Reputation is Everything

In a world where trust is diminishing, reputation is emerging as the antidote to skepticism and is increasingly being recognized as the catalyst for sales, relationships, building brands and impacting the lifetime value of a customer. In today’s digital world, reputation can be built quickly while trust takes a long time to establish. Increasingly, business leaders looking for timely results are focusing on which reputational levers they can pull to achieve growth and influence.

Consumers frequently make purchasing decisions based on collective opinions (reputation) rather than trust. We consistently find that more than 80% of consumers consult online reviews before making purchasing decisions, and with the rapid rate of innovation, most of us haven’t had the time required to develop trust.

Consider this: people will buy from a brand with a good reputation whether they trust it or not. But they’ll never buy from a company with a bad reputation.

While every brand wants to be “trusted,” most aren’t. Yet, these brands are still selling products and services. This tells me that while trust is an important part of brand equity, it’s not the most important key to immediate engagement and sales. That distinction belongs to reputation. Consider this: reputation builds relationships and through positive engagement, trust is developed. Trust is the outcome of a relationship that was begun and nurtured by reputation.

There are many definitions of reputation, trust and brand, let’s stop for a moment to share mine:

• Reputation is a collection of beliefs based on the perceptions and/or opinions of others. 
• Trust is the outcome of positive experiences over time. 
• Brand is built based on the alignment of brand promise and delivery.

In a low-trust global environment such as ours, a strong positive reputation opens doors with consumers, employees, partners and shareholders. A strong reputation outweighs the need for established trust, but managed properly, reputation is also the most important factor in building it.

Reputation, trust and brand are all built through positive experiences. While a company should strive for strength in all three areas, reputation often emerges as the most critical factor in driving customer engagement, brand equity and sales. The good news is that we have proven strategies and tactics to build and manage reputation.

A few years ago, I wrote a book titled Reputation Strategy & Analytics in a Hyper-Connected World. I pointed to changes that suggest it’s time to re-think our approach to building, maintaining, nurturing and capitalizing on reputation as a business driver.

In the last chapter I made predictions which not only have come true, but also point to new KPIs (key performance indicators)  businesses can use to measure and manage the value of their reputation.

• New reputation-based markets will transform business, commerce and society. When was the last time you bought something without checking reviews, rankings, or word of mouth?  

• Digital and analytic functions will no longer sit as stand-alone departments. Today’s AI applications prove my point. AI is being built into everything. It will tell us where our reputation is faltering, and provide recommendations as to how to fix it. 

Coming up I’ll share my perspectives on reputation, trust and brands globally from the 250 days per year I spend on the road visiting agencies in every corner of the globe from APAC to LatAm.

I’ll also talk about reputation in connection with crises. Note that in many cases, crises aren’t the result of something bad happening, but instead, how a company’s reputation hindered or helped the response.

Omnicom Public Relations Group (OPRG) unites 20+ PR, public affairs and policy, and specialty consulting firms into a single, globally connected network. Business leaders get a direct line to expertise that anticipates issues, shapes public debate and propels growth.