A Mew Approach to the Corporate Image Management Process

Literature abounds on the subjects of corporate identity and corporate image. Much of this literature has been written at a fairly superficial level by executives of design and marketing communications consultancies (Anspach 1983, Chajet 1984, Couretas 1984, Diefenbach 1986, French 1981, Hamilton 1983, Yarnell 1986). On the other hand, marketing journals and texts mention image regularly, but do not cover this in detail, nor do they give management any guidelines. Organisations need to make a concerted effort to manage their corporate images. According to Gray (1986), managing the corporate image is the key to security and maintaining public trust. This is particularly relevant today because of the American public's disenchantment with business (Cochran 1984, Dickson 1984, D'Aprix 1977, Gray 1986, Keller 1985, and Pinsdorf 1987). According to Velmans (1979) the corporation needs to become more conscious of using communications to reach its objectives and needs to articulate its position more clearly to government agencies, legislator, shareholders, employees, customers, financial institutions and other critical