The Importance of Maintaining Your Brand Image

One of the most important aspects of public relations is brand image. Brand image refers to the perception an audience has of a particular brand. With brand image, one is essentially building their credibility and trustworthiness with an audience. Everyone and everything has a brand. When you think of a certain person or company, they have an established set of ideas, beliefs and concepts that come to mind.

For example, Taylor Swift is one of the most popular musicians today. She is well-known for her singing and songwriting abilities and has created a significantly strong fan base over the years. Another popular musician in the music industry is Cardi B. Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers who is known for her energetic and lively personality. I bring these two artists up because they both have established a secure brand image for themselves that are quite different from each other. Taylor Swift could probably never get away with things that Cardi B says because of how different their audiences and brand image are.

Brand image is important for numerous reasons. As mentioned earlier, brand image builds trust and credibility among your audience. When people find a person they can trust, they are more open to engaging with that person or company. Brand image can also help mitigate the severity of a crisis if one were to happen. Having a strong brand image can help someone ease some of the damage done while trying to maintain their reputation.

Protesters taking a stand against Chick-fil-A Chief Executive Dan Cathy’s anti-gay marriage comments.  (Photo from NPR)

Chick-fil-A is a well-known fast food chain that essentially ruined their brand image when news broke out that the company donated to anti-LGBTQ organizations and how their former Chief Executive, Dan Cathy, spoke out against gay marriage. I know several people who refuse to eat at Chick-fil-A because of their homophobic ideals. Kayne West is another example of how ruining your brand image can affect your whole career. Last year, West was trending on social media for his anti-Semitic comments. Many people didn’t take these comments lightly and the damage to his reputation was far from solvable. Many companies that were in partnership with West decided to end their business dealings because of his remarks. Some of these companies included Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, JP Morgan Chase, Footlocker and more.

The way you build a brand image for yourself or a company is incredibly important. You want to create an image that presents reliability and trust. Brand image will remain one of the key aspects of public relations; therefore it is vital that people know of its importance.