Brand Perception - Why Reputation Is Important

It's not about what you did, it's about what people think you did

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For the amount of options that are out there (or at least that seem to be out there), we all keep a selection of favorites that seems to span every bit of our lives. You have your favorite coffee shop where you order what is likely your favorite order from that shop. You have a favorite route to drive to get to work (unless you work from home, lucky you!) and park in your favorite parking spot. Lunch is made already and in tow. You made it last night... it's your favorite, made with ingredients that are... you get the idea.

What goes into making something a favorite? What brings a product, a service, a person, or a brand to the top of our minds when we think about what makes it good? Is it consistency? Attitude? Can you really pin it down considering how "Having a favorite" spans all industries?

Perhaps the more important question to address when it comes to playing favorites in the corporate sandbox is just how much power being "The Favorite" really is. How do you become "The Favorite" in your industry, how do you stay there, and is it worth it? To be the best, you need to do something better than everyone else at some point in your journey, and that will look different to every company and industry. It's usually not earned overnight either. You need to build a reputation to achieve the top spot in the minds of the masses.

In many cases, it's simply not enough to do something better than everyone else. Marketing is a powerful tool in the sense that it lets people know how great you are. It's your podium to sing your company's praises. It influences how people view your company. At the end of the day, facts are great, and both talent and ability shine through. They don't mean anything unless your customer perceives you are as the top dog. Reputation and perception are both incredibly powerful tools, but they're also double edged swords that can do just as much damage if not wielded correctly. Without both perception and reputation, that hill becomes a lot harder to climb.

So how does a company or brand go about building a reputation and influencing their brand perception? What are the benefits of doing this? And what happens if your brand perception goes sour?

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We do stuff good

Perception is everything and it's baked into everything. We as people can't help it! You probably read the header of this section a certain way, and I'm willing to bet it didn't sound smooth or graceful. This is the first and best way I can dictate that everything you as a company, business, or employee do is going to have a perception to it, good or bad, conscious or not. This is the core of why your brand's perception, from personal brand to proper mega-corporation, needs to be considered in everything you do.

To build a positive reputation, you need a positive perception. You can think of brand perception as a sort of short term reputation. It's more geared towards how people think of your brand "in the moment". It's way easier to reverse a perception than a reputation, because the reputation is a pattern. It takes time to change a pattern.

It's easy to sit here and say reputation and perception are important, but how do you build them into a positive force? Again, for me to say marketing and skill is hand-wavey at best. For small businesses, it means getting out in front of all the other competitors in your market and being aggressive in your approach to providing services. On top of that, it means hustling and working for every person or company that buys in. Small businesses are still getting off the ground, and they need to show that they are able to provide quality in all aspects (better than their larger counterparts with already established brand recognition) and that they value those that take the chance on them.

It's not just about fueling your own fire though. Online tools such as social media platforms and ratings websites allow for customer feedback at a near instant rate. This can help to propel your social stock through the roof (or bring it crashing down to earth). This in itself is an uphill battle. Why? Because we're all a bunch of grumpy complain-y people who want to tell people about how stuff is bad. We are more likely to share negative experiences. That means you need to make more people love you than not by a decently wide margin, especially early on. These customer facing tools are the quickest way to the top, but they're also the fastest way to fall. Word of mouth is powerful.

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They love us! They really love us!

It's an obvious formula... people and companies want to be associated with other people or companies that are seen as good. That means that they are more likely to procure your services if they like you and if the public likes you. Good brand perception is good for business.

AND IT TAKES A LOT OF EFFORT TO MAINTAIN

It's easy to sit here and watch as a company announces they are matching charity donations and feel like they are the best company ever! And don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing donating to charity. But if you think a company is donating to a charity to do the right thing, you are not as jaded as the rest of us. If it's not done in the name of a tax write-off (though it's a bonus), it's done for some wicked social media clout, a good commercial or two, and some celebratory banners of "Look how good we are!".

