- "Corporate image" was once advertising jargon but is today a common phrase referring to a company's reputation.
- In the absence of active efforts, corporate image "simply happens": it is how a company is perceived. Management, however, may actively attempt to shape the image by communications, brand selection and promotion, use of symbols, and by publicizing its actions.
- The overall image is a composite of many thousands of impressions and facts. The major elements are
- the core business and financial performance of the company,
- the reputation and performance of its brands ("brand equity"),
- its reputation for innovation or technological progress, usually based on concrete events,
- its policies toward its salaried employees and workers,
- its external relations with customers, stockholders, and the community, and
- the perceived trends in the markets in which it operates as seen by the public.
Exercise: Caitlin Marks is the new Director of Corporate Communications at Pixkel Inc., a California-based start-up which designs chipsets for digital cameras. Read her e-mail.
Did I tell you I’m working for my uncle Bill’s firm? My job is to build a new image for Pixkel Inc. – and believe me, they sure need it! Pixkel is growing like crazy, but they’re not really making any money; there are enourmous delivery and cash-flow problems, so you can imagine they’re not winning too many friends either! Bill is an electronics wizard, but he’s pretty much hands-off (when it comes to management; he spends all his time in the lab, so everybody’s doing their own thing – talk about a mess! I can’t expect too much help from Bill, so I really need to hit the ground running (rohamtempóban, energikusan dolgozni).
Pixkel’s largely a virtual company: only the design and admin. teams actually work here in Palo Alto. Everyone else seems to be out fire fighting! I haven’t even met most of the management team yet. I set up a conf. call to get their views on the situation, and now I’m trying to work out a strategy – but I’d really appreciate bouncing some ideas off someone (to bounce ideas off somebody = to talk about your ideas with someone in order to get their opinion) I can trust. Any chance you could spare me some of your valuable time?
Listen to Caitlin’s conference call with the management team and note what is said about the issues below:
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Name
Play
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Duration
Audio-1
2.3 MB
5:07 min
What are the suggestions from the management team?
