Insights
January 21, 2026

Introducing the next evolution of reputation intelligence

Introducing the next evolution of reputation intelligence

Reputation moves fast so your tracking should too. Find out how real-time visibility into trust, ethics, quality, vision, culture and relevance helps companies stay resilient. Introducing QuestRQ.

Corporate reputation no longer moves in neat, annual cycles. It shifts daily – sometimes hourly – driven not only by corporate actions, but by cultural flashpoints, political developments, social media dynamics, and external events that can reshape perception overnight, whether a company caused them or not. Yet many organisations are still relying on static or infrequent reputation measurement to guide high‑stakes decisions.

That gap between how fast reputation moves and how slowly it is often measured is now a material risk.

QuestRQ was built to close it.

The next evolution of reputation intelligence

For decades, The Harris Poll’s Reputation Quotient (RQ®) has been the gold standard for understanding corporate reputation – providing a reliable window into how character, trust & business confidence shape perceptions of companies. QuestRQ is operationally new, but methodologically well-proven: a modern delivery of a framework refined over three decades. QuestRQ evolves that proven framework into an always‑on, platform‑enabled system designed for the pace and complexity of today’s environment.

Built on HarrisQuest, QuestRQ delivers continuous visibility into how a company’s reputation is perceived, how it changes over time, and what is driving those shifts. It combines decades of reputation science with a live data pipeline and self‑service dashboards that leaders can use in real time.

This is not reputation reporting after the fact. It is reputation intelligence while it is happening.

Why reputation needs to be tracked continuously

Reputation no longer erodes slowly. It can change overnight.

A leadership decision, policy stance, campaign launch, or external event can reshape trust and relevance in hours. Without continuous measurement, organisations are left reacting late – after sentiment has already shifted and narratives have hardened.

Always‑on reputation tracking enables leaders to:

  • Identify emerging risk early: Spotting declines in trust, ethics, or relevance before they escalate into crises
  • Quantify the impact of communications: Understanding how announcements, campaigns, or leadership actions move reputation
  • Benchmark against competitors: Tracking relative performance across categories and markets
  • Align stakeholder strategy: Ensuring communications, policy, and corporate actions reflect what audiences actually value

In volatile markets, reputation is capital. Managing it requires live intelligence, not hindsight.

How QuestRQ works

QuestRQ combines six core dimensions of corporate reputation into a single, standardised 0–100 score (the QRQ®):

  • Trust: This is a company I trust
  • Vision: It has a clear vision for the future
  • Ethics: It maintains high ethical standards
  • Culture: This is a good company to work for
  • Products and services: Offers high‑quality products and services
  • Relevance: This company is shaping the trends and conversations happening today

Data is collected continuously through a daily, nationally representative consumer study. Insights are visualised through an interactive, self‑service platform that allows users to track trends over time, compare against competitors, and drill into the segments driving change.

QuestRQ is measuring hundreds of companies, with rapid expansion underway across 24 global markets including the UK, Japan, Mexico, China, and Brazil.

Why relevance is now a core reputation metric

Trust, ethics, culture, quality and vision remain foundational to reputation. But on their own, they are no longer sufficient.

In today’s fragmented, fast‑moving culture, a company can be trusted, ethical, and well‑run – and still fade from relevance. That is not a trust failure. It’s a relevance failure.

‘Cultural Relevance’ is the new reputational benchmark for how company actions and communications resonate with audiences. It introduces an important tension with trust. A company that’s trusted but not relevant is missing chances to surprise and delight. One that’s relevant but not trusted may have compelling value, but also glaring gaps in how it operates, putting it at real risk of attrition.

QuestRQ embeds Cultural Relevance directly into the reputation model, reflecting how well a company is resonating with the issues, conversations, and expectations shaping society right now – not as a brand flourish, but as a measurable signal of future support. This addition modernises the RQ framework and strengthens its link to real‑world outcomes, including consideration and in‑market support.

Trust and ethics give brands the right to play. Cultural relevance determines whether they win – and when shifts in reputation are approaching the tipping point where they begin to affect real-world behaviour.

Built for speed, depth, and action

Unlike static annual studies, QuestRQ delivers both the pulse and the proof. It is not designed as a dashboards-only SaaS product, but as decision-grade intelligence supported by advisors who bring decades of cross-industry context to what the data is showing – and why it matters. It offers agile, daily insight for immediate decision‑making, backed by The Harris Poll’s decades of expertise in reputation research.

Subscribers benefit from:

  • Always‑on dashboards that update in real time
  • Competitive benchmarking and normative comparisons
  • Deep audience profiling across demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle segments
  • Customisable views and saved reports for repeat use
  • Dedicated client support and access to Harris Poll reputation experts

QuestRQ is designed to stand up in leadership meetings, investor discussions, and boardrooms – not just research readouts.

Turning reputation data into decisions

QuestRQ is built to inform the moments that matter most, including:

  • Crisis monitoring and response
  • Campaign and communications evaluation
  • Executive and leadership alignment
  • Strategic reputation planning
  • Stakeholder and audience profiling

Because it operates within the broader HarrisQuest ecosystem, QuestRQ can also be paired with QuestBrand and extended through custom research, advisory, and activation programmes. This connection matters: reputation can either accelerate brand performance by creating tailwinds – or introduce friction that causes even strong brand investment to fall flat.

Why it matters now

Reputation has become one of the most valuable – and volatile – assets a business owns. Managing it with static data is no longer defensible.

QuestRQ helps organisations move from reacting to reputation shifts to managing reputation as a real‑time strategic asset. It provides the clarity leaders need to protect trust, maintain relevance, and make confident decisions in an environment that never stops moving.

Discover QuestRQ – and see how always‑on reputation intelligence can change how you lead.

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