Image Reputation and Management - Paper Example

Pulp Juice Bars has aggressively formed partnerships with several fitness companies to form the Pulp Juice Bars getting Fitter secondary company. These gymnasiums are: Fitness First in Australia, Virgin Active and is looking to venture into the Britain and South African markets by forming a partnership with Richard Bransons chain of gymnasiums.

Such partnerships are beneficial to both the primary companies because they reduce their risk and enhance the potential of the secondary brand. It shows a mutual commitment by these parallel entities to healthy living. The partnership is an attraction to prospect members of the gym and an endorsement to Pulp Juice Bars.

Strategic partnership is a universal wave. Other companies that have hoped on to this kind of relationships are Spotify and Uber, Apple and IBM as well as Apple Pay and MasterCard. The mutually beneficial marriages are important to the separate brands.

It provides notable solutions by communicating each others brand product and message by deepening the target consumers. Partnering with a company that targets and reaches a different segment increases awareness of the primary companies. The alliance boosts the separate companies profiles as a result of the customers optimistic insight of association. It also cultivates loyalty to the products because the customers appreciate the added value product.

Corporate reputation

Corporate reputation is a soft, intangible(its hard to calculate the value of a good corporate reputation) concept based on mundane management which is a form of governing that requires an organization to continuously make decisions that sit well with the public. It is an inclusive summary of observation measurement from both the internal and the external stakeholders of the organization. The stakeholders include the current and prospective employees, business community, financial institutions, suppliers and the customers.

Factors that measure the corporate reputation vary from one person or organization to the next. A company may choose to apply its conceptual model to evaluate their reputation which is an expensive affair, or not. In most cases, companies are unwilling to use the model because they view corporate reputation as a long term concept and they would rather focus on current business operations. Therefore, the company may depend on external sources. Fortune magazine, for example ranks the worlds most admired companies annually. Forbes also measures the reputation of organizations and ranks them depending on their growth.

However, there are some notably used criteria in the surveys especially in the United States.

The CEO determines almost 49% of the corporate reputation. The position measures the management of the company. Whats the quality of management and how clear is its organization. It also evaluates the businesss vision in both long and short term future.

Going concern of the company is what most investors look at keenly. It depends on the profitability of the organization and its ability to grow which is summarized in the companys financial performance statements.

The public values the corporate on the ability of the firm to engage is social activities which is closely tied to the CEO. It also seeks to find how ethical their ethics and trustworthiness measure.

Generally theres a high correlation between a good corporate reputation and the firms good will. All companies should aim at building and improve their corporate reputation.

Corporate reputation drivers.

Corporate reputation is based on several factors. However, this discussion the focus is on emotional plea and social responsibility.

Emotional plea is a criterion that is based on how a customer feels engaging with the company. Its a measure of the experience with the organization i.e. I am happy with the services, I like it, It was friendly etc. The plea solely depend on the customers service of the institution which shows how committed a firm is to its customers both before and after the purchase. In case a customer is not satisfied with the services, he will obviously give a negative report. This is extremely wounding to the organization because the bad reputation may spread by word of mouth or even worse on social media. It directly reflects on sales as the firm looses prospect customers.

To build a good customer service the company needs to build a good relationship with the client. It starts with a simple salutation, then to understanding and meeting the customers expectation.

The company should continuously strive to improve the standard of customer service. It is detrimental to ensure that the sales persons can communicate effectively and they are talented sales person with excellent knowledge of the products or services.

Another key is to listen to the customers complains and follow up. In most cases it will be about the price, the product condition or delay in being attended to. The feedback is important as it enables the firm to make the needed adjustments.

Social responsibility strikes the balance between an organization making money and being helpful to the society. It is commonly known as corporate social responsibility (CSR).The responsibilities range from environmental conservation, practice of labor laws in engaging with the employees, voluntary work to philanthropy, the list goes on and on.

The public judges the commitment of the company to social responsibility. It is a platform to impress major stakeholders and avoid fines of compliance by the government. That kind of judgment has seen some companies such as Out Of Africa, People Water and Prime Fire Homes build a pleasant good by the Forbes and other evaluation magazines and companies.

Starbuck proactively takes part in corporate social responsibilities. It concentrates on meeting its objectives: Environmental conservation, creation of job opportunities, improving community lives and quality sourcing of its products.

The following are ways that the organization ensures that the objectives are met:

To steer reliable environmental solution, they push for farmers to use environmental friendly products in the firms. They also use recyclable cups to serve their clients. Starbucks understands that business should safeguard the environment from pollution.

Starbuck strives to create job opportunities to the local people. They also promote individual growth of the youth as they empower them through their foundation to fit in the global economy. The franchise is inclusive in its community services and involvement of providing global health.

Starbuck cares for how their products are made as they want to consistently provide quality Coffee. They ensure that the beverages are genuine. The Company, entirely sources its beverage from farmers so as to promote and improve their lives.

The franchise improves the lives of the community through their volunteer works. Starbuck is heavily invested in health insurance, children, the youth and people living with disabilities, crises support and in the management of hunger across the globe.

Starbucks need to ensure that the programmers are run smoothly and the objectives are met by ensuring proper documentation as source of evidence. Financial accountability is key and invitation of external practitioners to audit the CSR. They could also conduct due diligence on whether the stipulated standard are met.

Finally they could build a department that solely works as a CSR and hold them accountable for all matters relating to social responsibility.

References

Elies, V. S. (2012). Part 2 Attributing Criminal Responsibility, 6 Forms of Criminal Responsibility. Individual Criminal Responsibility in International Law. doi:10.1093/acprof: oso/9780199560363.003.0006

In Carroll, C. E. (2015). The handbook of communication and corporate reputation.

Petrovici, A. (2017). PR And CSR: A Strategic Partnership. doi:10.15405/epsbs.2017.07.03.73

Simon, B. (2012). Starbucks. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. doi:10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog541