Think of Unilever, Whitbread, Procter & Gamble. Nothing much comes to mind, does it? These companies feel like large, shadowy corporations to the consumer who has little handle on who they are and what they do. This makes it easy to be suspicious of their goals and motives and makes their reputations vulnerable to criticisms and attack from others. Whereas Ben & Jerry’s, Bovril, Dove and Pampers – we know them don’t we? Consumers have a relationship to those brands and receive information about them from various sources on a regular basis.
So if a strong product brand helps in marketing, it might also have a negative impact on the company’s reputation. In light of increasing evidence that reputation affects share prices, companies are putting in place all manner of communications and stakeholder strategies to protect and improve their reputations. But with evidence showing a continued trend in society of a loss of trust in large companies, perhaps they ought to be considering again the costs and benefits of their chosen brand strategies. These have often been in place for decades and haven’t kept pace with social change.
