Basic research. The main problems of reputation management in the information society Who needs reputation management

The goal of any business is to make a profit. This factor depends on how interesting the product or service is to buyers. Today, consumers trust not advertising more, but reviews and recommendations from 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 right opinion about the product, increase awareness trademark and increase the number of buyers.

Image is the face of the organization

How better known brand the more the product is in demand. What determines popularity? From the consumer assessment of the product, from the emotions and associations that arise in the minds of people when they hear the name of the company. These judgments of buyers 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 measures aimed at shaping, maintaining and protecting the company's image. Its main task is to create the necessary vision of the brand in the eyes of consumers and a stable positive opinion about it. This type of management consists in controlling the information space around the goods on the Internet, predicting all kinds of threats, correcting content, tracking negative reviews and their elimination.

Relevance of reputation management

As you know, almost the entire population of the globe is a user of world wide web and daily turn to its resources to find the information you need. So it turns out that if an organization or a product has any shortcomings, problems, etc., a person finds out and, on occasion, shares his opinion with friends with pleasure. This means that the formation of the image of the product occurs spontaneously and can get a negative connotation. Fundamental in this case is the subjective perception of users.

In order to prevent such a development of events, reputation management is used. It gives the opportunity potential consumers discuss the company's proposals, while setting the direction

How to deal with negativity

It's no secret that in the race for dominance in the market, any tools are used. And the so-called "black PR" on the part of rivals can greatly damage the company's reputation and cause a negative image of the product. This is done mainly in two ways: either the administration orders this work from a specialized specialist (special equipment and finances are required to complete this task), 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 unwanted information, create and maintain constant communication with customers and, as a result, eliminate negative assessment from consumers. But it is better when this work is planned in advance, then it will give the best results.

Better late than never

For Russia this species management is quite new, while in other developed countries (USA, China, South Korea, etc.) reputation management technologies 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 the services of specialists are ordered. And only recently, more and more companies, starting their business from scratch, use reputation management from the very beginning 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 main principles of dealing with people, there is a greater chance of gaining a stable position in today's market.

Activity functions

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

Stages

The work of the company to create a positive opinion takes place in several stages:

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

Strategy Implementation Methods

When the tasks of the work are defined, 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 creating 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 needs to be achieved in the process of work.

Web Image Building Tools

Today the Internet is one of the most powerful forces of influence on people's minds. 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 promotional activities companies. There are a number of possibilities for this, namely:

Social networks (the well-known Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, and so on) allow you to keep in touch with potential buyers, track user ratings of the product and form the right opinion about the product, as well as report all the new products of the organization. In addition, these platforms allow customers to communicate with each other and share their opinions while referring to specific sources.
Various blogs, forums, review sites provide an opportunity to provide people with necessary information to form and consolidate brand loyalty, as well as increase customer confidence.
Internet media. Placing content on trusted sites with links to the source increases interest in the proposal from the public.
SEO optimization. To potential clients could become permanent, it is necessary to take care of the convenience of the site and its content, as well as to ensure that the user quickly finds the information of interest to him on the network.

The use of these reputation management tools only gives good results when there is a clear strategic plan and they are used simultaneously.

Management Pitfalls

In order to qualitatively conduct reputation management, you can contact a specialized agency that will professionally perform this type of service. But if it's not about big company, ready to spend money on creating an image, but for a small company, then, as a rule, the responsibility for creating public opinion is entrusted to one of the employees who does it 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 reputation management tools, does not know the specifics of Internet sites, as well as a number of significant nuances, his work will be fragmented. 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

Good people are valued in any organization. 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 a 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 separate articles or other author's works that deal with the essence, principles, tasks and / or tools of this activity.

To date, the only textbook in which this concept is deeply and systematically considered is the book by Salnikova L. S. "Reputation Management. Modern approaches and technology". This is the first guide in Russia, in which all the steps to create a company's image are considered in detail and step by step, new ways of working in this area are presented. The positive aspect of the source is that it contains everything methodological foundations disclosed in combination with practical material. The author shares the secrets of improving the company's image, as for a long time Worked as a consultant in reputation management.

