Corporate Image
The idea of a corporate image is certainly not new. Companies have done institutional advertising for many years, and sophisticated public relations people have long stressed the significance of many kinds of intelligent effort in building up a general reservoir of good will for a firm. But the concept of a corporate image has given much greater meaning to these efforts. Against the background of thinking about brand images and product-area images, it offers something new, distinct, and valuable. In a remarkably few years the goals of advertising and marketing in the consumer field have been broadened past the functional stages (Balmer & Greyser 2003).Today sophisticated strategy embraces a conscious effort to create a distinctive and, of course, positive brand image. The successful brand invariably has psychological meanings and dimensions which are just as real to the purchaser as its physical properties, and in many instances the purely subjective attributes play a far more important Much of the confusion over the corporate image stems from somewhat conflicting sources (Balmer & Greyser 2003).
A great deal of skepticism exists that such a conglomeration of activities as the modern corporation can lend itself to compact expression. Molding and shaping the corporate image is a highly positive, constructive job, which needs to be approached with vigor and enthusiasm. There are, however, several problems that management should frankly face up to and some that it may have to live with (Theaker 2004).There is the problem of living modern in times of continuous change. It is quite true that there is no substitute for the excellence of a company's products. Unless all products in the market place are good in a functional sense, they die an immediate and unlamented death. Now people are in the era of promotion and merchandising, where the fortunes of a company depend far more on its abilities to advertise and merchandise and promote its products, because it is taken for granted that all products will perform their functions (Varey 2001).
Creating and selling a corporate image is far more than a task for the public relations staff. Every activity of the company adds some meaning to the public's picture of the management that is running the organization. Regardless of the complexity of the corporate structure, at the point where product and buyer come together the consumer also weighs in the balance some associations about the maker of that particular product, it is important for the corporate image to be liked. It is so necessary to consider the feeling tone and the emotive meanings as well as the functional and rational dimensions of the corporate image (Sutherland & Sylvester 2000). Corporate image is said to be the perception of a company. It is designed to be appealing to the general public so that it can create interest among its clients, generate brand equity and facilitate the sale of products. Corporate image can be produced not only by the company but other factors such as news media, labor unions, environmental organizations and other non government organizations. A better image can mean better sales for a company; a bad image can mean the decline of the company in the future.
Branding
Branding is not about getting a company's prospect to choose them over the competition; it's about getting their prospect to see them as the only solution. Large sums of money are invested each year in order to create and maintain the awareness of and the preference for a brand. Powerful brands command unwavering consumer loyalty and provide strong competitive advantage in the marketplace (Dennis & Harris, 2002). The wealth of an organization is, to a not insignificant extent, judged by the strength of its brands whether it is in consumer or business-to-business markets, with brands that have either a high product or a high services component. The immediate association with a brand tends to be a product name. However, treating a brand only as a name misses the main point of branding. The brand is a complex symbol and can be applied to specific products, whole corporations or even countries. Brands vary in the marketplace according to the level of consumer awareness and loyalty (Dennis & Harris 2002).
Strong brands can command consumer loyalty, which means that a sufficient number of consumers will demand these brands in preference to unbranded substitutes, even if the latter are offered with comparable quality and at lower prices. Such brands are said to have consumer franchise providing the companies who own them with competitive advantage and insulation over their competitors' promotional strategies (Dennis & Harris 2002). The most lasting and sustainable meanings of the brand are its core values and personality. Some brands are largely unknown to most consumers except for those closely involved with them. Others enjoy a higher degree of consumer brand awareness, whereas brands which are consistently chosen over their competitors are said to have brand preference. The most powerful brands can command a high degree of brand loyalty. Such a brand has high brand equity (Dennis & Harris 2002). Never before customers have a diverse kind of brand choices. Ironically, the difference between competitive brands is often intangible. What does it take to break out of the pack with the brand and set it apart from the competition and, most importantly, place it first in the minds of customers (Duboff & Spaeth 2000).
At its simplest, the net present value of the difference between the brand's future profit stream and that of an equivalent commodity's is the prize marketers seek. It is this brand asset value that they are charged to develop and build or, at least, maintain. Brand stewardship is far from empty words. Brands are a business's crown jewels they are put to work, and put at risk, every day (Duboff & Spaeth 2000). Branding is the concept of giving the company a distinct identity. Branding creates a different kind of effect to clients. It gives extra encouragement for the clients to purchase the company’s product. The branding strategy used by a company helps in ensuring that the client knows about the company, its services, its products and how such company differs from its competitors. Branding is now being used in a global setting. This is due to the effectiveness of such concept. When a product is known or has reached international markets it means that the global branding strategies of the company have taken full effect.
Corporate Identity
A company can build intangible assets starting from the breeding of external signals with the company's internal resources and capabilities. It can also invest in reinforcing its capacities to manage the types of signals it sends outside, through its products, services, image and identity (Bounfour 2003). The principal constraint here is that of differentiation, with regard to other signals that are or might be produced by the organization’s immediate competitors, but also in comparison to customers, suppliers, and all other players, likely to offer a product or service and more generally to deliver a message, likely to exert a threat of substitution to the company's current supply. This requirement for differentiation, of an external nature, goes hand in hand with another requirement, of internal nature: the requirement for mobilization. The integration of multiple - intangible - dimensions for differentiation amounts to considerably widening the field of competition, which can no longer integrate the competition between more or less homogeneous products or services (Bounfour 2003).
