Emotions are the key of decisions: they are in the beginning and in the end of every relationship. People decide by emotions although they assert by reasons. Is it possible to implement a rigorous and comprehensive approach to manage any kind of brand -person, company, country- with the purpose of helping to put emotions at the apex of its management? Corporate reputation is a brand’s key; it shows its value and leads to create it by generating favourable behaviours. Regarding reputation, exists that reliable part that is not purely rational, but rather emotional, and from where it is generated a positive or negative perception of any kind of experience. This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Repuation Leadership and contains references to the statements made by Carlos Sánchez Olea, vice-president of Dircom and president of Atenea Comunicación, at the conference on “Enhancement of a brand, company or country”, organised by Dircom and Atenea Comunicación in Madrid on September 19, 2012.

1. Insights
Strategy Documents
I32/2013
Brand
Management by
conviction: improving a
brand eligibility, location,
flair and positioning
Emotions are the key of decisions: they are in the beginning and in the end of
every relationship. People decide by emotions although they assert by reasons.
Is it possible to implement a rigorous and comprehensive approach to manage
any kind of brand -person, company, country- with the purpose of helping to put
emotions at the apex of its management?
Corporate reputation is a brand’s key; it shows
its value and leads to create it by generating
favourable behaviours. Regarding reputation,
exists that reliable part that is not purely rational,
but rather emotional, and from where it is
generated a positive or negative perception of any
kind of experience.
Management by conviction
According to Carlos Sánchez Olea, vice president of
the Spanish Association Dircom and president of the
Atena Comunicación agency, emotions -essential to
created expectation, generated perception, achieved
reputation and public obtained positioning- play
a key role in convincing the stakeholders when
preferring, selecting or recommending a brand, at
the time of investing, purchasing or working for any
of them.
Brands want to convince and offer the best of them
in order to achieve the market share and the trust
of costumers, but; are brands at the best position
to do so if they do not take into account all the
important variables to be considered in the relation
with stakeholders?
Current models of brand management are often
linear, partial and disintegrated, while the reality
is increasingly complex, global and relational.
That gap between models and realities ends up
producing significant confusion when effectively
and coherently managing brand value.
Dircom vice president and president of Atena
Comunicación agency, Mr Sánchez de Olea, takes a
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Repuation Leadership and contains references to the statements made
by Carlos Sánchez Olea, vice-president of Dircom and president of Atenea Comunicación, at the conference on “Enhancement of a
brand, company or country”, organised by Dircom and Atenea Comunicación in Madrid on September 19, 2012.

2. Management
by conviction:
improving a brand
eligibility, location,
flair and positioning
chance on management by conviction. According
to him, it adds coherence by bringing together
all the key elements (operational, behavioural,
communication, emotional, competence and
organizational) that make the value and meanings
that any brand can provide.
Decisions made by stakeholders are used to choose
but increasingly to legitimate or not organizations,
countries or leaders, to confer naturalization
papers and assign a socially responsible and
acceptable behaviour by society when is for the
benefit of everyone.
The management by conviction approach favours
the connected understanding among all the key
variables involved in a brand. They are presented
all together and they complete and show how the
modification or variation of any of them has a direct
effect on the rest when achieving the aims set in
each case.
‘Corporate
reputation
is not an
corporate
image issue,
but something
that directly
affects brand
value creation
and risk
management
in its reactive/
preventive
aspect’
Eligibility, location, positioning and flair
Emotions are visualized; they are specified in values,
behaviour, perceptions, expectations, comparisons
and references. The obtained benefits when
properly managed and enhanced are clear:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Operational: functional.
Tangible: implementation.
Intangible: recognition.
Significant: differentiation.
Reputational: prevention or promotion.
Competence: flairs and attitudes.
Provisional: anticipation and response.
In this way, brand equity is the most important
benefit. According to Sánchez Olea, every benefit
of the list can be achieved when displayed and
applied to a methodology that integrates four key
and interrelated elements:
1. Eligibility: a brand generates features according
to the activity, the product/service, competitors
or the market, as well as the value that carries,
and the interest and emotions. All these make
the brand eligible and/or being legitimated to
their stakeholders. The aim is to convince.
2. Emotional location: an affective space where
a brand is located and characterized. This is
achieved through convenient public positioning
suited to the stakeholders. The aim is to choose.
3. Public positioning: functional, commercial and
reputational characteristics of a brand depending
on its occupation, notoriety, intended position,
industry, stakeholders and competitors. The aim
is to differentiate.
4. Competitive flair: ability to sell; functional
efficiency depending on the structure and
organization, line of business, stakeholders,
functional efficiency, competitors and market.
The aim is to sell.
However, before all that, a brand has to be eligible,
different and convincing, because competition
is no longer just sales or capitalization, but
behaviour and value creation. When a brand is
bought is legitimated, therefore, you buy it when
it is legitimated for you. Managing is no longer
to create products and services, but behaviours
and reputations.
Graph 1: The six stages of the management by conviction process
6. Brand equity
1. Eligibility
diagnosis
5. Status report
4. Map of risks
and contingency
plan
2. Public
positioning
3. Organization competences
Source: Adapted from Carlos Sánchez Olea, 2012.
Insights
2

