ABSTRACT
In today’s market, where consumer cynicism remains at high levels, sensitive companies are acknowledging the importance of their own corporate reputations as a corporate asset. Prestige or an organization’s reputation arises from the comparison of organizational characteristics in the public mind, based upon experience and knowledge, and comparing these characteristics to what each individual considers specifi c values and behaviors in these organizations (Rey Lennon & Bartoli Piñero, 2007). Thus defi ned, reputation does not represent an institutional image. It is a concept far more complex. Reputation represents the public’s valuation or appraisal of that specifi c image. Reputation is therefore a quality that stakeholders give to an organization. It is built upon perceptions of previous and future institutional performance (for this reason the strategic vision a company has of its own business is of great importance); this global perception describes the attraction an organization produces at different public levels when it is compared with a competitor. The stakeholders’ perception is corporate reputation. Reputation is vital because it is capable of conditioning attitudes toward an organization, and consequently it is a valuable corporate asset. However, reputation is not part of a communication campaign. It is a value built on planning and effective management over a period of time.
