Performance of the brand

PwC, officially PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a global company and the world’s largest professional services firm. The company is headquartered in London with member offices in 154 countries. The company’s services include auditing, advisory services, government tax services, human resourcing services, and sustainability evaluations among other things. In the September update of the BrandFinance Global 500 PwC was ranked 79th with a brand value of $10.4 billion.

PwC is part of the ‘Big Four’ auditing firms and calls itself the most recognisable brand of the group (the others being Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young). The brands of the entire group, and particularly, given its size, PwC’s , have come under intense scrutiny due the role they played in the global financial crisis. It has been alleged that PwC and its rivals failed to communicate to regulators the true scale of the risks on balance sheets of the world’s financial institutions. Regulators have claimed that the company was either at fault for being unaware of the dangers and hence not fit to audit, or aware of the risks and at fault for failing to bring them to light. Despite the initial phases of the Credit Crunch having taken place over three years ago, it is only recently that regulators have seen fit to challenge the auditor. This has posed a problem for the company with regards to how to maintain and indeed restore the reputation of its brand in the post-crisis era.     

PwC has implemented a number of strategies to combat the large volume of negative sentiment that has been directed at its brand. PwC has created a department led by the, ‘Head of Reputation’, a newly established role, in order to manage how the brand is perceived and how it interacts with key groups including politicians and regulators. Furthermore, the person undertaking the task is the former head of the company’s audit arm – the segment which has received the most criticism following the global financial crisis.

In addition the firm underwent a major rebranding exercise, which began in late 2010, changing from PricewaterhouseCoopers to PwC (but still PricewaterhouseCoopers on official documentation). The aim of the rebranding was to make the firm appear more personable, understanding, friendly and concerned with adding value on a client-by-client basis. The logo was changed to reflect the new name and to incorporate a range of red, orange and yellow colours intended to symbolise PwC’s warmer, more relationship-focussed approach. The rebranding has partially helped the company overcome its image problems with the company having reclaimed its title as the world’s largest professional services firm in 2011 ( a year after the rebrand) by posting a revenue of $29.2 billion, $400 million greater than next best Deloitte. Furthermore, PwC has clearly retained its reputation as an exceptional employer it having received double the number of job applications from graduates in 2011 than it did in 2010.

League tables

PwC appears in the following brand league tables:

Rank 73 in the Global 500 2011.
Rank 72 in the Global 500 2010.
Rank 8 in the UK Top 50 2010.
Rank 57 in the Global 500 2009.
Rank 71 in the Global 500 2008.
Rank 95 in the Global 250 2007.