In a Twitter message on February 23rd I wrote:

Reputation takes a long time to build, so little time to lose & is something we can’t control as we would like

Quite profound for a 140 character limit, the point it makes is a valid one.  Reputation is like trust: it takes a long time to build yet can be lost so quickly and, whatever we might think or do, is something that we cannot control as we would like.

Another saying beloved of leaders is the old favourite “perception is reality” although in my experience that phrase is used by some to apply to everyone else without it being applied to them.  Surely if the saying “perception is reality” is true for one person then it must be true for everyone.

A few recent events and an article got me thinking about reputation, perception and branding.  Not forgetting rebranding, which looks to be a good industry to be in.  I think it is fair to say that bad news travels faster than good news and gets more exposure and attention.  We learn from all our experiences but bad ones tend to live longer in the memory, so the negative things tend to get remembered more.

So let’s look at a few recent examples and see how such things affect perception, reputation and branding.

Continue reading On Reputation, Perception and Branding