Reputation management the norm of negative research. Image is the face of an organization. Organization of special events and promotions

The article analyzes some of the approaches to the traditional understanding of reputation, goodwill and reputation management. The necessity of forming a positive reputation of the company in the conditions of increasing competition is actualized. The practical and financial value of a positive reputation is considered, some of the means that allow you to create and maintain a positive reputation of the company in the eyes of its target audiences. The author reveals the essence of reputation and reputation management within the framework of the methodology of the phenomenological sociology of knowledge, it is proposed to understand reputation as a phenomenon of everyday life, as self-evident knowledge about the advantages and (or) disadvantages of an object and reputation management as a process of constructing and maintaining a positive reputation of a person or organization as a social reality. The complexity of reputation management as a social activity aimed at the Other is explained. The possibility of reputation management in the habitualization of behavioral models contributing to the maintenance of a positive reputation in society is substantiated. The role of relevant structures and processes such as habitualization, externalization, objectification, internalization in the formation and maintenance of reputation is considered. The main mechanism for constructing a company's reputation as social knowledge in the modern continuum is social networks.

reputation

reputation management

1. Goodwill is great. RBC daily business newspaper No. 20 (2465) (1111) November 11, 2016 [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www.rbc.ru/newspaper/2016/11/11u.

2. Ivanov A.P., Bunina E.M. The company's business reputation as an intangible asset. // Finance. - 2005. - No. 6. - P. 71.

3. Empire of business // Internet resource digest. 2006.13 October. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www.finmarket.ru/.

4. Kozlova N.P. Formation positive image and business reputation companies. // Bulletin of ASTU. Ser. Economy. - 2011. - No. 1. - P. 67–68.

5. Oleinik I., Lapshov A. Plus / minus reputation. - Samara: Publishing House BAZRAKH-M, 2003. - P. 40.

6. Smirnova N.M. From social metaphysics to the phenomenology of the natural attitude: phenomenological motives in modern social cognition. - M., 1997 .-- S. 222, S. 147.

7. Solomanidina T., Rezontov S., Novik V. Business reputation as one of the most important strategic advantages of the company // Personnel Management. - 2005. - No. 3. February. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www.top-personal.ru/.

8. Schutz A. On Phenomenology and Social Relations. - 2010. - P. 100.

Boris Firsov, employee of the agency “Mikhailov & Partners. Strategic Communications Management "within the discussion" round table"Organized news agency Finmarket said: “The paradox is that no one knows what reputation is, they constantly argue, discuss, despite the fact that some terms are written in dictionaries. But, nevertheless, as far as business is concerned, on the subject of what reputation is and how to measure it, no one has come to a common understanding. But at the same time everyone says how insanely important it is, how insanely expensive it is. "

The well-known conflict between Rosneft and RBC over the publication of information that harmed the company's business reputation allowed us to find out how much reputational losses could be estimated. After analyzing the publications of RBC and the plot of the RBC TV channel, the experts suggested that the information presented in them could entail an increase in “specific risks” of Rosneft. “Based on the analysis, we can conclude that the decrease in the value of the company associated with the potential loss of the value of the company's goodwill, associated with the potential loss of the largest counterparty, will amount to RUB 3.179 billion.” - says the conclusion signed by Kushel.

Many public relations specialists offer their services in the field of reputation management, using a wide arsenal of tools related to building a targeted communication policy. Gai Khanov, general director The Publicity PR agency notes: “The main task of communication is to create a company's reputation. Moreover, such a reputation, which is considered a real asset. What does real asset mean? This means that it brings additional value, it can be assessed not only in terms of costs, but also in terms of value. Moreover, reputation is a more stable asset than property, because if something happens to the property of factories and plants, then the owners cannot live in peace. And reputation can be an assistant. "

N.P. Kozlova, analyzing the practical and financial value of business reputation, identifies a number of advantages that a company with a positive reputation receives. Let us list those of them that we have no doubts about.

Business reputation adds psychological value to products and services; helps to reduce the risk that consumers knowingly take when buying goods or services; increases the satisfaction that employees of the company receive from work. In addition, a positive reputation helps attract more qualified employees to the company. A favorable reputation can increase the credibility of a firm's advertising, thus increasing its effectiveness; contributes to the popularity of new products. Good reputation the company gives it access to the highest quality professional services.

Companies with a positive reputation may have a chance to try again in the event of a crisis, N.P. Kozlova and cites the example of Johnson & Johnson, after two cases of poisoning with the drug Tylenol were recorded, the company quickly returned to its previous level.

A good reputation is able to raise funds in the stock market, increases the return on trading operationsfinally, it is a guarantee of efficiency when the firm contracts with other business partners.

