The impact of company image on corporate reputation

At first glance, corporate image and corporate reputation may seem synonymous. There is a clear similarity between the two: the image and reputation of your company are important subjective ideas that not only affect the way people perceive your business, but also how they do business with you and if they do business with you.

But there are important differences between the two. Your company image represents a specific idea of ​​the company’s products and how people feel. The image of the company is established based on accepted impressions or ideas, without involving the research, considerations and knowledge that are the basis of the company’s online reputation management.

Your company’s reputation is a broader concept that includes the perception of the company’s products and services, how the company and its leadership function as a whole, and how the company treats customers, employees, communities, and the environment. Corporate reputation can affect any potential customer or stakeholder, and corporate image can vary between different types of customers.

In the research of distinguishing the different roles played by the image and the reputation of the company, Cretu and Brodie pointed out that “the brand image has a more specific impact on the perceptions of the clients about the quality of the product and the service, while that the reputation of a company is broader to better understand how different the image and reputation of the company are, let’s move on to the Keds case study.

Shoemaker Keds started making shoes in 1916 and created the first mass-sold athletic shoe. Over the years, it has become a sports culture, fashion -hop. The main content of culture, punk culture and pop culture. Marylin Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Katharine Hepburn and all the cheerleaders wear these sneakers.

The heyday of the brand was in the 1980s, and all the dirty dances took place on Keds. His popularity disappeared with the fish of the 80s, the neon color and the big hair. Keds’ corporate reputation is intact, but its image has become outdated. They still make the same shoes, but Keds are no longer a cool kid’s fashion staple, but it quickly becomes irrelevant.

In 2016, Keds launched a campaign to celebrate the brand’s long history of standing up for strong women. Taylor Swift, the Marylin Monroe of this era, launched her own line of footwear, further cementing Keds’ recognition of relevance. These efforts paid off. Keds facelift earnings and income are higher than before.

The case study also highlights the difference between image and reputation. Kadesh’s reputation has hardly changed, but his image has not changed. In fact, the makeover is accompanied by other decisions that can be seen as a positive impact on the reputation of the company: they moved the manufacturing operations to the United States and launched a production line for mechanical footwear.