What is your corporate image?

Halloween is upon us once again, and just as children roam the streets in masks and makeup, businesses “dress up,” as well. Through marketing, advertising and media relations, companies look to project an image of what they can offer customers and what makes them the best in their industries. However, the image a company tries to put forth and the reality can be two different things. When a potential customer opens the door for you, will it be a trick or a treat?

Corporate image specialists say reflecting the reality of your business and its strengths requires a long, hard look in the mirror to find which features appeal most to customers. It also takes more than just hanging a shingle and waiting for customers to find you.

Looking in the Mirror
Roger Roeser, president of Kentucky-based consulting firm Eisen Management Group, says companies should avoid running to an outside resource before making absolutely certain they understand exactly what they want customers to know about them, and that it’s the truth. “The most foolish thing you can do is listen to some PR flack,” he says. “If you don’t have the brand and what your organization stands for up front and that’s being fulfilled at every level of the organization, from the dishwasher to the CEO, no PR or advertising is going to do a lick of good.”

Ideally, the best time to get started on this process is right now, according to Gregg Feistman, who teaches a class on reputation management at Temple University in Philadelphia. “Where this tends to come up a lot is in crisis communications, but in my opinion the time to start working on image management is long before you have the crisis,” he says. “It really needs to start from day one, and it really has to start at the top of the organization.”

Roeser says the best source for information about what kind of a company you are is, not surprisingly, your customers. He suggests polling them to see your company through “the prism of how customers perceive you” because “perceptions are reality.”

“People aren’t shy; they’ll tell you what they think,” Feistman agrees.

Feistman adds that companies should not forget to include employees in the initial research. “It all starts with research,” he says. “You have to find out what your audiences think of you, and that includes your internal audience.”

“I am utterly dumbfounded by how many small businesses don’t survey their customers,” Roeser says. “You should do it every six months.” Once you have a good idea of what your customers think of your company, turn your attention to your competitors.

Feistman says companies need to be aware of the drivers of reputation, which include visibility, being distinctive, authenticity and consistency. “If you start out doing all these great things ... and you start going away from that, that can hurt your reputation,” he says.

Public Relations
Once a company understands who it is and what it does through the perceptions of its customers and has compared itself to competitors, all that remains is to get the company’s name out. Advertising and marketing are certainly ways to do this, but those methods lack a connection to the customer, as well as being expensive, according to Brian Pia, senior vice president and director of Luckie Strategic Public Relations in Birmingham, Ala.

“I would say all companies can benefit from public relations and comprehensive PR programs,” he says. “It is less expensive than advertising, it is more effective than advertising and it is a great way of telling your story in the most cost-efficient and effective manner.

“A [full-page] ad in the New York Times costs [approximately] $100,000, whereas a CEO can talk to one reporter and that story can be published and then syndicated and it can literally reach into hundreds of papers across the country,” Pia continues. He suggests hiring a PR firm that is composed of former journalists rather than publicists.

“There’s a big difference between the two,” he says. “[Journalists] understand the news business, they understand what is news and what isn’t news.” Pia says executives should pay attention to newspapers and television news to see why certain stories get coverage. “There’s something compelling in there that made it news, and that requires a lot of analysis,” he says.

Roeser says executives can generate publicity and polish their companies’ images by making themselves available as experts for the media. Donating products and services can also increase visibility in the community and generate goodwill. “Suppose you’re a florist, and your flowers are reaching the end of the cycle; take them to the nursing home [or] take them to restaurants,” he says.

Such efforts should be aimed at connecting the company’s brand with positive impressions as well as with the products. “Don’t sponsor the local little league team just because you can,” Roeser says.

Above all else, Feistman says, solid marketing and PR efforts should support the company’s actions, not take the place of them. If they do provide support, then a company can find and not disappoint customers. “Reputation isn’t about what you say, it’s about what you do – you have to walk the walk,” he says.