Main part. In our opinion, reputation should be viewed as a phenomenon of everyday life, that is, using the language of the phenomenological sociology of knowledge, as a self-evident knowledge about someone (about a person) or about something (about a company), only in this case reputation can perform the functions that are attributed to it.

By reputation management, we mean the process of constructing and maintaining a positive reputation of a person or organization as a social reality. The process is prolonged in time, its result essentially depends on the social stock of knowledge, on what values \u200b\u200band attitudes are objectified in it, what typifications it is filled with and how they are transformed in connection with changes in the economic, political, social, cultural, information environment.

A significant drawback of modern reputation management is, in our opinion, focus on success "here and now", this is primarily due to the expectations (and demand) of the customer to feel the result immediately, and this result should be expressed in increased profits (increased goodwill). Concern about how a person or his business will look in the eyes of the public in the future (within the framework of long-term forecasting) is currently not actualized, possibly due to the complexity of the design, the need to constantly make adjustments in connection with the change in the situation on micro- and (or ) macro-level and poor predictability of project results.

The implementation of reputation management is significantly complicated by the fact that activities related to the achievement of reputation management goals are social, focused on the Other. In our case, all subjects of target audiences act as the Other. The actions of a person or representatives of an organization aimed at establishing and maintaining a positive reputation can be interpreted inadequately by some representatives of target audiences, which makes it impossible to idealize a separate action (method) in everyday life and, if successful, extrapolate to all other target audiences.

In reputation management situations of vagueness often arise, which require a process of choosing actions to maintain reputation again. According to N.M. Smirnov, the final choice consists of many small steps (step-by-step) of choice in an empirically problematic situation.

The reputation of someone or something will begin to influence the social reality associated with the activities of the subjects of target audiences, with their planning of certain actions in the future, if it has the characteristics of everyday, everyday knowledge. The characteristics of everyday knowledge include: familiarity, certainty, consistency, plausibility, clarity.

It is clear that the efforts of reputation management should be aimed at ensuring these characteristics. The actions of a person or entities of the organization that maintain a positive reputation should be familiar to them. Only in this case, the objectification of signs associated with this activity will lead to the construction of reputation as a social reality. It is the objectified reality that is the very “bad” or “good” glory about a person or organization, which is the essence of reputation.

For this reason, reputation management, by and large, should be reduced to instilling stable habits (habitualization) of those behaviors that would contribute to maintaining a positive reputation in society.

In this regard, the approach of A.P. Ivanova and E.M. Bunina, in which the authors highlight as the basis for the formation of a positive reputation of the company its information openness, disclosure of information on the results of work in reporting period, directions and plans for long-term development, and the development of corporate culture and social responsibility, seem to us the most adequate for the tasks of reputation management. An important element of maintaining a business reputation, the authors write, is interaction (dialogue) with “stakeholders” and the public. The ways of influencing these contact groups can be different: main activity; products / services produced; technologies used in production; business decisions and business strategy made by the company's management; participation in political activities, lobbying for bills, etc. ...

A similar point of view can be traced in the article by T. Solomanidina, S. Rezontov and V. Novik, where the key point of managing corporate reputation is the maintenance of effective and constant public relations. The authors note that the formation of the company's reputation is largely facilitated by its publicity, for the creation of which they recommend holding various kinds of promotions designed for the appropriate target audience. Highlight charity work, patronage, sponsorship of conferences, seminars, forums, congresses, of course, such activities of the organization will contribute to publicity.

Events that may be of news interest: organization of visits to the enterprise by high-ranking government delegations, receptions of government officials, foreign colleagues - are also good for publicity.

Conducting conferences, seminars, trainings, business schools, special events for representatives of target audiences; organization of professional clubs, members of which are not only employees of the organization, but also clients; the publication of newspapers, company magazines, etc., according to the authors, contributes to the formation of a positive reputation of the company.

Building relationships based on trust and mutual respect with business partners, suppliers and consumers, the authors refer to as other external methods of reputation management.

To manage the reputation within the organization, the authors recommend developing a mission and philosophy of the company; create and implement a corporate code of conduct; pay attention to the formation of the image of the top officials and top management of the company; to develop the company management system from the standpoint of "human capital", respect for employees.

Reputation management, according to I. Oleinik and A. Lapshov, should pay attention not only to the degree of positive reputation, but also to the degree of its significance. The relationship between the reputations of the same person in different audiences (or different people in the same audience), the authors believe, may be relationships of dependence, coexistence or confrontation. “Therefore, in reputation management, it is extremely important to correctly predict the most likely transformations of reputation not only in time, but also during the“ journey ”(including with an organized flight) from one audience to another.”

