When people hear the term Reputation Measurement, they often think about online feedback and social media interactions.
Things like online reviews and ratings, or followers, likes, shares, and comments on SMP.
And sure, that’s one way to track and measure brand reputation across various channels.
But, brand reputation encompasses much more than just online interactions.
It extends to every touchpoint and interaction a brand has with its stakeholders, customers, employees, and the wider community.
In this article, we delve deeper into the multifaceted nature of reputation measurement. We also explore how reputation measurement tools and models can provide a comprehensive understanding of brand perception.
Oh, and if you stay with us ‘till the end, we’ll give you some of our top strategies for enhancing a brand’s reputation!
1. Reputation Measurement Tools
Reputation measurement tools are primarily software applications that help brands track and analyze various aspects of their online reputation.
This includes brand mentions, public sentiment, and overall public perceptions of a certain brand.
Brands can use these tools to:
- track customer satisfaction,
- monitor online reviews,
- observe overall engagement with the brand; and
- enhance brand awareness.
They can also use reputation measurement software for reputation score analysis and identification of areas that need improvement.
As you can see, for anyone who provides brand protection services, these tools can be an invaluable asset for gaining insights into a brand’s online presence.
Reputation measurement tools can also provide insight into how a brand’s online presence impacts metrics essential for business leaders, like net promoter score and shareholder value.
And, arguably most importantly, these tools can help IP Law Offices with protecting a brand’s intellectual property.
Let’s look at the 3 things brand protection service providers can do with reputation measurement tools:
1. Monitor and detect threats to a brand’s online reputation
Most brands are present across multiple digital channels, including social media, news articles, and review sites.
Reputation measurement tools, for one, can identify online threats jeopardizing their clients’ brands across all of them.
How?
By:
- Tracking brand mentions online
- Analyzing the sentiment of those mentions
- Assessing the way they affect the brand’s reputation score
- Detecting potential threats and intellectual property infringements (e.g., counterfeiting, piracy, phishing, and cybersquatting.)
Ready to put an end to perceived negative feedback and misuse of your client’s brand trademark? Book a demo for Reputeo, our Brand Reputation Measurement Software for IP Law Offices.
2. Report and respond to online threats and infringements
Reporting and responding to online threats and infringements is a critical aspect of brand protection services.
If you’re in the business of providing these services, reputation measurement tools will enable you to identify and track instances of such brand misuse.
Moreover, you can leverage these tools to send cease and desist notices, file complaints, and initiate legal actions to safeguard your clients' brands
3. Analyze and improve a brand’s reputation
Reputation measurement tools are great for collecting and analyzing data on how a client’s brand is perceived online, as well as for identifying the sources that affect a brand’s reputation.
That means that brand protection service providers can use these tools for opportunity and threat identification in the market.
With this kind of information, businesses providing these services can provide their clients with actionable suggestions and best practices on how to improve their reputation (more about that later in the article!).
4. Reputation Measurement Models
If you found reputation measurement tools helpful with the analysis of a brand’s reputation, you’ll find that reputation measurement models are King when it comes to identifying its strengths and weaknesses.
Here are the 3 most popular reputation measurement models a brand can use for this purpose:
1. The RepTrak Reputation Measurement Model
The RepTrak model is a widely used framework for a brand’s reputation measurement and management.
This model evaluates a brand’s reputation based on seven dimensions:
- Leadership
- Workplace Environment
- Products and services
- Governance
- Citizenship
- Innovation
- Performance
Each of these dimensions contains several attributes that reflect how stakeholders perceive a brand and what they expect.
For example, stakeholders may perceive a brand positively in terms of Leadership if it has an innovative vision and strong executive team. However, if the company's Governance practices are perceived as weak due to e.g., ethical controversies, this may lower the brand’s overall reputation score.
It’s worth noting that this model also measures the emotional bond that stakeholders have with a brand, which directly correlates to their willingness to recommend or buy from the brand.
2. The Harris-Fombrun Reputation Measurement Model
Similar to the RepTrak Model, the Harris-Fombrun Model also assesses brand reputation across multiple dimensions.
The first three are exactly the same as the ones mentioned above, and the rest include the:
- Emotional appeal
- Vision
- Social Responsibility
- Financial performance
Stakeholders rate each of these dimensions on a scale from 1-7 and the overall reputation score of a brand will be a result of the average ratings across all dimensions.
3. The SERVQUAL Reputation Measurement Model
Developed by marketing professors, the SERVQUAL model performs reputation measurement of a brand based on the quality of its service delivery.
Basically, it compares customer expectations and perceptions across five dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, and Assurance,
The model emphasizes the gap between customer expectations and perceptions, with a smaller gap indicating higher levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction.
5. Strategies to Enhance Your Reputation Score
Now that you understand the importance of reputation measurement for a brand, you’re probably wondering how to improve it.
There are many strategies that you can adopt to enhance a brand’s reputation score and online image, however, some are more effective than others.
If you want to know our top 4 tips, then keep on reading:
1. Create and share killer content
In case you don’t know what “killer content” is – it’s the kind of content that shows off a brand’s skills, delivers value to its audience, and flawlessly matches the brand personality while doing so.
Whichever content form you opt for, and this will depend on the preferences and behavioral patterns of your audience, make sure to use it to both educate and entertain.
And don’t forget to use content marketing tools to make your content SEO-friendly and hard to resist.
2. Engage with the audience
There’s no better way to keep an eye on a brand’s online reputation than to track brand mentions across channels.
And you know what’s even better than tracking brand mentions?
Engaging with them.
Questions pointed towards a brand, comments left on its social media profiles, feedback given on review sites – a brand needs to look out for any negative or fake info that might hurt its image.
This kind of interaction is what builds trust with the audience and, thankfully, brands now have reputation measurement tools such as Reputeo at their disposal to track online mentions and address them like a pro.
3. Build and nurture relationships
This section is closely tied to the previous one, and it’s what makes for the backbone of a brand’s online reputation.
Every brand needs to build and nurture relationships, and not only with its clients. A brand needs to take care of anyone who will support it and vouch for it, which also includes its partners and influencers.
To communicate (and reward!) its relationships, a brand can use tactics such as:
· Email marketing,
· Influencer marketing; and
· Referral marketing
Okay, now let’s move on to our final strategy for enhancing a brand’s reputation score and fostering business growth.
4. Showcase social responsibility
We live in times of unprecedented challenges in which showcasing social responsibility has become imperative for building a positive brand reputation.
Nowadays, consumers are more aware and demanding of the social impacts of the brands they support.
And they’re not alone.
Employees, too, are more engaged and motivated when working for a socially responsible brand, and stakeholders as well tend to be more supportive and cooperative under such circumstances.
That’s why every brand needs to showcase exactly how it contributes to social (and environmental!) causes that matter to its audience.
A popular way to do so is by using social impact stories that illustrate the tangible benefits of a brand’s social responsibility efforts.
For instance, a clothing company might share a story about how it partners with local artisans in developing countries to produce sustainable and ethically sourced garments.
Similarly, a tech company could share a story about its initiative to provide coding education to underprivileged youth in underserved communities.
These social impact stories demonstrate how brands can make a meaningful difference in society beyond their core business operations, which not only build credibility with consumers but also inspire engagement among employees and stakeholders who share similar values.
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