Module I: Corporate image

1. Understanding Corporate Image

• Its important to know what the two words mean: `Corporate’ and `Image’
• Corporate has everything to do with any business/company/commercial
related venture, exercise, product, communication, competition, presentation
etc.
• So when one talks about `Corporate’ we are referring to the ` BUSINESS
WORLD’
• Image can be translated to imply- Representation, Icon, Reflection,
Picture, Likeness, Impression, Idea, View, The way you are seen
Aura

2. Corporate Image Building: A Marketing Exercise

• A corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally
accepted image of what a company stands for. Marketing experts who use
public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to
the public.

• The way society views a company, or the position a company holds within
the wider community.
• The perception that people have of a company, based on a combination of
various communications and personal experience.

• consisting of two components; functional and emotional. Functional relates

to tangible characteristics while the emotional component is associated
with psychological dimensions that are manifested by feelings and attitudes
towards a company.

Corporate image, or reputation, describes the manner in which a company, its activities, and its
products or services are perceived by outsiders. In a competitive business climate, many
businesses actively work to create and communicate a positive image to their customers,
shareholders, the financial community, and the general public. A company that mismanages or
ignores its image is likely to encounter a variety of problems. "Reputation problems grow like
weeds in a garden," Davis Young wrote in his book Building Your Company's Good Name.
"Direct and indirect costs escalate geometrically."

Some of the warning signs that a business might have an image problem include high employee
turnover, the disappearance of major customers, a drop in stock value, and poor relationships
with vendors or government officials. If an image problem is left unaddressed, a company might
find many of its costs of doing business rising dramatically, including the costs of product
development, sales support, employee wages, and shareholder dividends. In addition, since the
majority of consumers base their purchase decisions at least partly on trust, current and future
sales levels are likely to suffer as well.
In businesses of all sizes, it is vital that managers recognize the importance of creating and
maintaining a strong image, and that they also make employees aware of it. Corporate image
begins within the offices of a company's managers. It should be based on the development of
good company policies, rather than on controlling the damage caused by bad company policies.
Young recommends that business owners and managers take the following steps toward
improving their companies' image: focus on the firm's long-term reputation; base actions on
substantive policies; insist on candor in all business dealings; and uphold the stakeholders' right
to know. After all, he notes, a good corporate image can take years to build and only moments to
destroy.

Importance of Corporate Image

Several factors have contributed to the increasing importance of corporate image in recent years.
For example, the business climate in the United States has become one of environmental
complexity and change. This has forced many business enterprises to significantly alter their
strategies to better compete and survive. The acceleration of product life cycles is another vital
dimension of the turbulent business environment. Globalization has been still another catalyst in
the rise of corporate image programs, as companies have sought ways to spread their reputations
to distant markets. A related factor is that as a corporation expands its operations internationally,
or even domestically, through acquisitions, there is a danger that its geographically dispersed
business units will project dissimilar or contrary images to the detriment of corporate synergy.

A final factor stimulating the current interest in corporate image is society's growing expectation
that corporations be socially responsible. Many of today's consumers consider the environmental
and social image of firms in making their purchasing decisions. Some companies have
recognized this reality and reaped tremendous benefits by conducting themselves in a socially
and environmentally responsible manner. Some of these companies act out of genuine altruism,
while others act out of a simple recognition of the business benefits of such behavior.

Theory of Corporate Image

In the process of managing corporate image, the fundamental variables are: corporate identity,
corporate communication, corporate image, and feedback. Corporate identity is the reality of the
corporation—the unique, individual personality of the company that differentiates it from other
companies. Corporate communication is the aggregate of sources, messages, and media by which
the corporation conveys its uniqueness or brand to its various audiences. Corporate image is in
the eye of the beholder—the impression of the overall corporation held by its several audiences.

The objective in managing corporate image is to communicate the company's identity to those
audiences or constituencies that are important to the firm, in such a way that they develop and
maintain a favorable view of the company. This process involves fashioning a positive identity,
communicating this identity to significant audiences, and obtaining feedback from the audiences
to be sure that the message is interpreted positively. An unsatisfactory image can be improved by
modifying corporate communication, re-shaping the corporate identity, or both.
CORPORATE IDENTITY. Corporate identity—the reality and uniqueness of the organization
—may be broken down into four component parts: corporate strategy, corporate culture,
organizational design, and operations. Strategy is the overall plan that determines the company's
product/market scope and the policies and programs it chooses to compete in its chosen markets.
Corporate culture is the shared values and beliefs that the organization's members hold in
common as they relate to each other, their jobs, and the organization. It defines what the firm's
personnel believe is important and unimportant, and explains to a large degree why the
organization behaves the way it does.

