Today, aside from products and services, the single most valuable asset that you have as a corporation, single business proprietor or company is your reputation. Your reputation, often represented by what we call “brand,” is the one that does the “trading or selling” on your behalf. What clients, stakeholders, target market and other key influencers have to say about your brand matters to the point that it may increase or decrease your trading value that later on defines your profit, position and strength in the market.

Why is this? Because reputation, powerful though intangible, is built on trust. If your brand is trusted for its expertise and quality, then your brand will thrive. People will most often go for products and services that they trust and more likely stay with the said brand because they know their needs are met by this brand.

It takes time to build a brand but it can take a minute to destroy it. Take for example, the case of PEPSI. It is enjoying a rightful share in the market at the height of the ‘80’s but when it launched a promo that elicited a lot of complaints due to multiple winners instead of one, the brand suffered from reputation damage. Even if you buy a soda brand for its taste and price, when its reputation was put at stake by a faulty promo, the company suffered a dramatic loss in market share.

If your brand has already established a good share of “reputation” in the market, when a breakdown happens that threatens your brand, people will want to hear what you have to say first and not immediately judge your brand. They respect you because of the “goodwill” that your brand has established with them.

Public relations (PR) is all about building goodwill to your target audience through various media and methods. It is always good to have some form of PR that makes your audience see and feel your presence.

Aside from utilizing PR to build up your brand, here are other obvious occasions that it pays to consider public relations:

  • When launching or promoting a new company, product or service
  • When implementing a name change (corporate name shift)
  • When damage has been done to your reputation or a crisis occurs to your company
  • When there are major internal changes that affects client servicing or external relations
  • To communicate precautionary measures

For other questions/scenarios, you may email inquire@brandspeakasia.com