media campaign about the power of steel, working together with regional media and the national newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad. In addition, we conducted a thought leadership campaign with the NRC, which has been very well received. We will keep on looking for the best ways and media mix to reach out to specific target groups, including geotargeting.”

The role of data & research

Tata Steel uses research and data to get insights and improve its communication. “For instance, we gained knowledge from a trust barometer from Edelman, which showed us that people’s trust in companies is quite high while trust in social media is fairly low. You should extract the right elements from such research so that the communication plan can be further strengthened,” says Andre.

“Besides the opinion survey, we also did focus groups — two in the IJmond and two in Amersfoort, which is representative of the rest of the Netherlands. Doing this is quite unusual for a B2B organization, as focus groups are often done with customers and not with citizens. People in the focus groups in our area (our production site) have a much more nuanced picture of Tata Steel than people in the rest of the Netherlands, where they don’t know us that well. The focus groups were also asked to describe Tata Steel as a persona, and it revealed that people see us as an old steel baron, a company that is not approachable and has its back on society. If this is the starting point of our persona, this is also the starting point of our communication plan,” explains Andre.

Challenges for the steel industry

When asked what it’s like to work in the steel industry, Andre responds: “Polarisation, the nitrogen debate, the natural gas problem, citizen journalism — we have to deal with almost everything. Therefore, professionally, I find it challenging. The commotion has increased in recent years, which makes it more challenging to survive as a company. Incidentally, the gap between the cities and the countryside is huge. In large cities, larger factories are viewed differently than in a wider environment, such as the countryside. The climate goals, the influence of NGOs, and groups such as the Environmental Defense and Greenpeace have also had an impact on the company.”

“We are speeding up for the largest industrial transition of the 21st century: Making steel based on hydrogen instead of iron and silicone.”

Nonetheless, communication is not the only thing that needs to change at Tata Steel. “If the smell and odor of steel persist, communication becomes difficult. Actual business operations have the most influence over our reputation. Fortunately, I do see an enormous effort from the operational team, which truly wants to get this done. The environment around us pushed us in a positive direction and provided feedback on how we can improve as a company,” finishes Andre.

“The environment around us pushed us in a positive direction and provided feedback on how we can improve as a company.”