UniCredit and Reputation: A Journey Integrating Stakeholders’ Perceptions into Business Planning and Strategies

Abstract

The chapter aims to describe how UniCredit has developed a competitive advantage model based on its Reputation Management System. The case presents the solutions adopted by UniCredit to measure and improve stakeholders’ perceptions, starting from the foundation studies, based on qualitative and quantitative survey researches, the extensive analysis conducted to identify reputation factors for competitive advantage, and the statistical tests carried out to show the correlation between the Bank’s practices, its Reputation and its business success. The case also describes the challenges encountered when entering new markets occupied by well positioned international players: how does UniCredit use its reputation monitoring findings to steer stakeholders’ opinions to its favour, to build trust and gain market share? Finally, the case study offers a glimpse of the solutions that UniCredit is implementing in order to respond to the increasing relevance of new media channels and the Internet, which offer previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication, in the belief that in the near future, the current stakeholder listening methods will be devoid of interpretative utility.