What is reputation?

What is reputation? Reputation is the past.


I have heard people basing purchasing decisions on reputations of the companies that make the product that they are interested in. While making quality products in the past could indicate a likeliness of quality products today, that's rarely how things work. When reputation is established, it becomes difficult to change. Reputation doesn't reflect current tendencies nearly as much as how things were when a company first gained attention.

Sony is a good example of this. There have been all sorts of quality control issues for Sony in the last 10-20 years. Sony developed its reputation in the 80s when they actually made quality products. People with faulty Sony products today jump to the conclusion that they were particularly unlucky. To an extent, that's fair. The problem is that people are so defensive of Sony that legitimate problems tend to be downplayed by those who run into them.

There are other factors in reputation. A good PR company such as Apple can build its reputation by telling you that they're good. For example, Apple has a reputation for innovation even though people tend to struggle to come up with anything that actually originated within Apple. One specific Apple product, the iPad, has been credited for creating a new market that Microsoft beat them to by 8 years.

What we are seeing with reputations is past history without any regards to the present combined with PR. Personally, I don't care if Sony products were great. I would rather buy products that are great.