Why Is Reputation Important for Brands?

Building a brand that consumers love and trust can take years of hard work. But one dent in your reputation can unravel that equity in a matter of hours. Let’s discuss why reputation is so crucial to business, particularly now that AI-generated summaries and search results increasingly set the tone for how consumers perceive a brand.

What is reputation?

Reputation is the collective perception people, including customers, stakeholders, employees, and the general public, have about a business or individual.

Because it’s intangible, we tend to measure company reputation on a qualitative scale that ranges from “good” to “bad” rather than with a metric.

Since it’s based on opinion, a range of factors influence reputation, like public statements, leadership behavior, customer experiences, and media coverage. And most of all, how your brand is represented online through reviews, social media, search results, and now AI-generated summaries can create a narrative that accelerates or undermines your success.

Why is a good reputation important?

In the internet era, online reputation is everything. Think about your marketing strategy for a moment. Your paid team buys ads on numerous mediums like broadcast, print, digital, and display. You invest in public relations to get top-tier brand mentions. Your PR team sends out endless press releases to promote your products and services.

All of these efforts ultimately drive consumers to one place: Search. What potential customers discover there will shape their opinion of your brand. If it’s positive and in line with your brand messaging, your marketing efforts will be amplified.

However, if your Google results or AI summaries are negative, off-brand, irrelevant, or laced with competitor content, your marketing ROI will take a hit.

Online reputation affects offline brand perception

It’s easy to think of what happens online as separate from the “real” business. But today, your digital reputation is often the first and most influential touchpoint customers encounter.

Dozens of digital touchpoints form the lens through which people evaluate your brand long before they walk into a store, add something to their cart, or engage with your team.

A single negative review can lower both foot and online traffic. A polarizing news story can influence investor confidence. A wave of Reddit threads or TikTok commentary can shape expectations before someone ever experiences your product.

This means your online reputation isn’t just an asset, it’s a predictor of offline outcomes like purchase decisions, hiring success, partnership opportunities, and customer loyalty. The story people see online becomes the story they believe offline.

How AI Now Shapes Brand Reputation

AI has become one of the most powerful forces influencing how people understand, evaluate, and talk about brands. Search engines, social platforms, and generative models now pull from millions of online signals to create summaries, rankings, and recommendations. These AI answers shape consumer perception long before someone visits your website.

In this environment, AI isn’t just reflecting your reputation; it’s actively constructing it. Brands that don’t manage the quality, consistency, and availability of their digital signals risk having incorrect narratives define them.

Why Reputation is Important

44% of C-suite executives would override a decision based on AI insights (SAP)
55% of companies with $5 billion or more in revenue, AI-driven insights have replaced or frequently bypass traditional decision-making (SAP)
Generative AI tools influence 64% of purchase decisions (Profound)
58% of consumers use generative AI tools instead of traditional search engines for product recommendations. (Capgemini Consumer Trends 2025)

So, we know that online reputation is important because it impacts real-life behavior like hiring and sales. And legions of potential customers, stakeholders, and employees read what people say about your brand online.

Why is reputation important for CEOs?

A CEO’s reputation is important because it impacts the entire company.

This connection wasn’t as strong several decades ago when business owners rarely ventured beyond the boardroom. Now, news cycles erupt instantaneously, and CEOs have countless platforms to express their unfiltered thoughts. Fortunately, many executives now understand how their personal brand influences the company’s reputation.

74%

74% of executives believe their customers tie brand reputation to executives reputation

Because CEOs are the face of their company, personal statements have dire consequences for the brands they lead.

Download the Forrester StudyLearn how SEO shapes brand perception in this commissioned study by Forrester Consulting.Get the Study

Reputation Examples and Lessons

The link between a CEO’s public persona and a company’s brand reputation has never been stronger. In an era where AI systems instantly summarize public sentiment, executive actions can shift market perception in real time.

Few leaders illustrate this dynamic more clearly than Elon Musk. His rapid, unfiltered communication style and high public visibility consistently influence how consumers and investors view Tesla.

When Musk makes controversial statements or policy decisions on social platforms, Tesla often experiences immediate fluctuations in stock price and brand sentiment. Musk’s reputation directly colors the narrative around the Tesla brand.

A different but equally instructive example is Target. In 2025, the company faced intense backlash around operational decisions that quickly escalated through online discourse. Even though Target’s CEO wasn’t personally at the center of the discourse, leadership decisions became inseparable from how consumers perceived the brand.

The situation triggered a measurable decline in consumer sentiment, online visibility issues, and lost earnings. It demonstrated that executive-level choices can materially shift brand trust almost overnight.

These examples show how modern brand reputation is executive reputation. The people at the top shape the stories consumers see in search results and increasingly in AI-generated content.

Why is corporate reputation important?

According to Harvard Business Review, a strong reputation allows businesses to:

Attract better people
Charge a premium
Enjoy strong customer loyalty

Furthermore, HBR explains that because these companies reliably provide sustained earnings and future growth, they have higher price-earnings multiples and market values as well as lower costs of capital.

