Top of Mind Corporate Reputation Management in Germany: Results of an Empirical Study Klaus-Peter Wiedmann University of Hannover, Germany Holger Buxel Strategy & Marketing Institute GmbH, Germany ABSTRACT Corporate reputation radiates a strong appeal — it helps companies to obtain good employees, makes customer acquisition easier, increases customer loyalty, can be implemented as a competitive performance factor, and is more than helpful for the procurement of capital, not lastly if a company is listed on the stock exchange. The broad spectrum of potential for opportunity however, cannot be purposefully exhausted without rigorous reputation manage- ment. This is why professional corporate reputation management is of pivotal impor- tance. Yet how is yield-oriented reputation management implemented successfully? What objectives, measures and controlling instru- ments do companies consider to be promising and important? Up to now there has been a lack of sound research which examines the state of the art in corporate practice and which supplies insight into the potential for and eva- luation of success in individual instrumental areas. The results presented here of a repre- sentative study on the subject of ‘Corporate Reputation Management in Germany’ throw light on and evaluate the current state of reputation management in Germany. KEYWORDS: Reputation management, key success factors, empirical results INTRODUCTION It is frequently assumed that corporate reputation has a positive effect on a variety of business-relevant economic and pre-eco- nomic variables. According to Groenland (2002), for example, a positive corporate reputation has a positive influence on cus- tomer confidence in the respective com- pany. For the trade sector, Davies et al. (2002: 76, 176) have proven that corporate reputation plays a decided role in custo- mer satisfaction and loyalty. Within the framework of a study of public utility companies, Walsh et al. (2003), on the other hand, were able to prove that there is a direct connection between corporate reputation, customer satisfaction, and cus- tomer switching behavior. A variety of further publications, studies and practice reports however, also provide empirical evidence with regard to the strategic importance of corporate reputation in a competitive market environment, in parti- cular in view of the potential for provid- ing positive support for a sustainable competitive edge and the financial success of a company (Black et al., 2000; Dunbar and Schwalbach, 2000; Fombrun, 1996; Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Fombrun and van Riel, 2003, 2004; Jones et al. Corporate Reputation Review Volume 8 Number 2 Page 145 Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2005, pp. 145–163 # Henry Stewart Publications, 1363–3589