ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the phenomenon of brand relationships, how people make long-term commitments to inanimate objects that they buy and use, as well as help make, sell, and distribute. Customers are the focus of many relationship-building programs that aim to create and cement brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is dependent upon brand reputation, which is the esteem, even admiration, with which stakeholders regard a company or brand. The survey uses twenty items in six dimensions to define reputation. To this list we would add word-of-mouth because a brand or corporate reputation exists to the degree that people talk about the brand. The social responsibility component in the Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient is particularly critical for brand reputations because it directly engages a sense of the brand's integrity. Finally, brand reputation is analyzed to discover what is being said about the brand and whether the word of mouth accurately reflects the brand's performance and ideal mental brand.
