Speaker 1: What's up brand builders, Stephen Horahan here at brandmasteracademy.com and in this video you're going to learn how to master brand reputation management with top strategies. So you can analyze your brand status within your target market and take influential actions to shape the brand image. Now a brand lives and dies by its reputation with its consumers. What is the public perception of the brand? What do they like or dislike about the brand? What do customers associate with the brand? How does the brand compare to its competitors in the consumer's mind? Brand reputation management is about finding answers to these questions and taking action where necessary to improve the brand image. Think about it, customers build up an idea of the brand in their minds. Now whether this brand perception is positive or negative can have a critical impact in that purchasing decision. That's why brands need to carefully monitor their reputation with their consumers since this may significantly impact their bottom line. A positive brand reputation keeps existing and loyal customers coming back and it really does influence how your brand is seen in the market and it influences the trust that you gain as well and that all feeds into brand equity. A negative brand reputation will harm customer loyalty and put potential customers off as well. Traditional media, public relations and advertising have long been tools that a brand uses to shape its perception but nowadays online reputation can make or break a brand. Businesses and brands need to monitor their online reputation in the digital space with social media, review sites and online forums playing crucial roles in shaping that brand reputation. A comprehensive brand reputation management strategy will monitor how consumers think about the brand paying particular attention to what people are saying online and in this video we're going to dive deep into brand reputation management. What is brand reputation management and how you can utilize it to influence how your brand is seen within your market. So let's start at the beginning, what is brand reputation management? Well brand reputation management means monitoring and then skillfully influencing how the audience sees your brand and how it feels about your brand influencing that overall perception of your brand within the market. Crafting a brand's reputation can take years of building relationships with consumers based on trust and that's all built from a consistency within the market so that the audience starts to understand what they're getting with your brand and they feel that they can trust your brand to come back to it time and again. Now a brand with a great reputation in the market has usually earned that reputation over many years of producing products or services that their customers want and need and then following that up with relationship building over time. However in the modern age negative sentiment can spread very very fast and positive reputation built, positive trust built over time can change quite quickly. Negative reviews, a misfired product launch or a bad customer experience can damage your brand's reputation when it's shared and talked about online. Word of mouth negativity can now spread like wildfire online leading to a brand's PR nightmare and that's why online reputation management is now critical to a brand's reputation. But what does online reputation management actually involve on a day-to-day basis? Well it means hiring teams to monitor conversations online using social listening tools. It means engaging with both negative and positive reviews to learn how consumers feel and it also means investing in content marketing and a content marketing strategy to influence how people feel about your brand as well. So let's drill down on why brand reputation management is so important. Now look having a sleek brand identity, brand assets and a striking advertising campaign to market a new product is great but it amounts to nothing if the brand can't shift a negative reputation. Brand builders today need to understand that the brand strategy needs to consider the management of that brand reputation. If a brand has a well-established positive reputation that can be the x-factor when it comes to that purchasing decision and it influences many things within the brand and within the business as well. That positive reputation can boost sales, it can inspire customer loyalty, provide a competitive edge for example. If a brand has a reputation for outstanding customer service and quality products this goes a long way to carving out a niche for the brand and to carving out a position in in the mind of the audience so that they remember what this brand is all about. They remember when they go to that purchasing decision, they're there, they're choosing their product, they know that this brand has this reputation for great customer service and quality and that can be the influential factor when it comes to that buying decision. Now another important factor with online reputation management is the cost of acquiring new customers. So you've probably heard that retaining customers is cheaper than attracting new ones. Keeping your reputation pristine via a careful reputation management strategy inspires customer retention and customer loyalty ultimately making your marketing cheaper. And look at the end of the day the more positive experiences you provide your customers with the more chances they're going to be loyal to your brand because when we have those positive experiences whether consciously or subconsciously there are positive emotions associated with that and that all plays into our ongoing decision making factors as well. Now the added advantage here is that those loyal customers go on to tell their friends, their family, their associates about your brand and that is brand advocacy and that at the end of the day is the holy grail of branding because your customers essentially turn into mini marketing machines where they're going out spreading the word of your brand based on their positive outcomes and positive experiences. So