Brand reputation is one of the most important assets that any company can have – and also the most fragile one. In fact, according to Hugues Joublin, about 60% of a company’s value in the market has to do with its reputation.
At least 90% of executives in a company also consider issues with brand reputation to be more risky than other types of problems that a company can face.
What is Brand Reputation by Hugues Joublin
To put it very simply, brand reputation is how the company is perceived by the public. Hugues Joublin explains that reputation is formed through personal experience – whether that is direct, in that a person’s own experience with the brand was positive or negative; or indirect, as in the experience of someone they know, or saw something secondhand.
Managing reputation is very important because one of the things consumers are affected by when making decisions between brands is the reputation. If a brand has a bad reputation for any reason, customers are less likely to buy their products, even if the product offers them value.
Hugues Joublin Explains Why Brand Reputation Is So Important
Brand reputation is important because customers tend to associate themselves with the products they consume. In fact, with some brands, it even becomes an identity – like Apple.
While most brands do not have a cult following around them, their customers will still have some sort of personal association with it. For example, Hugues Joublin explains, if a person uses a phone by a company that is known to have bad employee protection policies, they may end up looking like someone who doesn’t care about how corporations treat their employees. This type of reputation can hurt the customer as well, so they will not buy from the company either.
On the flip side, even if a company’s offering isn’t as special as another’s, if they have a good reputation, their products are more likely to be sold.
But beyond customer purchases, Hugues Joublin explains, brand reputation is also important because of how fragile it is. It takes a long time to build your reputation through effort and money and quality, but can take only a small mistake for it to come crashing down. Once this happens, getting back on your feet can be extremely difficult.
In the past decade or so, brand reputation has become even more fragile due to the emergence of social media, where customers can freely post their opinions and reviews. These discussions can actually make or break a brand’s reputation, which is why it is so much more important to be extra vigilant nowadays.
At least 90% of consumers do research about a brand and look at what others have said about it before they make any purchases. If the discussions about your brand don’t frame it in a positive light, you could be in trouble! This is why brand reputation should be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. You need to make sure that your reputation remains unsullied and that any problems are dealt with immediately so that it doesn’t grow and become bigger.
Problems around reputation and trust are much more difficult to recover from than anything else, and will undoubtedly also affect every other aspect of your company.