Organizational design refers to the fundamental choices top managers make in developing the
pattern of organizational relationships. It encompasses issues such as whether basic tasks should
be organized by function or product division, the company's overall configuration, the degree of
decentralization, the number of staff personnel, the design of jobs, and the internal systems and
procedures. Operations, the fourth and final component of corporate identity, is the aggregate of
activities the firm engages in to effect its strategy. These activities become part of the reality of
the corporation and can influence its identity in a wide variety of ways.

CORPORATE IMAGE. Corporate image is the reputation of the firm with the various
audiences that are important to it. These groups that have a stake in the company are known as
stakeholders. Stakeholders are affected by the actions of the company and, in turn, their actions
can affect the company. Consequently, its image in the eyes of its stakeholders is important to
the company. The principal stakeholders with which most large corporations must be concerned
are: customers, distributors and retailers, financial institutions and analysts, shareholders,
government regulatory agencies, social action organizations, the general public, and employees.

The image that stakeholders have of the company will influence their willingness to either
provide or withhold support. Thus, if customers develop a negative perception of a company or
its products, its sales and profits assuredly will decline. Government regulatory latory agencies,
another important set of stakeholders, are required by law to monitor and regulate firms for
specific, publicly defined purposes. Nevertheless, these agencies have considerable discretion in
how they interpret and apply the law. Where they have a positive perception of the firm, they are
likely to be much less censorious.

Obviously, each of the various stakeholder groups is likely to have a somewhat different
perception of the corporation because each is concerned primarily with a different facet of its
operation. Thus, consumers are principally interested in the price, quality, and reliability of the
company's products and services. Financial institutions are concerned with financial structure
and performance. Employees are mainly concerned with wages, working conditions, and
personnel policies. Logically, then, a company should tailor its communication to each
stakeholder group individually to address the special concerns of that group.

However, maintaining a consistent image among the several stakeholder groups is also vital.
Although it is prudent to stress different facets of the firm's identity to its various publics, the
firm should avoid projecting an inconsistent image, because the concerns and memberships of
different stakeholder groups often overlap. For instance, the financial community and the
shareholders would have many of the same financial and strategic concerns about the company.
In fact, many shareholders rely heavily on the advice of experts from financial institutions.
Similarly, both employees and the general public have an interest in the overall prestige of the
firm and the reputation of its products. A social action group's criticism, whether economically
effective or not, is bound to influence some customers and affect the company's public
reputation. A regulatory agency such as OSHA would focus narrowly on the firm's safety record
and policies, but the company's employees and their labor unions also have a stake in these
matters.

CORPORATECOMMUNICATION. Corporate communication provides the link between

corporate identity and corporate image. It should be defined in the broadest possible sense,
because companies communicate identities in many different ways. Communication can include
almost anything the company does, from the way telephones are answered to the involvement of
company employees in community affairs. Some of the principal sources of corporate
communication include company and product names and logos, formal statements (mission
statements, credos, codes of ethics, annual reports, advertising copy, and company slogans), and
behavior during important events. These events encompass scheduled events such as open
houses and anniversary sales as well as unscheduled events such as lawsuits or negative press
coverage.

FEEDBACK. Feedback is essential to the management of corporate image. Business owners

and managers need accurate information on how they and their company are perceived if they
are to make sound decisions. Ideally, feedback should be continuous. As a practical matter,
continuous feedback can be elicited from salespeople, clients, employees, and other local
business owners. Based on such input, modifications may be made in the company's
communication methods or, if warranted, a formal study of the corporate image may be initiated.
In addition to systematically utilizing internal sources, it is prudent to undertake a serious review
of the business's reputation (both internally and externally) on a regular basis.

A corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally accepted image of

what a company stands for. Marketing experts who use public relations and other forms of
promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public. Typically, a corporate image is designed to
be appealing to the public, so that the company can spark an interest among consumers, create
share of mind, generate brand equity, and thus facilitate product sales.

A corporation's image is not solely created by the company. Other contributors to a company's
image could include news media, journalists, labor unions, environmental organizations, and
other NGOs.

