The document outlines a roadmap for managing corporate reputation. It discusses defining reputation, identifying key stakeholders, measuring reputation through research, and developing a strategic plan. A typical reputation research process involves auditing the current situation, exploring drivers of reputation, measuring reputation metrics and gaps, and strategizing communication priorities based on findings. The goal is to strengthen reputation over time by focusing communications on 2-3 key drivers for each stakeholder group.

1. A Road Map for Managing Reputation
Presented at the Public Relations Society of America International Conference in Washington, DC, October 14, 2014

2. 2
 What is reputation?
 Why does it matter?
 What drives reputation?
 How do you measure reputation?
 What does reputation research deliver?
 Discussion
Today’s workshop
2

3. About you
 What kinds of organizations do you represent?
 What questions do you have—what do you want to learn today?
3

4. What do we mean
by reputation?
 Reputation:
What the company is known for;
reasons for positive regard and
esteem (or for negative feelings)
 Brand:
What a company stands for;
top-of-mind ideas and associations
 Positioning:
How the company differs from
others; what sets it apart
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition,
oft got without merit and lost without deserving.”
– William Shakespeare
4

5. Reputation is about the fundamental character of
the organization
How much do you
know about the
company?
Do you respect and
admire the company?
How likely are you to seek
opportunities to engage with
the company, interact with it?
Do you trust the company to do the
right thing (even when not in its
financial self-interest)?
Trust
Engagement
Respect
Familiarity
5
“If I take care of my character, my
reputation will take care of itself.”
– Dwight L. Moody

6. All stakeholders influence reputation
Government/
Regulators
REPUTATION
Workforce
Wall Street
Media
Customers
or Members
General
Public/
Opinion
Leaders
Suppliers/
Partners
Neighbors
6

7. Complicating trends
 Anti-business and anti-CEO feelings
 Sociopolitical issues affect businesses
 Chaos in public square never-ending
 Scorecard society
 Managing reputation across cultures
 Insta-rep and Digital Snipers: viral as
new normal
 Information overload grows
 Industries impacted by behavior of one
company: collateral damage
Source: Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation
Strategist, Weber Shandwick, reputationXchange.com

8. Industry, corporate, and brand
reputation are interdependent
Industry or
association
Company or
Corporation
Brand Brand

9. 9
Peoplemake choicesto support, buy, or donate basedon an
organization’svalues
Source: KRC Research and
Weber Shandwick, 2012
1 Corporate brand is as important
as the product brand(s)
2 Corporate reputation provides
product quality assurance
3
Any disconnect between corporate
and product reputation triggers
sharp consumer reaction
4 Products drive discussion,
with reputation close behind
5 Consumers shape
reputation instantly
6 Corporate reputation contributes
to company market value

10. Good reputation PAYS, poor reputation COSTS
– Hay Group 2012
Total Shareholder Returns
World’s Most
Admired
Companies S & P 500
One Year 22.6% 15.1%
Three Years 4.3% (2.8)%
Five Years 8.3% 2.3%
Ten Years 7.8% 1.4%
60Of market value
is attributed
to company
reputation
%
Source: KRC Research and Weber Shandwick, The Company
Behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust, 2012
10

11. The benefits of a good reputation are many
Doing well by doing good: profit AND purpose
11
 Better relationships: Wall Street,
elected officials, policymakers,
regulators, the media, partners,
suppliers, creditors
 Loyal workforce: employee
ambassadors, champions, and
activists; prospective employees
 Consumer loyalty, trust,
engagement, and advocacy
 Higher stock prices, market
opportunity, and premium pricing
 Crisis resilience
License to
operate
Competitive
advantage
=
“If you get a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep till noon.” –Irish Proverb

12. Reputation Threats
 Financial irregularity
 Manufacturing mishap, product contamination, or product recall
 Unethical behavior, even by association
 Being in a stigmatized industry
 Being in a struggling or failing industry
 Troubling environmental or health and safety footprint
 An accident or crisis
 Poor risk management or response to a crisis
Reputation can be fragile
“Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.”
– Benjamin Franklin

13. What drives reputation?
What does
the organization
OFFER?
What are
the organization’s
VALUES?
What is
the organization’s
FUTURE?
What value does
it provide?
How does it treat people?
What are its motivations?
What is its impact?
How is it doing now?
How will it do
tomorrow?
For example:
 High quality products
and/or services?
 Innovative products
and/or services?
 Fair prices?
 Speaks for an industry
or profession with one
voice?
 Protects consumers?
For example:
 Honest and ethical?
 Cares about people?
 Cares about safety?
 Environmentally
responsible?
 Good neighbor?
 Supports good causes?
 Cares about its
employees?
For example:
 Competent and
well-managed?
 Financially strong?
 A leader in its field?
 A promising future?
13

14. The Reputation Roadmap
1
AUDIT
2
EXPLORE
3
MEASURE
4
STRATEGIZE
14
Establish goals and
surface hypotheses
Create a reputation
framework and
customize our
measurement tool
Collect, tabulate and
model data
Determine what the
data tell us and help
translate into
a set of priorities
To measure and track reputation is to measure and track many dimensions
of an organization’s values, priorities, and behaviors.

15. The Reputation Roadmap
AUDIT
Questions:
Where do we start?
What do we need to know?
What we do:
 Core team interviews
 Research review
 Kick-off workshop
MEASURE
Questions:
What is our reputation?
What drives it?
What we do:
 Reputation research
 Gap analysis
 Driver analysis
TEST
MESSAGES &
MATERIALS
What we deliver:
Reputation Framework:
 Situation analysis
 Audience map & markets
 Competitive landscape
TRACK TO
MEASURE IMPACT
2 EXPLORE
Questions:
Are we missing anything?
What we do:
 Depth interviews
with key informants
 Competitive media audit
 Evaluation metrics
 Reputation drivers
 Measurement options
1 STRATEGIZE
Questions:
What does that mean for
communications priorities?
What we do:
 Strategic workshop
43
15
What we deliver:
Reputation Roadmap:
 Benchmarks
 Insights
 Recommendations
 Strategic direction

16. The Reputation Roadmap
4
16
21 AUDIT
Questions:
Where do we start?
What do we need to know?
What we do:
 Core team interviews
 Research review
 Kick-off workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Framework:
 Situation analysis
 Audience map & markets
 Competitive landscape
EXPLORE
Questions:
Are we missing anything?
What we do:
 Depth interviews
with key informants
 Competitive media audit
 Evaluation metrics
 Reputation drivers
 Measurement options
MEASURE
Questions:
What is our reputation?
What drives it?
What we do:
 Reputation research
 Gap analysis
 Driver analysis
TEST
MESSAGES &
MATERIALS
TRACK TO
MEASURE IMPACT
STRATEGIZE
Questions:
What does that mean for
communications priorities?
What we do:
 Strategic workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Roadmap:
 Benchmarks
 Insights
 Recommendations
 Recommendations
 Strategic direction
3
AUDIT
Questions:
Where do we start?
What do we need to know?
What we do:
 Core team interviews
 Research review
 Kick-off workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Framework:
 Situation analysis
 Audience map & markets
 Competitive landscape
EXPLORE
Questions:
Are we missing anything?
What we do:
 Depth interviews
with key informants
 Competitive media audit
 Evaluation metrics
 Reputation drivers
 Measurement options
1 2

17. Audit & explore: Create a reputation framework
 Prioritized stakeholder map by
market
 Evaluation metrics (outcomes
sought) by stakeholder
 Reputation drivers (drivers likely
to influence evaluation metrics)
 Competitive landscape (who you
want to be compared against)
 Measurement options (scenarios
for measurement and reporting)
17
Internal
stakeholders,
employees
Customers or
Members
Stakeholders &
Influencers
Public (General,
Informed, engaged)

18. Audit & explore: Agree on what you want to measure
Identifying the right drivers requires being clear about the desired outcomes
by audience.
18
REPUTATION
DRIVERS
DESIRED OUTCOMES
(EVALUATION METRICS)
Familiarity
Respect
Engagement
Trust
Favorability, acceptance,
confidence
Willingness to consider,
recommend, give, invest
Supportive policies
(or absence of negative ones)
Enthusiasm about employment

19. The Reputation Roadmap
21
19
43 MEASURE
Questions:
What is our reputation?
What drives it?
What we do:
 Reputation research
 Gap analysis
 Driver analysis
STRATEGIZE
Questions:
What does that mean for
communications priorities?
What we do:
 Strategic workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Roadmap:
 Benchmarks
 Insights
 Recommendations
 Strategic direction
AUDIT
Questions:
Where do we start?
What do we need to know?
What we do:
 Core team interviews
 Research review
 Kick-off workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Framework:
 Situation analysis
 Audience map & markets
 Competitive landscape
EXPLORE
Questions:
Are we missing anything?
What we do:
 Depth interviews
with key informants
 Competitive media audit
 Evaluation metrics
 Reputation drivers
 Measurement options
TEST
MESSAGES &
MATERIALS
TRACK TO
MEASURE IMPACT
MEASURE
Questions:
What is our reputation?
What drives it?
What we do:
 Reputation research
 Gap analysis
 Driver analysis
STRATEGIZE
Questions:
What does that mean for
communications priorities?
What we do:
 Strategic workshop
3 4
What we deliver:
Reputation Roadmap:
 Benchmarks
 Insights
 Recommendations
 Strategic direction

