"Head of a budget organization", 2010, N 2
We are already accustomed to the fact that it is mainly large companies operating in highly competitive markets that think about creating a positive reputation in our country. However, reputation is also important for public organizations, especially those that provide services to the population. How can you build and maintain a business reputation? And most importantly - how not to lose in one moment what has evolved over the years?
Henry Ford warned executives: "If you don't care about your company's reputation, your competitors will." These words can be attributed to the activities of not only commercial structures, but also budgetary institutions, because many of them today work in a competitive environment in the fields of education, medicine, and culture. And this competition is growing every year, and with it the role of business reputation.
According to American experts, the share of reputation in the total market value of a company ranges from 15 to 25% (in some cases reaching up to 75%). In Russia, according to reputation management consultant Alexei Zlovedov, this share is on average 50%.
According to the Harvard Business School, in 11 years (from 1993 to 2004), companies around the world that purposefully worked on their reputation increased revenue by 682%, profit - by 756%, and the number of employees - by 282 %. At the same time, companies that did not pay special attention to reputation issues showed results in 166%, 1% and 36%, respectively. World practice shows that organizations that seriously work on building a reputation become leaders in their field.
Building a reputation
To begin with, let's define what the reputation of an organization is and how it differs from its image.
Compared to reputation, image is the image an organization seeks to create in its environment. And if the reputation is formed over the years, involves the deepest emotions of people, then the image is a kind of external impression of the organization, the way it appears here and now.
Note. Business reputation - a set of opinions about the organization of representatives of stakeholders who are associated with it (employees, consumers, government officials, the media, etc.).
Obviously, the formation of a reputation is a longer process than the creation of an image, and it affects all levels of the organization and all its employees - from the director to the courier.
First of all, the manager should entrust the formation of a reputation program to professionals. Depending on the level of development of the organization, this may be one PR specialist or several specialists united in some structure, for example, in the public relations department. Of course, you can involve specialists from an independent agency and even agree on subscription services. But practice shows that this form of work does not guarantee confidentiality, and some documents may end up not only in the hands of competitors, but also on Internet sites.
1. A clear goal setting: what kind of reputation and for which groups we want to create.
Agree that you can't be the best at everything. Therefore, it is important to highlight the priority direction for the organization and be able to express the desired reputation in a few words. For example: a reliable organization (consumers believe that they strive to fulfill all obligations to them), a prestigious university (it has the biggest competitions compared to other universities, graduates quickly get jobs in their specialty).
2. Identify the "bottlenecks" of the organization that prevent the achievement of the desired reputation.
Suppose a budgetary institution wants to create a reputation among its clients for an organization where all issues are resolved quickly. In this case, the analysis should be aimed primarily at identifying customer interaction procedures that need to be accelerated. In budgetary structures, this primarily concerns the timing of consideration of various documents. If consumers are confident that all applications are approved without delay in the organization, its reputation will be significantly strengthened.
3. Decide how to overcome bottlenecks and eliminate them.
We have a simple managerial task. If your goal is to speed up the procedure for coordinating documents, it is worth analyzing at what stage and in connection with what they "get stuck", how you can motivate (or punish) that employee (or department) where the delay occurs. Here it is important to draw up an action plan to eliminate bottlenecks and implement it.
4. Create a precedent.
Once the ground has been set and the major issues preventing the desired reputation from being built have been addressed, it's time to start thinking about creating a high-profile event with decent coverage among your stakeholder groups.
If we return to our example with the reputation of a company that makes quick decisions, then in this case it is possible to create such a precedent. Previously, the approval procedures took you a whole month, and with the help of the created "single window" system, you reduced this period to 10 days. And even when the client needed to quickly resolve some difficult issue, your employees made every effort, but met the deadline, surprising him unspeakably. And then you need to make sure that as many people as possible learn about this event with the help of the media.
We maintain a reputation
Building a good reputation is only half the battle. Much harder to keep. An ill-considered act of a management or even an ordinary employee can at one moment spoil what specialists have been working on for years. A fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey can be reckless statements of the first (or public) persons of the company. It is especially bad if the behavior or words of a public person diverge from the stated postulates. Unfulfilled promises to customers also cause irreparable damage to the reputation, especially if they are accompanied by rude attacks from the staff. Attempts to change the rules in the course of the game often turn against the organization. For example, visitors expect certain behavior from your employees and do not realize that priorities have shifted slightly, and as a result, they simply cease to understand what is happening.
Incorrect actions against those people who have access to mass audiences and can ruin the company's reputation (journalists, politicians, etc.) can become especially dangerous. Therefore, it is worth considering seriously before refusing to comment on any respected media.
