Analyzing Brand Reputation and Corporate Identity

The report discusses the importance of brand reputation in business management. It highlights various factors that affect brand reputation, including internal and external influences. The report also touches upon the role of social media in brand building and reputation management. Different research studies and papers are cited to support the discussion on brand reputation.

Brand management

Table of Contents
Brand management.........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Concept of Brand Reputation......................................................................................................3
Impact of Brand reputation on a business or company...............................................................4
Factors affecting Brand reputation..............................................................................................5
Ways to develop Brand reputation .............................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
This assignment will focus on Brand reputation, which is an important element and
function of Brand Management within an organisation or business. The report will critically
analyse the concept of brand reputation and its importance for a brand or company. The literature
review will also determine various impact of brand reputation on the business performance of a
bran or company. The assignment will also focus on different factors affecting brand reputation
within the market or industry. Furthermore, The assignment will identify various methods to
develop and manage brand reputation within a marketplace.
Concept of Brand Reputation
Vidya, N.A., Fanany, M.I. and Budi, I.,(Twitter sentiment to analyze net brand reputation of
mobile phone providers, 2015) states that Brand reputation refers to the overall computation in
which an organisation or brand is held by their constituents. In simple words the Brand
reputation means how other view a particular company or its products. The Brand and reputation
are two different terms but are strongly linked with each other. Brand refers to a design that
differentiate a product or service from that of the rivals and competitors in the market whereas
Reputation is build by a good brand, high qualities products and customer satisfaction by
consuming ta product or service offered by a particular brand A favourable or positive brand
reputation states that people or customers trust the company or brand and are satisfied by
purchasing and consuming their products or services. According to Cawsey, T. and Rowley, J.,
(Social media brand building strategies in B2B companies.Marketing Intelligence & Planning,
2016) unfavourable brand reputation will cause distrust of customers towards a particular
company or brand and they will hesitate in purchasing any product and service offered by the
company. The Companies or brand uses various techniques and methods in order to build a
positive and favourable brand reputation in the market to influence more customers and retain
the existing ones. Urde, M.,(The brand core and its management over time.Journal of product &
brand management, 2016) define that brand reputation is an essential element and factor which
help an organisation or company to achieve success or goals
The Brands such as Apple or Samsung are two of the most leading brands in the market.
These two brands have successfully developed and maintained favourable brand reputation by
earning trust as well as loyalty of their customers by providing high quality products and services
to the customers. According to Kladou, S., Kavaratzis, M., Rigopoulou, I. and Salonika, E.,(The

role of brand elements in destination branding, 2016) brand reputation can have a great impact
on the performance and objectives of an organisation or company. A negative brand reputation
can reduce the sales and profit of the brand as people will avoid purchasing products from a
brand having bad image in the market. In order to increase the profit of a business it is important
that the company build an impressive and positive brand reputation within the market. Balmer,
J.M. and Wang, W.Y.,. (The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior business school
managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management, 2016) states that brand
reputation is a result of public relation, traditional advertising and promotion, customer
satisfaction etc.
Impact of Brand reputation on a business or company.
According to Movafegh, R.M.A. and Fotoohi, H.,(Brand Reputation and Costumer
Trust.Kuwait Chapter of the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 2015) Brand
reputation has various impacts on a company and its performance. The image or reputation of a
brand highly influence the overall performance of a company and lead it to success or failure.
They also state that the Brand reputation has both negative and positive impact on a company or
business which are as described below -
Negative impact
Maintaining and earning a good or positive reputation is a big challenge for established and new
company. A company or business can be portrayed as dishonest, irresponsible and untrusted
brand by the customers in a marketplace. According to Hsu, L. and Lawrence, B.,.(The role of
social media and brand equity during a product recall crisis, 2016) the various negative impacts
of brand reputation are described as follows -
 Loss of trust – Bad reputation can lead to a loss of trust and disappointment. The Bad
publicity can be a major factor which can influence customers to lose trust from a brand
or company. Mouth publicity or social media can portray a bad image of a brand which
can negatively effect the customers beliefs and views regarding a brand and its products.
 Effects on sales – According to Han, S.H., Nguyen, B. and Lee, T.J.,(Consumer-based
chain restaurant brand equity, brand reputation, and brand trust. International Journal
of Hospitality Management, 2015) sales are also getting affected by negative brand
reputation. The Bad reputation damages sales rate of a company, customers can avoid

