The agency’s report on reputation management suggests that the vast majority of practitioners are still monitoring reputation by studying media coverage alone.
Forty-six per cent of respondents to the survey, conducted by Bell Pottinger Group technology agency Harvard, said trade publications were the media they relied on most for evaluation.
‘Nearly one third of companies stated that one of the primary drivers for undertaking PR evaluation is to measure improvement in reputation,’ said the report. ‘However, very few of these companies – just over 16 per cent – have put in place the necessary means to capture accurate information.’
Harvard MD Chris Cartwright said that ‘consumer, influence and perception audits’ were vital to creating a complete understanding of a company’s reputation, but were being ignored by many practitioners.