In the business of reputation management, there can be no trifles. But the values that play a significant role in maintaining it deserve special attention.
History of the company. You are very lucky if your organization has an interesting history going back centuries. It is these stories that the oldest theaters, museums, and higher educational institutions can boast of. They have something to tell the public about themselves, and this story can be exploited for a long time (in a positive sense), inventing new, modern forms. For example, how to present a museum to today's youth if you can't lure them there with a roll? Create a virtual museum with interactive features and an online tour.
But even if there was nothing unusual in history at first glance, it is necessary to find at least a few interesting facts and, on their basis, write history anew, filling it with bright events and achievements. And then make this story public, draw attention to it with the help of interesting publications in the media. A reputation based on nothing is not convincing. A rich history shows that the organization has earned its reputation: it worked hard, quickly rebuilt following changing conditions, experienced ups and downs, showed resistance to negative influences, that is, its success is natural.
Reputation of the first persons. Nothing can be done, but the reputation of the first persons is projected onto the reputation of the entire organization. This rule is true even for a huge company with thousands of people (remember the examples of Anatoly Chubais or Yevgeny Chichvarkin), not to mention a small office, the director of which is its "face". Therefore, taking care of the reputation of his company, the manager must first of all take care of his own reputation. An organization will not develop a reliable reputation if its leader is constantly late for meetings with clients, "forgets" about agreements, and makes scandalous statements in the press. So the process of building a reputation, the manager should start not with the staff, but with himself.
Compliance with expectations. What matters most to customers is where it makes sense to focus on. If reliability is the main thing for a strategic client, then all efforts should be directed to this. If service is more important, then all efforts should be thrown at ensuring that customers say: "They have the best service." If the quality: "They care so much about the quality of services that they are ready to return the money to anyone who is not satisfied with it." That is, it is important to accurately determine the leading need of a strategic client and focus all efforts on its implementation.
Compliance of cases with the declared policy. With the conscious formation and maintenance of reputation, one cannot do without the creation of an information policy - a special document where a description of the reputation that should be formed among various target audiences is clearly recorded. In addition, the document indicates the mechanisms that work to build such a reputation. For example, the organization claims that it is reliable, and in confirmation publishes an annual review, which shows that during the year there was not a single refusal to consider documents. Such an organization is more trusted, because its words do not diverge from deeds.
Concentration of efforts. It is much more profitable to focus efforts on one thing, and then it will inevitably "shoot", everything else is simply maintained at a positive level.
So, when managing the reputation of an organization, it is important to remember this rule: what is different is remembered. In our case, it is different from all other companies and organizations. Market players with a strong reputation are always the best. They say about them: they have the latest developments, they have the best specialists, they have the best laboratory... This is what we should strive for!
The tone of references is analyzed. For this, the tools of the system of analytics of mentions in the media and social networks are used, for example, . All mentions of the client's brand and competitors for at least the last year are studied, the number of positive, negative, neutral messages is estimated. An understanding is formed at what level the customer is relative to competitors.
With the help of the system, the behavior of the target audience on the Internet is studied. A user portrait is collected based on statements and profile data in different social networks.
Let's analyze the case of a baby food manufacturer. Its audience is young mothers. In this case, the profiles of all young mothers are found in social networks based on open information and analysis of what the user writes in statements. Those who left messages that they are young mothers were included in the list. In addition, authoritative platforms for the selected audience are analyzed. From there, you can also get a list of young mothers. After that, the distribution of interests is built. After that, it becomes clear what hobbies the audience has, opinion leaders and the most authoritative resources are determined.
A list of sites that the target audience visits and is used by competitors to generate traffic is compiled. 5-10 competitors are analyzed. External sources are studied separately. In addition to the sites themselves, it is taken into account what message the competitors carry on these sites. It can be video, infographics, content. The most successful formats of interaction with the audience on these sites are recorded.
Issuance by brand queries is analyzed. This is necessary to study the tone of brand mentions.
Denis Shubenok: “Such a detailed preliminary analysis allows you to build a content strategy, focusing not on a hypothesis, but on the exact knowledge that there is a target audience on the selected sites. Thus, by spending more time on analytics, we will be able to spend a smaller budget on content distribution in the future. We will know for sure and hit exactly in those areas that are the most effective.”
