When you initially launch a business, it’s easy for an owner to overlook the importance of a brand reputation. This is partly because a new business has no brand reputation. Yet, your brand becomes increasingly important as your business grows and establishes itself.
How important can it become? It can end up on your balance sheet with a monetary value attached.
Haven’t given much thought to your brand reputation? Keep reading. We’ll cover what brand reputation is and break some of the reasons your brand reputation is so important in the long term.
What is Brand Reputation?
You can think of brand reputation as the ways in which people think and feel about your brand. That doesn’t just mean customers. It also means stakeholders, competitors, and even the stock market.
When you put all of those different perceptions together, you have your brand reputation.
Competitive Advantage
A good brand reputation can give you a competitive advantage over similar businesses. If you have an established reputation for making good products or providing good service, many customers will choose your brand over less established brands on that basis alone.
Trust
If you deal in e-commerce, your online brand reputation is all-important. You’ll likely never have direct contact with your customers. That means you must establish trust and your brand reputation is one of the best ways you can prime that pump.
It also means you must watch carefully for negative reviews on consumer complaint sites and mitigate the damage as fast as possible. Some businesses even hire reputation management services for just this purpose.
Word of Mouth Marketing
While you can encourage word-of-mouth marketing, it’s not something you can create at will like other marketing techniques or strategies. This is one place where the importance of brand reputation can play a key role.
Happy customers like associating themselves with strong, well-liked brands. It’s part of the reason why people buy luxury sedans and expensive take-out coffee. Build a brand that’s strong and well-liked, and people will talk about it to their friends.
Easier Hiring
Nobody wants to work for a company that everyone hates. Potential hires often see that negative brand reputation as a sign that employees will experience terrible treatment, whether it’s true or not.
People do want jobs at companies with strong, positive brands because they see it as a sign of a more positive and healthy work environment.
Brand Reputation and You
Your brand reputation isn’t just about what customers think of you, but about how everyone sees you. That sum total perception can play a role in a lot of different business areas.
It can affect how easy or difficult you’ll find recruitment of new employees. It can also drive word-of-mouth marketing, which is profoundly valuable for any company.
It can provide a competitive advantage over lesser-known brands. It can even help you establish trust for e-commerce, where reputation is all you have at times.
Looking for more branding tips? Check out the posts over in the Business section.