Based on theses:

a) the body needs information as badly as food, water, sleep, etc .;

b) people's need for events is a physiological element, the power of which is increasing every decade - the authors argue that the reputation is demanded by the consumer himself, therefore it is “pointless to shove it into the consumer if he does not want to use it.

At the same time, the authors propose, within the framework of reputation management, to focus on the “self-distribution” of a product that is thrown into the target audience pointwise, and not “by bombing the squares,” noting that an attempt to impose target audience an uninteresting reputation that does not evoke a lively reaction is as futile as an attempt to achieve self-dissemination of a boring anecdote.

Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that the authors consider the consumer's reputation as an object to whom this reputation is given, but it is necessary to take into account the measure and taste of the consumer, in order to avoid the effects, as the authors write, of “malnutrition” and “overeating”. The formation of a reputation, in their opinion, is always based on dialogue, because it involves a conscious and relatively competent assessment of the audience, at the same time, noting "each person has as many reputations as people know him."

In our opinion, some theses in this work can become a subject for controversy. First: reputation is a correlate of the consciousness of the subjects of society. It is impossible to "shove" it into the consumer just because it is constructed in his mind. Secondly: the construction of reputation is carried out using the mechanism of internalization of all knowledge objectified in society about a person or organization (and not only those that are "thrown" by specialists into the target audience, even if "pointwise"), which, upon externalization of already meaningful information and provided that it does not contradict the meanings externalized by the majority of individuals can turn into a reputation. Third: in reputation management, it seems to us, it makes sense to take into account, not so much "taste" and "measure", as the result of the analysis of the relevant structures of representatives of target audiences. That is, it is necessary to know the interests of the subjects of reputation management, because it is interest, as A. Schutz noted: "... organizes the world for me in the area of \u200b\u200bgreater or lesser relevance." The structure-forming factor of the zones of relevance (of various practical significance) are, first of all, pragmatic motives.

Phenomenological studies point to the fact that the relevant structures in groups with a similar biography may overlap in many respects, which gives us the right to speak of reputation as a social phenomenon and to assume the possibility of reputation management. Probably, the authors' thesis “each person has as many reputations as people know him” is inspired by the well-known saying “how many people - so many opinions”. It is worth remembering that the phenomenon of reputation does not refer to the opinion of each individual separately, but to objectified knowledge about the reputation of a person or organization, which has become everyday, general, although it has formed from the opinions of individuals in the processes associated with externalization, objectification and internalization.

The main mechanism for the formation of objectified knowledge about the reputation of a company at present is the discussion of information about the organization on the Internet. As you know, Rospotrebsoyuz has launched an Internet portal that collects all information in the field of consumer protection. Information from the site is widely discussed on social networks, such as "in Kontakte", "Facebook", "Odnoklassniki", becomes, as they say in phenomenology, - everyday.

The complexity of reputation management, like any social activity aimed at the Other, is obvious. The results of this activity can be delayed and have by-products that are not always desirable, from which it does not follow at all that reputation management is not worth doing or the time has not come.

1. Reputation should be considered as a phenomenon of everyday life, as self-evident knowledge, including the following characteristics: familiarity, certainty, consistency, plausibility, clarity.

2. Reputation management is the process of constructing and maintaining a positive reputation of a person or organization as a social reality, which boils down to instilling stable habits (habitualization) of those behavioral models that would contribute to maintaining a positive reputation in society.

3. The construction of reputation is carried out using the mechanism of internalization of all knowledge objectified in society about a person or organization (and not only those that are "thrown" by specialists into the target audience), which, upon externalization of already meaningful information and provided that it does not contradict the meanings, externalized by the majority of individuals, can turn into a reputation.

4. In reputation management, it is necessary to take into account the result of the analysis of the relevant structures of the representatives of target audiences. The structure-forming factor of the zones of relevance (of various practical significance) are, first of all, pragmatic motives.

5. Relevant structures in groups with a similar biography may overlap in many respects, which makes it possible to speak of reputation as a social phenomenon and to suggest the possibility of reputation management.

6. The main mechanism for the formation of objectified, everyday, self-evident knowledge about reputation is currently the public discussion of information about an object in social networks.

Bibliographic reference

Cherepanova V.N. REPUTATION MANAGEMENT: SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECT // Basic research... - 2016. - No. 11-4. - S. 875-879;
URL: http://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id\u003d41272 (date accessed: 04/29/2019). We bring to your attention the journals published by the "Academy of Natural Sciences"

The goal of any business is to make a profit. This factor depends on how interesting the product or service is to customers. Today consumers trust not advertisements more, but rather the reviews and recommendations of acquaintances. Therefore, self-respecting companies pay attention to creating an image on the Web. To do this, they use a powerful tool - reputation management, which allows you to form the desired opinion about the product, increase awareness brand and increase the number of buyers.