this is the most valuable PR out there, the most valuable marketing out there having your customers go out and talk to other people about your brand to promote what you do. Okay so I've covered what brand reputation management is and why it's so important but now let's get down into the weeds a little bit into the nitty-gritty about what a brand reputation management strategy actually looks like. Now the first thing to realize is that brand reputation management is never done or it's never finished. This is ongoing. The management of a brand is ongoing. It's not a set and forget. It needs to be monitored. It needs to be managed ongoing. Since the audience is always evolving, media monitoring should always be continuous as well. A brand's reputation is always in a delicate balance and can change overnight. So think of brand reputation management as this never-ending exercise. So let's go through some of the best practices for effective brand reputation management before diving into the steps of an action plan. Number one, focus on the experience. Now the days of keeping customers happy with reliable products at affordable prices are gone. With so many options available to customers, brands must offer a fantastic customer experience to boot or risk losing their customers to competitors. So what does a great customer service experience look like? Well respond to customer reviews, whether positive or negative, to show that the brand values the customer's opinions and not just those that are favorable to the brand. Maintain contact through regular surveys and collect customer feedback as well so that you're showing your customer that you actually care what they think and you want to make improvements based on what they believe. Deal with customer issues as they arise quickly. So in everything a brand does, it should be clear that the customer satisfaction is the number one priority of the brand and by taking this approach a brand can build and protect an excellent reputation that keeps customers coming back for more. Number two, take the time to master content marketing. Brand managers should look to shape the brand perception in the audience's mind and part of that role is to be on the front foot and create helpful content regularly that supports positive reputation because essentially what you're doing there is you're addressing the questions that your customers have sometimes before they even know that they have them and answering those questions so you're helping them to understand both the problem and the solution so that builds your reputation over time. This useful content can serve several purposes for a brand so it keeps the brand top of mind for customers, it establishes the brand as a trustworthy and authoritative source within the field and within the industry and it entertains, engages and educates consumers as well. Number three, personalization is key. One thing that can damage your brand's reputation is if the audience feels that interactions are impersonal or cold. As people we don't do business with corporate entities, we do business with people that we know, like and trust. Now this means that you need to constantly think of your brand as an extension of the people within it and communicate with humanity at every single touch point. Track customer data that uses information to make interactions more intimate and more personalized and this personalization should run through the company's online presence but it should also be present in any in-person interaction in any setting as well. Number four, deliver on promises. Just like in relationships, nothing hurts like a broken promise. Brand managers should follow the show don't tell philosophy and really deliver on whatever promise that they put in front of the consumer. So for example, if you say that customer service is important to you then back it up by showing consumers and customers that it is actually really important to you. If you say that you listen to online reviews, give evidence to customers that you're talking to people who have either had a positive or a negative experience from the review that they've provided. Now the other side of the coin here is that if something goes wrong and a brand has broken its promise, brand managers need to have a crisis management plan as well. There is no point in putting a promise there out into the market if you're going to break that promise but sometimes it can happen. But if the market gets wind of a broken promise then the brand needs a contingency plan in place to make sure that they communicate in the right way. Now look, a fact of life and a fact of business is that mistakes happen. We don't want them to happen but sometimes they do and a progressive brand needs to think about this. They need to think about the day when a mistake happens and you know a promise is broken and have a crisis management plan in place to show the consumer, to show the market that they're prepared to own up to any mistake that is made and do everything possible to repair that relationship between the consumer and the brand. And this is a vital step in limiting any damage to the brand reputation as well and it's all part of that brand reputation management plan. Number five, don't ignore negative feedback. So there's an old saying that your most critical customers are your best source of learning because they're telling you how you can improve your brand. So even if a brand has a stellar reputation it's unlikely that all consumers are 100% happy all of the time and that is a great way to find ways that you can improve your brand so that your reputation grows more positively. So track social media mentions of the brand name to find any instances of negative feedback and of course if there's positive feedback then celebrate the positive feedback. Show gratitude and even use that positive feedback as testimonials but absolutely do not ignore negative feedback. Address it head on and show the market that you're prepared to listen to what they have to say. As I said it's not uncommon for consumers to have a negative experience with your brand but