Images Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Images - Essay Example Hence, it is vital for firms to have a consistency between their channel image and their brand image (Marconi, 1996). This paper will analyze the importance of maintaining a channel image and a brand image. Firms sometimes seem to forget that customers do not think in terms of channels. Customers, owing to that, have expectations of marketers (Armstrong, 2007). However, sometimes marketers do not see these prospects. The perception of a consumer being in control goes back a number of years and the idea will probably never change. The real hurdle is how firms give them what they anticipate and make sure that they shop with them in the future. In business-to-consumer environment, firms in the past opted to eliminate middlemen. If a firm had a pleasing product and an attractive offer, then it could create a list of consumers and never assign budget to brand marketing (Gregory, 1999). That, however, is no longer the case. These days, every functional area of a company needs to serve as a middleman and offer the help that a customer requires to make a purchasing decision and become a steadfast buyer. Therefore, brand image has a significant influence on a firm’s channel performance. Also, as the article 7 rules of global distribution (2000) emphasizes, a multinational firm needs to have authority over its marketing strategy (Arnold, 2000). This will help the firm in determine the way the distributor perceives the image of their company. This, at the same time, may be damaging and favorable. In addition, a group’s notoriety may also assist in the selection of foreign partners. This is because distributing well-known products is always quite an â€Å"honor† for a partner abroad and the willing marketers are always many. Finally, a firm depends on the â€Å"win-win speculation† and so a distributor is anticipated to respect the firm’s rules before his or her own interests (Arnold, 2000). In relation to L’Oreal, the company takes