Corporations are not the only form of organization that create these types of images.
Governments, charitable organizations, criminal organizations, religious organizations, political
organizations, and educational organizations all tend to have a unique image, an image that is
partially deliberate and partially accidental, partially self-created and partially exogenous.
 Image Building
for Research
Institutions
Kinnera Murthy
Lecture notes

Why is Image Building Necessary?

Image:

• Internal stakeholders
• Management
• Bureaucrats
• Politicians
• Venture Capitalists
• User Publics
• Suppliers
• Industry Analysts
• Consultants and Recommenders
• General Public
• Media
• Local Neighbourhoods
M

All Impressions

Creating New Identities

Promotion Objectives

• Build a favourable opinion about an Institution by stressing

its expertise, management capability, skills,
technology and so on;and to offset negative attitudes
• To sell the organization as a good employer
• To shape the behaviour of staff, clients, and others for the benefit of the
Institution

Steps

• Self Assessment
• Research & Evaluation
• Image Research
• Statement of overall Objectives and Strategy
• Development of the identification system
• Implementation & Continuity

Why Research?
 • Sets the baseline for awareness and attitudes
• It identifies areas of lack of understanding and misperception among audiences
-- builds database

O ption s

Existing image :

Modified or modernised without

major change in name or symbol.

Uniformity can be achieved and a

sense of progress indicated

A completely new image may be

created. Strong programme to

establish it immediately.

Simplify identity

(Short forms)

M edia

Annual report

Influential persons
Spreading the word

Researchers as Mentors

M edia

Advertising

Anniversary,

New programmes,

Awards, recognitions

Publications

Open Houses and Feedback

• Complaints are a form of feedback

• Invited criticism leads to increased goodwill
• Public organizations cannot afford to take a low profile
• Tolerance increases once effort is known
• But remember, good services are always taken for granted and seldom praised

Advantages of a favourable Image

• Innovative and dynamic

• Helps treatment of emergency news
• Growth oriented organization
• Public is familiar with the Institution
• Cares about public interest
 Building Your Corporate Image
Written by Steve Marr

Bill and Becky operated a bakery and sandwich shop called Wholegrain Bakery. Customers lined up early each
morning to purchase bagels, muffins, croissants, bread, and other goodies, but the bakery’s highly profitable specialty
items—outstanding cakes and desserts—didn’t sell very well.

Although they produced great products, Bill and Becky neglected to build the bakery’s image around their
premium, high-quality items. Casual customers perceived the shop as an average bakery rather than as a purveyor
of top-flight desserts. Why?

First, the owners presented their company as an old-fashioned corner bakery. Their window displays and signage
were neat but simple, not conveying an upscale image. Inside, the counters and display cases were filled with an
abundance of baked goods, but the high-end desserts were jammed in alongside the breads and rolls. A sign listing
the daily specials was handwritten. The staff were neatly dressed but without a uniform appearance.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, niv). Unfortunately, if the
outward appearance of a business doesn’t clearly communicate a company’s unique strengths, customers
may not understand everything the company has to offer. Bill and Becky did a good job of merchandising their
everyday items, but they failed to capitalize on the potential of their high-margin desserts.

The first step in building your company’s image is to clearly understand your key competitive advantage in the
marketplace, and then to craft your image around that advantage. For example, Wholegrain Bakery had several
competitors for bagels and bread, but these other shops couldn’t match the bakery’s array of high-quality dessert
items.

When Bill and Becky invested in an image makeover, they began to concentrate on merchandising their upscale
dessert items, while still maintaining their inventory of basic baked goods. First, they repainted the exterior of the
building and added new signs that replaced the corner bakery image with a more upscale, high-quality feel. Next,
they replaced the old tables and chairs with some sharp-looking new furniture. They then rearranged the display
cases to more effectively showcase the desserts. To create room, they kept all the extra bread, rolls, and bagels in
the back until needed. The result was a sharp increase in the sale of desserts!

Creating an image for your company is only the first step, however; you must also support and maintain your image
through your actions. Here’s a key equation to keep in mind: Customer expectations minus the reality they
experience equals customer disappointment. Make sure that the image you present to your customers is
accurate. When I was shopping for window blinds recently, I was drawn to a local store that advertised, “We beat all
prices by 20 percent.” However, the quote I received from this company was the same as from other stores. As a
result, the “discount” store lost all credibility with me. Once you have determined what your image should be, you
must strive to deliver that image to your customers. Heed the wise words of King Solomon, who wrote, “Put away
from you a deceitful mouth” (Proverbs 4:24, nasb).

