Brand perception management - a key corporate competence

http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/comment/0,,1545579,00.html
I read this article and immediately thought of companies like Innocent Drinks, Nokia and Starbucks — who are not only good at being good (ethical) but also good at managing the perception of their brand by customers and potential customers.
Innocent is very open about its ethically-driven mission statement and lives that through its donation of 10% of its profits to projects in the countries from which it sources its fruit and its annual free festival, Fruitstock. It's cheeky, fun, brand personality comes through in the silly jokes on its packaging, adverts, e-mail newsletter and website.
Nokia, being more corporate, manages things through its marketing and CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities, including its participation in a brilliantly honest and transparent (but also hilarious at points) BBC4 Storyville documentary about its CSR audit of the Chinese manufacturer of its phone chargers - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/made-in-china.shtml
Just by doing the film they showed how much they really mean all that stuff - it wasn't just tick-the-box for them.
Ditto Starbucks, whose approach to CSR has been deliberately low-key. While they do Fairtrade-like programmes to ethically source all their coffee and a lot more besides (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp ), they don't make a big thing about it in their marketing activities, perhaps for fear of being accused of being a big Janusian American corporation by the anti-globalisation folks, even though Starbucks can prove everything they claim.
So much of their perception comes down to the other stuff they do in their marketing and the actual experience itself, which includes the whole thing about making it "The Third Place" in your life (with everything instore, including the muzac, carefully planned to match the brand - don't forget Mr Starbucks, Howard Schultz, is a marketing man!) and by selling cool music through its Hear Music label.
So where is this going to?
I believe some customers and potential customers assess their potential for a relationship with a brand based on their existing perception of it - functionally and ethically. How much price plays a part depends on how ethically-motivated they are.
But the more transparent they're seen to be, the more trustworthy they're perceived to be and the greater is their opportunity to start a new brand relationship with that ethical consumer.
And that's why managing the perception of your brand is a key corporate competence in the 21st Century.