Drawing up a content plan
The development of a content plan begins with the preparation of topics. Topics are compiled on the basis of a large amount of data. For example, based on feedback from the audience, based on in-depth interviews, based on focus groups, based on statements. Trends, seasonality, important areas of the client's business are taken into account. The content plan prioritizes. When drawing up a content plan, it is important to consider the following fact:
Denis Shubenok: “When analyzing the positive and negative on the Internet, we begin to understand that about 70-80% of the negative about a given product or brand is concentrated around 5-10 topics. Users do not write negative about 100 different topics”
As a rule, there are leading themes. Users write both negative and positive about them. It is important to highlight these trends in order to understand where to start. The main content should be written in response to established trends. This will cover most user questions and will be distributed most efficiently.
In the case with the baby food factory, there were only four main topics.
In the example, three leading themes are clearly visible. You need to start with them. Bloggers are getting involved, a content marketing campaign is being launched on the topic of creating baby food in Russia. The leitmotif is that there are no problems with the production of baby food in Russia. This is a far-fetched myth, and it is most likely created by competitors. There are uniform world standards.
So, with the help of a variety of content, the audience is informed that Russian production is even better than in Europe. Thus, all negative topics are worked out at the client. That is, for each comment, an unfounded answer in the spirit of “our food is good” is not written. A systematic, saturation with information and the creation of a database with content are being carried out. It includes articles on authoritative resources.
Positive is also worked out to strengthen the positive attitude of the target audience. You can use comparative materials that highlight the advantages of the brand relative to competitors. The task is to spread as much positive as possible on the most trendy things.
Denis Shubenok: “It is very important to develop neutral content. It may be quite a lot. Often it is associated with promotions, charity, or just people asking about product selection. It may just be a statement of fact. We need to try to translate neutral statements into positive ones by opening the conversation, asking questions, holding actions.
Promotions work well. For example, asking them not just to write hashtags, but to tell a detailed story about why you use this product. So that users read the content not in a neutral way, but in a positive way.
Communication with the audience is analyzed separately. This includes the analysis of social networks, external resources where the agency or client makes placements. The involvement of the audience in the discussions is assessed. It is determined what type and subject of content most involve the target audience in the dialogue. The most effective formats and topics are fixed, and a content plan is drawn up based on them.
Distribution mechanisms, production and delivery
Distribution mechanisms are built on the basis of all the information that has been collected previously. There are three types of content delivery: brand sites, viral effect, paid traffic.
At this stage, a plan is drawn up on what and how to place, KPI is predicted for each channel and the budget.
After that, the production and delivery of content starts directly. The results are analyzed. The most effective methods are determined, the cycle is repeated.
In the case being analyzed: in July 2016, the formation of an information background around the brand began. Before that, a lot of negative messages appeared daily.
Gradually, the number of negative statements decreased. This made it possible, with a slight increase in the number of publications, to significantly reduce the negative trend that the client had for the past few years. The negative decreased by more than four times in six months.
The material was prepared by Denis Shubenok, Executive Director of Ashmanov & Partners.
A successful career, a successful business, sports cars, a villa in Mallorca, a Swiss bank account, a good girlfriend and a happy life start with a reputation. A good reputation opens doors that lead to a prosperous and successful life.
“A good reputation is more important than a clean shirt. A shirt can be washed, a reputation never.” Alfred Nobel
reputation of a man. reputation of a woman. It's not usually talked about, but it's important. Reputation is a fixed opinion about a person. What is yours?
In the modern world, people often forget about such an important thing as reputation. They engage in unseemly deeds, soil honor, get involved in dubious stories, hang out with all sorts of scum, appear in a negative light. And then we want to succeed and demand proper respect when it's too late.
Honor, dignity and reputation affect your life much more than you might think. People with a bad reputation are not hired, they are not dealt with, they are not respected and avoided in every possible way. How to create and maintain your own brand called "reputation"? How to maintain reputation? How to restore reputation? All about reputation.
1. Don't Get in Trouble
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to destroy it. You will treat things differently if you think about it. Warren Buffett
In any situation, keep your composure and reason. Don't get involved in questionable business, don't get drunk, don't get into fights, don't break the law. A cool head and dignity will save you from many problems in the future. Why are you in trouble with the authorities and the law? Why would you want to be seen in something obscene? Develop the habit of always keeping yourself on top, this will only benefit your reputation.
2. Watch your tongue
Leaving a certain impression about yourself, one should not forget that tomorrow they can develop into a reputation. Negative thinking, negative statements and gossip will not bring anything good in the long run. If a person carries negativity in himself, then this will quickly affect his reputation. Try not to lie. If this is revealed, then your reputation will look miserable.
