EFFICIENT CORPORATE IMAGE MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGY FOR ENHANCING PROFITABILITY

1.1 Introduction

Corporate image primarily refers to the way any given company is presenting itself to the community and the other stakeholders at large. Corporate image is a primary role played by the corporate communications department. Corporate image widely covers the need of the company to do and conduct itself as expected. The company’s corporate image, defines what the company is to the public and this determines its missions, professionalism, employee competence and its role in the market environment as well as the company’s role in the country’s political landscape. Corporate image is crucial for the long-term liability of any organization and the organization’s ability to sustain service, quality, price and supplies. The firm’s management is highly emphasizing on various issues of financial ratio analysis with all externals employed in examining the organization to negotiate efficiently for more funds (Rehman and Palazzo, 2016).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

A corporate image management presents a practice which need to be included as part of the strategic preferences at the base of the business organization and need to be structured as per the organization’s managerial entity inclusion of marketing, HR, financial and production (Nakra, 2016). Every aspect of business and industry is undergoing rapid change in terms of philosophy and technology and there is more rapidly changing function of corporate management to public attitudes and reaction. In the same vein, the corporate image of any organization has to be steer to change to correspond in response to the demands of its ever changing business public, marketing them aggressively, paying fair wages to the employees, and even paying taxes, etc. is not just enough to maintain to competitive edge. There is now economic and social responsibility that faces every business.

Graham (2015) articulated that a corporate image as a summary of perceptions that external stakeholder hold. The company’s external stakeholders, a core emphasis is placed on clients so that the image is defined by not what the firm believes, but what clients feel concerning from their observations and experiences.

According to Majid, (2016), he articulated that the firm’s image entails the feelings clients have concerning the underlying reality of the firm. Stakeholders always seek cues in their correlation in guiding them toward behavior that gains social acceptance. Based on the relationship emphasize, the major issues that faces organizations currently is the manner in which they gain an advantage over rivals in satisfying client needs.

Corporate image primarily refers to the way any given company is presenting itself to the community and the other stakeholders at large. Corporate image is a primary role played by the corporate communications department. Corporate image widely covers the need of the company to do and conduct itself as expected. The company’ corporate image, defines what the company is to the public and this determines its missions, professionalism, employee competence and its role in the market environment as well as the company’s role in the country’s political landscape.

Corporate image tends to reflect the firm’s commitment to its staffs, clients and rivals its partners and the general public. The image does deserve the attention from the senior managerial bodies and marketing professionals with the objective of building it into a favourable representation of the entire organization (Kristie Lorette).

Friedman (2015) states that business is always viewed as strategies to developing economic value for investors in the business. Greenwood, (2015) on the other hand, provides that other than economic value and social issues like life quality and environmental conservation they are increasingly being crucial Shaw & Barry, (2015) to organizations and thus need for companies to give priority to corporate image management in all departments.

Corporate image forms one of the key marketing tools. The concepts have been highly grounded on the assumption that customers always purchase brand products not only based on the inherent feature quality but also because of a perceived bias Graham, (2015). Individuals will always develop attitudes on a company and view it to contain various features, some of which they admire. However, some can view the same company in different ways, viewing the company to have negative features MacMillan, (2015). The corporate image has positively enhanced the growth of firms. In case sales are effectively enhanced by favorable image than they are impeded by a negative image is a subject for consideration, however there exist responsible grounds for believing the effect of the negative image Barbara, (2016).

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Efficient Corporate Image Management as a Strategy for Enhancing Profitability.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the issues can make it hard in predicting crises, that can affect even the most carefully established corporate image even affecting the firm performance and more specifically level of profitability (Raman et al., 2012). Adequate emphasis has not been laid by firms in terms of promoting a favourable corporate image and this attitude has affected their performance in the market. The environment in which business operate is in constant change and it constitutes an important factor in that, it affects management decisions and actions. For any business, two types of environment exist.

The operating environment, which may be classified with comprises economic, social, political cultural, government, technological, while internal forces comprises the top management employee, task forces and public environment which is made up of the firms several public. For an organization to remain in business, it has to help to shape its environment because of the rapid change that the organization’s operating environment undergoes. Apart from the influence of the environment, the image of the firm is another factor that requires consideration.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Efficient Corporate Image Management as a Strategy for Enhancing Profitability using Phinomar Nigeria Limited, Ngwo in Enugu as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To ascertain if the company has department responsible for creating image for the company;
2. To find out if Phinomar Nigeria Limited attaches importance to corporate image promotion;
3. To identify the strategies they adopt to promote corporate image;
4. To find out the method used in maintaining good corporate image; and
5. To determine to what extent has the image of the company contributed to the profitability of the firm.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Has the image of Phinomar Nigeria Limited contributed to the organization profitability?
• Does Phinomar Nigeria Limited attach importance to corporate image promotion?
• Do they have department responsible for creating image for the organization?
• Does their corporate image show them their management is progressive?
• Does corporate image of Phinomar Nigeria Limited Ngwo more than a product of public relations?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Customers response to Phinomar products is not high.
• H1: Customers response to Phinomar products is high.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Corporate image of Phinomar Nigeria Limited Ngwo is not more than a product of public relation.
• H1: Corporate image of Phinomar Nigeria Limited Ngwo is more than a product of public relation.

1.7 Significance of Study

The relevance of the study will be beneficial to the following stakeholders:

1. Organisation: Effective corporate image planning help the organization in restructuring the organization through innovation, job restructuring.
2. Management: It goes a long way to moulding the management and directing them on the way forward especially in environment of change corporate planning is the only way out by management by viewing planning as a unified wholes.
3. Customer: This will enable these organizations to satisfy the customers with profit.
4. Social Responsibilities: The management of the two organizations for their shareholders, the immediate environment, the government the staffs, the suppliers and customers. Good corporate image is out, if properly managed to help in expediting the above responsibilities profitably.
5. Decision Making: An organization without decision making is as good as no organization was formed, so effective corporate image is responsible for beautifying the decision making.
6. Management by objective: Effective corporate image will enhance profitability of workers are allowed to make personal plans, and because of the time allowed for planning whole effective corporate image provides thereby enhancing profitability.
7. Analysis of Risk and Sensitivity: corporate planning is to total forecast of future, present and past events which allow for minimization of risk and sensitivity of uncertainty in the organizations performance.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Efficient Corporate Image Management as a Strategy for Enhancing Profitability using Phinomar Nigeria Limited, Ngwo in Enugu as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

Corporate Image: This is the sum total of all impression of the firm in the public.

Profitability: This is the ability of a business enterprise to make profit, revenue or surpluses at the end of the financial year.