Image is the face of the organization

The more famous the brand, the more product is in demand. What does popularity depend on? From consumer appraisal product, from emotions and associations that arise in the minds of people when they hear the name of the company. These buyers' judgments are directly related to public opinion about the firm. The more an organization adheres to the principles of honesty and openness in communicating with customers, the higher the level of user loyalty and, accordingly, the level of sales.

The essence of the concept

Reputation management is a set of strategic activities aimed at creating, maintaining and protecting the company's image. Its main task is to create the desired brand vision in the eyes of consumers and a stable positive opinion about it. This type of management consists in controlling the information space around the product on the Internet, predicting all kinds of threats, correcting content, tracking negative reviews and eliminating them.

The relevance of reputation management

As you know, almost the entire population of the globe is a user of the World Wide Web and every day turn to its resources to find the necessary information. So it turns out that if an organization or a product has any shortcomings, problems, etc., the person finds out and, on occasion, gladly shares his opinion with friends. This means that the formation of the product's image occurs spontaneously and can get a negative connotation. In this case, subjective perception of users is fundamental.

To prevent such a development of events, reputation management is used. It enables potential customers to discuss the firm's proposals, while setting the direction

A way to deal with negativity

It's no secret that any tools are used in the race for market leadership. And the so-called "black PR" on the part of rivals can greatly damage the reputation of the company and cause a negative image of the product. This is done mainly in two ways: either the administration orders this work to a specialized specialist (to complete this task, special equipment and finances are needed), or by ordering a series of bad reviews.

In this case, the only way to clear the name is to resort to reputation management tools. With their help, you can level out unwanted information, create and maintain constant communication with customers and, as a result, eliminate negative reviews from consumers. But it is better when this work is planned in advance, then it will give better results.

Better late than never

For Russia, this type of government is quite new, while in others developed countries (USA, China, South Korea, etc.) technologies of reputation management have been used for a long time, which significantly increases the ratings of companies. In Russia, they are treated as anti-crisis measures: when the image is already damaged, or interest in the organization has completely disappeared, then they order the services of specialists. And only recently, more and more companies, starting their business from scratch, use reputation management initially in order to immediately form the necessary image of the product among users and a loyal attitude towards it. By making honesty, trust and responsiveness the basic principles of dealing with people, there is a better chance of gaining a stable position in modern market.

Activity functions

This type of management allows you to solve a number of specific tasks, namely:

Stages

The company's work to create a positive opinion takes place in several stages:

Analysis of the existing image of the company, internal and external attitude of consumers to the product. The development of the strategy and the quality of the results obtained depend on how accurate the assessment of the current state of affairs will be.
Determination of the main goals, selection of tools for reputation management, drawing up a list of targeted actions.
Implementation of the drawn up plan.

Strategy implementation methods

When the tasks of the work are determined, and there is a clear understanding of the final result, the direct process of forming public opinion begins. It also has its own sequence.

The work of building a brand reputation is within the power of any employee who is familiar with the basics of reputation management. Only for this, a clear strategy is needed in order to understand what result must be achieved in the process of work.

Tools for creating an image on the web

Today the Internet is one of the most powerful forces of influence on the consciousness of people. It reflects almost all aspects of human life. The content with which it is filled is created either purposefully or at the request of individual customers. In any case, it is widely used due to its availability. Therefore, the conscious use of the World Wide Web can provide high level advertising activities of the company. There are a number of possibilities for this, namely:

Social networks (well-known "Odnoklassniki", "VKontakte", Facebook, Twitter and so on) allow you to keep in touch with potential buyers, track user assessment of the product and form the desired opinion about the product, as well as report on all the novelties of the organization. In addition, these sites allow customers to communicate with each other and share their opinions, while referring to specific sources.
Various blogs, forums, review sites make it possible to provide people with the information they need to build loyalty to the brand and consolidate it, as well as increase customer confidence.
Internet media. Placing content on verified sites with links to the source increases interest in the proposal from the public.
SEO optimization. In order for potential customers to become regular, it is necessary to take care of the convenience of the site and its fullness, as well as the fact that the user quickly finds the information he is interested in on the network.

The use of these reputation management tools will only work well if there is a clear strategic plan and they are used concurrently.