3. Maintain your virtual reputation
The Internet and social networks are too firmly entwined in our lives. Many companies secretly look up the profiles of their future employees and draw certain conclusions. Girls and boys are looking for profiles of their new halves. Acquaintances, friends and companions are watching you through the Internet. Clean up your profile. Why do you want photos from drunken parties? No one needs to know that you violated paragraph 1, and behave with dignity in the future. No need for stupid statuses, quotes, commercials and other childish nonsense. A page on a social network is your face.
4. Don't hang out with trash
"If you value your own reputation, only deal with people of merit." George Washington
The ancient Greek playwright Euripides wrote: "Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are." Alcoholics, drug addicts, gopniks, girls of easy virtue, lawbreakers. You can endlessly enumerate people with whom a normal society prefers not to hobnob. Why be seen in a company where you don't belong? Remember reputation. Be friends and communicate only with those who are worthy. Stay close to successful people if you want to succeed.
5. Look after your appearance
To have a million dollars you need to look like a million dollars! An untidy appearance or cheap, tasteless clothes will tear your image to shreds. Only rogues and losers look like that. Nicely dressed and stylish people always get points for this. They are more attractive to others, they want to be friends and have business with them. Take care of your appearance or you can forget about the reputation of a successful person.
6. Behave with dignity
Respect yourself and others if they deserve it. Be friendly, keep your word, be tactful, don't be late, control your emotions. Maintain dignity in any situation.
7. Protect your reputation
Always protect your honor, dignity and your reputation. Try to "deal with" those people who are trying to undermine your image and reputation. One of my good friends said: "To restore a reputation, sometimes it is enough to give a turnip." Reputation can also be defended in court.
A successful career, a successful business, sports cars, a villa in Mallorca, a Swiss bank account, a good girlfriend and a happy life start with a reputation. First you work for your reputation, then it works for you.
It cannot be bought with money. Cannot be bartered. Do not get with the help of ingenious schemes. She is the key that opens many doors. Why is reputation so important for a business person? Do all employees need it? What does it consist of? How hard is it to earn? And is it easy to destroy?
With a joker in hand
A rule that any journalist knows: first you work for a name, then the name works for you. The same principle can be followed by any specialist in almost any field. Building a reputation takes years of hard work. But the result is worth it.
As a rule, the opinion of other people is the only information about a person that does not require verification. Therefore, it is reputation that employers and clients tend to believe, and it is she who opens the way to a successful career. “Business reputation is the “added value” of a professional in the labor market, earning which he receives a number of privileges,” says Anna Prostomolotova, PR manager at the Beagle recruiting company.
“There are examples of cases, - says expert Maria Silina, head of the department “Recruitment for the market of consumer goods (FMCG)”, “Contact Agency”, - when people have achieved such fame that they are known not only in the companies where they worked before but throughout the market.
Reputation in the hands of a business person is like a joker in a combination of skills, knowledge and experience. Such an employee has the ability to break the bank.
Who needs it?
There is a widespread belief that reputation is important mainly for directors, because they are more likely than others to be in the spotlight. Their decisions have far-reaching consequences. Any success or failure of a leading leader causes a wide resonance. “Such extra-cases can be both positive and negative, and, as a rule, this happens to people who occupy top positions,” confirms Maria Silina.
Does this mean that professional reputation is not important for line employees? “Business reputation is also necessary for those employees who do not interact with an external audience. An employee who has the image of a professional in his field can be recommended to recruiters, and the chances that he will be lured to a position with more interesting conditions increase significantly,” Anna Prostomolotova believes.
It is known, for example, that the reputation of a good proofreader is spread among potential employers through word of mouth. So even in the most modest position, you can and should create a reputation.
Philosopher's Stone Recipe
How to create a reputation? Are there any rules here? What is required in order to enjoy the glory of the "gold" employee? “To create a business reputation, the following factors are necessary: high professionalism, strong personal qualities, the ability to present oneself,” says Anna Prostomolotova.
Maria Silina also considers professionalism to be the key to a good reputation: “A person is glorified by his pronounced professional results.” The expert gave an example: “One of the candidates with whom we worked earlier came to a top position in a small Western company at the stage of its existence, when it still occupied a very small share in the Russian market. At that time in our country there were favorable economic conditions for business development, many companies managed to achieve good results in their work. Nevertheless, it was thanks to this man that his company took a leading position in its market in a few years. This person had an incredibly positive business reputation, thanks to which, after a while, he was offered a job in another company on much more favorable terms for him.
As you know, professional achievements are based on hard work and purposefulness. To be in good standing, you should perform your duties with high quality. You need to work year after year, because one of the most important components of reputation is professional experience. Even if you are not a top manager, you can make a name for yourself as an experienced and impeccable employee with all the ensuing consequences.
