Isentia takes reputation analysis mainstream

Isentia has launched a new form of reputation analysis, which blends organic social media conversations and survey data to provide a more comprehensive view of what the public says, thinks and feels about an organisation.

The aim is to help organisations across APAC benchmark, strategise, and better measure reputation.

Isentia’s Reputation Analysis uses an integrated framework that examines the three most important drivers of organisational reputation: Strategy, culture and delivery. All three drivers are analysed independently, and the report includes an overall RepID score on a scale of -10 to +10 which integrates the strategy, culture and delivery scores, as well as providing detailed information on performance across each driver.

Isentia head of insights in New Zealand, Ngaire Crawford, said reputation is what people say about you when you leave the room, and the way people make decisions about what organisations they purchase from, or partner with, will only continue to get more niche as digital communities intensify and media audiences fragment.

"Knowing why people love you is one thing, but knowing why they may not even care about you is gold," Crawford told CMO.   

"Our reputation analysis is really about that wider view that the public have on your organisation, rather than only your customers. We wanted to provide research on how people feel about an organisation more broadly, what that audience looks like and what's driving their views. Understanding reputation is crucial to knowing how or why people are - or aren't - engaging with you in the first place, rather than what's driving their decisions once they are a customer. 

"Reputation should be a clearly prized and protected metric for any organisation, regardless of where it might sit. It belongs to everyone, and should be measured with the same care and rigour as financial results."

Crawford agreed every organisation is different, and that one magic metric can vary. "We've designed a clear, simple and transparent score that can fit in with any other metrics of choice; one which will tell you what people think of your company when you aren't the one prompting them," she said. 

“What they say, what they don’t say, or whether they say anything at all, are all contributing factors to an organisation’s reputation. By using a combination of social media and survey analysis to reveal what people are saying, as well as what they think of an organisation at a given point in time, we are able to provide a more robust, accurate and tactical view of reputation." 

According to Crawford, the problem with traditional long-form market research is by the time you get the results and the analysis, reputation may have already shifted, and it’s too late to make decisions based on outdated data. Reputation analysis provides communications professionals, marketers and business leaders with insights and recommendations on areas of opportunity and weak spots, with a particular focus on ‘neutral’ audiences, to help move the needle.

Isentia said one of the biggest opportunities for organisations to sway their reputation to a more favourable state is to tap into their neutral or ambivalent audience – the segment which usually represents a larger portion of their target audience.

“The ones who think negatively about a company are usually too far gone to be won over, whereas the ones who sit on the fence, are the low-hanging fruit," Crawford said.

"Reputation analysis helps businesses identify the ‘gold in the gray’ and spot the opportunities to influence or change the right people’s behaviours, perceptions and beliefs around a brand, further expanding advocacy base, increasing reputation value, and leading to an upward trend in their overall RepID score. Our goal is to help marketers and business leaders turn apathy into advocacy." 

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