Much of what we do at Glide is about building a positive identity for your organisation. We work directly with image via promotions and branding, but we are far more focused on the reality of who you are and how you interact with clients. Here's why.

Purchase choices are mediated by an image of the vendor that every shopper carries in their head.

This image can be richly detailed and multi-faceted or it can be so devoid of information it is a basically a "default setting" that is probably mildly negative. It can be entrenched over years or created on the spot.

Conventional marketing seeks to manipulate this image, to turn it into a brand that so changes the perception of the product or service that it ads value to it. When people taste Coke in labelled and "blind" containers they invariably rate the branded drink as much better-tasting.

Unfortunately, marketing often forgets that there is a connect between image and reality.

When people actually buy and thus experience and product or service, they modify their image of it according to what actually happens.

They modify again if they hear something about the product or service from a friend or via a purportedly non-promotional channel (such as Facebook).

Of these three things:

• What advertisers say
• What customers experience
• What others say

The spruiking of advertisements is by far the least powerful determinant of image. Real experience count most, followed very closely by word of mouth.

That's why the banks can spend any amount of your fees telling you what good guys they are and you'll still hat them; most of your opinion is formed by what happens when you interact with them and by the horror stories others tell.

You can read more about this including the concepts of 360º branding and branding integrity in our professional article, Who are you?

To read about positive steps you can take to build an effective image click here.

Or you can call us direct to talk about taking control of who your organisation is and how that delivers real brand value to your clients.