Basil Jarrett | What’s in a name?

My grandmother lied to me. No, not about Santa Claus, the black heart man and rolling calf. She lied when she said that sticks and stones could break my bones but words could never hurt. She also lied when she said ‘word is wind’, and asked, ‘who cares what people say about you? It’s what you think about yourself that matters’.

Now grandma, you know that I love you to the moon and back, but words do hurt. They hurt your reputation, your marketability and your bottom line. What people say and think about you can cost you your life, your job or your freedom – to say nothing of the hit it can take on your pocket. It is estimated that 61 per cent of consumers are influenced by the reputation of the companies that they do business with, and another 39 per cent are impacted by their perception of a company’s products and services. The obvious impact of a company’s reputation on its revenue and company profits is immediately clear. What is not so clear, however, is the relationship between a company’s reputation and its brand image. While the two are closely linked, a company can own and control its brand, but its reputation is owned by its customers, clients and stakeholders, making it inherently more difficult to manage.

AN INTANGIBLE ASSET

But managing this reputation is critical, especially in a competitive market environment where very little differentiation exists between products and company offerings. Intangible assets such as reputation and integrity can provide a real competitive advantage, not only because they can be difficult for competitors to emulate, but also because they can help gain the ‘benefit of the doubt’ from customers and stakeholders when faced with a crisis. In the case of the latter, just look at how many companies worldwide have suffered huge reputation losses in the face of a crisis event; BP and the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010, AstraZeneca’s botched COVID-19 vaccine dosage blunder, and just about any company that openly endorsed Donald Trump and his policies. Even here, telecommunications giant Flow spent nearly two decades to finally shrug off the terrible reputation it developed when it held a monopoly over Jamaica’s telephony services.

An organisation’s reputation is built on trust, and in recent years, that trust has come under heavy attack from social and traditional media, activists and pressure groups, as well as a ‘woke’ culture calling for transparency, accountability, socially responsible behaviour and integrity. Ethics, core values, and corporate social responsibility are now high on the agenda in board meetings across the world as the public grows more cynical, suspicious and weary of bad business practices. Add to this the playing field-levelling crisis called COVID, and organisations are now forced to fight for every bit of real estate that will provide them with a competitive leverage over their rivals.

In order to do this, however, it is important to understand how reputation is formed in the first place. Reputation is developed from three major interactions between a company and its customers, clients and stakeholders. The first, and most powerful, is the direct experience that people have with the organisation. The larger the ‘say-do’ gap, that is, the gap between what an organisation says and what it actually does, the lower the level of that organisation’s credibility and, by extension, the lower the likelihood of a positive reputation. Indirect experiences, such as what people hear others say about the organisation, are another set of factors driving reputation. But contrary to popular opinion, the third factor, what an organisation says through its advertising, corporate communications, etc, is the least impactful as this alone is not enough to give the public a belief that they truly know the organisation.

Reputation, therefore, is only partially manageable as it cannot be entirely controlled by an organisation. This applies not just to companies and organisations, but private individuals as well. And that’s why I encourage the young people that I mentor to guard their reputation with their lives. What seems like an easy dollar today or a quick buck that no one will ever miss could very well end up costing the one thing that you will leave behind forever – your good name.

INTEGRITY MUST BE NON-NEGOTIABLE

I often joke with my wife that she must know me so well that if she hears any negative stories out there about me, she should immediately know what is true, what is false and what is … hmmm, let me think about that. He took money out of someone’s wallet? No way. He drank all of the soda and left the empty bottle in the fridge? Yup, that sounds like him. He was out drinking with the guys when he says he was at church? Hmmm, let me think about that.

In other words, your reputation must be so forthright and beyond reproach that anyone hearing something untoward about you should immediately balance it against what you are known for, who you are and what you represent. At the very least, it must give them pause to say, “Well, let’s hear what he has to say before we condemn him because that doesn’t sound like the person I know.”

CHARACTER

And that’s why I’m so encouraged to hear that our libel, slander and defamation laws have been overhauled in light of this current “share everything on social media” culture. The relationship soured and you’re left holding the empty bag of emotions? Put her and the tape you made on blast. Jealous because he’s moved on and you haven’t? Send a viral WhatsApp video outlining what a cheap date he was. Don’t like someone because you just don’t like them. Yup. There’s a screenshot for that too. These actions damage lives, careers and reputations and persons must be made to understand that there are serious consequences for these actions.

Having said that, however, it is important to remember one other thing my grandmother taught me. “Don’t worry about your reputation”, she would say. “Worry about your character. Your character is what you do when no one is looking. If your character is morally sound, honest and upright, then your reputation will take care of itself.” Truer words were never before spoken.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a Communications Consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management.