Upscale isn’t necessarily the best image for every business. The point is to make sure that your image
accurately reflects your company’s unique strengths. For example, a nearby vacuum repair business that offers great
repair service and used vacuums operates out of a small shop cluttered with merchandise, and customers can see
the repair staff fixing machines. This folksy setup conveys the company’s signature strengths: reliable repair service
and low-cost vacuums. Or consider Sam’s Club and Costco: Their concrete floors and merchandise piled high to the
ceiling reinforces the idea that you are getting warehouse-style bargains.

Some business owners mistakenly believe that advertising creates their company’s image. Instead, I believe that a
company’s advertising should highlight the image the owners have defined for their business and what they deliver to
their customers.

Take a step back. Determine your company’s key advantage in the marketplace. Then determine whether your
current image fits that advantage. Are you effectively highlighting your key benefits? If not, identify three steps you
can take to hit the mark. If you determine that your operation is out of step with your image, make the commitment to
either align your image with your operation, or make changes in your operation to match your image.

The logo is the cornerstone of a brand identity. But it doesn't stop there. A successful identity
system encompasses, coordinates, and harmonizes a company with a recognizable message
and individual personality. This system includes the letterhead, the Web site, marketing
collateral, and everything else that represents an enterprise.

Branding influences corporate image and provides direction for the corporate identity. It is a
marketing communications process - one that is planned, strategically focused and fully
integrated. It conveys the essence, culture, character and purpose of a company or product.
It's the heart and soul of the brand from which all outward expressions emanate. Building a
strong brand is invaluable. It is the foundation of your corporate marketing. It's your essence,
your herald, your identity.You have heard the term "instantaneous recognition" - This is what
our corporate identity branding can do for your company.

3. An overview to Marketing

If you think only big corporate names need to think about things
like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you
and your business, and that's as true for a one person home-
based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. In this
article we look at how creating a strong brand for your business
can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay the right
foundation for the future growth of your business.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

Your brand is more than just the logo on your letterhead and
business cards or your business name. It is your corporate
identity. An effective brand tells the world who you are, what
you do and how you do it, while at the same time establishing
your relevance to and credibility with your prospective customers.

Your brand is also something more ethereal. It is how your

business is perceived by its customers. If your brand has a high
perceived value, you enjoy many advantages over your
competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Why do you
think people are prepared to pay stupid money for items of clothing
with the initials "CK" on them? Perceived value. Perceived value
as a result of very effective brand promotion resulting in very high
brand awareness.
Now, I'm not saying we all need to rush out and start creating
brands that are going to be recognized the world over. Most of us
simply don't have the time or other resources necessary. What I
am suggesting, however, is that it is possible for your brand to
dominate your niche.

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

=> Differentiation

We touched on this in the previous section when we looked at

what a brand is and how it can be used to increase the perceived
value of your products and services. The main reason for creating
your own brand is to differentiate yourself from your competition.
New websites are a dime a dozen. So are home-based
businesses. You need to constantly be looking for ways to set
yourself apart from your competition. Your brand can do that for
you.

=> More Effective, Efficient Marketing

Another good reason for creating your own brand is to make your
sales force (even if that's a sales force of one - you) more effective
and efficient.

Imagine if you didn't have to spend the first 50% of your time with
a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how you
do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for you?
You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather than
educating your prospects about your business

Another benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend increasing

your brand awareness through promoting and marketing your brand
to your target market automatically transfers to your products and
services. So, even when you're advertising your brand, you're
indirectly also marketing your products and services.

HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

OK, so you're convinced you need to create your own brand.

Where on earth do you start?

We saw earlier that your brand needs to say who you are, what
you do and how you do it. It needs to do all these things at the
same time as establishing your relevance to and building credibilty
with your prospective customers. Needless to say, it is absolutely
essential, if you are to build your own brand, that *you yourself*
have a firm grasp of who you are, what you do and how you do it.
If not, you're going to have the devil's own time getting that
message across to anyone else, let alone establishing your
relevance and credibility.

=> Write A Mission Statement

So, let's start by creating a mission statement. What is the

mission of your business? Obviously you're in business to make
a profit. But making a profit is a byproduct of a successful
business. Focus instead on how you choose to achieve that profit.
What are your core values?