But personal qualities are equally important. To maintain a reputation, a professional must manage his character, and never vice versa. “There is a main rule - in no case should you come into conflict with your colleagues, especially with management. The importance of the system of relationships in the work team should not be underestimated. Everyone has conflict situations. Often we are not the one who initiates them. Faced with such a problem, one should try to minimize the consequences and find a compromise. We should never forget about the need to comply with the rules of business ethics, even if the exit from the company does not go smoothly,” advises Maria Silina.
One of the recipes for a good reputation is respect for yourself and others. One of the subway foremen (by the way, a strong-willed, rude and unceremonious woman) took a dislike to the cashiers of one of the stations. In their reports, she sought out and found a huge number of small errors that are almost inevitable in their work, wrote denunciations to the authorities and called the station a “shame”. Many employees could not stand her reprimands and quit. But the senior cashier, although she was a temperamental woman, behaved with dignity and did not respond to the foreman's attacks with either servility or rudeness. By this, she ensured that the head of the station often, albeit in words, took her side in conflicts. Soon, despite the efforts of the foreman, the station was recognized as exemplary.
The skill of presenting oneself lies in the ability to match the situation. What in the USA is called “impression management” is the ability to make the right impression on different people. Naturally, each profession has its own requirements for appearance, behavior, character, etc. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the importance of the first impression: impression, it is quite difficult to rehabilitate in the eyes of the audience, ”says Anna Prostomolotova. So, for example, an indicator of a professional who works with calculations is the logic of judgments and a neat appearance. Under these conditions, for example, an accountant and, contrary to stereotypes, a programmer, have a chance for a successful interview, even if he works from home. From the account manager, who spends most of the time in communication with people, sociability and a positive attitude are expected. These requirements are often specifically specified in the requirements for applicants.
Destroying is easier than creating
You can talk for a long time about how to ruin a reputation. But is it worth it? There are a lot of ways, and humanity is constantly inventing new ones. Donald Trump said that a reputation can be earned twenty years and lost in five minutes. “Reputation is earned over the years, but to ruin it, one wrong step is enough, and there are a lot of options. It is enough to lose sight of one of its components and the whole picture will be lost, ”Anna Prostomolova agrees.
The main thing to remember is that not everything that is allowed in your free time is welcome at work. The professional sphere is merciless to those who project their shortcomings onto it. For example, if an employee likes to drink or shows unhealthy attention to the opposite sex, management may not care. But if something like this happens in the office, then such antics will not get away with even a big boss.
Oftentimes, the responsibility lies with the management. Therefore, the leader must be especially attentive to his behavior. Anna Prostomolotova says this: “There are many cases (mostly small organizations) when the entire PR of a company is based on the image of its first person, and the manager spends most of his efforts on creating it. Of course, this attracts customers, but among them there are those who want to know what is really behind the big words. Therefore, business reputation must always be confirmed by deep personal expertise and professional experience - without this, the “soap bubble” bursts, disappointment and loss of trust set in.”
Social networks pose some danger. It is no coincidence that there are a lot of tips on the web on how to ruin your reputation on Twitter, Facebook, etc. If your boss, colleagues or clients can view your page, then it is better to think twice before posting reprehensible photos or using obscene language. Even if your behavior does not affect the work, the impression can be spoiled for a long time.
The purest reputation can be soiled once and for all. You cannot leave a job where you are not well known in order to start a career from scratch. “All self-respecting employers must check the recommendations for their candidates, and this will not necessarily be a conversation with the person whom the candidate indicated as a recommender. The market is not as big as it might seem, and it is quite possible that the potential leader knows someone from the candidate's previous job very well,” warns Maria Silina. It follows from this that it is better to protect honor, including professional, from an early age!
Vladimir Kosykh, managing partner of the PR agency InMar Relations
When and why you need a reputation
Among the owners and top managers of domestic companies, there is a fairly widespread belief that in Russia, due to the “specific” conditions for doing business, it is at least useless to deal with reputation. And given the fact that the money spent on reputation could be used more efficiently to finance other lines of business, it is even harmful.
Along with the objective reasons for such an attitude to reputation - the instability of the business and political environment (and, as a result, the complexity of long-term planning); high level of corruption (on many issues it is easier to “agree”), etc.
There is also a subjective reason - it seems that everyone knows about reputation, it seems that everyone understands what it is, but at the same time, few people can briefly and clearly articulate what reputation is after all and what REAL benefits it can bring to business.
