A Framework for Marketing Image Management Review

A Framework for Marketing Image Management

This paper focusing on company’s marketing image which include consequently, certain factors, offerings, and publics. It is important to each company to make customer’s impression of an organization. The findings of this paper show that only a systematic approach will yield useful and accurate information that a company can translate into action.

Image is very important to an organization where it can described as a sum of beliefs, attitudes, and impressions that a person or group has an object. The object either is company, product, brand, place, or person. A company has many images which is depending upon the specific object being studied, the public assessed and other conditions that related with images. Every organization has a corporate image, whether it wants one or not. When properly designed and managed, the corporate image will accurately reflect the level of the organization's commitment to quality, excellence and relationships.

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The relationships with its various constituents including current and potential customers, employees and future staff, competitors, partners, governing bodies, and the general public at large. As a result, the corporate image is a critical concern for every organization, one deserving the same attention and commitment by senior management as any other vital issue. A company’s image is a dynamic and profound affirmation of the nature, culture and structure of an organization. This applies equally to corporations, businesses, government entities, and non-profit organizations.

The corporate image communicates the organization's mission, the professionalism of its leadership, the caliber of its employees and its roles within the marketing environment or political landscape. All tend to have a unique image, an image that is partially deliberate and partially accidental, partially self-created and partially exogenous. The company’s image or also known as a corporate image is important to every company because the raw materials into a tangible product, machinery use to make products or product inventory. It refers to how a company is perceived.

It also a generally accepted image of what a company stands for. Typically, a company’s 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 company's image is not solely created by the company. Other contributors to a company's image could include news media, journalists, environmental organizations, labor unions and other Non-Government Organizations (NGO). The negative reputation is correlates with negative performance.

If this happened, the company needs to direct communication as a public relations department to correct the misperception. In general, the company needs to improve its performance and sometimes it needs to communicate its actual performance level more effectively. The image management process has four phases. It is use to make sure the process is feasible, affordable which is low cost and repeatable. The phases are design, data collection, image gap analysis and lastly, image modification actions and tracking. Design phase is when company decided needs to track such as image factors, products, publics and location.

Corporate marketing research department has a task of measuring and tracking image and also to hire research agencies, collect data, analyze results, and make recommendations. The example is marketing experts who use public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public. When built a design phase, the company determines the factors, offerings, publics, and appropriate competitors to track over time. Then, the one-on-one interviews and focus group is using with considered the following the types of questions such as factors tracked like product, price, salesforce, channels, communications, service or support.

This decision based on factors that most influence on the purchase decision. Then, study the offering are most important either a low market share or large revenue contributions. After the offering, company should know the different publics for three types of consumer buying decisions. Decisions in type, geographical location and other factors have to decide by company. It will focusing on the term or the mission which has been decided. Every each steps company takes, it should decide who the relevant competitors are. It includes the major competitors and competitive alternatives in customer nd distributors perception. Lastly, the question needs to think is how often the specified images be tracked. Image tracking is costly, company will try to perform a cost-benefits analysis to limit the number of attributes, competitors, and public examined in the quantitative phase which is obtained from the design phase. The information that company needs is qualitative measure of the importance of the factors in buying decision, qualitative measure of the key competitors, and qualitative research for each of the purchasers and users including in salient publics.

This will avoids the possibility of a misdirected image measurement that leads to develop hypotheses to be tested in the quantitative phase. Second, data collection phase is collected by telephone surveys. Using telephone survey has several advantages and also disadvantages. The advantages is over mailed questionnaires. The information or data can be obtained faster. It also make the interviewer can clarify the questions that been asking. While the disadvantages using telephone survey is when the questionnaire is long or complex. The great action is personal interviews to collect the long or complex data from the surveys.

Third, the image gap analysis phase is when the marketing research department summarizes and analyzes the collected data, and graphically portrays the results. The image is portrayed on a set of bipolar scales. Each scales runs from one to five (poor to excellent). It has two profiles plotted over the scales which represent many different comparisons. The comparisons is two public’s views, two time periods, the company and its major competitor, two products and lastly the actual image and desired image. The collecting image data have to indicate the importance of each attribute.

There is two methods to analysis data. First, the direct method includes asking the respondent to simply rank the attributes by distributing a constant sum of points over the attributes. Using rating scale also can be use in direct method. Second, the indirect method is obtained from the data using a regression or conjoint methodology. Company needs to achieve a high image rating on each attribute that is highly important to its target public. If company image is not making the best possible first impression, it really could be losing thousands of dollars, as prospects flit away to ompanies they perceive as the better company. It means, the company will lose sales to its competitors. Then, it also make company overspend on an attribute of low or less importance to the customer which not needs it. The best things to do is devote resources to the various factor which is important to the target market. The factor is usually about the public and the offerings example like excellent services, customer support, product and sales force and communications quality. The communication quality is like using brochures, advertisements, product packages and business cards that reflect company’s image.

For example, a children's party planning service might create materials using bright colors and cheery images that look fun and youthful. Four, all the analysis before show that the image modification actions and tracking phase is a picture of the company’s major strengths and weakness as perceived by respondents. Company have to develops plan to modify any of its attribute standings; include competitors’ standings on same attributes. Then, the firm’s standing in each quadrant has different ramifications for management action.

It also acknowledged that changing the perceived attribute importance is usually more difficult than changing the perceived attribute rating. When management identifies more than one image gaps either it real gaps or perception gaps, they need to be prioritized. They have to consider the five questions about the gaps. The gaps questions is the gaps influence buyer behavior, best strategy to close the gap, costs and benefits of closing gap, time to close the gap and the better to change importance ratings or attribute ratings.

All the specifying strategies to close image gaps must have cost-benefit analysis which includes potential competitor responses. The cost-benefits are include the resources and time in improving image perception of a particular factor or attribute if competitors can close the image gap rapidly and at low cost. Closing a different image gap may reduce the possibility of competitive countermoves and result in advantageous niche positioning. After answering the question above, management will be in good positions to prepare a sound image modification strategy.

Management can track the marketing image has improved in the desired direction after the action plans are implanted. Corporate image management or company image management is one of the most potent marketing and management tools to use in ensuring the viable execution of the corporate vision. It provides one of the most powerful strategic marketing weapons available in the corporate arsenal. It also process the highest level of functional control of the organization. Progressive company leaders will drive their organizations forward in victory in today's and tomorrow marketing, use management and marketing discipline.

The underlining principle of the discipline is touches the customer attention to make sure they perceives company image. This fundamental perception will be the major factor that determines whether the customer will decide to conduct business with the company and the important things is enter into a long-term and mutually rewarding relationship with company. The image tracking system that used in company will used as an early warning system to identify the future and the present shits in the company’s competitive performance to be excellent organization.

There greater marketing issue is corporate image management which is in growing higher competitive markets. The corporate image management will be a key marketing discipline well into the next century. Management have to determines the strength and the factors that improve its image or product with image gaps. Nowadays, the important things for winning and maintaining customer relationships now takes place in the minds, emotions and perceptions of the customers for the company’s marketing image.

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