More than just a label, the right reputation is an intangible strength that attracts customers and retains employees, driving growth. In other words, it is the key to success for any organization. On the topic of reputation and business, our Director of ATREVIA Portugal, Daniela Agra, discusses in O Jornal Económico: “Reputation building and management have acquired a fluid, integrated, and multidisciplinary character. In an era where consumers literally have power at their fingertips, and where the destabilization, or even destruction, of a brand can be just a click away, the same channels that created the ‘cancel culture’ are those that allow brands to rapidly expand in a global context and create close relationships. Never before has it been possible to strategically and highly segmented engage with your audiences.
As companies increasingly build and develop within the digital ecosystem, online reputation is also gaining unprecedented importance. The report ‘Making Sense of Our Place in the Digital Reputation Economy’ by Kaspersky reveals that 49% of respondents from the Asia-Pacific region said they checked brands’ social media channels before making a purchase, and 48% avoided brands that had been involved in a crisis or had received negative online news coverage.
In the digital age, change is rapid and constant, requiring an enormous capacity to adapt to new contexts—if TikTok is an excellent example of how brands have opened up to new ways of communicating based on user-generated content, Artificial Intelligence is redefining the rules of the game—along with greater management effort, to protect and strengthen, in real time, the image of organizations.
Today, more than ever, reputation management requires solid foundations, transparency, and a robust, cross-functional identity and vision. It is not enough to appear to be; it is necessary to be what is communicated, and to capitalize on the tools of the digital age to consolidate and enhance this construction, through pillars such as:
- Communication: the bridge to trust
Communication is the bridge that allows building a relationship of trust between brands and their audiences. If strategy and creativity are the foundations of transparent, close, and human communication, where the brand’s purpose is manifested in concrete actions, aligned and coherent, transparency and ethics are non-negotiable pillars, and communication must clearly convey them.
- Monitoring and adaptation: the antennas of success
The practice of active listening emerges as an undeniable imperative in the volatile context of public opinion, allowing, in this immediate era, to adjust messages, anticipate crises, and effectively manage the perception of the brand among its audiences, and align its activity with the needs and expectations of its audiences, in constant evolution.
- Transforming customers into ambassadors
When customers become ambassadors of a brand, by aligning with the brand’s values and vision, its reputation is strengthened. For this reason, going beyond the sales process and fostering consumer participation in brand experiences, stimulating the exchange of stories, online and offline, and creating a rich and interactive community are essential keys to a brand’s success in the digital age.
- Internal Communication: The Invisible Force
Internal communication is the foundation of all organizational culture, and the invisible force that builds and consolidates a company’s identity, promoting unity, motivation, and the integration of teams, reducing the distance between management and employees to promote greater corporate cohesion. Efficient and productive communication with employees transforms them into active agents in building the company’s image.
- Artificial Intelligence with soul: a tool for success
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly asserted itself as an important tool for competitiveness, with strong potential in various business processes. In the field of reputation, AI not only improves communication but also revolutionizes, for example, customer contact. However, in this context, it is imperative to privilege the essence and authenticity of the brand, and the human character of interactions.
These are just some of the possibilities to explore in the field of reputation building and management, a process that is constantly changing and requires that managers, as leaders of this process, have strong resilience and a forward-looking vision. Brands are made of and for people, so the development of human potential, as advocated by Jim Kwik in ‘Limitless,’ is fundamental here.
Reputation, when cared for and cultivated, is an essential asset for the success of organizations in the full technological era. Through solid values and transparent, ethical, and integrated communication, it is possible to exploit the new emerging tools to build an image that propels organizations toward the future that is being built today, leaving their mark on the world.”