But at the same time, many enterprises had to deal with some of the problems listed below:
* In the event of a crisis situation: an accident at the enterprise (especially with human casualties and / or environmental pollution); production failure (with subsequent problems with product quality); dissemination of negative information in the media, etc. - sales volumes are falling sharply, doing business is becoming more difficult due to an increase in the number of various checks, relations with suppliers and dealers are deteriorating (up to termination).
* High employee turnover and the need for regular salary increases to retain employees.
* Consumers immediately believe any negative information about the company and its products, while positive ones are treated with distrust.
* Dealers are distrustful of suppliers, believing that the supplier company is not interested in long-term relationships. And as a result, they do not want to develop any exclusive forms of cooperation.
And hardly anyone will argue with the fact that a company that “can” reduce the costs of solving the problems described above and a number of similar problems will gain an advantage in the competition, its business will be more stable and more profitable. Even in the conditions of unstable Russian reality.
It is clear from the title that all these problems will be further proposed to be solved by working with reputation. But before suggesting how to manage reputation, a definition that is convenient for work will be proposed and an approach to assessing the benefits of reputation for business will be described.
Without a clear understanding (at all levels of management) of what reputation is, what is its use for the enterprise, and reputation assessment methods, one can only imitate vigorous activity, but not manage reputation.
But before we can evaluate (and manage) reputation, we need to sort out the confusion about evaluating the effectiveness of corporate communications.
Business Communications Groups
Many works on evaluating the effectiveness of PR activity immediately try to answer the questions “what to evaluate” and “how to evaluate”. In my opinion, it will not be possible to answer these questions in a general way until the questions “what is the use of PR activities for the company’s business activities” and “how to separate the effect of PR from other types of business communications” are worked out.
To make it easier to separate the effects of PR from other communications, it is proposed not to separate one from the other, but, on the contrary, for convenience, “mix” them, dividing business communications into groups not by types of communications, but by the effects that communications have:
* Sales support. The communications of this group "work", influencing such communication indicators as fame, awareness of the product/brand/company, the desire to make a purchase during the promotion.
* Strategic communications. The communications of this group "work" by influencing the information background of the company's business: the perception of the product/brand/company (positioning, image, brand promise), stereotypes/beliefs, fashion.
* Building trust. Such communication indicators as reputation and building relationships are responsible for trust in business.
To achieve tasks belonging to different groups, the same communication channels can be used (regardless of the traditional channel classification). With this division, sales support is the responsibility of the marketing department, building trust is the responsibility of the PR department, and strategic communications are the joint responsibility of these two departments.
Strategic communications solve sales problems only indirectly, they are usually aimed at maintaining the long-term success of the business. For example, to maintain consumer loyalty, to create a fashion for a healthy lifestyle (for a chain of fitness rooms) or for the sexuality of women's smoking (for a cigarette manufacturer). The study of brand perception, positioning, stereotypes has been sufficiently developed in branding and strategic marketing, and in order to evaluate the effectiveness, these indicators must be "tied" to the dynamics of market share over a long period.
And with the “Formation of trust” group, difficulties begin. It is clear that a good reputation and established relationships somehow contribute to the successful conduct of business. But, unlike the other two groups of business communications, it is not entirely clear how to measure reputation and "well-established" relationships and what exactly these indicators affect in business.
There is excellent work on relationship evaluation by Linda Childers Hohn and James Groening. Therefore, only the approach to assessing the reputational component of trust communications is described below.
What is reputation
There are hardly fewer definitions of the term "reputation" than "marketing", "public relations", etc. In this paper, it is proposed, without lengthy justification, to adopt a definition that is convenient for subsequent work:
Reputation is a forecast by the target audience of the behavior of the company / individual based on the available information, experience, impressions and perceptions of the target audience.
Or in other words, it is an assessment of the FUTURE "health" and behavior based on information about the PAST, i.e. a forecast, "predictability" of the company's behavior in a positive or negative sense, whether it is worth dealing with it in the future. If the consumer needs the product only “for now” and the relationship will not be continued in the future, then the product will be selected only on the basis of price, perception of other characteristics of the product and attitude to the brand, we are not talking about reputation.
To put it simply, reputation is synonymous with predictability, unlike image - impression (perception).
In this interpretation, reputation is precisely the behavioral assessment of the subject. For example, I buy a gadget that is not officially sold in Russia. I am aware that if it fails, I will not be able to return it, nor will I receive a corporate service. In this situation, the reputation of the company does not bother me. I only choose based on the characteristics of the product. Moreover, the characteristics are not necessarily physical, they may well be status, fashion, etc. And, thanks to the brand, these characteristics can be not only real (which I know for sure), but also expected (which I assume the product of this brand) .