Management pitfalls

In order to carry out high-quality reputation management, you can contact a specialized agency that will professionally perform this type of service. But if it's not about big company, who is ready to spend money on creating an image, but about a small company, then, as a rule, the responsibility for creating public opinion is entrusted to one of the employees, who does this at his own discretion. In this case, it is necessary to understand that if a person does not have a knowledge base, or rather does not own the tools of reputation management, does not know the specifics of sites on the Internet, as well as a number of significant nuances, his work will be fragmentary. This means that the time and money spent will not bring the desired results. It should be borne in mind that the performance of the functions of reputation management depends on the competence of the employee.

A guide to creating and maintaining a company's image

Any organization appreciates good specialists... But if their staff and finances are limited, and you want to carry out this type of management with good results, then you can learn from the textbook on reputation management. Unfortunately, there are few books on this topic. And those that are presented to the reader today reveal certain aspects of this process. Basically, these are individual articles or other works of authorship that talk about the essence, principles, tasks and / or tools of this activity.

To date, the only study guide in which deeply and systematically considered this concept, is the book by L. S. Salnikova "Reputation Management. Modern approaches and technologies. "This is the first guide in Russia, in which all steps to form the company's image are considered in detail and step by step, new ways of working in this area are presented. methodological foundations are revealed in combination with practical material. The author shares the secrets of improving the company's image, since for a long time worked as a reputation management consultant.

Those who decide to engage in creating public opinion can try their hand at completing the creative tasks that are presented in the book. It was on them that future managers honed their skills in forming a good name for the organization at the University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. "Reputation Management" by LS Salnikova, using vivid examples, tells how to turn your business using the above tool into a profitable asset. The book contains many useful information for students, leaders of organizations and people who are promoting products on the network.

Any company, no matter how large it is and no matter what resources it possesses, strives not only to make a profit, but also to have a good name and enjoy the respect and trust of people. Therefore, we can confidently assert that it is the reputation that promotes the organization on the Web, and reputation management is the tool that will allow you to confidently occupy your niche in competitive environment, make the product branded and turn the company into a highly profitable asset.

According to Deloitte & Touche, 60% of users read reviews before buying. 80% will not order products from the company about which they write negative. In order for customers to turn to you and sales to grow, it is important to maintain a positive reputation.

But how can you track reviews, because the Internet is so huge? How to respond to negativity? What can you do to get customers to leave positive feedback? Reputation management (reputation management) - management of the image on the Internet will help.

6 tasks of online reputation management

Correct positioning and increasing brand awareness on the web.
Negative management - seeking and responding in a timely manner.
Attraction of new clients.
Retention of existing clients and building brand advocates.
Increased loyalty. According to Nielsen, 62% of users trust online reviews.
Feedback from the audience.

The main methods of reputation management on the web

On the one hand, we work with negativity and maintain a positive reputation, on the other hand, we find ways to further development brand. Negative comments help you fix mistakes and improve in the eyes of your customers.

Monitoring information on the Internet

We are looking for brand mentions on sites where the target audience shares personal experience... Blogs, social networks, thematic forums, review sites, reference books, maps are suitable. How to search? Using key queries: brand name (+ "reviews", + "forum", + "ratings", etc.), slogan, address of the resource and stores, names of employees, name of products.

There are special systems that automatically collect and analyze brand mentions: Kribrum, Talkwalker, Google Alerts, YouScan, Mention.

Working with positive and neutral comments

For online reviews that improve your reputation, thank you. This will play into the hands: a satisfied customer will become even more loyal and, possibly, become a brand advocate. You can just say thank you, but it's better to hand over a discount on your next purchase or other bonus.

Dealing with negative comments

You need to be even more careful with dissatisfied customers, otherwise you can anger them and completely ruin your reputation on the Web. If the review contains reliable information, you need to find out the reason for the misunderstanding, listen and correct your mistakes, and thank the author and inform that measures have already been taken.

If a review contains inaccurate information, you shouldn't blame the author anyway - this will only make the situation worse. Better to write a polite answer.

Dealing with defamation

There are people who want to ruin your reputation and are engaged in black PR on the Web. These are unscrupulous competitors and former employees who harbor resentment. They leave reviews that contain false information and defame the brand name. We know 2 ways to combat libel:

Removing a comment by a site moderator or through a lawyer.
Negative leveling with positive reviews. To collect them, they hold promotions - for example, they give discounts for comments. As a result, positive reviews crowd out negative ones.

Additional methods of reputation management

For a more effective formation of a positive reputation, we recommend using additional tools along with classic image management tools.

Crowd marketing

Reputation management by posting comments on the Internet, in which the author recommends a specific company, or rather your brand. Comments are posted on sites where the target audience is concentrated: under articles in blogs, on forums, in Q&A services and communities in social networks.

