The factors in play

According to Plus 94 Research the key fact o r s i mpa c t i n g t h e reputations of this year’s TCRI Top 5 were as follows:

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, the most reputable business, has a reputation that depends on the strength of its recognition, governance, and in particular, communication, as well as its ability as a company to stand behind its products and services. The three attributes: being well known, standing behind its products and services, and communication with external stakeholders are pivotal to its overall performance.

Toyota

This vehicle manufacturer has a reputation that rests on three main attributes, all three being connected to the leadership of the business. Consequently, Toyota is perceived to be a business that sees and takes advantage of market opportunities that present themselves. As such Toyota is reputed for being a good business to invest in, as well as offering high quality products and service.

Vodacom

Vodacom is strongly associated with supporting good causes, this being a crucial factor in its market resonance. It is also a business that is lauded for its ability to out-per- form its competitors. A substantial part of Vodacom’s reputation depends on the perception that it is a good company to work for, and that it promotes the skills development of its staff.

Like Coca-Cola, Vodacom is also perceived to be an excellent communicator with its stakeholders.

Multichoice

Similar to Toyota, Multichoice is a business whose reputation hinges on the ability of its leadership to articulate the goals and direction of the company. The market acknowledges its continuous development and growth.

Allied to this vision is the strong association of Multichoice with high quality products and services. It was interesting that a considerable reputation driver for Multichoice, in addition to vision, leadership and products, is its commitment to developing the skills of its staff.

Volkswagen

VW, the fifth most reputable business, has three nearly equal main drivers of its reputation.

The first one is the desirability of its products because of their quality.

The second factor is that the VW brand is associated with a certain level of esteem and status; the third is that it offers good value for money for the quality and stature of its products. Often, it simply boils down to not lying to your customer,” says Pienaar.

Capstick-Dale says that once a company starts lying, it loses trust: “It leads to stakeholders asking what else has the company lied about. Certainly, a brand can recover from this, but it will take time.”

Magnus says that part of this problem is that companies are quick to make promises in the midst of a crisis, but need to follow-through on them once the crisis has been resolved.

“It is easy to revert to business as usual following a crisis. But to effectively come back from this means the organisation has to deliver on the promises made,” says Magnus.

Despite their focus on maintaining and improving reputation in the short term, companies need to look at the future of the country and the role they see themselves fulfilling.

Building on Falala’s view that companies need to impact more than their bottom line, Capstick-Dale feels that in 10 years’ time people will look back at the behaviour of corporate South Africa and its inability or unwillingness to make its voice heard in the social discourse.

“Companies are [right now] relatively silent in the face of aggression from the government. This is a mistake and their reputation will suffer accordingly.”