Reputation management, defined as a systematic, program-based approach to managing an organization’s image, brand, and standing among peers and competitors, is a key part of a public relations practitioner’s role. It’s often considered a soft metric, sometimes overlooked or devalued by the leadership team.
But recent findings show that reputation DOES carry a dollar value, which may help leaders place more emphasis on building and maintaining a strong one.
Reputation Carries a Price Tag
While those of us who work in the B2B PR and communications trenches have long understood the value of an organization’s reputation – and how a strong one helps while a damaged one hurts – it was often viewed as a nice-to-have yet difficult to measure asset.
However, a 2026 analysis by Burson reveals that companies with the strongest reputations earn nearly 5% more in unexpected shareholder returns than their counterparts.
- The analysis found that across the companies studied, this could add between $2 million and $202 billion in unexpected shareholder returns, depending on industry and market cap.
- Top-performing companies scored 11 to 15 points higher across every dimension of reputation (dimensions measured include citizenship, creativity, governance, innovation, leadership, financial performance, products and workplace).
The methodology and full results are here.
Another study claims that 63% of a company’s market value is based on its reputation.
A Strong Reputation Is Tough to Earn – but Easy to Lose
Although it’s vital to any business, it can be difficult to earn a reputation as a trusted leader in your space – and easy to lose that status.
Reputation depends on consistency and credibility, which lead to trust. Can your stakeholders TRUST you?
With AI invading every part of corporate life, being a trusted entity is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have.
“AI will make the most trustworthy brands in the world even more valuable in an era where it’ll be hard to know what’s real and what isn’t and what’s important and what isn’t,” says Meredith Kopit Levien, New York Times president and CEO (per Axios Comms Jan. 22, 2026 newsletter).
Further, this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer shows that one’s employer is the institution they trust most, with 78% of those surveyed choosing it. Business is now ranked as more ethical and competent than all other institutions, including media, government, and NGOs.
When a company does experience a trust-destroying event, it can take years to recover. According to a BCG study, most cases of lost trust are self-inflicted. Common drivers include company or top management scandals, large-scale accidents, and efficacy issues.
Examples of brands that experienced major trust-destroying events include Wells Fargo, which had a massive fake-account scandal that surfaced in 2016, and Volkswagen, when its 2015 rigged emissions were revealed.
“An Economist magazine analysis of Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, and six other corporations calculated that a company loses 30% of its value when it loses trust, at least in the short term,” says this Harvard Business School article.
Why Worry About Your Corporate Reputation?
It stands to reason that a strong reputation makes your company more valuable, attracting top talent, investors, and new customers.
Further, if your reputation precedes you in a positive way, it also increases customer loyalty and can lead customers to act as advocates, thereby lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC).
On the HR side, it draws workers to you, so you may need to spend less on recruiting.
And finally, those with a trusted reputation are more resilient in times of crisis. One source noted that they bounce back 30% faster. It makes sense, too, that they can withstand more. You’ve heard the expression, “Don’t knock him when he’s down” – so if a brand is already viewed as reputationally compromised, it may be less resistant to further blows.
What Feeds Into a Company’s Reputation?
Unfortunately for many corporations, a 2025 Axios-Harris Poll showed that nearly half of corporate reputations declined (again).
Near the bottom? JCPenney ranked 89th, Tesla ranked 95th, and Spirit Airlines came in as the least reputable brand on the list.
The news wasn’t all bad. Consumer-champions like top-ranked Trader Joe’s increased their score (+3.5). Patagonia, known for its strong reputation, ranked #2. Costco also ranked in the top five.
“Over three-quarters (79%) of consumers say brands with the best reputation prioritize consumers’ wallets,” says The Harris Poll. Consumers say quality is the most important consideration when evaluating a company’s reputation, followed by customer service, employee treatment, and prices.
Meanwhile, another study found that trust and action are the factors that most influence corporate reputation, with 26% of respondents associating it with trust and ethical practices, according to Bloomberg’s Corporate Reputation Study, conducted in 2024.
In a bit of irony, the study found that 54% of global business leaders are skeptical about the value of prioritizing corporate reputation.
“Those who are skeptical of corporate reputation tend to be at the highest levels of the organization and are most responsible for building and maintaining it,” says the study overview.
