Building Honourable Brands

There are no two ways about it – we are living through possibly the most exciting time for business since the Industrial Revolution. The rules are being rewritten and stakeholders are once again being placed at the centre of the business model. The rise of the promiscuous and engaged consumers (through Social Media) and chronic distrust of business are forcing a dramatic change in the way we operate. In the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer research, it was found that “transparent and honest practices” and “a company I can trust” were the biggest contributors to corporate reputation (from a stakeholder’s perspective). I strongly maintain that building trust will reduce promiscuity and drastically improve the effect of marketing, advertising and communications. This blog post centres on the ways in which we can use Online Reputation Management (ORM) to drive trust and consequently sustainable business success.

ORM is an interesting kettle of fish. As the environment grows, so too does the market’s use of our service. 6 months ago, we went about banging the drum of engagement as the de facto strategy for building strong brands. Initially this did the trick and a “spin doctor” approach to ORM was acceptable. This no longer cuts it and stakeholders now want resolutions to their problems – not only engagement. In the old world, it was a simple system; a stakeholder complains about something, the brand responds and apologises and then continues with business as usual. The next time the stakeholder has the same problem they complain again and the cycle continues.

In the new world the system is a lot more dynamic. If the stakeholder happens to have a negative experience, they go public with it and the brand determines whether they are in the right or wrong. If they in the right, they rectify the perception with fact. If they wrong they aim to resolve the underlying problem THEN communicate it to the stakeholders. A radical departure from the old world approach.

We are increasingly finding that there are 2 needs a business requires for it to be successful. Firstly, it must fulfil the role which all brands must achieve - it must behave with brand honour. This should be done in a way which is dignified, irrespective of their business or promises. This includes the likes of providing good customer service, best possible prices, consumer centric business; ensuring activities are always honest, transparent and ethical and respectfully retracting when they are indeed at fault.

This should be built on by the brand’s specific promise. This refers to what the brand promises its consumers which differentiates it in the market. It must be something which is unique, distinct and distinguishable. Everything that the brand does needs to be geared at fulfilling this promise. In the case of BrandsEye, our promise is that we will find all mentions about a brand online, provide the most segmentable data available and provide the most trustworthy insights. Everything we do is focused on achieving this outcome and we need to ensure it is achieved 100% of the time. When it’s not (which happens, in part due to errors on our side or through client errors) we have broken our promise. It’s as simple as that.

The combination of the 2 above factors provides a means to evaluate all business decisions which need to be made. Is the decision honourable and does it meet your promise? If you are failing on one you are failing on both and if you fail either, your brand will not survive.

ORM therefore sits as a critical business practice – a means of understanding when a promise has been broken (or poorly understood) and when honourable attempts have ended with dishonourable outcomes. All that is required is for somebody senior to understand and engage with this practice and approach the job of business management from a brand manager’s perspective.