Corporate Image
A company's corporate image is the public's perception of it's brand. A corporation shapes it's image by communicating its identity through marketing and advertising. However, what really sculpts the corporate image is a company's financial or innovative performance along with it's products and services. In today's world ethical business practices, business values, customer service and employee engagement play a very important role in establishing corporate image.
Elements of Corporate Image[1]
Corporate Image was once advertising jargon but is today a common phrase referring to a company's reputation. The "image" is what the public is supposed to see when the corporation is mentioned. The ordinary man and woman on the street usually have a wry view of public relations, advertising, hype, hoopla, and therefore also of corporate image — and this often for good reasons. But a good corporate image is a genuine asset; it translates into dollars at the counter and higher stock valuation. The concept is usually associated with large corporations, but small businesses also have a corporate image even if neither their owners nor customers think of it that way. In the absence of active efforts, corporate image "simply happens": it is how a company is perceived. Management, however, may actively attempt to shape the image by communications, brand selection and promotion, use of symbols, and by publicizing its actions. Corporations trying to shape their image are analogous to individuals who will dress appropriately, cultivate courteous manners, and choose their words carefully in order to come across competent, likeable, and reliable. In the personal as in the corporate case, the image should match reality. When it does not, the consequence will be the opposite of the one intended.
A corporate image is, of course, the sum total of impressions left on the company's many publics. In many instances a brief, casual act by an employee can either lift or damage the corporate image in the eyes of a single customer or caller on the phone. But the overall image is a composite of many thousands of impressions and facts. The major elements are:
1) the core business and financial performance of the company,
2) the reputation and performance of its brands ("brand equity"),
3) its reputation for innovation or technological prowess, usually based on concrete events,
4) its policies toward its salaried employees and workers,
5) its external relations with customers, stockholders, and the community, and
6) the perceived trends in the markets in which it operates as seen by the public. Sometimes a charismatic leader becomes so widely known that he or she adds a personal luster to the company.