Corporate Image
So what exactly is your corporate image? It's a term that you hear thrown around a lot. "Bad step on Microsoft's part. It's really going to hurt their corporate image." Things like that. Hopefully, reading stories in the news about corporations or businesses and how their actions affect their corporate image will start you thinking about your own corporate image.
Your corporate image is how people outside of your corporation (or inside your corporation) see your company or corporation. Corporate image can thus mean a lot of things, and it doesn't just apply to corporations. Any sort of organization, like hospitals, the government, religions, non-profit organizations, charities, and universities have to know what their corporate image is, what they'd like their corporate image to be, and how to change their corporate image.
Generally speaking, your corporate image is how people see what your business stands for. It's your business' or your corporation's identity. For example, most people see oil companies as being money-grubbing, air-polluting, unfriendly companies that only want to make money. Similarly, the public usually sees tobacco companies as being family-unfriendly, kid-using, air-polluting, human-killing companies that are just out to sell their product no matter what it takes. Recently, several major tobacco companies, like Philip Morris, have made an effort to change their corporate image through carefully planned publicity and public relations campaigns.
You want your corporate image to be an image that appeals to the public. You want to spark the public's interest, and to be interested in what you have to offer. This will lead to sales and to getting more clients. If you have a negative corporate image, then you won't get sales. It's that simple. Corporate image is tied to the products that are produced by a corporation. For example, Apple produces the iPod and modern-looking computers like the i-Book, the PowerBook, etc. Consumers associate Apple with technology that's on the forefront of advancement. They also associate Apple with digital music. This particular corporate image that Apple has is making it difficult for competitors to get in on the digital music player business, even though they've been trying awfully hard.
Corporate image is, in part, something that you decide as the head of your corporation. You can launch major publicity campaigns that portray your company and your products in a certain light. When deciding on a corporate image, make sure that you don't alienate your most important customers. For example, lately Wal-mart has been trying to develop into a store that can cater to hip and up-to-date shoppers who want the latest fashions. Problem is, most of Wal-marts customers are middle-aged and older shoppers who don't want tight jeans and other fashion forward clothes. Wal-mart is alienating its shoppers who don't like their new corporate image. Wal-mart is trying to be Target, and it's not working. So decide on what your most important and core customer base is, and then decide how to attract that customer base. You can do this with the help of a public relations specialist.
The public relations specialist will also help you advance your corporate image through media that you can't necessarily control. You can run all of the ads you like, but if the news media reports that your company is different than the image you portray in your ads, then nothing matters. You have to be able to influence the news media in a proactive and friendly way. You can do this through giving interviews, sending out news releases, holding news conferences, and sending video news releases, or VNRs. A public relations specialist can help you design these products and can work as your go-between between your company and the news media.
Here are some tips about how to control your corporate image and how to work with the news media.
How to Get Free Publicity
http://101publicrelations.com/sr3.html
How to Get Free Publicity for Your Products
http://101publicrelations.com/sr3.html
How to Design a Media Kit
http://101publicrelations.com/mediakits.html
How to Build a Celebrity Image
http://101publicrelations.com/sr11.html
Publicity for Schools, Colleges, and Universities
http://101publicrelations.com/sr15.html
Hospital Public Relations
http://101publicrelations.com/hospitalpr.html