For those who decide to create public opinion, you can try your hand by doing 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 Russian Foreign Ministry. "Reputation Management" Salnikova L. S., using vivid examples, tells how to turn your business into a profitable asset using the above tool. The book contains many useful information for students, heads of organizations and people who are engaged in the promotion of goods on the network.

Any company, no matter what size it is and no matter what resources it has, 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 say with confidence that it is reputation that promotes an organization on the Web, and reputation management is the tool that will allow you to confidently occupy your niche in a competitive environment, make the product branded and turn the company into a highly profitable asset.

The article provides an analysis of some approaches to the traditional understanding of reputation, goodwill and reputation management. The need to form a positive reputation of the company in the face of increasing competition is being updated. The practical and financial value of a positive reputation is considered, some of the means 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 a matter of course knowledge about the merits and (or) shortcomings 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 is explained as social activities directed at the other. The possibility of reputation management in the course of habitualization of behavior patterns that contribute to maintaining a positive reputation in society is substantiated. The role of relevant structures and processes such as habitualization, extranalization, objectification, internalization in the formation and maintenance of reputation is considered. Social networks are considered as the main mechanism for constructing a company's reputation as social knowledge in the modern continuum.

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reputation management

1. Goodwill is great. Daily business newspaper RBC 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. Business reputation of the company as an intangible asset. // Finance. - 2005. - No. 6. - P. 71.

3. Empire of business // Internet resource digest. 2006. October 13. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www.finmarket.ru/.

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

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

6. Smirnova N.M. From Social Metaphysics to the Phenomenology of Natural Attitude: Phenomenological Motives in Contemporary Social Cognition. - M., 1997. - S. 222, S. 147.

7. Solomanidina T., Resontov 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 Mikhailov & Partners. Management of strategic communications" within the framework of the round table discussion organized by the information 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, with regard to business, 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 related to the publication of information that harmed the company's business reputation allowed us to find out how much reputational losses can 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 lead to an increase in the "specific risks" of Rosneft. “Based on the analysis carried out, it can be concluded that the reduction in the cost of digging associated with potential loss the cost of the company's goodwill associated with the potential loss of the largest counterparty will amount to 3.179 billion rubles. - says the conclusion, signed by Kuschel.

Many specialists in the field of public relations offer their services in the field of reputation management, using a wide arsenal of tools related to building a targeted communication policy. Guy Khanov, CEO The agency "Publicity PR" notes: "The main task of communication is to create a company's reputation. Moreover, such a reputation, which is considered a real asset. What is a real asset? This means that it brings additional value, 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 help.”

N.P. Kozlova, analyzing the practical and financial value of business reputation, highlights a number of advantages that a company with a positive reputation receives. We list those of them that we do not doubt.

Business reputation gives additional 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 firm receive from work. In addition, a positive reputation helps to 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. The good reputation of the company gives it access to receive the highest quality professional services.

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

A good reputation is able to attract funds in the stock market, increases the return on trading operations, finally, is a guarantee of efficiency when the firm enters into contracts with other business partners.

Main part. In our opinion, reputation should be considered as a phenomenon of everyday life, that is - using the language of the phenomenological sociology of knowledge - as a matter of course knowledge about someone (about a person) or about something (about a company), only in this case reputation can perform the functions assigned 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 significantly depends on the social stock of knowledge, on what values and 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, and information environments.

A significant drawback of modern reputation management is, in our opinion, focusing on success "here and now", this is primarily due to the customer's expectations (and requirement) to feel the result immediately, and this result should be expressed in increased profit (increase in goodwill). Concern about how a person or his business will look in the eyes of the public in the future (as part of long-term forecasting) is currently not updated, perhaps due to the complexity of design, the need to constantly make adjustments due to changes 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 the activities associated with achieving the goals of reputation management are social, focused on the Other. In our case, all the subjects of the 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 by some representatives of the target audiences inadequately, which makes it impossible in everyday life to idealize a single action (method) and, if successful, extrapolate to all other target audiences.

