Companies with Purpose Yield Brand Strength and Strong Reputation

We recently published a case study detailing the relationship between a company’s brand strength and reputation. The focus of this study was based on an understanding of corporate brand purpose and how it can impact reputation. Organizations that fully activate their purpose – and leverage it as a rudder and rallying cry for decision-making based on what they ‘Do-Say-and-Are,’ are more likely to garner higher levels of brand strength, and subsequently, earn a much better reputation.

What is brand strength?

As derived through our RepTrak® studies and proprietary brand battery of questions, the Brand Strength Index provides us with a unique measure of the emotional power of the company’s corporate purpose. The underlying and deeply emotional perceptions of brand strength are a manifestation of the company’s actions, corporate narrative, and persona. In short, brand strength is an empirical measure and derivation of the overall perceptions of the corporation based on the trifecta of:

• What You Do: how well the company delivers a consistent experience
• What You Say: how genuine the company appears about what it says
• What You Are: how the persona of the company causes you to positively stands out from the crowd

These measures of ‘Do-Say-Are’ are at the crux of the relationship between brand and reputation. A stakeholder’s perspective of how successful the corporate brand is in relation to what we do, what we say, and what we are — relative to the stated purpose, shapes the perceptions of corporate reputation in the minds-eye.

Or put another way, the emotional underpinnings of reputation are founded on perceptions of corporate brand strength through the stakeholder eye-of-beholder.

Knowing your stakeholders is key

A clear picture of how to enhance brand strength — as the means to the end of enhancing reputation, begins with an understanding of who your most important stakeholder is — and how they view the organization. Most successful companies have a multi-stakeholder understanding of their corporate brand among consumers, employees, regulators, investors, and beyond. Meeting the expectations of the most important stakeholders and delivering on the promise of the company’s corporate brand purpose yields an enhanced reputation. But getting to an enhanced reputation through leveraging your corporate brand strength, requires a deep understanding of stakeholder perceptions based on:

• What they expect the company to do, in making the world a better place to live and through delivering on the promise of its brand experience?
• What they need to hear the company say (and have others validate) in ways that resonate and inspire them?
• How the company can leverage its culture, persona, and values to effectively engage them?

To learn more you can download our guide, "The CMO Pespective on Reputation vs. Brand" or you can contact us directly to ask questions.

  Kasper Ulf Nielsen
  Executive Partner, UK & France
  Reputation Institute