Crowd marketing is interaction with potential users who don't know about you.

You can communicate on behalf of the brand. Do not impose services, but delicately answer questions and demonstrate professionalism.

You can also communicate on behalf of an ordinary user. They are more trusted than brand representatives.

Reputation management with SEO is about promoting positive reviews in search enginesoh. First of all, users open the pages that are in the top positions. So, if negative reviews are posted somewhere below, they may not reach them.

5 stages of reputation management

Audit - we select queries by which potential buyers are looking for information about the brand.
Analysis - we look at the results of search engines for queries.
Working with responses - reacting to negativity, removing slander.
Site selection - we find sites where you can post positive reviews.
Additional tools - find out which methods work best and use them.

Who needs reputation management?

Reputation should be managed by anyone who wants to retain existing customers and attract new ones. But it is important to remember that the services of a brand manager are not enough. No reputation management technology can help you build a positive reputation if you offer a bad product. First of all, you need to work on the quality of goods and services. Reputation management will help make the brand more recognizable and customers more loyal.

Sooner or later, any company is faced with the need to purposefully form its reputation.According to Alexey Zlovedov, the author of the book “Reputation Management (RM). Little hosanna in honor of RM or why and why it is worth spending money on it ”The preferred option is a situation when, against the background of well-being, the company lays the foundation for future stability in the form of investments in reputation.

For example, in 2000, the Klodtovsky horses on the Anichkov Bridge, having stood on Nevsky Prospekt for about a century, demanded restoration. The Museum of Urban Sculpture, in whose jurisdiction they were, at that time did not have the funds to carry out the work. Baltinvestbank (at that time Baltonexim Bank) came to the rescue. When entering the St. Petersburg market, it positioned itself as a strong city bank and a solid business partner. As part of a PR campaign to maintain its reputation, the bank signed an agreement with the Committee for the Protection and Use of Monuments of St. Petersburg to finance restoration works, held a tender for construction works and organized a press conference informing the city mass media about the long-running PR project. At the same time, a Culture Support Fund was established at the bank. All these activities were regularly covered in the city press and on television, which brightly and nevertheless unobtrusively worked to strengthen a positive reputation among residents of St. Petersburg [Strategy and tactics of business communications. L.V. Azarov, K.A. Ivanova, V.M. Shadrova, T.G. Sheremetyeva, I.P. Yakovlev. SPb .: Publishing house of ETU "LETI", 2007, 92 p. Tutorial from. 35].

Often, the process of building or correcting a reputation is conditioned by the expected sale of the company in the future and the desire to maximize profits, since the “good name” is very expensive in the market. However, a forced emergency correction of reputation is also possible, which may be associated with the need to get out of the crisis experienced by the company for a variety of reasons (dependent and not dependent on itself).

Thus, in the spring of 2002, the reputation of the Ochakovo brewing company suffered from the information disseminated by the State Trade Inspection that the products of Ochakovo contain sodium benzoate, a preservative dangerous for human life. Despite the fact that the good name of the company was restored (the court satisfied Ochakovo's claim against the State Trade Inspection), it suffered significant damage.

The company builds its reputation for many years, and it can lose it in one day, and from similar situations no company is insured. What matters is how she deals with emerging problems. If the company does this with dignity, taking the necessary measures promptly, then the damage caused to the reputation can with a high degree of probability be reimbursed. And in some cases, the company's position in the eyes of target audiences may even strengthen.

Thus, it can be concluded that reputation management is an integral element of the company's competitive behavior. It should be recalled that the term "management" means "a set of coordinated activities aimed at achieving the set goals."

This means that reputation management is a complex of strategic measures aimed at forming, maintaining and protecting the company's reputation.

K.S. Buksha in his book “Business Reputation Management. Russian and foreign PR practice "suggests that in working with reputation there is a" minimum program "- to become recognizable and at the same time to cause positive reactions and a" maximum program "- to become loved.

The researcher says that business reputation has a certain "base" and "superstructure".

Since the author of this work considers the issue of reputation management in a chain of stores, in this case, such simple things as the presence of necessary goods, cleanliness of the halls of the shops, the neatness of the form of the sellers, the absence of queues, honesty, in other words, the presence of care for the buyer. It should be noted that the interaction of all of the above qualities is important, since only in the aggregate they can lead to the formation of the desired positive reputation. In other words, everyone should know that the company is honest, caring and reliable.

"Superstructure" is what makes a company's reputation a valuable tangible asset worth big money... This includes all those components of reputation that make it not just good, but very good, provide special competitive advantages (bright personality of the leader, corporate legends, special supervision over the speed and quality of services provided, social responsibility).

