How water companies can build positive sentiment despite negative preconceptions.
The ‘halo effect’ can boost a brand’s reputation by association, but it can also harm it. The UK water sector often suffers from this negative bias, where issues like environmental problems or billing concerns overshadow their positive efforts.
Negative news and comments on environmental issues, bills, and outages tend to dominate because of the negativity bias, which makes people focus more on bad experiences.
Social media algorithms amplify this by prioritising content that generates strong reactions, often highlighting negative comments. Negative information is 63% more likely to be clicked on than positive information. But for every positive social post that highlights significant, impactful progress or change, you’ll often see it met with dozens of negative comments, often not related to the post itself. Usually, these visceral reactions highlight a somewhat skewed audience sentiment towards the provider or sector.
Psychologically, humans are wired to pay more attention to negative information. This is known as the negativity bias, which suggests that negative events have a greater impact on our brains than positive ones. Negative headlines about environmental issues, billing concerns, or service disruptions can taint the overall image of water companies, even when they are making significant strides in other areas.
This situation can make water companies overly cautious, avoiding proactive marketing around the positive things they are doing. However, this cautious approach can be damaging, allowing misinformation to spread … worsening the negative halo effect.
How to fight back:
1. Transparency: the cornerstone of trust
Transparency is the foundation upon which trust is built. Water companies must recognise the critical role transparency plays in shaping public sentiment. By openly sharing information about their operations, challenges, and achievements, they can demystify their work and humanise their brand. Helping to counteract the negative preconceptions that often arise from isolated incidents or sensationalised media coverage.
2. Positive initiatives: Show don’t tell
One of the most effective ways to fight the halo effect is to consistently highlight the positive initiatives undertaken by water companies authentically. Whether it’s investing in infrastructure, improving water quality, or engaging in community projects, these stories need to be told. Social media platforms offer a direct line to customers and stakeholders providing an opportunity to share these positive narratives widely and frequently. So, having a clear content strategy in place is key.
3. Be proactive: Stand up to misinformation
Addressing misinformation can be daunting, but it’s essential. When false or misleading information circulates unchecked, it can cause significantly damage a company’s reputation. Water companies must be vigilant and responsive, correcting inaccuracies with facts and evidence. While this may feel risky, especially on social media where responses can be unpredictable, it’s a risk worth taking.
4. Don’t just focus on digital campaigning
Engagement is a two-way street. Water companies must listen and respond to their audience, fostering a sense of community and showing that they value customer feedback and concerns. By actively participating in conversations, companies can guide the narrative and ensure their side of the story is heard.
While digital platforms are great for enabling conversations, physical interactions like town halls, workshops, or community events are also crucial. These in-person engagements humanise organisations and help build reputation in key regions, even if some conversations are challenging.
Many water companies do some or all of the above, so why doesn’t it seem to work as well as opposing marketing and comms strategies?
Our media channels are saturated with content, making it hard to stand out without being more assertive and transparent. Often, the failure to improve perception is due to risk aversion. Companies tend to play it safe, remaining humble or silent.
To build trust, water companies need to be as vocal as their critics, by:
- Highlighting positive initiatives: Don’t hide your achievements on a website landing page. Share positive stories in an interesting way and promote them prominently across various platforms.
- Creating impactful content against a plan: Use video to humanise what you do. Go behind the scenes and share those interesting stories about the great work that is being done that is not always seen.
- Engage actively: Participate in conversations, online and offline. Address misinformation directly and spread the truth as passionately as critics spread misinformation. Engage with the community through local events and direct interactions with customers to humanise your organisation and build a stronger connection with the community.
- Invest in advertising: Avoid low-budget, humble organic posts. Be bold and direct. Allocate budgets to amplify your content to ensure your positive messages reach a wider silent majority audience, to build a relationship and foster long-term advocacy.
By taking these steps, you can work towards improving your reputation and decisively counteract negative perceptions.
We help brands of any size, in any sector, define who they are and how they’re seen. Our work spans perception audits, brand identity, positioning, and campaign strategies, ensuring your brand makes an impact from launch to every interaction. From energy and water to property and beyond, we create brands people believe in.
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