A good place to begin thinking about your mission is to put

yourself in the shoes of your customers. Put yourself in their
target market. Let's say your business is web hosting. If you're
in the market for a web host, what things are important to you?
Different people will be looking for different benefits but you can
bet that they want their website to be accessible to site visitors so
reliability will be high on their list. Price is also likely to be high
on the list as is 24/7 technical support. What about add-on features
such as unlimited email aliases, cgi support and what-not?
These things will be highly important to some and less important
to others. So focus on the benefits that are likely to be highly
relevant to the majority of your target market. Let's settle for our
purposes on reliability, price and technical support.

Your mission statement might read something like this: "I strive
to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by
providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and
24/7 telephone technical support". That's a pretty general
statement and if you decide to focus on a particular niche of the
webhosting market, such as small business, you may want to
more narrowly focus on that group in your mission statement.

Now that you've written your mission statement, you can begin
thinking about creating a brand that reinforces and supports your
mission. So, getting back to the fundamental questions of who
you are, what you do and how you do it, you can now begin to
think of your business in these terms. You're a webhosting
provider, you host websites of small businesses and you do that
by offering cost-effective webhosting solutions, guaranteed 99%
uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support.
When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what
and how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your
relevance to your target market and build credibility with that
market.

Let's turn now to the nuts and bolts of creating your brand.

=> Describe What You Are Branding

List out your business's key features and characteristics, your

competitive advantages and anything else that sets you apart
from your competition.

Using our webhosting example, you'll focus primarily on the

objectives from your mission statement namely, reliable, cost-
effective webhosting solutions supported by 24/7 technical
support.

=> Identify and Describe Your Target Market

Decide whether you want to target lthe entire webhosting

community or only a segment of it such as small business
websites. Describe your market.

=> List Names that Suggest the Key Elements from Your
Mission Statement

The key elements from your mission statement were reliability,

cost-effectiveness and customer service. List names that are
suggestive of these elements. Let's use Reliable Webhosting
for our example. (I don't claim to be a creative genius.)

Don't limit yourself to real words, though. A coined name with no

obvious meaning is a perfectly legitimate name provided it conveys
something about your business. You will find coined names easier
to trademark and secure domain names for too - a definite plus!

=> List Tag Lines that Reinforce Your Mission Statement

We'll use: "Outstanding reliability and technical support at a

price your small business can afford". I know, I know. You can
do much better, I'm sure.

HOW SHOULD I USE MY BRAND?

=> Create a Logo for Your Brand

Your logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your
brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To
this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand
awareness.

The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a

variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate
letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and
corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing
mishmash of logos and banners and heaven knows what else.
Everything you produce needs to use the same, consistent
style of logo so that, over time, your logo becomes synonymous
with your brand. Instant recognition is what you're going for here,
so don't dilute it by using several different logos for different
purposes.

=> Consistent Usage of Company Name, Logo and Tag Line

Going back to our webhosting example, putting the brand name

and tagline together, the physical manifestation of your brand
will be:

RELIABLE WEBHOSTING
Outstanding reliability and technical support at a price
your small business can afford.

To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used

consistently and frequently in everything your produce, whether
that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures, quotations,
invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website, on the front
door of your principal place of business and on your products.
And don't forget to be consistent in your use of color schemes.
These can be powerful brand reinforcers.

=> Marketing and Promotion of Your Brand

Once you've created your brand, you need to market and

promote it, in addition to your products and services. This is
how you establish your credibility and relevance to your target
market. You can hopefully see why your brand needs to be
suggestive of your mission statement. If, at the same time as
you're selling your products and services you also push your
brand, your brand becomes synonymous with your products
and services. And vice versa.

A properly descriptive brand and high brand awareness amongst

your target market will allow you to more easily introduce a wider
range of products and services when they're developed without
having to start by again selling who you are, what you do and
how you do it first. Your brand has already presold YOU. Your
job then is to sell your products and services.

4. Understanding the Marketing Mix – Product, Price, Place, Promotion

Four P's

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four P's":

• Product - A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced

or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible
products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or
codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of
a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable
razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer
operating system. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration.
Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed
by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market
saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product
differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a
product from its competitors.

• Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The
business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores
have the same product.
• Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It
is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical
store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
• Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in
the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public
relations, personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of
crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements
together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any
communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and
Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are
where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press
releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade
fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication
 about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people
specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often
plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product
above).

Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market; conducts a market
survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life
cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.