After analyzing a large number of domestic and foreign sources, the author of the thesis came to the conclusion that the following main stages of working with reputation can be identified:

1. Creation of intangible value

This is the actual actual activity of the enterprise to create competitive advantages, such as a quality product, a bright and target audience-oriented brand, well-trained staff, a clear financial structure, excellent relationships with suppliers and customers, etc.

2. Communication

At this stage, it is important to determine which of the competitive advantages will be the most important in communication with different market participants. Not all of them want the same company information. Suppose investors need to submit an activity report once a quarter, and clients will mainly learn about the company, its shares from advertising campaigns, news from the site, publications in the media. In other words, it is necessary to continuously prepare and distribute specialized information packages, providing certain groups with the information that they need and are interested in.

3. Assessment of the reaction of target audiences

The relevance of the reaction of each individual target audience should be constantly reviewed, that is, what information and how affects its reaction and behavior.

4. Assessment of changes in value

At this stage, you should evaluate how the work to build the reputation has affected the company's capitalization and its financial performance. This is easier for those firms that can assess the initial influence of each partner, consumer (consumer group), investor on the value of the business, and determine the dynamics of this value influence under the influence of directed communications.

5. Protection of corporate reputation, if the company, for one reason or another, wants to discredit

It is important to note that it is not, and indeed impossible, to build some kind of universal reputation by trying to please everyone, it is wiser to focus on the key audiences that matter most to the company. To successfully build its reputation, an organization must be aware of whom to communicate with in order to maintain its reputation and speak with each target audience in its language, taking into account its preferences and expectations. G. Dowling, one of the world's leading experts in the field of business reputation, identified four major groups of target audiences:

Regulatory teams establish general laws and regulations for the organization's activities, and also evaluate these activities. This group includes government agencies, authorities, regulatory bodies, public organizations, business and professional associations.

Functional groups directly influence all aspects of the day-to-day operations of an organization, contributing to the development of production and customer service. These groups include those we deal with every day: employees, suppliers, distributors and service organizations, advertising and marketing agencies, legal and consulting firms. It is they who to a greater extent form public opinion about the company and then spread it throughout the business community.

Diffuse groups take an interest in the organization in connection with the protection of the rights of other members of society. They are interested in freedom of information, protection environment, equal opportunities for employment, the position of socially unprotected citizens, etc. One of the most important groups here are journalists, who decisively shape public opinion.

Consumers represent an extremely important segment of target audiences, while being very heterogeneous. Marketers argue that consumers do not buy goods or services from organizations, but solutions to their problems and satisfaction of their needs. Wherein different types customers want different sets of solutions to these problems from the organization, so certain components of reputation are important for each customer group.

Since the reputation of a company cannot be “touched”, in order to work effectively with it, it is necessary to determine what constitutes the reputation. From many years of research by various scientists, the author of this work was able to identify six components of reputation, the quality of work with which directly affects the success of a company in the market and which are taken into account by target groups when making a sustainable opinion about the company.

1. Emotional attractiveness. This factor is important for companies offering consumer goods. The buyer is always looking for at least some sign of "decency" or "dishonesty" of a given company in order to make the right choice. And such a sign can be any "trifle", moreover, not necessarily directly related to the services of the company: the tone of voice of the seller, the impression after visiting the store, the information seen on the eve on the Internet or heard from a "trusted person", the conversation of employees who are sure that their no one hears the general feeling of contact with the company.

2. Product quality. Today, there is nothing to do on the market without this, and a company that produces low-quality products is simply doomed.

3. Relations with partners. This includes both external partners and suppliers and company employees. The latter, leaving work, become part of the outside world in which they and the people around them talk and write about the company. The role of relationships with external partners is difficult to overestimate, given that suppliers and project partners are usually familiar with the side of the company that is not covered in advertising and rarely in dealing with customers and the media. Companies that do not pay enough attention to working with external partners, in fact, plant a "time bomb" in their own reputation, because in the event of deterioration or breakdown of relations, offended partners will have "something to tell" about the company.

4. The reputation of the management. Given the stage economic development, in which most of the countries of the post-Soviet space are located, when the transition from capital accumulation to professional management it still continues, the head or owner of the company (and often it is the same person), regardless of his real level of authority, is perceived by the public as the “face and conscience” of this company. That is, all the decisions and actions of this person, about which it becomes known, invariably affect the attitude towards the company's products and towards the company in general.

