As AI platforms increasingly shape how companies are perceived, our Members have expressed growing interest in how to build brand and reputation. Largely based on conversations with marketing, communications, and investor relations leaders, this report provides insights on why brand and reputation are receiving greater attention from CEOs and boards, how companies can build them across audiences and organize the work, and what AI is changing.
Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead®
Why brand and reputation matter more than ever
- AI search engines, an increasingly crowded marketplace, and more demanding audiences have elevated the importance of strong brands. A clear, differentiated, and trusted brand helps a company stand out, supporting growth, talent attraction, and investor confidence. The desired positioning must be supported by the experiences of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders.
- Senior leaders increasingly view brand and reputation metrics as leading indicators of business performance. Financial metrics remain the ultimate scorecard, but brand and reputation metrics can signal the company’s ability to grow, attract talent and capital, and maintain stakeholder trust. Connect brand and reputation metrics as much as possible to strategic and financial goals, including pipeline growth, upselling, and talent and investor confidence.
- Underinvesting in brand can eventually constrain growth. Invest in brand and reputation initiatives for near-term results and longer-term growth through awareness, differentiation, and trust.
The key is a coherent story for all audiences, including AI engines
- Companies need one core corporate narrative that can be translated for different stakeholders. Stakeholders increasingly overlap, and AI can aggregate information created for all of them. Marketing, communications, HR, investor relations, and other functions should develop the corporate story together and pressure-test it across stakeholder groups before implementing it. The core story should remain consistent, while the delivery should vary by audience, business, geography, function, and channel.
- Corporate content needs to work for both people and AI algorithms, making AI reputation management a new priority. Marketing and communications teams should determine who owns the new responsibility to monitor how AI platforms represent the company, including visibility, sentiment, and accurate representation. They should strengthen the owned and earned sources that AI draws from; anticipate likely stakeholder questions; and correct inaccurate, outdated, or missing information.
- The CEO and senior leaders are brand ambassadors; they function as part of the brand. Senior leadership not only sets the brand vision and strategy, but their own visibility, behavior, and comments increasingly shape stakeholder perceptions.
- Actual customer experience is a foundation for AI-era brand building and trust strengthening. Familiar, well-liked companies may have an important trust advantage in this AI-mediated environment. Useful content, earned media, peer recommendations, and comments by employees and senior leaders can all strengthen trust, complementing AI output about a company.
Cross-functional coordination matters more than the organizational model
- There is no perfect org chart for brand and reputation building. Brand and reputation are shaped by marketing, communications, HR, finance, product, investor relations, and other teams. All the functions creating experiences and information that affect brand and reputation need to stay connected, including increasingly HR and investor relations.
- Coordination and orchestration mechanisms are critical for creating consistency and synergies. Brand and communications councils, shared planning, metrics, messaging frameworks, common narratives, regular cross-functional meetings, and joint reviews can connect teams that report to different leaders. A culture of sharing information, seeking feedback, and aligning can make very different organizational models work.
As AI platforms increasingly shape how companies are perceived, our Members have expressed growing interest in how to build brand and reputation. Largely based on conversations with marketing, communications, and investor relations leaders, this report provides insights on why brand and reputation are receiving greater attention from CEOs and boards, how companies can build them across audiences and organize the work, and what AI is changing.
Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead®
Why brand and reputation matter more than ever
- AI search engines, an increasingly crowded marketplace, and more demanding audiences have elevated the importance of strong brands. A clear, differentiated, and trusted brand helps a company stand out, supporting growth, talent attraction, and investor confidence. The desired positioning must be supported by the experiences of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders.
- Senior leaders increasingly view brand and reputation metrics as leading indicators of business performance. Financial metrics remain the ultimate scorecard, but brand and reputation metrics can signal the company’s ability to grow, attract talent and capital, and maintain stakeholder trust. Connect brand and reputation metrics as much as possible to strategic and financial goals, including pipeline growth, upselling, and talent and investor confidence.
- Underinvesting in brand can eventually constrain growth. Invest in brand and reputation initiatives for near-term results and longer-term growth through awareness, differentiation, and trust.
The key is a coherent story for all audiences, including AI engines
- Companies need one core corporate narrative that can be translated for different stakeholders. Stakeholders increasingly overlap, and AI can aggregate information created for all of them. Marketing, communications, HR, investor relations, and other functions should develop the corporate story together and pressure-test it across stakeholder groups before implementing it. The core story should remain consistent, while the delivery should vary by audience, business, geography, function, and channel.
- Corporate content needs to work for both people and AI algorithms, making AI reputation management a new priority. Marketing and communications teams should determine who owns the new responsibility to monitor how AI platforms represent the company, including visibility, sentiment, and accurate representation. They should strengthen the owned and earned sources that AI draws from; anticipate likely stakeholder questions; and correct inaccurate, outdated, or missing information.
- The CEO and senior leaders are brand ambassadors; they function as part of the brand. Senior leadership not only sets the brand vision and strategy, but their own visibility, behavior, and comments increasingly shape stakeholder perceptions.
- Actual customer experience is a foundation for AI-era brand building and trust strengthening. Familiar, well-liked companies may have an important trust advantage in this AI-mediated environment. Useful content, earned media, peer recommendations, and comments by employees and senior leaders can all strengthen trust, complementing AI output about a company.
Cross-functional coordination matters more than the organizational model
- There is no perfect org chart for brand and reputation building. Brand and reputation are shaped by marketing, communications, HR, finance, product, investor relations, and other teams. All the functions creating experiences and information that affect brand and reputation need to stay connected, including increasingly HR and investor relations.
- Coordination and orchestration mechanisms are critical for creating consistency and synergies. Brand and communications councils, shared planning, metrics, messaging frameworks, common narratives, regular cross-functional meetings, and joint reviews can connect teams that report to different leaders. A culture of sharing information, seeking feedback, and aligning can make very different organizational models work.
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