In reputation management, situations of ambiguity (vagueness) often arise that require a process of choosing actions to maintain reputation anew. As N.M. Smirnov, the final choice is made up 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 the target audiences, with their planning of certain actions in the future, if it has the characteristics of ordinary, 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 subjects of an organization that maintain a positive reputation should be habitual for them. Only in this case, the objectification of the 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” fame 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 help maintain a positive reputation in society.

In this regard, the approach of A.P. Ivanova and E.M. Bunina, in which the authors identify as the basis for the formation of a positive reputation of the company its information openness, disclosure of information about the results of work in the reporting period, directions and plans for long-term development, and the methods of maintaining reputation are called development corporate culture and social responsibility, seem to us the most adequate to the tasks of reputation management. An important element of maintaining business reputation, the authors write, is the interaction (dialogue) with "interested parties", the public. Ways to influence these contact groups can be different: main activity; produced products/services; technologies used in production; business decisions and business strategy taken 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 in corporate reputation management is the maintenance of effective and constant public relations. The authors note that the formation of a 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. Charitable activities, philanthropy, sponsorship conferences, seminars, forums, congresses, of course, such activities of the organization will contribute to publicity.

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

Holding conferences, seminars, trainings, business schools, special events for representatives of target audiences; organization of professional clubs, whose members are not only employees of the organization, but also clients; the publication of newspapers, magazines of the company, 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 other external methods of reputation management.

To manage reputation within an organization, the authors recommend developing a company mission and philosophy; create and implement corporate code behavior; pay attention to the formation of the image of the first persons and top management of the company; develop a company management system from the standpoint of " human capital, caring attitude towards 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 of the reputations of the same person in different audiences (or different people in the same audience), the authors believe, can be a relationship 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 when “traveling” (including organized flight) from one audience to another” .

Based on theses:

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

b) people's need for events is a physiological element, the power of which is growing every decade - the authors argue that the reputation is claimed by the consumer himself, so it "is pointless to push 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 thrown into the target audience pointwise, and not by bombing in areas, noting that an attempt to impose target audience an uninteresting reputation that does not cause a lively reaction is just as futile as an attempt to achieve self-distribution of a boring anecdote.

Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that the authors consider the consumer of reputation as an object to which 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". Reputation building, in their opinion, is always built on dialogue, because it involves a conscious and relatively competent assessment of the audience, at the same time, noting "every 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 regarding a person or organization (and not just those that are “thrown” by specialists into the target audience, even if “pointwise”), which, when already meaningful information is externalized and provided that it does not contradict the meanings externalized by most individuals can turn into a reputation. Thirdly: in reputation management, it seems to us, it makes sense to take into account not so much "taste" and "measure", but the result of an 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 greater or lesser relevance." The structure-forming factor of the zones of relevance (of various practical significance) are, first of all, pragmatic motives.

Research by phenomenologists points to the fact that relevant structures in groups with similar biographies can largely coincide, which just gives us the right to talk about reputation as a social phenomenon and assume the possibility of reputation management. Probably, the thesis of the authors "every person has as many reputations as people know him" was 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 developed 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 company's reputation 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 in in social networks, such as “VKontakte”, “Facebook”, “Odnoklassniki”, becomes, as they say in phenomenology, everyday.

The complexity of reputation management, like any other social activity aimed at the Other, is obvious. The results of this activity can be delayed and have by-products that are not always of a desirable nature, which does not at all mean 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 a matter of course 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 behaviors that would help maintain a positive reputation in society.

3. Reputation is constructed using the mechanism of internalization of all knowledge objectified in society regarding a person or organization (and not just those that are “thrown” by specialists into the target audience), which, when already meaningful information is externalized and provided that it does not contradict the meanings, externalized by most individuals, can turn into a reputation.

4. In reputation management, it is necessary to take into account the result of the analysis of relevant structures of 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 similar biographies may largely coincide, which makes it possible to speak of reputation as a social phenomenon and 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 the object in social networks.

