Reputation Strategy and Analytics in a Hyper-Connected World

Chapter Five Reputation and Your Brand’s DNA

Executive Summary: The best reputation strategies often begin before a product launch. Today, it’s normal for audiences to expect high levels of transparency and engagement from brands. Sometimes over-sharing information about your products is a better strategy than under-sharing information. Let the audience decide how much information is too much.

Is it possible to front-load reputation during a launch? Can you build reputation into a brand’s DNA? How much value does a great reputation really confer on a brand in today’s hyperactive markets? In an age of total transparency, can brands afford to hide or conceal information?

Those were some of the questions we were asking ourselves before our conversation with Ame Wadler, a good friend and former colleague. Ame has more than 25 years of experience in public relations and public affairs. Her career spans long stints at Hill and Knowlton, Edelman Worldwide, and Burson-Marsteller. She’s played leading roles in more than 20 biopharmaceutical launches, including more than 10 blockbusters.

Our research team interviewed Ame and asked her to describe how Reputation Strategy has become more complicated and more nuanced over the past two decades.

“There’s no question that Reputation Strategy has changed enormously, and there have been two primary drivers: The audience’s expectations have changed and how we interact with an audience has changed,” Ame says. “In the past, most of the audience ...