Workshop report Interview: Maria von Wirth (Sonepar) on data-based reputation management

On January 28, Maria von Wirth was a speaker in the AG CommTech webinar on “Making data speak – How communicators draw insights from their data analysis.” She reported on her experiences with the introduction of structured reputation measurement using the “Value4/9 Methodology” developed by an initiative of AG CommTech. You can watch the recording of the webinar here.

AG CommTech: You started measuring Sonepar’s reputation in 2024. You are way ahead. Only 36 percent of communications departments do this. What was the trigger or motivation for this step?

Maria von Wirth: Our self-image in corporate communications at Sonepar in Germany states that we want to protect and improve the company’s reputation. In the past, however, we never had a key figure with which we could prove how good or bad our reputation was. It was more of a feeling that we had. And you can either be right or completely wrong with that. What’s more, it’s difficult to justify measures to management or other specialist departments that are based on “feelings”. We wanted to be able to use clear key figures to measure how our reputation is doing and where there is potential for optimization.

AG CommTech: What initial hurdles did you have to overcome?

Maria von Wirth: I wouldn’t call it a hurdle directly, but when we started looking into the topic, it took a lot of time. It doesn’t work to simply implement a reputation measurement or draw findings from it and transfer them into a continuous measurement. We have dealt intensively with reputation analysis in order to understand what exactly is being measured and on the basis of which data. In my opinion, this is absolutely essential in order to interpret the results correctly and draw the right conclusions. For example, our reputation analysis “only” uses certain social media and online data – a factor that needs to be kept in mind.

AG CommTech: At the beginning there was a zero measurement in the benchmark with your market competitors. How important was the benchmark to you, what insights did you gain and, more importantly, what did you do with the findings?

Maria von Wirth: As the market leader in electrical wholesaling, we have a good market position in Germany. However, we want to keep it that way, which is why it is essential to keep an eye on our market competitors. Not only for our sales department, but also for us. After all, how we are perceived by the public in comparison to our competitors plays an important role for very different target groups – from customers to suppliers and (potential) employees. Target groups that we address every day with our communication. With the zero measurement, we have created a good basis – and fortunately also seen that our “feeling” in terms of reputation has been quite good in recent years. In our external communication, we position ourselves primarily as a solution provider for our customers. The zero measurement showed us that we had done a good job in the product & service reputation dimension in recent years and were perceived positively in terms of both the quantity and tone of the statements. However, there are four other reputation dimensions that are also relevant. We identified the greatest potential for us in the management and employer dimension. Once we had analyzed the results, condensed the findings and defined the next steps, we used the newly acquired facts and presented them to our management.

AG CommTech: What influence does the availability of reputation data have on the way you work as a communications department?

Maria von Wirth: After we had carried out the zero measurement, we decided to use Value 4|9 to keep a constant eye on our reputation scores. On the one hand, to see how we are developing overall compared to our market competitors and, on the other, to align our communication measures more closely with our reputation scores and see where we can make adjustments. With regard to our annual plan for 2025, we have taken a close look at where we want to make optimizations and have set ourselves clear targets. We now look at where we stand on a quarterly basis and can make adjustments if we notice that we are deviating from our own targets or if the general conditions have changed. In the end, the reputation data gives us much more clarity and shows how effective our communication measures are for our reputation.

AG CommTech: What advice would you give to colleagues who also want to embark on reputation measurement?

Look for a good partner who can support you in this and decide in advance what you want to do with the findings and what you can use them for. We used our zero measurement at the time to convince our management with the newly acquired facts and findings and then got the go-ahead to continue with it because the data-based conclusions were convincing. That worked really well for us and provided a real “aha” moment.

Maria von Wirth has been working for Sonepar in Germany since September 2020. In the position of Deputy Head of Corporate Communications (since July 2024), she coordinates Sonepar’s own corporate newsroom and is also responsible for the electrical wholesaler’s press relations.



Leave a Reply