Members of the public vary greatly in their knowledge of the companies whose reputations they are asked about. Some may be customers, others may be employees, investors, suppliers, or neighbours. Many will have no direct contact with the companies and gain their knowledge from the media or from other people. The question remains, therefore: whose perceptions are most important for a company? This may depend upon which strategic issues are most important at the time. For example, in a takeover contest, the perceptions of shareholders may be most important. Most commonly, however, customers and employees will be key, although these could be sub-categorised according to the issue.
When seeking to measure their reputations, companies will want to know how key stakeholders perceive them. They will want to know not only how good or bad their reputations are, but how stakeholders are likely to behave towards the company as a result. Orthodox surveys which measure customer or employee satisfaction are not much help in this respect. Recent developments in relationship marketing are much more useful, but they also need to be applied to stakeholder groups other than customers. The Reputation Quotient could be used in stakeholder reputation research, but now more specific approaches are available.