PRACTICE 04 · REPUTATION
Brand & Reputation
The hardest part of a category leader’s reputation is that it is built over years and lost in a week. We build the press posture, the executive visibility, and the long-arc narrative that compounds — and we are the firm you call when the long arc breaks.
ENGAGEMENT SHAPE
Six-week diagnostic → multi-quarter retainer
Typical first engagement: a six-week diagnostic with a written point of view on the current reputation, then a multi-quarter retainer for ongoing executive visibility and earned media.
WHAT WE DO
The work, in concrete terms.
Reputation audit: the current state of executive visibility, press posture, and category narrative
Executive visibility program: speaking, writing, board seats, podcasts — calibrated to the executive’s voice
Earned media: the press list, the pitches, the relationships, the placements
Crisis response: the operating runbook for a 24-hour news cycle, the war-room, the comms chain
Reputation risk register: a quarterly review of the named risks and the responses
Annual report and brand book: the public artifact the leadership team can hand to the board
WHY IT MATTERS
The mechanism, not the artifact.
Reputation is a long game, and a short game, at the same time.
The work of building executive visibility is a 3–5 year arc: a hundred small placements, a dozen large ones, a careful selection of the boards, the speaking gigs, the writing. The work of protecting it is a 24-hour news cycle. We do both, with the same team.
The press list is a relationship, not a database.
We do not run "outreach." We run relationships. The press list we maintain is built over years, with named contacts at every relevant outlet, and a quarterly refresh.
Crisis is a runbook, not a panic.
A 24-hour news cycle that catches a company flat is a runbook that was never written. We write the runbook first, exercise it quarterly, and update it after every real event. The first crisis is not the time to discover that the comms chain does not work.
DELIVERABLES
What you receive.
- 01A 25–40 page reputation audit with a written point of view on the current state
- 02A 12-month executive visibility plan, with named placements, named contacts, named budgets
- 03A press list, maintained quarterly, with named relationships at every relevant outlet
- 04A crisis response runbook, exercised quarterly, updated after every real event
- 05A reputation risk register, reviewed quarterly with the leadership team
- 06An annual report and brand book, the public artifact the board can hand to investors
OUTCOMES WE TRACK
How success is measured.
- A demonstrable improvement in share of voice in the target categories
- A defensible executive visibility program with a 3–5 year arc
- A working crisis runbook that has been exercised at least quarterly
- A reputation risk register the leadership team reads
- A press list that survives a journalist leaving an outlet
PRACTICE FAQ
On this practice specifically.
Do you handle social media?
No. We handle the executive visibility and earned media work; the social media execution is run by a separate partner. We have a list of partners we work with and will introduce you to the right one for your category.
What is your crisis response engagement model?
A retainer for ongoing crisis-readiness: the runbook, the war-room, the quarterly exercise. When a real event happens, the work is on the retainer and the additional hours are quoted as needed.
NEXT STEP
Bring us the brief.
Six-week diagnostic, NDA from day one, written point of view. We will tell you in the first call whether we are the right firm for the problem.