By: Mr. Subhashis K Chakraborty, Founder & Managing Director, Value4Brand
The global online reputation management (ORM) market has been projected to be valued at US$ 13.7 billion by 2032, while growing at CAGR of 13.2%. As the ORM market matures and attains robust growth worldwide, in India too, awareness and demand for ORM solutions is surging. With India currently on track to cross 900 million Internet users by 2025, our collective emphasis and reliance on digital and social platforms has necessitated the establishment and management of stellar business reputation online to shape positive, favourable perceptions across the ‘webverse’. Despite being a relatively new concept in our country, ORM services have therefore, started gaining steam.
Reflecting on How the ORM Industry Fared in 2024
For the nascent-yet-fast-growing ORM sector in India, the last year (2024) was an epic ride. As Indians increasingly turned to online searches and reviews for making their purchase decisions, digital-first consumerism reached its peak. This fuelled a spiralling desire amongst contemporary brands to be on top of their digital game, prompting them to implement ORM practices as indispensable part of their online and digital marketing.
Interestingly, the previous year also witnessed a few deceptive PR/marketing campaigns that rattled netizens – such as the Poonam Pandey death stunt and YesMadam’s fake mass-firing fiasco. These ‘chase-virality-at-any-cost’ type campaigns, which faced widespread backlash and criticism online, re-emphasized the need for crafting sensitive, sustainable marcom strategies that can capture attention and deliver impact within and across the target segment without damaging brand credibility, and also reminded us the importance of safeguarding and protecting brand image during and beyond times of online crises.
Indian ORM – Prospects and Anticipated Trends for 2025
As we enter 2025, India’s ORM industry is set to experience another year of accelerated, transformative growth. The prospects of ORM offerings look brighter than ever before, with not just businesses, but also individuals, creators and personal brands now seeking to amplify their online reputation in their bid to stay ahead of the curve. This year, we are likely to see increased penetration of artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and other cutting-edge technologies making ORM providers more agile and responsive, and greater usage of sophisticated online/social listening and perception monitoring tools.
A few other trends that we can foresee swaying the ORM industry throughout the present year:
- Multichannel, consistent online reputation management shall emerge as a non-negotiable imperative for growth-seeking, future-facing companies – even those having minimal stakes in the online/digital space
- Be it responding to a social media comment or DM, resolving a customer query or responding to online feedback, having superfast real-time interactions with customers will become the industry standard and norm
- Brands will increasingly integrate social proof/online testimonials into the customer journeys, and aim to produce more and more user‑generated content
- ORM service providers and businesses will continue to leverage short-form videos, video reviews, and collaborations with values-aligned, responsible influencers for elevating their online reputation
- Online reputation score and similar metrics shall become pivotal and integrated into organizational KPIs, determining customer loyalty and business success
The Way Forward
Realizing that like Rome, online reputation isn’t built in a day, brand-builders and businesses are nowadays increasingly prioritizing and investing in proactively building and maintaining a strong online presence – rather than taking a reactive approach – enabled via strategic ORM, in combination and alignment with PR, SEO, etc. With AI becoming a part and parcel of our daily lives and the online ecosystem, fostering trust amid growing competition and noise on the Internet is emerging as the Achilles’ heel for modern brands. This in turn is aptly placing the spotlight on comprehensive ORM efforts, led by storytelling, hyper-personalization, and authentic, human-centric content and marketing that resonate with audiences. As the frontrunner in India’s ORM space, we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, as we unlock new frontiers of innovation and game-changing ORM strategies to help businesses build goodwill and succeed while navigating the threats and complexities of today’s digital age.
