Mapping the “roots” of the consumer's image‐in‐use of companies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421011085730 |
| Published date | 21 September 2010 |
| Pages | 423-431 |
| Date | 21 September 2010 |
| Author | Anne Rindell,Bo Edvardsson,Tore Strandvik |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Mapping the “roots” of the consumer’s
image-in-use of companies
Anne Rindell
Marketing Department, Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS), Hanken School of Economics,
Helsinki, Finland
Bo Edvardsson
Service Research Centre (CTF), Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden, and
Tore Strandvik
Marketing Department, Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS), Hanken School of Economics,
Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a tool for mapping how consumers’ past experiences influence the consumer’s present corporate
brand image.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was used for analysing in-depth conversational interviews collected on three IKEA markets
(Sweden, Finland, and Germany).
Findings – The study shows that the tool gives an understanding of how past and present brand experiences are inter-dependent.
Practical implications – The paper gives management an insight into consumers’ perspectives of their corporate brand.
Originality/value – The value of the paper is that it offers a practical tool for mapping the roots of companies’ current corporate brand images.
Keywords Corporate branding, Brand image, Corporate image
Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
For managers it is important to know how consumers and
customers view their corporate image. The most common
method is to collect data describing the image in terms of
current customer perceptions, but usually without an
understanding of the underlying reasons for these
perceptions. A better knowledge of the reasons behind
individual consumers’ and customers’ perceptions would
enable companies to develop products, services and
marketing communication more efficiently. A number of
recent studies have argued for the necessity of understanding
the consumer’s point of view within research in service
(Gro¨nroos, 2007), retailing (Puccinelli et al., 2009),
advertising (Aitken et al., 2008), and branding (Uncles,
2008). One approach to deeper understanding is to let
consumers freely express themselves in order to capture what
they reveal about the corporate brand and about their
corporate brand relationships (Fournier, 1998, Braun-La
Tour et al., 2007, Rindell, 2007). In relationships, the time
dimension, and the fact that relationships may change over
time are of importance (Ritter and Gemu
¨nden, 2003).
Following Rindell (2007) this paper focuses on how
consumers’ earlier experiences over time influence their
current brand image of a company.
There are a number of tools to describe current corporate
image but there is a scarcity of methods to capture the “roots”
of an image from the customer’s perspective. To clarify the
time dimension, Rindell (2007) proposed two new concepts
for capturing future, present and past stages in consumers’
corporate image construction processes:
1 image-in-use; and
2 image heritage.
Image-in-use represents the consumer’s current image of the
company that is activated. It is the result of an image
construction process in which past, present and future merge.
Image-in-use may be activated in different situations, for
example when exposed to brand communication, in service
interactions or in discussions with friends. However, the
consumer constructs his/her image of the company based on
his/her personal framework, which has been built over time in
contact with a multiplicity of sources (Rindell, 2007). Image
heritage refers to significant past experiences, i.e. those
original images and associations that influence the image
construction process in the present. Image heritage is defined
as the individual consumer’s mental network of past
individual and/or social experiences over time related to the
company (Rindell, 2007). The importance of this view has
also been pointed out by other researchers. For example, “the
metaphor of the unchanging photograph is not anymore
accurate as memories do not simply record consumers’ past;
they link the past, present and future” (Zaltman, 2003, p. 186)
and “much of what we take for granted as ‘the way the world
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
19/6 (2010) 423–431
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610421011085730]
423
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