by Alexandra Smith
Stephen Hahn-Griffiths
Creating and pushing
can a true differentiator for a brand’s strategy. However, many executives balk at funding programs that may not tie to clearly established ROI. Despite the assumption that the financial benefit of social purpose activity is abstract and hard to define, several approaches provide a direct link between social perception and brand reputation.“Corporate reputation isn’t just about good will,” explained
Stephen Hahn-Griffiths
, Chief Reputation Officer at
Reputation Institute
, “it’s about good business.” When measuring which aspects consumers consider when judging brands, Hahn-Griffiths has found that
workplace, governance
and
citizenship
are the only considerations that impact corporate reputation. While considerations of the workplace have decreased in the past few years, governance and citizenship remain strong.Brands with the lowest consumer ratings on corporate responsibility are impacted most by their low corporate responsibility standing, while brands with higher standing on workplace, governance and citizenship aspects have reputational ratings that are more robust to changes in these areas. In other words, if your company has an established CSR program, then a focus on other areas may help to improve reputation; but if you are not activating at all around corporate social responsibility, activation in this area could critically improve your reputational standing.If brand purpose is the promise that a brand makes about their position, then brand reputation is the public assessment of whether a brand has really kept that promise. Building intelligence on brand reputation is best pursued through three steps:
mining the narrative that takes place in the digital ecosystem about your brand,
being part of a global community of exchange with peers and colleagues, and
telling your story based on the insights gleaned from these two avenues.
As Hahn-Griffiths asserted, setting a brand purpose and following through on that purpose can make a critical difference to reputation, and consequently, to market success.