MIT Sloan Management Review

Marketing

A Framework for Marketing Image Management

By Howard Barich and Philip Kotler

January 15, 1991

MANAGERS KNOW that the customer's impression of an organization is important. And sometimes companies attempt to determine just what that impression is. They conduct ad hoc surveys and focus groups. But too often the data is insubstantial, or difficult to analyze, or even inaccurate. Barich and Kotler introduce the concept of “marketing image” and describe a system of image management: designing a study, collecting data, analyzing image problems, modifying the image, and tracking responses to that image. They argue that only a systematic approach will yield useful and accurate information that a company can translate into action. Huward Barich is Program Manager of Market and Image Studies at IBM in White Plains, New York. Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

Buy article & permissions

AS MARKETS GROW more competitive, companies need to improve their understanding of their target customers’ needs, attitudes, and buying behavior. They must design their offers and their images to be competitively attractive. The target customers carry images in their heads about each supplier’s product quality, service quality, prices, and so on. The images are not always accurate, but nevertheless they influence supplier selection.

Suppliers sometimes attempt to measure their image among target customers. A manufacturer of stereo components, for instance, found its share slipping. The president commissioned an image study to learn how his company was perceived relative to its two main competitors. The president thought that the company would rate higher than its two competitors on product quality and customer service. In fact, his company ran a weak third. His first reaction was to attack the image study as flawed. But when he looked at several of the transcribed statements from customers, he began to realize that he was not seeing his own company the way the customers were seeing it.

Although many companies commission an occasional image study, few do it systematically and on a regular basis. We would argue that companies should design and operate an image tracking and management system, which we define as follows: a system of periodically collecting, analyzing, and acting on information that describes how different publics view key... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.

From The Magazine

Fall 2009

Special Report: Sustainability

8 Reasons That Sustainability Will Change Management

Michael S. Hopkins

Transparency, accidental innovation, trust, collaboration — as sustainability affects how the world works, so will it affect how business works in the world.

Intelligence: Management

Debunking Management Myths

Martha E. Mangelsdorf

In this interview, Henry Mintzberg questions some of the conventional wisdom about managerial work.