As marketing professionals, I think we are just beginning to understand that reputation management may trump brand management. And in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, Lee Gomes wrote about how some economists are gaining new insights on how reputation can impact prices consumers are willing to pay online.
One “eBayologist” (an economist who studies eBay) has concluded that once eBay sellers with perfect feedback rating receive their first negative feedback rating from a buyer, they begin selling less and enter, “… a downward spiral, with fewer sales and a declining reputation.”
And an “Amazonist” (an economist who studies Amazon) concluded that, “Amazon’s customer-written reviews of books do indeed affect sales with negative reviews having more of an impact than positive ones. [This Amazonist] theorized that prospective shoppers may suspect positive reviews are some sort of shill for the author but don’t bring comparable skepticism to negative notices.”
[Source: Wall Street Journal, "E-Commerce Sites Make Great Laboratory For Today's Economists" | Monday, October 11, 2004 (subscription req'd)]
John,
Isn't reputation an integral part of ones brand?
Posted by: Tom Asacker | October 18, 2004 at 01:27 PM
Tom, I hear ya ... but to clarify my thinking ... we both know “branding” and “brand management” is a nebulous term that not everyone fully understands, including folks in the marketing game.
Branding is a topic that gets debated often on marketing blogs and despite all the passionate and articulate debate … we are no where closer to gaining a unified definition of what a brand is and how to manage a brand.
However, everyone understands the term ‘reputation’ and all the emotional and rational feelings associated with a solid reputation and with a tarnished reputation. And because the art/science of branding is so misunderstood, I contend that if we view brand management in terms of reputation management then we would all be closer to the same page on how to define/manage a brand.
I think as marketers we overcomplicate what we do. We make our living over-thinking everything and I think we have done just that in how we talk about brands. That’s why I find the concept of displacing the discipline of brand management for reputation management as being a profoundly simple way to get more of us on the same page when we talk brands/branding.
Have I oversimplified branding? Probably so. But these days … I’ll take oversimplification over overcomplication.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | October 18, 2004 at 02:53 PM