Sunday, July 8, 2007

Identity, Image, Reputation.


A corporate identity is the communication of a company’s personality and the company personality reflects the inner values, which are the company’s philosophy. Consistent corporate identity can be favorable for the company as consistency can help strengthening the company’s image. In some cases the consistency of identity can help to strengthen the products of the company although such scenarios are created with a very conscious thought as most of the time product has a different profile than the rest of the company. This can be best explained with the help of car brand Mercedes that has brand identity of its own away from the company identity of DymlerCrysler

Corporate image is the way in which a company presents itself to its target groups. By being aware of how a company wishes to appear to its constituents, it can control its image and it is the projection of company’s corporate identity. Image is the perception of people about the organization, which can very well be changed by continuous efforts. A strong corporate image strengthens brand awareness of the company’s products. However, formation of company includes everything from written materials or promotional material to the way it deals with customers and other constituents.

Positive company reputation among its constituents is the utmost thing that any company would like to achieve. Company reputation relates to areas such as preferred employer (Google), good corporate citizen (P&G, IBM, HP) and openness in sharing information with constituents. The corporate reputation is built usually through internal and external communication. Bad company reputation due to reasons like dishonesty in financial dealing can cause serious damage to the company both internally and externally. The best example to this could be Enron, which is facing bankruptcy and various criminal charges thus affecting company reputation badly.

In today’s scenario, all three mentioned above i.e. corporate identity, image and reputation play a very important role in making or breaking organization and companies need to give time and resources in creating and retaining it.

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