Tips for Communicating with a Corporation: State your purpose for writing in the first paragraph of the letter or email. Be courteous, to the point, and include key information. Use examples to support your position such as, "I bought tires for my car today at your competitor, Company B, because they have a better track record of recruiting and retaining women and minority employees." Or, "By your company's own annual report, women represent 75% of the consumers buying your product. Yet, women are not well represented in upper management positions in your company." Tell them why this is important to you. "This concerns me because I want to support companies that value gender diversity." Or, "I purchased from you competitor because I am becoming more aware of something called 'consumer advocacy,' and I want to spend my money with companies that reflect what is important to me." Tell them what you want from them: "My hope is that your company will realize the importance of fair treatment and recruitment of women as employees and in the highest level of management." Or, in the positive: "My hope is that you will continue your fine example of hiring and promoting women." If requesting that action be taken by them, be specific. Ask for a reply back to answer a specific question, "Since your company appears to have only one woman on your Board of Directors, can you please tell me if there are any plans to appoint more women to the Board?" Address only one issue in each letter or email, and keep it short (no more than one page.) When telephoning a corporation, ask for customer service. Similar to the guidelines above, have your thoughts concise and specific. Realize that the customer service folks will probably not be accustomed to fielding calls on this level. Ask for the name of the person who would be able to more fully answer your questions/concerns, and be sure to ask for all of their contact information (phone, address, email.)     One way to influence corporate decision-making is to tell them what you think, as a consumer of their goods and/or services. Below are some examples of both positive and negative feedback you might want to communicate to a corporation. However, what you want to say is best said in your own words, so use these samples as guidelines only. Sample letter for positive feedback Sample letter for negative feedback One of our current and ongoing issues that Buying Influence is taking a stand on has to do with the world of tennis -- Wimbledon in particular. Did you know that officials at Wimbledon continue to pay women players less than they pay men players? Click here for more details.    Copyright 2005-6, Buying Influence, Inc.