With people turning to digital for every light bulb moment and social media becoming a primary conversationalist increasingly so, in the last year, online reputation management (ORM) has come to assume a critical role in every company’s marketing playbook. Anjali Krishnan, the senior manager of media at Mondelez India, says that the F&B major has always prioritised ORM as a critical tool. It continued to do so during the crisis, and even after.

“We endeavor to constantly engage with consumers who love our brands and remain tuned to their needs at all times,” says Krishnan, adding, “The objective is to pay heed to every feedback and leverage the same to stay true to our purpose of offering consumers the right snack, at the right moment, made the right way.”

For The Consumer-Centric

With the digital landscape emerging as the primary channel of communication that is engaging more users than ever before, an array of conduits has opened for brands to not only stay connected with their consumers but also to stay relevant to their patrons.

“As a consumer-centric company, we believe in being present where our consumer is. ORM hence is an integral part of our brand management strategy at Mondelez India. Most reputed organisations who have the consumer at the heart of their growth plans have a well-charted path to managing online reputation. However, they may be at different trajectories on their journey to managing ORM,” Krishnan observes.

Like most brands that are already pushing ORM to work harder in meeting their objectives, ORM too is seeing the emerging of several connected assets. This does not mean that social media, influencers, search and PR are not important pillars anymore. Instead, in addition to this, the acceleration of digital has created many more solutions.

“Much has emerged in the space of voice and chatbots, where communication can be more personalised for individual consumer response. Artificial intelligence (AI) based social listening and monitoring tools can also help deliver ORM strategies over long-term. With video content doubling in the last year and regional language

consumption increasing on digital, there is an opportunity to also serve custom content based on audience data signals,” notes Krishnan.

The Right Approach

The senior media manager at Mondelez points out that in an era of an active audience, adequate online representation becomes critical for every business. When ORM is not an integrated part of a company’s marketing strategy, brands have to be mindful of how they plan for crisis management, given that they operate in a digital world where consumers have “access to information much faster than a brand’s ability to react or respond”.

Her advice here comes in crafting spot-on strategies, which in turn need the right collaborations. “Right and effective partnerships play a significant part. Similar to most fields, there are specialists in this field as well who hold the baton and drive that strategy. While selecting these partners, it is imperative that they understand your brands and share the same values as your organisation. Even though having the best tools and technology is a given, it is also important how prompt and appropriate they are with the responses,” Krishnan says.

Five Emerging Trends

In the digital realm, changing trends are the only constant. While Mondelez witnesses new developments with each passing day, these are some key trends that it believes are here to stay. Krishnan enumerates these in five key points. Using ORM tools not just to manage reputation but also to build brands or move consumers across their brand experience journey leads in this.

“Embracing employees as brand ambassadors to build a favourable community online. Delivering empathy through responses that often act as a testimony of the brand’s values. One-on-one personalised responses to enhance consumer experience and connect. And finally, the rise of online reviews as they have come to be an important factor in the pre-purchase consideration list of consumers,” she adds.