Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Home > Corporate image

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 companies image could include news media, journalists, labour 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.

1 Corporate image and product positioning

A corporate image should be consistent with the positioning of the companies product, product line, or brand. Any inconguency between the overall corporate image and the positions of individual product offerings will be confusing to potential customers and will tend to reduce sales revenue. For example, an oil company that has the image of being environmentally unfriendly will not be successful selling products that they try to position as "green". A company in such a situation should either: withraw from the "green market", invest in promotional activities that will recast their corporate image in a greener hue, and/or follow a more environmentally friendly path. A good overall corporate image can be seen as the sum of all the images associated with the firm's individual product positions.

The corporate name and logo must also be consistant with the overall corporate image. If you wish to craft a scientific/technical/innovative corporate image you would not call your company Mystic Sunchild, nor would you use a logo like the NBC peacock.

Likewise with advertising themes and distribution partners; they must also be consistent with your overall corporate image. If, for example, you wish to create a luxury/high-end corporate image, you should not distribute your products through Walmart nor use slapstick advertising themes.

A successful corporate image must also be believable. That is, the image must be relatively close to your actual behaviours to be credible.

2 See also

corporate identity
positioning (marketing)
strategic managementStrategic management is the process of specifying an organization's objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources so as to implement the plans. It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually perfo
list of marketing topicsThis is a list of over 200 articles on marketing topics. If you create a marketing article, please add it to this list. Marketing fundamentals marketing an overview consumer customer Customer lifetime value (CLV) customer relationship management (CRM) mar
list of management topicsThis is a list of articles on general management and strategic management topics. For articles on specific areas of management, such as marketing management, production management, human resource management, information technology management, and internat

Politics	Business	Finance

Topics: Corporate Image Product Organizations Company Partially...

Corporate titleCorporate titles include: CEO: Chief Executive Officer DOO: Director of Operations aka Operations Director CFO: Chief Financial Officer CIO: Chief Information Officer CMO: Chief Marketing Officer COO: Chief Operating Officer CTO: Chief Technical Officer o	Corporate havenA corporate haven is a jurisdiction with laws friendly to corporations thereby encouraging them to choose that jurisdiction as a legal domicile. Within the United States, Delaware is considered the pre-eminent corporate haven. However it is facing competi	Corporate personhoodCorporate personhood is a term used to describe the legal fiction used within United States law that a corporation has a limited number or subset of the same constitutional rights as does a human being. The choice of the word "person" in "personhood" aris
Corporate police stateA Corporate police state is a pejorative term for a hypothetical system of government that combines an economy based on private enterprise, especially large business corporations, with a repressive and authoritarian government. It is envisioned that a cor	Corporate welfareCorporate welfare is a pejorative term first coined by Ralph Nader in 1956 to describe a government's bestowal of grants and/or tax breaks on one or more corporations or other "special favorable treatment" from the government. Usually these actions are se	Corporate raidA corporate raid is a business term, sometimes also referred to as breaking a company''. It describes a particular type of hostile takeover in which the assets of the purchased company are immediately sold off. The target company essentially disappears in
Corporate immune response	Corporate state	Corporate crime
Corporate propaganda	Corporate identity	Corporate development
Corporate governance	Corporate branding	Corporate action

Non User