Just 22% of business leaders are “believers” (meaning they value corporate reputation). They’re more likely to represent the next generation of leadership and prioritize it over other business results.
When it comes to building corporate reputation, the study found that marketing (50%) and public relations (43%) are among the functions most responsible.
However, corporate reputation should be viewed as a cross-functional concept. Everyone in the organization should be held accountable for it to help drive business growth.
How Can PR and Communications Contribute to a Brand’s Reputation?
So, how exactly can the PR and communications team help build, manage and maintain an organization’s reputation? Strategies that support reputational strength include:
- Thought leadership: A company should be proactively sharing its expertise in the form of blog posts on its own site, contributed articles in industry trade publications, social media posts on platforms like LinkedIn, in its newsletter, and at events like industry conferences.
Leaders and subject-matter experts can speak, write, contribute, and guest. Get them out there. If they’re media-shy, arrange training that boosts their skills and confidence.
If you don’t have a robust thought leadership program, this effort can help not only with reputation building but also with search (GEO and SEO). It positions you as the expert in your industry, which helps you earn new business and keep current customers in the fold. - Brand storytelling: Firm up your company’s story and share it across platforms. The more consistent the story, the better the odds that your target audience will remember you when they’re ready to make a purchase.
In B2B marketing and PR, you want to be gaining mindshare before the buyer needs what you’re selling. That way, when they’re ready to buy, they’ll search. Your brand will show up. And because they’re already aware of you, that often makes it an easy choice. - Monitoring: Be sure to monitor what’s being said about your brand. Use a tool (there are many) to understand where audiences are talking about you. Is it mostly positive? Or are there negative comments that need to be addressed?
Proactively monitoring also means that if a crisis does arise, you’ll know about it while it’s brewing, so you can get ahead of it. - Crisis response: Speaking of crisis, have a plan in place. EVERY organization needs one. Further, it should be revisited and updated at least annually.
If you find your company engulfed in a crisis, be sure to address it quickly. Don’t try to hide the truth. Honesty and authenticity go much further to build trust. Mistakes can and do happen, but dealing with them up front makes a world of difference in the long run. - Avoid pay-to-play: When it comes to credibility, paying for fake awards or buying your way into media hurts your reputation.
The entities that push these scams and spammy “opportunities” understand that company executives are sometimes susceptible. They appeal to their egos.
AI has enabled these shady players to up their game when it comes to landing in the C-suite’s inbox. I probably get several of these a week myself. My clients get them, too.
I explain to clients that they should be ignored, but not everyone has a trusted PR resource to turn to when they’re approached. My advice would be not to engage but to delete. If in doubt, ask your PR counsel to evaluate the offer.
One rule of thumb: A credible media outlet should never try to sell you earned media. And if you have the budget to allocate to paid media, seek out opportunities that align with your goals. For example, an advertorial in a trade publication might be a good investment, especially for a B2B company.
Reputation Is Built on Trust
As I researched this topic, the most hopeful takeaway came from Bloomberg’s study, which found that 22% of business leaders value corporate reputation and prioritize it. They’ve likely established a culture of integrity and are more inclined to view trust as both a path to growth and a competitive advantage.
If you look around, you can see that these businesses are few and far between – but they consistently place high on consumers’ list of trusted brands. Let’s hope that others follow their lead.
And, whether you’re a Fortune 500 enterprise or a small B2B company, public relations can help build, maintain, manage, and crisis-proof your reputation. Involving your PR resource in this effort is a vital piece of reputation management.
Does your reputation precede you – in a good way?
If you need help building and managing your company’s reputation, I’d be happy to chat.
I offer free, no-strings-attached 30-minute consultations. Book yours here.
Learn more about my public relations services here, or buy my book, B2B PR That Gets Results.
About the author: Michelle Garrett is a B2B PR consultant, media relations consultant, and author of B2B PR That Gets Results, an Amazon Best Seller. She helps companies, especially those in manufacturing and technology, create content, earn media coverage, and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Michelle’s articles have been featured by Entrepreneur, Content Marketing Institute, Muck Rack, and Ragan’s PR Daily, among others. She’s a frequent speaker on public relations and content. Michelle has been repeatedly ranked among the top ten most influential PR professionals.
100% of this blog post was written by me, the human.
Featured image is courtesy of Adobe Express.