The impact also extends to consumers.

Generative AI chat platforms and Google Search give consumers instant access to limitless information, allowing them to choose between more companies and do more research than ever before.

New customers can read product reviews, investors can learn about a CEO, and job seekers can research a prospective employer. For better or worse, these online platforms are crucial drivers of corporate reputation.

Negative employee reviews will turn away top talent and force you to spend more money on recruiting. A volatile CEO will scare off investors, diminishing access to capital. And bad customer reviews prevent you from being able to increase ecommerce sales.

Why is reputation management important?

It’s probably evident by now that your company’s reputation is its most important asset. But far too often a brand’s online reputation is out of sync with the real world.

That’s because algorithms and large language models are constantly shaping brand visibility and perception. And what fuels these models are digital assets that exist across a range of owned and third-party websites.

If you aren’t actively creating, controlling, and influencing these online assets, you’re leaving your brand’s narrative — and the decisions of customers, investors, and talent — completely in the hands of others.

However, if you know how to leverage those signals, you’ll be able to influence what appears in search and AI-generated answers.

That’s where reputation management comes in. Reputation management acts as the moat and drawbridge to your brand’s digital fortress. Not only do reputation management firms protect your brand, they also build up the kind of favorable content you want your customers and stakeholders to find, right when you want them to find it.

With that, let’s dive into the importance of online reputation management (ORM).

The market is saturated with good brands vying for customers’ attention. It takes a monumental amount of effort, resources and time to stand out in this highly competitive marketplace. But, most importantly, you need a great reputation.

A recent study found that 8 out of 10 companies saw an improvement in their market value when they improved their reputation. Furthermore, per the previously mentioned Forrester Consulting study, 41% of brands believe reducing undesirable search results would increase market share.

41%

41% of brands believe reducing undesirable search results would increase market share

Your brand’s market performance depends on maintaining a positive brand image.

Revenue

It’s nearly impossible to tie reputation to an exact dollar amount because there are far too many variables. But we do know that brands with a bad reputation pay heavily when it comes to revenue.

Want a more specific example? We helped a national furniture retailer recover approximately $32 million dollars in monthly revenue. Read the case study here.

We Recovered $32 Million Monthly for a National RetailerLearn how we went on the defensive for a national furniture retailer.Read Case Study

Investors and board members

Investors are vital to the financial health of your business because they grant you access to capital (which fuels growth). This investment powers R&D, acquisitions, and team expansions.

Board members are also important for their connections and expertise. However, in exchange, investors expect to be rewarded with stable and consistent returns, not reputational risk.

Customers

Customers today have dozens of review websites at their fingertips. This is a great virtual word-of-mouth referral system. Not only can review sites rank in Google for your brand, but AI platforms and AI agents learn from them and other customer reviews.

Unfortunately, these sites can be magnets for angry customers to vent their one-sided frustrations. Negative reviews don’t always tell the full story, but they do heavily impact whether or not a customer chooses to do business with you.

According to Podium, 91% of 18-to 34-year-olds believe reviews are as trustworthy as a recommendation from an acquaintance.

Online reputation repair companies monitor brand reviews and carefully track sentiment to make sure they accurately represent your business. As a result, you’ll be able to step in and fix issues before they snowball out of control.

Employment

It’s not just customers who can leave online reviews about your business. Current and former employees can also leave feedback.

The employee-review site, Glassdoor, uses a star rating system for both the company and its C-suite executives.

Unfortunately, just like with customer review sites, Glassdoor can be a place for disgruntled employees to seek revenge against a former employer by stretching the truth, or completely misrepresenting it.

Since review sites rank very well in Google for branded keywords, one-star reviews could appear on the first page of your search results. These reviews are also being cited as sources in AI-generated summaries.

As a result, you’ll struggle to hire top talent, or you’ll pay a premium to convince them to work for you.

Sadly, it’s extremely difficult to get Glassdoor reviews removed. That means the only way to get rid of them is to elevate other content and positive reviews above them.

Partner with the leading reputation management company

We looked at numerous statistics about why it’s important to build a good reputation, including how a positive reputation impacts your bottom line. Then, we discussed the risks of not taking action or hiring the wosrst kind of reputation management company.

The truth is, at the end of the day you need more than a handful of positive reviews if you hope to shape the opinions of others within your target audience. You need a comprehensive reputation marketing strategy that prioritizes your brand’s online presence just as highly as its offline presence.

Fully-Managed ORMWe’ll build and strengthen your online reputation.Learn More

The truth is, you need more than a handful of positive reviews if you hope to shape the opinions of others within your target audience. You need a comprehensive reputation marketing strategy that prioritizes your brand’s online presence just as highly as its offline presence.

If you’d like to learn more about our strategies or how we’ve helped companies like yours, contact us here. Otherwise, you can read these article about how reputation management works: