Pamela S. Gockley

Branding drives the bus for most businesses, and is exclusive. Branding tells you what is supposed to happen. In Reputation, the customers drive the bus, and they say what actually happened. The starting point has changed. The typical Branding campaign starts with Marketing and takes over a year, from its conception, development, and implementation, to produce any meaningful benefits. In Reputation, we start with customers, not a creative director. Today, the modern holistic inclusive approach is, Customer Service, flowing into Sales when it is proven creditable, then lastly Marketing. The Reputation philosophy is nimble and builds on itself. It changes with the customers’ needs, and builds on itself without having to start over from scratch. We focus on Customer Service, Sales, and Marketing because these areas have a direct impact and connection with customers.

We have all seen advertising campaigns that have built a brand using tried and true branding methods. They have developed fabulous brands, but when we experience their products or services, we found they were disappointing, and not as good as their claims of greatness. It was shocking and damaging to find the perception was much more impressive than the actual experience. Branding tells us how fabulous the company is; Reputation is the real quality of the company. Successful businesses have one thing in common: they understand and have focused on building and maintaining an excellent reputation. But know this: unlike branding, you have to be able to live up to the reputation you create. It doesn’t take long to lose a good reputation by using Branding.