More precisely, a product or a service, in other words the output of the company, is only one means among many to diffuse the company's signals out towards its various environments. If the requirement for differentiation is a strong constraint for companies, then it is advisable to identify its channels and stakes. At the heart of this process lies the assertion of the image of the company and its identity. Identity is founded on the existence of relatively perennial purposes and a project. It is the assertion of the company's project which then founds a strategy of a positioning of the organization compared to its environments, its partners, customers and suppliers, and more importantly still the moral contract which binds it to its internal players (Aaltio & Mills 2002). The strategy reacts, in its turn, on the company's identity insofar as it constitutes its support and its operational manifestations, in respect to its supporting parts, and its constraining ones as well. The identity of a company is not only an intellectual construction that can be used and manipulated by leaders. In its external dimension, the asserted identity is transmitted via the projected image. Corporate identity is now to be considered as a moving construction; hence the importance of considering it from a dynamic and fluctuating perspective (Aaltio & Mills 2002).
Corporate identity is what is known as the persona of the company that is designed to facilitate the goal to reach the business’ objectives. Corporate identity is marked by way of branding and the use of trademarks. The identity of an organization comes into being once there is an organizational philosophy that is seen in an organizational culture. Corporate identity can be in the form of logos or other devices assembled within a set of guidelines. The guidelines assist in applying the identity for the company and in setting a particular feature for the identity of the company. Corporate identity plays a significant role in the way an organization showcases itself to internal and external stakeholders. It assists the organization in making a better standing in the eyes of its stakeholders. Corporate identity is seen as being composed of different parts that includes corporate design, corporate communication and corporate behavior.
Corporate design
Research on the concept of identity has shown the importance of symbolic elements in the expression of a company’s identity. Besides the official discourse, myths, rites, legends, or taboos form part of an organization’s identity. Symbolism is of special concern to the design field. Graphic design and environmental design, including product design and packaging, all contribute to the visual identification of a company and its products. Design investment can include multiple sources of added value and differentiation from competitors (Moingeon & Soenen 2002). For product design and packaging, design contributes to a company’s competitiveness through both the product’s use value and esteem value. Performance, practical use, and ergonomics are crucial for the use value, while the esteem value allows for the object to be characterized in relation to the target aimed at, and for the product recipients to be marked with identification signs, enabling recognition (Moingeon & Soenen 2002).
The implementation of a visual identity program requires both the definition of strategic objectives and the explicit formulation of company values (Moingeon & Soenen 2002). Corporate design consists of the official graphical design of the logo of a certain company. Such design is used in as a company’s letterhead, envelopes, forms or brochures. It is created in such a way that its elements are arranged in a specific pattern. It usually is something symbolic for the company and may or may not be a part of the company’s history. It sets the company apart from its competitors.
Corporate communication
The corporate communicator needs to know how to manage information effectively both individually and within the task/group/organizational setting. In practice corporate communication practitioners are needed who are able to exploit the riches of the worldwide web and other electronic resources with confidence and intelligence, but at the same time realize that traditional information and library skills also have their place in their practical repertoire. Such skills can reinforce strengths in business and organizational information seeking, but today and increasingly in the future this will not be enough. Full professional competence requires a mastery of a totality of capacities and qualities in information (Oliver 2004). The corporate communicator's work is ethically committed to truthful and verifiable information. So, there is a premium on finding out the facts: getting the right data and information together on clients, events and issues. This contributes to the better understanding of clients' needs and enables the consideration of the right responses to problems and the construction of appropriate messages. It is normative to ensure that corporate communication action is driven by quality information: the best guarantee of quality communication (Oliver 2004).
Information and knowledge management thus become complementary and self-reinforcing to corporate communication practice. Policy and practice is moving to a state where the total management of information and knowledge resources is a desirable norm and constituent of the corporate communication function. Corporate communication professionals need to have a good grounding in personal information and knowledge management skills. Through their professional education corporate communication professionals need to acquire a good range of transferable information and communication skills to add to their general portfolio of communication and professional skills (Horton 1995).
The corporate communication professional needs to be able to put both understanding and skill in information management at the disposal of the client in every way as an exercise of professional techniques, through ethical and legal responsibility, and as a contribution to meeting client needs as an outcome of quality management. Ensuring that the corporate communication practitioner can effectively manage information and knowledge resources within their organization by the establishment of information strategy and policy, action planning and effective management of work, in order to maximize the value of information and knowledge resources and to reduce all risks to themselves and their clients arising from information and knowledge work and communication activities (Higgins 1996). Corporate communication is known as the process of facilitating information exchanges with key groups that have a relationship with a company. It is concerned with sharing knowledge within the organization to help in making decisions on various issues. The aim of corporate communications is to build the company’s identity to its stakeholders and it includes analyst communications, internal and external communications, corporate governance, change management and others.
Corporate behavior
Organizations are downsizing, restructuring, merging, and reinventing themselves. These and other changes continue to impact the relationships, rights, and obligations between employee stakeholders and organizations. Organizations saw their workforce as permanent, and tried to build loyalty among employees by making financial investments in training and by providing guaranteed long-term employment (Sims 2003). The seeds of change are taking root, and with these changes new social contracts are developing between organizations and their members. Changes like those cited thus far have profoundly changed the ways in which organizations and their employees relate (Sims 2003).
Many social investors are concerned about the ethics, social responsibility, and reputation of organizations in which they invest; and a growing corps of brokers, financial planners, portfolio managers, asset management, and mutual funds have made themselves available to help investors evaluate investments and purchase stock in ethical organizations for their social impacts (Bowers, Edens & Salas 2001). Corporate behavior between a profit and non profit organization differ and each has its own goal. Corporate behavior helps in ascertaining the company’s identity by providing traditions and cultures that sets it apart from other companies. It sets out the internal values of the organization and its norms that create a unique identity for the company. Corporate behavior assists in determining how a company will treat its clients and its personnel.
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