Bibliographic link

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=41272 (date of access: 04/03/2020). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"

Sooner or later, any company is faced with the need to purposefully shape its reputation. According to Alexey Zlovedov, the author of the book “Reputation Management (RM). A little hosanna in honor of RM or why and why it is worth spending money on it ”the preferred option is a situation where, against the backdrop of prosperity, the company is laying the foundations for future stability in the form of investment in reputation.

For example, in 2000, Klodt's horses on the Anichkov Bridge, having stood on Nevsky Prospekt for about a century, required restoration. The Museum of Urban Sculpture, in charge of which 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, he positioned himself 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 work, held a tender for construction works and organized a press conference, alerting the city's media about the "long-playing" PR project. At the same time, the Culture Support Fund was established at the bank. All this activity was regularly covered in the city press and on television, which brightly and nevertheless unobtrusively worked to strengthen a positive reputation among the residents of St. Petersburg [Strategy and tactics of business communications. L.V. Azarova, K.A. Ivanova, V.M. Shadrova, T.G. Sheremetyeva, I.P. Yakovlev. St. Petersburg: SPbGETU "LETI", 2007, 92 p. Tutorial With. 35].

Often, the process of building or correcting a reputation is driven by the prospective sale of the company in the future and the desire to maximize revenues, since the “good name” is valued very dearly by the market. However, a forced emergency correction of the reputation is also possible, which may be associated with the need to overcome the crisis experienced by the company due to a variety of (depending and not dependent on itself) reasons.

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

A company builds its reputation for many years, but it can lose it in one day, and no company is immune from such situations. What matters is how she handles the problems that arise. If the company does this with dignity, promptly taking the necessary measures, then the damage caused to the reputation with high proportion probabilities can be reimbursed. And in some cases, the position of the company in the eyes of target audiences may even increase.

Thus, we can conclude 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 goals" .

So reputation management is a set of strategic measures aimed at forming, maintaining and protecting the company's reputation.

K.S. Buksha in his book Reputation Management. Russian and foreign PR-practice" says that in working with reputation there is a "minimum program" - to become recognizable and at the same time 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, the “basis” will include such simple things as the availability of the necessary goods, the cleanliness of the store halls, the neatness of the form of the sellers, the absence of queues, honesty, in other words, the presence of care about the buyer. It should be noted that the interaction of all the above qualities is important, since only together 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.

The "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 thesis came to the conclusion that the following main stages of work with reputation can be identified:

1. Creating intangible value

This is the actual actual activity of the enterprise to create competitive advantage such as a quality product, a vibrant and targeted brand, well-trained staff, a clear financial structure, excellent relationships with suppliers and customers, and so on.

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 need the same information about the company. Suppose investors need to submit a quarterly report on activities, and clients will mainly learn about the company, its shares from advertising campaigns, news from the site, publications in the media. In other words, specialized information packages should be prepared and distributed on a continuous basis, providing certain groups with the information that they need and are interested in.

3. Evaluation of the reaction of target audiences

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

4. Estimating cost changes

At this stage, it is necessary to assess how the reputation building work has affected the capitalization of the company and its financial performance. It is easier to do this for those firms that can assess the initial impact of each partner, consumer (group of consumers), investor on the value of the business, and determine the dynamics of this cost impact under the influence of directed communications.

5. Protection of corporate reputation, in case the company for one reason or another wants to be discredited

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

Regulatory groups establish for the activities of the organization general laws and rules, as well as evaluate these activities. This group includes government agencies, authorities, regulators, public organizations, business and professional associations.

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

Diffuse groups show 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 opportunity for employment, the situation of socially unprotected citizens, etc. One of the most important groups here - 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 solve their problems and satisfy their needs. At the same time, different types of consumers want to receive from the organization different sets of solutions to such problems, therefore, certain components of reputation are important for each consumer group.

Since the company's reputation cannot be "touched", for effective work with it it is necessary to determine what the reputation is made of. 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 company's success in the market and which are taken into account by target groups when drawing up a stable opinion about the company.

