Image is the outside world's idea of the company and what it stands for. This idea that form the image is a result of all the contacts that the individual has had with the organization / company. Branding is about establishing the company in a market, creating an image that is favorable to the company (Olins, 1989).
Industrial Designers forming company’s image.
In the work of the company image, the industrial designer is becoming an increasingly important factor, as the well-known Swedish brand and identity consultant Carlberg put it in a newspaper interview in 1998.
“Capitalism has reached a point where automation, globalization and highly driven technological development tend to align products. All cars are equally good, all mobile phones equally small. In that situation, the strength of the brand becomes crucial. That is why big companies like Nike and Levis basically only consist of marketers, designers, and other brand builders. The main characteristics of the brand are often focused on the design and the design therefore often functions as the hub of the company.”
The most effective way to get answers to what the market thinks about the company is through different types of surveys. Try to get answers to what people in general associate the company and its products with.
There can be different core values in the form of e.g., verb.
Values create a good image for the company.
When you have succeeded in creating a good image for the company, there are several advantages available in contrast to companies that do not have the same good image. This applies on several levels, in marketing and in the construction of customer loyalty and the attraction value for people who want to work at the company. When it comes to marketing, you have a much greater opportunity to get a hearing for your marketing activities from the target group you are investing in.
With a good image, you have a much greater opportunity to get famous people to participate in various events and to participate in advertising so that you can further position your company and further strengthen the company's image through these individuals. Another important point is that the company's market value increases markedly and if the company is a limited company, the share value increases in connection with the company's image increasing and improving. The latter is an important point in creating a good image. Through a good image, there is a greater probability that employees with high professional competence and consistently higher motivation and competence, in contrast to a company that is not at all well known among the large mass of individuals.
The better the image the company manages to build around its own company as well as for the company's products and services, the greater the probability that you will get loyal customers. With loyal customers, the company's ability to market itself on several levels increases, e.g., via "word of mouth" [develop further].
If we look back at the chapter "Identity-creating symbols & brands", we see what things different groups of recipients appeal to and what they want for a company's image to fit their own identity-creating work and thereby their own Image.
Loyalty relationship between attitude and behavior
Loyalty as a mental condition, which leads to a certain behavior, is the approach within the research world that has gained the most attention. It probably has to do with the fact that such an approach is so close to the everyday meaning of the word "loyalty". Dick and Basu (1994) argue that it is problematic to regard loyalty as a purely psychological, or mental, concept, as it does not differ sufficiently from "attitudes".
If loyalty is considered an attitude-like mental phenomenon, it also implies that the actual behavior does not form part of the phenomenon. Their solution, which is illustrated in the picture below, instead shows seeing "loyalty" as the strength in the connection between relative attitudes and behavior. You are only truly loyal when you show both loyal behavior and a high relative, or loyal attitude. Loyal behavior that is not linked to a loyal attitude corresponds to false loyalty, while a loyal attitude that is not reflected in loyal behavior implies latent loyalty.
What makes it an extremely interesting reasoning in terms of the company's image is that in the model's points there are relative attitudes, that is, it is not only what you think about a particular product or service provider that is important, but you must weigh in. how customers evaluate their own attitude towards an offer in relation to what competing companies have to offer.
Group affiliation as a mental phenomenon
If the company builds up a need among consumers regarding, for example, group affiliation, that it considers itself to belong to the image the company has managed to build around its own product or service, there are greater opportunities to get customers with both high relative attitudes and behavioral loyalty.
Group loyalty in Android users versus iOS users.
Josh Lowitz, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP (2019) says Android user loyalty now slightly exceeds that of iOS users. Over time, Android loyalty gradually increased, as it achieved parity in availability of apps, music, and video, and as the user experience on the two platforms became more similar. Android users also benefit from a wide range of phones from different manufacturers, so they can switch hardware without learning a new operating system.
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