BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 7, 2009) - The rapid growth of the Internet and the
explosion of social media, in particular, have made it more challenging
than ever for companies to protect their brand reputations. Recent examples
abound of how, owing to the viral effect of social media, ordinary people
now wield the power to cause untold harm to the value of a brand. Beyond
the spread of negative opinion, including false rumors, online brand
threats extend into the realm of copyright infringement, information leaks
and even illegal online distribution.
Yet even as the online world unleashes a host of new opportunities to
attack a company's brand reputation, online monitoring is providing much of
the heavy artillery needed to effectively identify and take action to
disarm those threats. According to the new report by
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
(
NYSE:
HHS), "
Brand Reputation Management: Using Online
Monitoring to Protect the Company's Crown Jewels," half of all survey
respondents indicated that their companies are increasing their investments
in social media monitoring initiatives -- in large part, to combat the
threat of online brand devaluation issues.
Today only 30% of Laggards, compared to 65% of leading companies, are
currently satisfied with their ability to identify and reduce risk to their
brands. And while the ability to avert even one harmful incident may
readily justify the investment in social media monitoring, it's clear that
online brand protection is still in its infancy, and even top companies
still have a lot to learn about what works and what doesn't when it comes
to analyzing consumer-generated content to identify and act upon potential
risks to the brand.
The benefits of online monitoring in the context of brand reputation
management are clear and compelling, even if the metrics for measuring
success are still evolving. One key metric is
time-to-brand-threat-information. By delivering information within minutes
or hours instead of days or weeks, companies may be able to keep a spark of
negative consumer opinion or other brand devaluation issue from igniting
into a wildfire that ultimately threatens corporate revenues, profitability
and shareholder value. Leading companies are 18 times more likely than
Laggards to deliver information to key decision makers concerning potential
threats in a
real-time or near-real-time basis.
Achieving the desired objectives means more than just deploying the right
set of enabling technologies. Success in online brand protection also
requires a combination of strategic actions and organizational
capabilities. For example, top organizations are more than 3 times more
likely than Laggards to have a process for acting upon insights gleaned
from online monitoring. Such actions might mean taking legal steps to shut
down a counterfeit drug site and prosecute the responsible party. Or, more
commonly, it might mean engaging with a customer to address an issue,
resolve a problem or correct a misunderstanding that adversely affects
consumer sentiment.
The report includes a number of recommendations to help spur performance
improvements. In addition to implementing time-sensitive performance
metrics, recommended actions include hiring resources that have online
brand protection as part of their job description, implementing search
engine optimization techniques and conducting online consumer sentiment
analysis at a granular level.
"Now that conversations have moved online, companies have an unprecedented
opportunity to listen in and glean a vast array of actionable insights,"
said Jeff Zabin, Research Fellow at Aberdeen Group. "Some of those insights
may reveal issues that pose a threat to a company's brand reputation -- or,
worse, speak to brand devaluation activities that are already in progress.
As an early warning system, online monitoring has the capacity to bring to
light any number of current or imminent risks to the brand."
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due, in part, to the
following underwriters: BrandProtect, Converseon and Visible Technologies.
To access a copy, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5800.
For additional access to complimentary
Customer
Management Research, please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/Customer-Management/
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers
demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the
past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving
market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering
meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the
global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that
drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen or call (617) 723-7890, or to
learn more about
Harte-Hanks,
call (800) 456-9748.
© 2009 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Jeff Zabin
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(847) 328-4795
jeff.zabin@aberdeen.com