3. Management
by conviction:
improving a brand
eligibility, location,
flair and positioning
The six stages of the management by conviction
process of a brand are as follows:
1. Eligibility diagnosis.
2. Public positioning.
3. Organization competences.
4. Map of risks and contingency plan.
5. Status report.
6. Brand equity.
The role of communication
The dual management of
corporate reputation
Reactive or proactive, that is the question: corporate
reputation can be used as a shield, as well as a spear.
In the first case, two aspects can be distinguished:
1. Reactive management of a brand reputation
leads costumers to a defensive behaviour in
critical situations: traditional crisis plans.
2. Preventive management of a brand corporate
reputation leads costumers to something
much more useful and smart, since it can
make costumers overcome or not to face those
critical situations; in this case, we refer to the
risk maps analysis and follow up (operational ,
commercial and reputational), contingency plans
(strategic action design for risks managing, for
responsibilities assumption as a result of improper
acts of the organization, unanticipated events or
accidents) and research with stakeholders.
Proactive management of the corporate reputation
take us to a very different scenario, that is,
Communication plays a very important role in
this process. It transfers information (commercial,
behavioural, emotional, institutional, reputational,
internal and external) to the stakeholders and
generates a specific goal (to sell, be eligible, convince,
introduce, influence, motivate and differentiate).
However, communication cannot and should not
replace the role of management in achieving the
corporate reputation of a brand. Communication
should strengthen the equity of a brand and it
should add when convincing stakeholders about
its value.
Therefore, the new Chief Communications Officer
(CCO) is not only someone who manages the
communication itself, but adds and consistently
aligns the process of which he is the manager as well.
But above all the CCO is the eligibility, location,
positioning and flair supervisor. At the same time,
the new CCO is responsible of the brand value and its
corporate reputation, as well as its communication,
always with the aim described above of achieving
the fullest conviction of stakeholders.
Strategic
Graph 2: Analytics – The Key to ROI from Social Media
Customer Segmentation
Marketing Messaging/SEO
Analytics
Campaign Measurement
Market Research
Sentiment Analysis
Product Research
Interactive Buying
Lead Generation
Product Innovation
Comtetitive Tracking
Customer Support
Brand Protection
Influencer Marketing
Tactical
‘Management
by Conviction
enables to
manage both
tangible and
intangible actives
and brand
relations with its
stakeholders’
relations promotion and actions implementation
that contribute and give sense to the brand, its
values, meanings and attributes. In this way,
corporate reputation is not a matter of corporate
image, it directly affects the creation of brand
value and the risk management in its reactive/
preventive aspect.
Reactive
Proactive
Source: Networked Insights, 2010.
Insights
3

4. Management
by conviction:
improving a brand
eligibility, location,
flair and positioning
Conclusion: an integrated model
of brand management
It is not a possibility but a responsibility to provide
those new competences in order to improve the
corporate reputation and value depending on its
industry, market and competitors.
A brand has to be convenient and convincing,
that is to say, a brand should be a better option
when buying, investing or working. Nowadays,
the corporate reputation is the most important
attribute of a brand for convincing stakeholders.
Diagnostic, analysis, measuring and compering
tools are necessary for an optimal corporate
reputation management.
In order to do this, Management by Conviction is
the tool that both enables and manages tangible
and intangible actives, and the relation between
brands and their stakeholders.
Be elected and trusted by those who matter is what
any brand wants to get; exciting and convincing are
the instruments to achieve it.
Insights
4

5. Leading by
reputation
©2013, Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership
A foundation established by major companies aiming to excel in the management of intangible assets and facilitate promotion of strong brands
with a good reputation and a capacity to compete on the global markets. Our objective is to become the driving force, which would lead and
consolidate professional reputation management as a strategic asset, fundamental for building value of companies around the world.
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