Building brand reputation has always been a top priority for PR and marketing communications executives. But in our multichannel communications world it has become increasingly important. Customers can communicate their experience with your brand immediately, to a potential audience of millions.
Perception is reality, today more than ever before, and brand reputation can make or break a business. So, how do you build trust in your brand, enhance brand reputation and communicate that to stakeholders effectively and efficiently?
PR News asked this basic question on Facebook: How Does a Brand Build Trust? We received some interesting replies.
Elena Canty quoted Mark Twain: "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.” That call for honesty was a theme many Facebook fans touched on, as Andrea Thrubis replied “Honesty and integrity” and Francisco G. III chimed in, “With integrity.”
Transparency was an oft-invoked quality for brand building, and one that builds on the honesty theme. Obviously, it’s hard to be dishonest when transparency is the order of the day. When PR News asked the same question on Twitter, Boris Cho expanded on the transparency theme, tweeting: @PRNews Brands build trust with accessibility, transparency, and benevolence. Brand-trust leads to brand-loyalty, then brand-extension.
Katie McManus Campbell pointed out that brand building should be part of an overall company culture as she replied “The brand doesn't inherently, the people do.” Several of PR News' Facebook users pointed out, in various ways, that brand building is an holistic, companywide activity.
For the full list of responses, please click here. For the responses via Twitter, click here.
Follow Brian W. Kelly: @bwpkelly