What’s Your Reputation Worth?

by Steve Fodor

When you get right down to it, all you have in life are your word and your reputation. Hopefully, both are seen in a positive light by people you associate with.

With all the Wall Street distrust and fallout, Tiger Woods and Toyota publicity in recent months, company reputation has become a popular topic in corporate boardrooms. I read recently that The Reputation Institute, a private consulting firm, conducted nearly 25,000 online interviews asking people their perceptions regarding the reputations of the nation’s largest (by revenue) 150 companies. The survey measured factors such as products and services, innovation, corporate citizenship and leadership. Respondents were asked to provide rankings on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest or best score.

To be honest, the results were not too surprising to me. Brands like Johnson & Johnson, Walt Disney, UPS and Kraft Foods were at the top of the list. I’m not surprised because these are brands that invest heavily in promoting their brand image. I’ve also always had great experiences with these top brands. Also of little surprise, financial institutions and large banks were scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of perceived reputation.

What I did find interesting, though, was a statistic put forth by The Reputation Institute regarding their study. “When reputations improve by five points, consumer recommendations hike by 6.5 percent,” according to The Reputation Institute. “Get more people talking about your products and company, and you can bet you’ll improve your bottom line.”

I’ve always believed in the value of brand investment, public relations, and developing strategies to improve how your brand is perceived versus only focusing on selling products and services at a price. And when combined with a social media marketing program, consumer recommendations that promote your company’s reputation can add even more to your bottom line. I’m just glad that The Reputation Institute did this study and put some quantitative support to what good marketers have always known to be true.

Flickr Photo Credit: Rob Young

The More Things Change...

by Steve Fodor

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I just read an article about branded content. How marketers communicate with customers, go to market and increase brand loyalty has changed dramatically in just the last year. In fact, 32% of marketing communications budgets were dedicated to branded content in 2009. That’s a heck of a lot of blogging, Facebook interaction, YouTube videos and other forms of branded content.

You could say branded content is the new face of public relations. The media dynamic has changed. You now can go straight to end users without the media controlling your message. That opens endless possibilities. But, it also sacrifices the implied endorsement from reputable editors and media.

So what’s the key to branded content as a marketing strategy? If I had the answer to that, I’d be out fishing now instead of working for a living. But one thing always stands out in everything I read about branded content: your content has to be valued information that customers desire and not just a sales pitch. In other words, you must become a valued information provider and not just a product purveyor to elevate your brand above commodity status. And the only way to do that is to employ good, old-fashioned research to determine what information your customers and prospects need. In marketing “buzzword-speak” that means determining latent needs (there…now I can justify spending money on marketing books prior to the Amazon Kindle).

Even though the media dynamic has literally been turned upside down in recent years, that’s why I say “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” If you don’t understand your customer and if you can’t differentiate your brand beyond product features and price, you’re always going to be a commodity. Branded content has now become the most visible “face” of your brand. Think about that. And think about who is handling the face of your brand. Do they really understand how to generate valued content?

Advertising or Public Relations?

by Steve Fodor

I’ve had the good fortune to work on both sides of the street in this debate. There always seems to be two kinds of people: Advertising and Public Relations people. PR people think advertising is a waste of money. Advertising people think PR is a substitute for not having enough advertising dollars. I even once heard someone say, “The difference between advertising and PR is that you pay for advertising and you pray for PR.”

Well, there’s some truth in that statement. With advertising, you have complete control over where and how many times your message is seen. You also have control over exactly what your message is. I don’t buy the argument that “advertising is not credible.” If you feel this way about advertising, I would suggest that you have a brand problem; not an advertising problem.

Public relations, on the other hand, does carry implied credibility because it’s the word of the media; not a paid advertiser. Public relations can change perceptions. PR can launch new products that may seem “unbelievable” if launched with advertising alone. PR can motivate public concern and participation in a cause. And, perhaps its most valuable role, PR can “manage” the public perception of your company’s brand.

There’s no “one” answer to the question of advertising or PR as a marketing strategy, though I get asked the question of “which strategy should we use” quite a lot. It’s even worse to think or say that, “we have a small budget, so we can only do PR.” Having worked on both sides of the street, I can say with experience it’s ideal to use both in your marketing mix to support a clearly defined and meaningful brand message.

There’s no one, simple answer to defining your marketing mix. But, a carpenter always has more than one tool in their tool box. A good carpenter knows which tool to use and when.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lamees-y/