I was speaking to a colleague this morning about managing brand reputation online, and we were of the joint opinion that most brand managers continue to remain oblivious to what their customers are saying about the brand online and are failing to analyse customer perceptions displayed publicly on social media sites.
The rapid rise in social media has led to substantial increase in consumer generated content and any consumer, or former employee, must now be considered an opinion former. Unfortunately for brand owners, a large amount of this content contains misleading information which damages the perception of the brand held by others. Worse still, technology enables this misleading information to spread quickly and once in the public domain and it is a considerable challenge for brand owners to change these perceptions or to successfully communicate accurate information to balance the viewpoint.
I’ve come across countless companies that are wasting huge sums of money because of poor brand perception analysis, including a company who spent over £2 million promoting the wrong message about its brand and a company that was religiously spending 20% of its media budget on a channel that failed to bring in any new customers. Such tangible losses should really act as a stark reminder for agencies to educate marketing directors and chief executives as to the importance of this aspect of marketing and the potential return on investment that it can generate and/or the profit that it can protect.
In the current economic climate consumers are increasingly aware of the value of their cash and are taking greater care than ever in considering where and how to spend their money. The reputation of the brands they are considering is more of an influencing factor for brand selection than ever before and I strongly believe that brands who fail to manage their reputation are at best competitively disadvantaged and at worst at risk of long term failure.
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Tomorrow is World Fairtrade Day, which raises awareness of the millions of people who work and struggling for survival everyday. I often find that this annual event is highly publicised in the consumer support to ‘buy Fairtrade’, but very little is said about how more businesses can get in on the action and help improve their brand in the process.
Whilst browsing the World Fairtrade Day website, I came across the FT100, which is made up of organizations that are 100% committed to Fair Trade. Organizations that have not only said enough-is-enough and go beyond the call of duty to represent a new approach to trade. Organizations, including producer cooperatives and famous brands, entirely motivated by the need for change in the way the world does business to impact poverty, climate change and financial crisis.
Now whilst becoming part of the FT100 is a huge commitment and involves conducting business in a completely new way, there are still lots of things that smaller businesses can do to support Fairtrade, such as investing in Fairtrade supplies and working with companies and suppliers that support Fairtrade. The great thing about supporting Fairtrade is that you are not only ‘doing good’ but are actively raising your brand reputation at the same time.
Customers across the board are increasingly demanding that organisations become more socially responsible and those that rise to this challenge will see their customers’ perception of the brand improve. And with improved brand perception comes greater customer satisfaction, loyalty, advocacy and trust, so it is a truly win-win situation all round.
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Graeme Crossley
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Member since: 18 Aug 2008
Last login: 23 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 34