purchasing products or services of a particular brand. The bad image can lead to decrease
in the number of sales.
 Damage the brand equity – The Brand reputation can give a long term damage to the
brand equity. The brand reputation can have a great negative impact on the brand equity,
the tendency of retaining customers can break with the bad image of the brand or
company in the market.
 Damage Brand association – Brand association refers to a feeling and deep attitude a
consumer has towards a particular company or product. Changing attitudes towards a
brand and brand association can lead to financial loss and also take a great time to be
handled
Positive Impacts
 Increased sales – Good brand reputation helps in increasing sales of the products and
services of a company. Customers are highly attracted towards a brand that has a good
image in the market or industry. Increased number of customers enhanced the sale of the
brand or company.
 Creates an opportunity to growth – According to Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and
Beukeboom, C.J.,(A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation, 2015)
Good brand reputation also develops an opportunity for the growth and development of
the business or company. Increase in sales, customer support and profit helps a brand to
expand the range of products and services of a brand.
 Attract other brands – A brand with an impressive and good reputation within a
marketplace attracts other companies to collaborate or developing partnership in order to
share the market or brand value as well as attracting customers.
Factors affecting Brand reputation
According to Sengupta, A.S., Balaji, M.S. and Krishnan, B.C., (How customers cope with
service failure? A study of brand reputation and customer satisfaction, 2015) there are many
factors affecting the brand reputation of a company or organisation. These factors are highly
influencing the image of a brand or product in the market which can negatively or positively
affect the business operations and performance. The various factors affecting the brand
reputation are describes as below -
External forces or factors affecting Brand reputation

 Political factors – The Authors (Urde, M. and Greyser, S.A.,. The corporate brand
identity and reputation matrix–The case of the nobel prize, 2016) states that political
factors such as the policies imposed by the government can highly influence the business
performance and operations which leads to change in the brand reputation.
 Economic factors – The economic downfall or down turn can also change the perception
of the customers towards a product or brand. The perception of customers can be changed
with regards to the price, product and quality which gets affected by the change in
economical condition of a place or area.
 Legal – A brand or company needs to operate their business according to the legislation
or laws imposed by the legal authorities of a country or area. Avoiding these legislations
can harm or damage the reputation of a brand or company
 Technology – Melewar, T.C., Nguyen, B., Alwi, S.S. and Navare, J., (Guest Editors’
Introduction: The State of the Art on Corporate Reputation, 2017) states that there are
two kinds of factors related to technology that affect brand reputation, the first is the
technologies related to various products and services offered by a brand or company.
Second is the development and new technologies used as information carriers.
Internal factors affecting Brand reputation
 Resources – The resources within a brand or company also affects brand reputation or
image in the market. Various resources such as human resources, raw material, machines
etc plays an important role in building or damaging the brand reputation in the market.
 Politics within the company – The employees or stakeholders also plays an important role
in developing a positive or negative image of a brand in the market. Many times people
portray or present wrong image in front of others which can affect the reputation of a
particular brand or company.
Ways to develop Brand reputation
According Christou, E.(Branding social media in the travel industry. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 2015) a company can use various effective ways to develop or manage
brand reputation in the market. A company can make use of these techniques or methods in order
to build as well as improve the brand reputation of a company in the market The long term
strategies companies can use to develop and improve brand repartition are as follows -
 Publishing on lots of channels

 Engaging with various individuals
 Networking with influencers
 Addressing the complaints and requests
 Optimisation of the reviews and feedbacks
 Earning attention with effective and original research
 Encouraging content submitted by the customers
Conclusion
The above assignment concluded that Brand reputation is an important element within a
company or business that greatly affect the performance of an organisation. The Brand reputation
means how other view a particular company or its products. The report identified that Brand and
reputation are two different terms but are strongly linked with each other. Various negative and
positive impact of brand reputation on a business are also described in the above report.
Furthermore, internal and external factors affecting the bran reputation are also explained in the
report briefly.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals
Urde, M. and Greyser, S.A., 2016. The corporate brand identity and reputation matrix–The case
of the nobel prize. Journal of Brand Management, 23(1), pp.89-117.
Christou, E., 2015. Branding social media in the travel industry. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 175, pp.607-614.
Melewar, T.C., Nguyen, B., Alwi, S.S. and Navare, J., 2017. Guest Editors’ Introduction: The
State of the Art on Corporate Reputation: A Special Section.
Sengupta, A.S., Balaji, M.S. and Krishnan, B.C., 2015. How customers cope with service
failure? A study of brand reputation and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business
Research, 68(3), pp.665-674.
Han, S.H., Nguyen, B. and Lee, T.J., 2015. Consumer-based chain restaurant brand equity, brand
reputation, and brand trust. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 50, pp.84-
93.
Vidya, N.A., Fanany, M.I. and Budi, I., 2015. Twitter sentiment to analyze net brand reputation
of mobile phone providers. Procedia Computer Science, 72, pp.519-526.
Cawsey, T. and Rowley, J., 2016. Social media brand building strategies in B2B
companies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(6), pp.754-776.
Urde, M., 2016. The brand core and its management over time. Journal of product & brand
management, 25(1), pp.26-42.
Kladou, S., Kavaratzis, M., Rigopoulou, I. and Salonika, E., 2016. The role of brand elements in
destination branding. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management.
Balmer, J.M. and Wang, W.Y., 2016. The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior
business school managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and
management. Journal of Brand Management, 23(1), pp.8-21.
Movafegh, R.M.A. and Fotoohi, H., 2015. Brand Reputation and Costumer Trust.Kuwait
Chapter of the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(2), p.48.
Hsu, L. and Lawrence, B., 2016. The role of social media and brand equity during a product
recall crisis: A shareholder value perspective. International journal of research in
Marketing, 33(1), pp.59-77.

Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J., 2015. A stage to engage: Social media use and
corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, pp.58-67.