Marketing Corporate Image ^{2nd Ed.}

What Do Your Customers Think About Your Company? (And Are They Right?)

A company's image is perhaps its most powerful marketing asset. On the cutting edge of corporate strategy, image is essential for positioning a company for maximum growth. When finely honed and used correctly, corporate "image" can influence consumer choices, build brands, pre-sell products and services, and add value to a company in the minds of its public. Image is, after all, about perception, i.e. how your customers think and feel about your company. And what your customers think about your company deeply influences how they respond to your efforts in the marketplace.

In this book, advertising pro Jim Gregory details how any company — large or small — can best utilize image advertising. From how to articulate your corporate mission to selecting the best media to reach your target audience, from critiquing the effectiveness of your advertising materials to determining the consistency of your image advertising campaign, Jim Gregory offers a comprehensive approach to maximizing the effectiveness of the powerful marketing tool. Plus, this new edition includes tips on integrating web sites and other new media into your corporate marketing efforts, as well as all new case studies and examples of successful image advertising campaigns executed by some of the most well-known companies in the world including General Electric, GTE, Xerox and Eastman Kodak. Marketing Corporate Image, second edition, is a must-have for any professional who's concerned with effectively relaying the uniqueness of a company to its principal audience.

1. Image: Leading Edge of Corporate Strategy
• Perception Is Reality
• A Burgeoning Business
• The Mission of Image Advertising
• Three Basic Ingredients for Success
• Be Creative and Consistent
• Six Guides to Success
• "The Medium Is the Message"
2. Establishing Favorable Market Position: Building Public Awareness and Acceptance
• Creating a Sense of Unification
• The Qualities of Corporate Character
• Always Start with Research
• The Corporate Advertiser Has the Advantage
3. Redefining the Corporation: Merger, Takeover, and Other Reasons for Name Change
• Image in Corporate Takeovers
• Identity vs. Image
• Many Reasons for Changing Identity
• Navistar: An Image Change Company
• Bristol-Myers Squibb: Standard of Quality
• A Single Consistent Image
• Round-the-Clock Salesperson
4. Preselling Target Markets: Image and Brand — the Inseparable Duo
• Value-Added Strategy
• Sell the Sizzle
• When Product Image Isn't Enough
• When It's a Long Time Between Purchases
• Reaching the "New People"
• Demonstrating a Commitment
• Northwestern Mutual: "The Quiet Company"
• Three Basic Functions
• Setting the Stage for Product Advertising
5. Impacting the Financial Community: Changing Investor Expectations
• How Corporate Advertising Impacts Valuation
• What Are the Drivers of Stock Price?
• Determine the Mission and Know Your Targets
• A Winning Formula?
6. Advocacy Advertising: Presenting the Company's Position on Key Issues
• What Is Advocacy Advertising?
• Peace on Earth: Screaming and John Wayne
• Mobil Corporation: "Why Do We Buy This Space?"
• How Do You Choose Your Issue?
• Strategic Philanthropy: Logical Extensions of a Company's Business
7. Managing a Crisis: Frontline Defense When the World Falls Apart
• Reservoir of Good Will
• When — and Where — You Least Expect It
• Moving "The Rock" Ahead Again
• Six Key Steps to Crisis Management
8. Retaining Quality Employees: Using Image to Recruit and Keep the Best
• Tell Your Employees — They'll Tell Their Communities
• An Organization's Primary Target
• An Inside Job
• Let Your Image Do Your Recruiting
• Mobilize a Total Strategy
• Corporate Image Reflects Corporate Values
• Good Corporate Citizenship
• The Impact of a New Identity
• Employees Can Make Things Happen
• Employees Prefer Direct Interaction
9. On Important Reminder: We Are Not Alone
• Seven Objectives of Image Advertising
• Six Guidelines for a Successful Image Campaign
• Four Creative Steps and One Basic Rule
• Integrate Social Concerns with Economic Issues
• Speak the Local Language
• Single Unified Ad Format
• Reinvent Who You Are
• Offer Consumers Something Different
• The Right Thing to Do

1. GE: Building the Brand of the Century
2. Xerox: Finding the Soul of the Enterprise
3. Eastman Kodak: Focus on Strategy
4. National CEO Survey: "Attitudes on Corporate Advertising"
5. Corporate Identification Checklist

A very narrow book, about a current and interesting subject.