20. 20
Measure: Typical questionnaire structure
REPUTATION FOOTPRINT
Measures of awareness,
familiarity, respect,
engagement and trust for our
client compared to key
competitors
CORPORATE BRAND
SNAPSHOT
Top-of-mind
impressions for
our client and key
competitors
DRIVERS ANALYSIS
Identification of the specific beliefs
and perceptions that most drive
respect, engagement, and trust
KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT
Measures of what stakeholders
actually know about our client, to
further understand what
knowledge matters to reputation
SEGMENTATION
Questions that allow
us to compare different
types of stakeholders

21. 21
Measure: Analytic techniques to identify
drivers and gaps
Competitive Roadmap: This chart shows drivers most important to strengthen
in a competitive context. It incorporates three dimensions: Which drivers best
predict key business outcomes; on which drivers our client is strongest and
weakest; and how our client’s performance compares to competitors.

22. The Reputation Roadmap
22
421 AUDIT
Questions:
Where do we start?
What do we need to know?
What we do:
 Core team interviews
 Research review
 Kick-off workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Framework:
 Situation analysis
 Audience map & markets
 Competitive landscape
EXPLORE
Questions:
Are we missing anything?
What we do:
 Depth interviews
with key informants
 Competitive media audit
 Evaluation metrics
 Reputation drivers
 Measurement options
MEASURE
Questions:
What is our reputation?
What drives it?
What we do:
 Reputation research
 Gap analysis
 Driver analysis
TEST
MESSAGES &
MATERIALS
TRACK TO
MEASURE IMPACT
STRATEGIZE
Questions:
What does that mean for
communications priorities?
What we do:
 Strategic workshop
What we deliver:
Reputation Roadmap:
 Benchmarks
 Insights
 Recommendations
 Recommendations
 Strategic direction
3
ASSESS / TEST
MESSAGES &
MATERIALS
Questions:
Are communications focused,
consistent, and clear?
Are messages and materials
hitting the mark?
What we do:
Message and materials
testing
What we deliver:
Validated messages
TRACK TO
MEASURE IMPACT
Questions:
Are we drawing attention to
the things we want people
to know?
Have we made a difference?
What we do:
Tracking research
What we deliver:
Measurement of changes
and impact over time

23. Test and track: Monitor, evaluate, and tweak
23
Message audit
Media tracking, web analytics,
social media metrics
Perception tracking
Short-term
WHAT’S
COMMUNICATED
Are the messages and
information we want to
communicate more
visible and aligned in
our own materials?
WHAT’S VISIBLE IN THE
MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
Are the messages we want to
communicate more evident in
press, social media, other forms
of feedback and achievements?
WHAT’S HEARD
Are key stakeholders
more aware of your
brand and the
messages and
information you want
to communicate?
WHAT’S FELT
AND BELIEVED
Is your content making a
difference? Are we getting
better ratings on the attributes
we want to move? Is our
overall reputation improving?
Long-term
Perception tracking

24. It takes a lot to move reputation.
It requires focus and repetition.
 Identify 2-3 key drivers for each
key audience.
 Continually reinforce messages.
 Deliver messages through experiences
and storytelling.
 Look for gradual change, with significant
improvements over 3-5 years.
“Repetition makes reputation and reputation
makes customers.”
– Elizabeth Arden

25. What reputation
research can deliver
 Diagnostics. What do stakeholders know
and perceive? How does this vary by
segment and geography?
 Competitive comparisons. How does
your reputation compare to others in the
space? Where do you excel? Where do
you trail?
 Strategic direction. What aspects of your
reputation can and should be
strengthened? Why?
 Reliable measures. The ability to track
change over time.
 A tool for engagement. Information that
can be used in outreach and relationship-
building, internally and externally.
2525

26. 26
You can be the ripest, juiciest peach
in the world, and there’s still going to
be somebody who hates peaches.
– Dita Von Teese
“
”

27. 27
Discussion
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28. Mark David Richards
Senior Vice President,
Managing Supervisor
KRC Research
+1 202 230-8767
mrichards@krcresearch.com
www.krcresearch.com
@krcresearch | #krcfindings
Our insight. Your breakthrough.
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