The reputation audit is an important part of the company’s marketing policy. It helps understand audiences’ attitude to the company/brand as accurately as possible and identify the areas of your communication strategy that need changes. Simply speaking, the reputation audit helps paint a portrait of the company in its current state and see how it should change in the future. The reputation audit is also a key indicator of the company’s public relations activities.

The sentiment about the company/brand (the treatment given by the media, the response from the blogosphere and the attitude from the professional community) is a key factor in assessing the company’s reputation. Along with it, the following aspects are also critical to the audit:

• Leadership – psychologically, customers have more trust in, are more forgiving of, open to and think better of a market leader, which is why it is critical to understand how the media present the company in terms of market leadership;
• Performance – consumers have more trust in companies that meet their financial obligations than in those reporting weak financials; an analysis of the coverage of the company’s results helps find an untapped pool of trust and positively influence the company’s reputation;
• Social responsibility – charitable activities, sponsorship of humanitarian and sporting events, employee benefit programs, and other forms of social responsibility are regarded worldwide as an important element in building a positive image;
• Products/services – products and services are a trademark of the company and the attitude to them is an important, and sometimes crucial, part of the attitude to the company/brand;
• Workplace – how the company treats its workforce is an important characteristic that is responsible to a large extend for determining the target audience’s attitude to it.

We offer the reputation audit both as a separate service and a part of wider research. Either separately or in a package, it will help your marketing department better understand how the company is covered by the media and seen by consumers and partners and take the right steps to adjust or improve the company’s position.