if you don't address that negative experience or you make it worse by addressing it in the wrong way that can quickly turn nasty. If on the other hand somebody has had a negative experience with your brand and you address it in the right way you can turn a negative experience into a positive experience. So how do you implement a brand reputation management strategy? It's misleading to think of a strategy as a process of steps to be completed. As I've said before brand reputation management needs to be continuous it's ongoing it's something that you monitor all the time and you make adjustments to all the time as well. That being said businesses need to start somewhere to review the brand reputation and then to try to control the narrative of that brand online and these five steps will provide a workable outline. Number one start with where your reputation is at the moment and assess the reputation in the market. So track as many metrics across as many channels as possible to build a picture of what consumers say or think about your brand. These sources could be social media channels but they could also be in-store feedback, email messages, yelp reviews or brand survey responses. Gathering this data can help brand managers to define the risks and opportunities related to brand reputation. Number two get all stakeholders on board. So after auditing the current brand reputation it's time to loop others in. Managing brand reputation is a cross-departmental task and since many departments must collaborate to ensure customer satisfaction it's important that everybody is across the board and on the same page. Brand managers will need to share findings of a brand audit with key players in the business and those in charge of different departments will need to take that into consideration and take ownership of their role within the brand reputation management as a whole. Number three monitor. Now as I've already mentioned a vital part of reputation management is monitoring discussions about the brand. Brand builders should routinely perform sentiment analysis to understand how the target audience feels about the brand. So how much time brand managers devote to this each week or each month vary but it is essential that the manager keeps a finger on the pulse of what's going on. Obviously the bigger the brand the more time the brand manager is going to spend on this. The smaller the brand the more infrequent these monitorizations will be. Number four create a crisis response plan. Now as I've covered already no brand is immune to criticism and that criticism can quickly turn into a crisis. So take the time to really understand how this crisis can come about. So product issues leading to criticism, specific employee or branch errors, technology issues like site outages, global events and tragedies or poor experiences with disgruntled consumers. So each potential crisis requires a plan so that brands know what to do to protect the reputation. Review the task of these crises happening and what would happen in response to these types of crises and what the action plan would be as well. As a recent example during the pandemic KFC ran out of chicken. Their response was humor. Now of course this wasn't within their plan this type of crisis and exactly how to respond to this crisis but their creative department really did make the most of it. They made the best of a bad situation but it's clear to see that they had a crisis plan in place in the first place. Number five learn from processes and act on opportunities. So brand reputation management often focuses too much on the element of risk. In reality it's also about identifying and acting on opportunities. So let's say for example your monitoring activities reveal that one aspect of the brand is performing well with consumers then create some kind of content celebrating that fact or double down on what you're doing. So there is the element of understanding the risk and identifying the reputation from a negative point of view but there's also understanding the reputation from a positive point of view so you can learn from that and double down on growing that positive reputation. Now staying on brand is critical to growing your brand reputation. Ultimately branding is about creating the right perception of a business in order to make the relevant connections with the people most likely to want or buy what you have to offer. Now to do this effectively brands need to clearly define the strategy that they're going to use, the method they're going to use to communicate within the market and then consistency is the name of the game after that. Brands that manage meticulously their brand, their brand communication, the ones that stay on brand and deliver this consistent message and deliver this consistent reputation they say to the market this is who we are and this is why you should care, this is why you should choose us over our competitors. This consistency grows awareness, reputation, trust and ultimately loyalty with customers coming back to you time and again and if you're lucky it also leads to brand advocacy. Now look in closing one of the hardest things to do is to build a positive reputation in the market is to build that brand equity but once you've managed to do that even if only slightly even if you've only gotten a small slice of your market the name of the game is to grow that reputation and the way to do that is through that consistency. Make sure that you protect whatever equity you grow, whatever positive reputation you grow and make sure you make the right adjustments if there is any negative sentiment coming in. At the end of the day your brand is your reputation. Manage that reputation, you grow your equity and you grow your market share and ultimately that's what branding is all about. Now if you want to dive deeper into brand strategy then this video here will help you out but before you click it if you want to become a master of brand make sure you hit the like and subscribe to get more videos just like this. Until next time brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video.