Memac Ogilvy Public Relations revealed the results of a corporate reputation study it commissioned earlier this year which looks at how corporate reputation affects consumers in Bahrain.
Revealing the findings of the study Mark Jackson, Public Relations Director of Memac Ogilvy Bahrain said that Bahrainis were emerged at the top ladder that care about the corporate reputation and overwhelming majority of the people make decision on this factor.
According to the study conducted with AMRB, one of the leading market research agencies in the MENA region, companies are risking as much as BD3.6 billion between them by not investing in their reputations following the revelation that 88 per cent of respondents have based buying decisions purely on an organization’s reputation.
Moreover, it revealed that ‘ethical behavior’ is the key component of corporate reputation for the residents in the Kingdom, with 91 per cent of consumers influenced by a company’s behavior in making a purchase decision.
Social responsibility is another of the key building blocks of a strong reputation with over nearly two-thirds of respondents saying it has substantial influence on them when they come to spending their hard-earned cash. Adding to these key drivers of corporate reputation, the research further explores other characteristics which include: brand reputation, environmental awareness, quality of products/services, employment practices, customer relations, reliability, price and a company’s financial competitiveness.
“Memac Ogilvy is one of the oldest home-grown marketing communication companies in Bahrain. Over the years, it has garnered extensive experience in understanding business environments of various client industries locally and regionally. Today, and to maintain this edge over our competition, we conducted this study to enable us to understand more deeply the way Bahraini consumers behave which will equip us to advise and deliver even more effective communications strategies to our clients, helping them maintain their competitive advantage. We are confident our clients will truly benefit from our research,” Ghassan Boujacli, Managing Director of Memac Ogilvy Bahrain said.
“Understanding and managing corporate reputation is now a ‘must’ for any organization. It’s not just about doing the right thing, is about doing better business. Consumers in Bahrain are highly sophisticated, and companies that think they can win over customers for the long-term by cutting prices, for example, are only fooling themselves. Investing in corporate reputation is a long term business strategy that our research shows pays off,” Mark Jackson, Public Relations Director of Memac Ogilvy Bahrain said.
The findings of the Memac Ogilvy Corporate Reputation study were unveiled at a high-profile panel discussion at the company’s offices and presented by a number of Memac Ogilvy senior management team.