"Reputation is an intangible asset, but its effects are real": MSLGroup and Eikona report

The report construes:

• Corporate reputations are the sum total of the beliefs held by individuals about companies’ past actions and future potential. It is stakeholders’ collective actions and sentiments – whether to purchase a product, buy shares of the company’s stock, or recommend the company to others – that determine every company’s ability to stay in business.
• Reputation is an intangible asset, but its effects are real. Indeed, reputation is acting on companies all the time — an invisible yet powerful influence that can either help or hinder a company as it strives to meet its objectives.
• From credit terms to employee retention, reputation can have a serious impact. Like gravitational pull, reputation makes it easier or more difficult for your company to get where it needs to go.
• Normally, most product categories’ presence in the annual advertising calendar does not exceed four months. On the other hand, PR support for the same products stretches to at least eight months of the calendar, which is a unique opportunity for the PR industry. Its scope is widening from the narrow media relations space to leading the overall brand building and maintenance function. It is now up to the PR industry to evolve from being second fiddle to advertising and corporate communications to becoming the leader in the marketing communications ecosystem. In India, we are already seeing movement on this. Many corporations are working communications objectives into CEOs’ and other key spokespersons’ key result areas. Corporate communications executives are spending more time with CEOs and MDs. PR is increasingly being acknowledged as a brand-builder on par with other tools.