REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Reputation
research
We have managed reputation research projects that spanned 25 countries in Africa, Europe, India, Russia and Latin America.
The questions we ask before planning even starts would include how likely investors or employees would be to defend a client’s company in a crisis. Would there be a propensity to defend, boycott, hold on to or even accumulate a client’s shares, believe or disbelieve negative information? What about in times of relative calm? Do they buy a client’s products or shares because they support their ethics, like their products, trust them as a good corporate citizen, fancy the company as a long-term share option, admire it, believe in its long-term sustainability, like and trust its leadership?
These are more trenchant questions that go to the heart of good reputation management.
We work to establish a very focused list of stakeholders who need to be monitored so that we’re asking the right questions of the right people, across multiple stakeholder groups. This may include investors, media, government, regulators, employees, suppliers, NGOs and major customers, and, of course, the general public.
This allows companies to focus their attention where it will have the most impact and not on the things that don’t really matter.
In all the research we manage, we typically sit with Excos for one day, analysing research results and formulating strategic interventions to make the most out of leverageable strengths, mitigate risks, address weaknesses, and come up with creative execution plans to lift the company’s reputation across key geographies and stakeholder groups. Corporate Image then can assist with the ongoing execution of all strategies and plans.
This means findings can be practically used and research is developed as a specialised tool, not simply a put-in-the-drawer measure, along with many other pieces of research.