Thursday, July 3, 2008

IDENTITY, IMAGE AND REPUTATION

Identity is the visual appearance of the company, mainly revealed as its name, logo, motto, mission, vision, goal, products, services, and all other tangible pieces created by the organization to communicate it self to its various constituents. The company personifies itself through its identity. Once the organization builds strong perceptions about its reality it proves success in creating an identity. The factors which help in shaping the identity are an inspirational corporate vision, careful corporate branding, and the most important is to be consistent in presenting it self.

Image is the organization as seen from the viewpoint of its constituents. Image can be said as the reflection of an organization’s identity. Image is the perception of people towards an organization, and it can be changed with continuous efforts. The strong image of an organization strengthens its brand awareness among all the various products. Organizations strive hard to create a good image which makes the company survive easily. A corporate image refers to how a corporation is perceived. It is a generally accepted image of what a company "stands for". The creation of a corporate image is an exercise in perception management. It is created primarily by 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, journalist, labor union, environmental organizations, and other NGO's
http://www.linneygroup.com/images/linney-design/corporate-identity/corporate-id1.jpg
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.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_image"


Corporate reputation is the belief in the organization or what the people think about it generally. Every company strives to build a positive reputation among all its constituents. Reputation is built up over time and is not simply a perception at a particular time. Reputation is built with the help of both internal and external constituents. Companies with strong, positive reputations can attract and retain the best talent, as well as loyal customers and business partners which all together contribute for the growth and commercial success.

The first name which comes to mind when one says burger is Mc Donald’s, talk about crispy chicken and we friends think of going to KFC these are the outcomes of creating a good identity, image and reputation. To be in business or to be in demand companies should focus on creating and maintaining corporate identity, image and reputation. They can be the reason for the success or failure of a company. Hence plenty time and resources should be allocated to create and maintain these factors.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_image
http://www.corporateimage.net/
http://www.corporateidentitydesigner.com/
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_corporate_reputation_quotient.html

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