How you do business counts for a lot

Recent research from the Reputation Institute shows that for the first time, Governance (ethics/transparency) was the most important dimension of Reputation for Canadian consumers

Source: The Reputation Institute

You might think that product performance outweighs everything else. Yet according to this research good governance is top of mind for consumers when judging the reputation of companies with whom they do business or trust their money.

Although the recession of 2009 has brought massive losses in corporate market value, the erosion of trust and strained relationships with employees and customers could ultimately be more damaging for business. Markets have become increasingly commoditized and consumer dialogue about corporate ethics becomes more dynamic as it spills from blogs to facebook to forums.

This means that corporate brands must connect with consumers on a deeper, emotional level. Consumer confidence and loyalty must be earned not just on performance but by everything you say and do.

Consumers are speaking directly to the corner office – it will be interesting to see which companies are listening.

Being liked is one way to build reputation in a commoditized industry.

In 2008 E*Trade featured a baby as a hero in their ads, suggesting the idea, “If I can do it, you can do it”. That first ad generated so much buzz that it became the start of a series of “talking baby” ads.

The marketplace in which E*TRADE operates is anything but child’s play.  E*TRADE also offers banking services, which puts it in direct competition with giants in the banking industry. Because of the banking operation, E*TRADE suffered losses on its subprime mortgage holdings.

Yet E*TRADE has been rated the “#1 online broker for the third straight year,” as determined by Smart Money magazine. And the company had a net gain of 115,000 new brokerage accounts in 2009.