1. Emotional attraction. This factor is important for companies offering consumer goods. The buyer is always looking for at least some sign of "decency" or "dishonestness" of this company in order to make right choice. And any “little thing” can become such a sign, moreover, not necessarily directly related to the company’s services: the tone of voice of the seller, the impression after visiting the store, the information seen the day before 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, as well as 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 relations with external partners cannot be overestimated, given that suppliers and project partners are usually familiar with the side of the company that is not covered in advertising and rarely in communication with customers and the media. Companies that do not pay enough attention to working with external partners, in fact, put a “time bomb” into their own reputation, because in the event of a deterioration or break in relations, offended partners will have “something to tell” about the company.

4. Reputation of management. Considering the stage of economic development that most of the countries of the post-Soviet space are at, when the transition from capital accumulation to professional management it still continues, the head or owner of the company (and often this 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, which become known, invariably affect the attitude towards the company's products and the company in general.

5. Social responsibility. Although the social responsibility of business is just beginning to enter the sphere of priorities of companies in our latitudes, public expectations of the social contribution from business are quite high. There are many types of social responsibility: political, legal, moral, etc. Their essence is the obligation of the company to fulfill the relevant political, legal and moral requirements imposed on it by society, the state, and the team. The organization must, on the one hand, choose the right social guidelines, on the other hand, use all available opportunities (knowledge, experience). To ensure efficiency public initiatives and reinforcing 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 does not make money is not a business by definition. And the fact that the company is doing well, of course, affects its reputation.

According to reputation specialists I.V. Oleinik and A.B. Lapshov, reputation management is a strategy aimed at shaping and strengthening the reputation of a firm and its top managers by non-productive means and methods. This is a developed action plan that provides for all possible developments for the company, defined for various periods, depending on the needs of the company, including public relations (external and internal), communications 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 goal in reputation management.

The reputation of the company depends on both the number of customers and business partners, and the success of the business as a whole. Today, various effective technologies and strategies make it possible to confidently manage reputation, 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 process, the main purpose of which is not to allow reputation to form spontaneously. Therefore, the emphasis is on the correct positioning of the organization, managing its information space, accentuating success and eliminating threats.

Reputation Management Tasks

Reputation management allows you to solve the following problems:

assessment of brand perception by consumers;
increase brand awareness and citation;
improving the company's reputation;
formation of a pool of users loyal to the brand;
maintaining audience loyalty;
negativity control 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

The development of a company reputation management strategy includes several steps:

The study of 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 step means:

Monitoring public information on the Internet.

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

Work with social networks.

Attention is focused on popular venues with high traffic, where users can independently publish materials and share their opinions. Most suitable for the implementation of reputation management strategies are such resources as LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte, etc.

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

Content creation and optimization.

True information about the brand is a prerequisite for effective reputation management. The official website of the company should contain full up-to-date information about the organization, include sections for reviews and comments. Regular blogging and publication of posts useful for the target audience on its pages, prompt response to user questions and comments contribute to increasing customer loyalty and building a positive brand reputation.

Working with comments

First you need to analyze the nature of the message. For example, you can thank a client for a neutral review, but negative feedback should be investigated in more detail - to identify the reason for the user's dissatisfaction, to write a competent response to the author of the comment. In any case, the bet should be made on politeness: even if the review contains false information, mutual accusations and reproaches will only lead to the growth of discontent.

Popular reputation management tools in the field of dealing with libelous reviews are the removal of comments with the assistance of a site moderator or with the help of lawyers.

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

PR as the most important component of reputation management

Competent and thoughtful PR gives concrete results: it provides an influx of customers and increases the company's profits. In addition, this effective method in 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 PR aimed at creating a favorable emotional climate among the company's employees.

One of the most effective areas of PR 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

Artox Media Digital Group specialists provide a range of services for:

Analysis of competitor activity;
Work with comments and reviews in blogs, social networks, forums, thematic portals, etc.;
Elimination of negative reviews;
Development of scenarios for hidden marketing campaigns, etc.

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