Like anything else in the media these days, it disappears quickly. Any action taken to gain positive brand perception is often out of mind within a week or two. How are you going to top it next time? How often will you try?

The good news for any company that goes through the headache is that the headache is worth it. Positive brand perception means employees can take pride in what they do and who they work for (remember that word of mouth is powerful). It also attracts prospective clients and buyers, all wanting to do business with other forces for perceived good.

Wow, you're generating morale and money now! Your reputation is up, and things are looking good! There is one other benefit though, and for a business, it's a big one...

YOU WILL NATURALLY BEGIN TO GROW

Nothing attracts positivity like positivity. Interest in your brand means you will begin attracting top talent and finding yourself competing for top billing in your industry. The result is a snowball effect that sees you careening up the ladder for as long as you can sustainably maintain your perception and reputation as "The Good Guy". This gets increasingly difficult the larger a brand grows (everyone loves an underdog), but by this point you likely have a strong reputation and perception for all the right reasons.

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Everyone disliked that

Not all ventures will lead to success, and anything that has to do with marketing will inevitably run the risk of being received poorly by those it targets. A good marketing team can minimize the risk of this happening, but no one is perfect. So what happens in this case? Your brand's perception takes a hit? Is it all over?

No, it's not.

Remember, perception is a short term thing. The shelf life of perception may be as much as a few weeks before people move on. This doesn't mean you should be reckless, but typically if you course correct quickly and get in front of whatever caused the negative perception, you'll be ok.

What you want to avoid is the pattern of bad perception. That creates a bad reputation, and people will be less likely to give you that second chance if it's really the fourth or fifth chance. Not only that, getting away from a bad reputation is much harder than keeping a good one. Again, people like to complain and dislike stuff. Don't make yourself a target. That or you can just resign yourself to being declared one of the worst companies out there and accept your fate.

So how can a bad reputation be damaging to your business? It's scary because the effect may not be immediate. Really, if you look at the list in that link from a couple lines ago, there are some pretty big (and very rich) companies that populate the lower half of the list. It can't be that bad right?

Short term, a bad reputation can see both a loss in sales and talent. Without substantial efforts to pivot, this will spell the end for any small to medium business within a relatively short time. As with anything large, it is harder to see or make change. If a large business has a lot of momentum, that will be harder to stop than a smaller business (think of it as trying to stop a bike versus a semi truck with just your hands). That being said, once that momentum turns the other direction, it's a slippery slope that's hard to recover from. Layoffs, missed targets, and further bad publicity follow if the issues are not addressed.

When things are going good, it's easy to see how you can do no wrong. When things go poorly, it will seem as if you can do no right. That's the power of reputation.

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Be the brand everyone wants to be

Perception and reputation are people focused metrics. You cannot measure your brand's "Reputation Level". There is no "Perception Quota". That being said, they have tremendous influence on the direction you or your business can go. To rise above it all and carve out a successful brand image with a positive reputation is to lock down ongoing success.

The work landscape in the 2020s is hostile. We have businesses competing against each other in ever more expensive bidding wars for screen time. We have employees fighting against each other for increasingly hard to obtain jobs. We have job prospects taking the fight to recruiters with dissatisfaction over hiring processes. We have mass layoffs and CEOs crying on social media. And we have mass layoffs that wipe the business of many of its talent at what seems like the worst time for everyone. The best thing a business can do for itself in this environment is distance itself from the fray. Become the brand everyone wants to be and lead by example. It's the best way to secure a foothold in the storm.

If nothing else, consider this. If someone came up to you and said that you as a person had a bad reputation, how would that make you feel? What if that person came to you and said that you had a great reputation? Which one felt better? Which one would you strive for? In building your brand, personal or professional, why should how you answered those questions be any different? Be the person everyone wants to be.

~IR

What do you do to ensure you're keeping your personal brand up to standard? Do you see a benefit in maintaining a positive reputation? Or maybe you just have a comment to add? Check out the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn page and let everyone know. Don't forget to follow or like the page for updates! And share this article if you feel others should give it a read!

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