But if, after making a purchase, the consumer has to continue interacting with the manufacturer (service, exchange, return, etc.), then the consumer will also take into account the reputation of the manufacturer in his choice. How does the manufacturer behave in different situations? Will it be on the market at all or will it close after some time, and the consumer will be left without spare parts and service? What will be the dynamics of the service? And the more important this "behavioral" component of the quality of the goods, the more important the reputation of the enterprise's business is for the buyer.
It must be understood that reputation is an assessment of future behavior, but it is by no means done only on the basis of the past behavior of the assessed, as is commonly believed. When forecasting, almost any information about the subject and the experience of interactions with him is used: his past behavior (based on personal experience and assessments of others, in particular media assessments), what and how he says, how he looks, what is the quality and price of his products, etc. P.
Reputation effect groups
Well, if we take the proposed definition of reputation as a basis, then the impact of reputation on business can be divided into two groups of effects:
* Attribute effects - the impact of reputation on competitiveness as one of the characteristics of the product. Products / services of a company with a good reputation are more competitive (better "sell").
* Cognitive effects - the impact of reputation on the processing of new information about the company. The target audience perceives new information about the company with greater confidence if this information corresponds to the established reputation.
Due to the cognitive effects of a company with a good reputation, less effort is needed to convince the target audience of the reliability of positive information (corresponding reputation), and losses in the event of negative information (contradictory reputation) will be less. The target audience simply will not believe in the reliability of negative information or will treat the situation with understanding, “thinking up” a reason why negative news can be left without consequences. In contrast to a negative reputation, when the target audience can not only believe, but also invent everything they consider possible and “fit” it into a negative situation.
For example, if the target audience is already (without additional negative news) sure that mobile operator X is stealing money from its subscribers, then any new negative information on this topic will be perceived as reliable. And it can increase the outflow of subscribers. And if subscribers are confident in the honesty of the mobile operator, then the target audience will perceive negative information about the theft of money either as unreliable, or interpret it as a single mistake and / or as intrigues of competitors.
Or if the reputation of the authorities is such that the target audience is confident in the readiness of the authorities to falsify the elections, then any information (the most unreliable) about falsification will be perceived and distributed by the TA as reliable, and all facts confirming the honesty of the elections will be dismissed as lies.
Assessment of the attributive component
To assess the attributive component of reputation, it is necessary “only” to assess what contribution the reputation of the brand/company makes to the choice of goods, all other things being equal, for example, with absolutely equal product parameters, which brand the consumer will choose. The larger this component, the better the reputation.
It is necessary to evaluate the attributive component of reputation as a percentage (comparing competitiveness), and then convert it into money, discounting financial flows. But at the same time, it must be remembered that reputation is not only sales, but also a “valuable fur” of non-marketing business advantages: lower costs for attracting and retaining staff, cheaper credit resources, etc. factors that also need to be taken into account when assessing the benefits of reputation . All these “additional” factors also need to be converted into money, assessed at least at the expert level.
To assess such effects, technologies from “adjacent” areas can be taken as a basis: competitiveness assessment, development of a consumer choice model, branding, etc. In my opinion, conjoint (joint) analysis technologies, the Saaty hierarchy analysis method, the Kano method and so on.
Assessment of the cognitive component
With the cognitive component is more difficult. First of all, companies often do not even realize such a benefit of reputation for business. Because of this, the importance of reputation for business can be “underestimated”. Secondly, it follows from the definition that each time, in order to assess reputation, it is necessary to disseminate positive or negative information and evaluate the reaction of the target audience. The better the reputation, the lower the losses (including financial ones) from negative information and crises, and the higher the positive effect of good news (or, at least, the lower the cost of convincing them of their authenticity).
With the procedure for assessing the effect of positive information, the only problem is that the assessment requires serious, significant events that do not happen very often. And in order to assess the effect, it is necessary to "adjust" such news to the time of the assessment. I want to reduce the amount of negative information and crises to a minimum, and I certainly don’t want to arrange a crisis on my own in order to assess how the company’s reputation is ready for it.
In order not to “tie” the reputation assessment to events (which occur irregularly), it is proposed to track the change in reputation based on calculations of the probable financial position of the company in the event of various positive and negative events. And the data for the calculations are surveys and expert assessments.
