Brand reputation is an asset every company has that can be good or bad.

A company can gain great benefits from its brand reputation, ultimately increasing the bottom line, but it can also have vast consequences if its reputation is damaged.

Let’s look closer at what a brand reputation is, why it’s important for any business, how it can be built up, and how it can be protected against threats.

What is a brand reputation?

A brand reputation is the reputation of a brand. If it’s a good reputation, it can be one of the most valuable assets a company can have. Conversely, if it’s bad, it can be a huge disadvantage. Unlike other assets in the world of business, a brand reputation is more difficult to measure in numbers.

That’s because a brand reputation lives inside the mind of the people who perceive it. Some people may like it, others not so much, and it can change in an instant – for better or for worse. Though a brand’s reputation isn’t measurable like other metrics, it is possible to estimate whether a brand’s reputation is good or bad.

How to measure a brand’s reputation

The strength of a brand reputation can be estimated with both quantitative and qualitative data. 

How Brussels Airlines got a great reputation

In 2014, the largest Ebola outbreak ever happened in West Africa. Shortly after, airlines across the globe halted flights to the area, citing a concern of spreading the disease. However, one small airline chose to keep the flights going – Brussels Airlines. 

“It is our humanitarian duty to operate there,” Geert Sciot, vice president at Brussels Airlines, told Time. “Without our fights it would become almost impossible for medical staff to reach the country.” 

Brussels Airlines was the only commercial airline in the world that continued normal operations to make sure doctors, nurses, and medical supplies reached the area. The Belgian company was praised by The White House and by the public for their effort and added a ton of goodwill to their name.

How Temu doesn’t have the best of brand reputations

The increasing importance of a good brand reputation

Brand reputation is becoming increasingly important for any company. This is due to several factors, but two central reasons can be highlighted.

How to build up a great brand reputation

There’s an important difference between building a great brand and building a great brand reputation. Building a great brand can be controlled – building brand reputation can only be managed. That is because you can control your brand’s story, values, and visual identity, but you cannot control how it’s perceived.  

A good starting point for building a great brand reputation is a great brand. That includes choosing a fitting name, designing a nice logo, and making quality products. However, as the focus is on building brand reputation, let’s zoom in on how brands can improve their brand reputation through brand reputation management.

How to do brand reputation management

A key aspect of brand reputation management is understanding reputational threats as there are several factors that can damage a brand’s reputation. Let’s look at a few of them and include some real life examples of why it can be a disadvantage.

1. Inconsistent branding: If a company has a visual identity that keeps shifting, it will not only be difficult to achieve brand recognition. It can also be perceived as unprofessional by the customer base, as it can be interpreted as a sign that this brand is not in control.
2. Inappropriate associations: Brands can experience reputational damage as a result of being associated with something negative. Sometimes, this association can be due to incompetence, while other times it just be unlucky. 
   
   An example of an unlucky, inappropriate association comes from the Danish ice cream company ISIS. Though taken the name after an Egyptian goddess, once a certain group claimed it worldwide, the ice cream company became the center of ridicule and scrambled to rebrand. Luckily, they managed to get over the ordeal by changing the name to EASIS. 
   
   Inappropriate associations can also be deliberate, and these can have way bigger consequences. More than a thousand large companies are currently being featured on LeaveRussia.org. Some of these include Nestlé, Unilever, PepsiCo, and Mars that are also featured on Ukraine’s not-so-prominent list ‘Sponsors of War’. 
3. Scandals: PR crises come in many shapes, and some turn into scandals which can bring boycotts with them and do serious long-term damage to brands. The BP oil crisis in 2010, also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is an example of this. The oil spill was one of the worst environmental disasters in history that caused one of the worst cases of reputational damage the world has ever seen. 
   
   BP, the brand that became the face of the disaster, was held responsible for the oil spill and subsequent massive loss of marine life. This led to boycotts and public anger towards the company. Despite rebranding efforts, BP hasn’t succeeded in shaking off the reputation as a brand that caused a serious environmental catastrophe.

Protect your brand against reputational risk

Reputational risk is a top concern among CEOs, a survey conducted by consulting company KPMG in 2022 showed. In order to mitigate this risk, companies can establish measures to protect their brand:

1. Identify reputational risks: Threats to your brand can appear in the blink of an eye anywhere in the world. One complaint or bad customer story that goes viral can have a huge negative impact on brand reputation. It is impossible to manually scan all web sources like social media and review sites for indicators of a looming PR crisis. By setting up monitoring software like Google Alerts, mentions of your brand will trigger a notification so that you are kept in the loop about what people say about your brand.
2. Maintain a consistent identity: Threats to your brand that suddenly appear are what most professionals think of as reputational threats. However, there’s an often overlooked risk that is silently killing brand reputations. When marketers post content to social platforms, sales people send out proposals or accountants file reports, it is often managed on the individual’s computer. This leads to inconsistencies in not just the visual identity of the brand, but every aspect of how the company wants to be perceived.
   
   Platforms like Templafy allows enterprises to centrally manage brand assets, ensuring consistency and compliance to maintain, protect and enhance the brand’s reputation. “Templafy saves our employees a lot of time, and the branding team can be more certain that content coming from Ramboll is in line with our brand guidelines” says Roos Nederveen, Senior Consultant, Corporate Branding at Ramboll.

Start protecting your brand’s reputation – get started using Templafy today

Reputational threats can come from anywhere – social media, news sites, customer reviews, and many other places depending on the brand.

However, something that all brands, no matter the industry, have to do to protect their reputation is to ensure consistency and compliance in their branding efforts.

Templafy is the go-to platform for that. Schedule a demo today and start protecting your brand!