Everyone knows the importance of a good brand image. To put it simply, if the company has a good brand image, customers will feel comfortable about doing business with that company resulting in more cash flow and better equity. The better the brand image is, the more chances people are going to view it as the preferred company to interact with. A positive image gives the customers the belief that the company is trustworthy and they can count on it in the future as well. If done well enough, the company might even have a surge of influencers and advocates. Look at Pinterest for example, the company has such a strong brand image that it basically recycles user made content to market itself.
Only a handful of companies can claim to have that perfect positive image. We know that if there was a listing, the companies with negative brand perceptions would outweigh those with positive brand perceptions by a landslide. You might have heard the quote, “It takes only a second to turn a positive image into a negative one but a lifetime to turn it around”. This is entirely true. If a customer decides to eat at a restaurant and loves the food so much that he tries it for the next 12 weeks with the same outcome, we can say that he had a positive image of the brand. But what if on the 13th visit, he got served distasteful food? This would lead to a negative image and chances are, he would never eat there again. That is how powerful human perception can be.
Moving on to the biggest cause of negative brand image in the modern day, it is environmental pollution. One bad review for bad food served to one customer can only take you so far but imagine your company polluted the earth that every single human being lives on. That would be devastating for the brand. Major multinational companies that are amongst the top revenue generators in the world are some of the biggest sources of plastic pollution as well. The majority of customers who see the effect of irresponsible plastic disposal at the hands of these companies show their displeasure by sharing posts online, protesting in front of their offices and worst of all, boycotting their products resulting in losses. In the past, some companies have even considered a redesign after the backlash. Yet this might not be enough. This is where a proper waste management and recycling strategy needs to be implemented.