For negative events, it is necessary to determine the most probable threats (crisis situations), possible losses and what these losses depend on, on the actions of which groups of people (stakeholders). After that, it is necessary to make a forecast of the behavior of these stakeholders in different types of crisis. How many percent of stakeholders will believe in this or that negative information and how will they behave in this case? Will they continue to cooperate with the company (will they change the terms of cooperation) or not? Tracking the dynamics of likely behavior in the implementation of threats, we can draw a conclusion about the quality of work to strengthen the reputation. The smaller the percentage of those who will be inclined to change their behavior to negative, the better the reputation.
For positive events, a list of probable (and expected in the near future) events, impact on the company, groups of influence (stakeholders) is similarly determined. And on the basis of expert assessments and surveys of stakeholders, a forecast is made of their impact on changes in the financial position of the company in the event that the expected events come true. The general formula for assessing the impact of positive and negative events is as follows: IMPACT OF THE EVENT = PROBABILITY OF THE EVENT * PERCENTAGE OF CHANGE * CONTRIBUTION OF THE AUDIENCE.
PROBABILITY of an event- probability of realization of this event .
PERCENT change- by what percent will the conditions change if this event occurs. If this is sales, then how many percent of consumers involved in the crisis will refuse the company's products. Or vice versa, how many new consumers will be attracted by positive information. If a bank loan, then by what percentage will its conditions worsen/improve for the company, etc.
Audience CONTRIBUTION- the contribution made by the audience to the financial flow of the company before the event . In addition to the actual sales volumes, it is necessary to take into account the cost of access to various resources (financial, labor, administrative, etc.).
And in order to estimate the total size of possible changes, you need to sum up the changes from all events.
In fact, the real formula is more complicated, because for each threat in the sum, it must be taken into account that the percentage of change and contribution for each audience will be different, i.e. for the i-th event, the sum of products for the j-th audience appears. But there are more humanitarians in PR. This is probably why in the first version of the formula even the sign of the sum (Σ) caused difficulties. As a result, the formula is made as simple as possible. To understand the general idea, it is enough, and those who see that the formula lacks components are great, but in this case they are quite capable of inventing the missing components themselves.
And you also need to understand that this is the formula for the first event. After the event, not only the financial flow changes, but also the reputational capital. And the reaction to each next event will determine the reputational capital of the stroke (taking into account the changes made by the previous event).
The proposed approach, in addition to the actual ability to evaluate the reputation in money, is also useful in that it allows you to make the development of measures to strengthen the reputation more methodical and with clear benefits for business. Below are not even examples, but rather a very general plan for such work.
Development sequence
The sequence of developing a reputation strategy according to the proposed scheme is as follows:
1. Determine the groups of possible events that affect the company's activities. For example:
* Production.
* Public organizations.
* Top management and owners.
* Residents of the territories where the industrial sites of the enterprise are located.
* Staff.
* Partners, suppliers, etc.
* Etc. (groups above are given only as an example, for each business, event groups are individual).
2. In each group of events, develop a list of the most likely (and most significant for business) events. For example, for some groups, the events might be:
* Problems in production: accidents, equipment failures, low-quality batch of goods put on the market, etc.
* Positive changes in production: new equipment/technology, commissioning of new capacities (in principle, these events can be considered positive, but if the reputation is bad, then these events can be interpreted as negative, there were examples in practice).
* Top management: change in the composition of top managers and the composition of owners (can be interpreted both positively and negatively, up to a crisis), hostile takeover attempts (can be supported by stakeholders, and vice versa).
* Personnel: salary cuts, layoffs, strikes, a possible change of job (it can be considered that this event occurs almost permanently for most employees, and it is necessary that employees decide to stay at the enterprise), etc.
* Market: change (growth or fall) in market share, entry of a new competitor, introduction of a new product by a competitor or enterprise, change in pricing policy, change in the usual market for a product, etc.
3. For each event, determine the possible consequences for the business.
* An industrial accident (with casualties among personnel and / or with the release of harmful substances into the atmosphere) can affect the business as follows:
Protest actions and strikes among the personnel (at the emergency enterprise and possibly at other enterprises of the same owner).
Protests by the families of injured employees.
The exodus of employees from the enterprise.
Sanctions of the authorities (fines, tougher requirements for production, termination of contracts, etc.), etc.
* Unscheduled inspections of regulatory authorities.
* Decline in sales (if the company operates in the consumer market).
* Decrease in the value of the company (if it is listed on the stock market).
* Commissioning of new industrial capacities (new production) may lead to:
Change in sales volumes (both increase and decrease).
Connecting the administrative resource of the regional administration to resolve issues at the local level (but also possible sanctions from the authorities of the neighboring region).
Change of working conditions with suppliers and corporate consumers.
4. For each impact, the groups involved are determined, on which the size of the changes in the financial flow for the business depends. For example.
