Brand vs. Reputation
Your brand is what you make it. Your reputation is what makes you. There’s a small difference in wording but a big difference in overview. Brand may get you the initial success; reputation is what keeps it going.
10 Responses to “Brand vs. Reputation”
Would you place brand above reputation? Does one make the other or are they co-joined?
Reminds me of what my father taught me: Perception is reality, try to control both.
couldn’t agree more Danny
I am a firm believer that your reputation is your brand. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on pretty pictures, clever slogans and beautiful design if the experience that a customer then has does not match with what you have told them.
I agree 100% with you, Duncan. I think reputation has much more sway than brand. Brands can be bought; reputations can’t. But the price of losing yours is higher than any brand-building exercise.
Brand is not above reputation, but there’s more that goes into making up your brand. Reputation is the biggest piece of the puzzle, which is why so many companies suffer from identity crises. The brand is everything you communicate, and how you communicate, about your company + how those messages are received.
So brand is perception and reputation is reaction, perhaps? Get the brand right and the reputation will follow.
Duncan you nailed it–true story;there are two restaurants side by side in my town, one has the most AMAZING interior design, swanky logo,intelligent and attractive servers and great wine menu. The other is a little dingy and a sour old lady works the counter.The swank restaurant however has sub par and way over priced food and you feel like you have to check the mirror to fit in, while the dingy restaurant is comfortable and the food is phenomenal (and cheap. So which would you have dinner with me at?I think at some point, we will all stop worrying about “Brand” and start worrying about “Experience”. So forget your brand or design consultant, who is your customer experience designer?
“Customer experience designer” – love it!
























I’d take it a step further and say that your reputation is still part of the overall brand. Perception & reaction is a big part of it.