5. Social responsibility. Although the social responsibility of business is just beginning to be a priority for companies in our latitudes, the public expectations of social contribution from business are quite high. There are many types of social responsibility: political, legal, moral, etc. Their essence is the company's duty to fulfill the relevant political, legal and moral requirements imposed on it by society, the state, and the collective. The organization must, on the one hand, choose the right social guidelines, on the other hand, use all available opportunities (knowledge, experience). To ensure the effectiveness of public initiatives and consolidate the reputation of a socially responsible business, it is important to approach social spending as an investment: find those who need it, study the needs, develop a plan for cooperation, reporting and reporting results.

6. Financial indicators. A business that doesn't make money is not a business by definition. And the fact that the company is doing well undoubtedly affects its reputation.

According to experts in the field of reputation I.V. Oleinik and A.B. Lapshova, reputation management is a strategy aimed at building and strengthening the reputation of a company and its top managers by non-production means and methods. This is a developed action plan that provides for all possible developments for the company, determined for various periods, depending on the needs of the company, including public relations (external and internal), relations with government agencies, advertising, press service events and special events aimed at promoting the company. The combination of all of the above components makes it possible to achieve ease and predictability of management, efficiency in achieving the set goal in reputation management.

The reputation of a company affects both the number of clients and business partners, and the success of the business as a whole. Today, various efficient technologies and strategies, and one of them is reputation management.

Reputation management is a set of methods and approaches aimed at creating, maintaining and controlling the company's image. This is a long-term process, the main goal of which is not to let the reputation form spontaneously. Therefore, the emphasis is on the correct positioning of the organization, the management of its information space, the accentuation of success and the elimination of threats.

Reputation Management Tasks

Reputation management allows you to solve the following problems:

assessment of brand perception by consumers;
increasing brand awareness and citation;
improving the company's reputation;
formation of a pool of users loyal to the brand;
maintaining audience loyalty;
control of negativity and its elimination;
maintaining feedback from representatives of the target audience;
bringing to the audience important messages about the promoted product or service.

Stages of reputation management

Developing a company's reputation management strategy involves several steps:

Studying the image of the organization, the specifics of its activities, external and internal reputation. At this stage, the basis for future work is formed;
Definition of tasks and goals, deadlines and tools;
Implementation of the chosen strategy.

The last stage involves:

Monitoring of publicly available information on the Internet.

First you need to decide on a list of key queries. This can be the name of the company, its slogan, website, a combination of "brand + reviews", etc. The more requests you formulate, the more information you will receive. Further, the analysis of mentions of the company in the network is carried out.

Working with social networks.

Attention is focused on popular sites with high traffic, where users can independently publish materials and share their opinions. The most suitable resources for implementing reputation management strategies are LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte, etc.

Having a brand profile on these sites allows you to convey reliable information to the target audience (about a new product release, current promotions and special offers, sales), and actively communicate with users. In addition, these pages will show up in search results for a brand query.

Content creation and optimization.

True brand information is a prerequisite for effective reputation management. The official website of the company must contain full up-to-date information about the organization, include sections for reviews and comments. Regularly blogging and publishing posts useful for the target audience on its pages, promptly responding to questions and comments from users help to increase customer loyalty and build a positive brand reputation.

Working with comments.

First you need to analyze the nature of the message. For example, for a neutral customer feedback, you can thank, and negative responses it is worth investigating in more detail - to identify the reason for the user's dissatisfaction, to compose a competent answer to the author of the comment. In any case, you should rely on politeness: even if the review contains inaccurate information, mutual accusations and reproaches will only lead to the growth of discontent.

A popular reputational management tool for defamatory reviews is deleting comments with the assistance of a site moderator or lawyers.

If it is impossible to remove such a review, it must be leveled. As a rule, they turn to current loyal customers or conduct promotions that give a discount for a review. Sowing reviews is effective not only in combating negativity, which often turns out to be black PR, but also in the case when nothing is written about the brand or only fragmentary information is present on the network.

PR as the most important component of reputation management

Competent and well-thought-out PR gives concrete results: it ensures an influx of customers and increases the company's profit. Moreover, it is effective method in the competition.

Reputation management pays special attention to:

External PR, that is, creating the desired brand image, establishing relations with the media, influencing target groups;
Internal PRaimed at creating a favorable emotional climate among the company's employees.

One of the most effective PR directions is the organization, support and coverage of events held by the brand (master classes, briefings, presentations, etc.).

Reputation management from digital agency Artox Media Digital Group

Company specialists Artox Media Digital Group provides a range of services for:

Analysis of competitors' activity;
Working with comments and reviews in blogs, social networks, forums, thematic portals, etc.;
Elimination of negative reviews;
Development of scripts for hidden marketing campaigns, etc.

The success of our business is ensured by a team of talented professionals and impressive practical experience in brand reputation management in various business segments.