The public image has become a key concept for communication performance of institutions, people, products and services to countries that compete in public for a place in the public mind, citizens, consumers and investors and diplomats. So the topic is of vital importance, as evidenced by the interest that in one way or another has had throughout history. "Caesar's wife must not only be honest but it has to look" a phrase uttered by Julius Caesar on account of marital infidelity, of course, before Caesar, is but a fortunate phrase that sums up the problem: Image is what corresponds to objectively reality, but also what is transmitted or what is seems.
Until well into the twentieth century, we can say that in terms of public opinion, the image is equivalent to the view, not in the Platonic sense, but as reputation, appreciation and general consideration of others, meaning that crystallizes with Locke and the three laws governing the actions of men, divine law, civil law and law of opinion or reputation.
The first modern treatise on the public image is written by Machiavelli, to establish the general principle that the prince has to think about avoiding anything that you can make obnoxious or despicable. This is what in modern parlance is called to create image, say Santaella. It is not necessary to have all the qualities that the author mentions the Florentine, but must appear to possess them. The image is formed substantially by the outward appearance, which is constituted by all means any action, gesture or expression, the symbols used, the actions implemented in the public and private, contribute to forming a particular image of public man.
The good image is created keeping the same courage and dignity in all circumstances favorable or not. In the urban space, people form public images of people and things, as noted at the outset. And Walter Lippmann said that what man does not based on direct knowledge and safe, but images made by him or that have been provided. As
Valls says, there are two meanings of the term generic image: one conceives and gives off a perceptible external phenomenon, an objective fact, the other is shown as a representation of the issuer. Faced with the production and mechanical reproduction of iconic messages such as photography, video and film adds an intentionality. A little theory
Costa has done in our opinion the best theoretical study on the public image, centered on the topic pertains to corporations. Consciousness is a field depository uncertain memories, memory waste is the material of personal culture and elements that are used, consciously or not, to learn, understand, evaluate, reason and act in daily life, with the particularity that are updated, displayed and disappear in consciousness, arising spontaneously, voluntarily or raised from outside by outside stimuli. Such materials are imaginary representations that are designated by the word image, and as such, these products of the mind are both short and representations, as concentrations of sensations, perceptions, experiences and experiences synthesized. This material
of consciousness can be considered as consisting of two categories. The first images that pertain to privacy, the personal and exclusive to the privacy of each. The second, the images that we share with others within the social, public matters that concern us in any way at all as public citizens or consumers. Images of mind can be categorized as private or public, are two dimensions of the individual and social. For Costa, "the image of a company or institution, or a political party or a public figure, is, implicitly, an image 'public'."
The public image is not an object or thing material found in space but a mental representation, an imaginary phenomenon. Outside the public in a community, there are public images. The term image splits into two fundamental aspects subsidiary of icon and image. Therefore, we must identify two large semantic regions "in which the term is moved: the region of visual perception and its neurophysiological mechanisms and the region of memory and imagination and psychological mechanisms. In the internal-external field is the term image by designating three distinct categories of things: a.
Retinal images, which are functions of the system perceptive
b. The iconic images of the environment, messages produced by human beings by technical means;
c. Mental images, produced by the brain and retained by neurons.
According to Costa, they can recognize components of imago, the third category, three types of productions:
1. mental images that come from visual things, ie things of reality directly perceived and experienced and retained in visual memory;
images from purely visual things, like memories, personal experiences, we can produce emotions experienced in memory: scenarios, people, events, facts and life events;
mental images that come from ideas in the field of creativity, imaginary as project construction, anticipated or expected.
mental images are generated largely as a result of visual perception-what we see in reality and image of reality-and especially the feelings and experiences. The public image reaches a certain degree of stability to products, institutions and corporations, but in the field of public leaders, especially political activity, the degree of variability seems larger, as we have shown in other work to make the tracking of leaders considered positive and negative.
FIRST APPROACH: IMAGE WHICH MEANS TRANSMITTING
A first study of public image, not well considered and developed in Venezuela, is to investigate what the image transmitted by the media. Type of study is a far from negligible. We note that in a study conducted to assess the image conveyed by the newspapers of Irene Saez, Hugo Chavez and Mario cob, we see clearly how the case of the then mayor, had a clear negative trend of a newspaper, which later changed to positive, we can not claim to have been the result of a content analysis that lead to the respective communications policy to this medium to improve the situation, but it is very likely to have been well.
content analysis of media is very important because in some cases, the media are fundamental to shaping the public image, notably in the case of people with public visibility. According to Krippendorff points out, many content analysis focuses on an entity, person, idea or special events, seeking out what is the symbolic image, thus, referred inquiries about the "image of the teacher," reflects the way in which sex women in films directed by women, "describes how States United in the Venezuelan newspapers "or" image conveyed by television in the President. "There are two approaches to this type of analysis: 1. The focus on attributes, frequency profiles, distributional properties, 2. The focus on partnerships.
If you study the image of a presidential candidate by focusing on attribution, the content analyst record, tabulate and calculate everything that corresponds to the candidate, what is said about him, the characteristics attributed to him and by whom , what the candidate said, the people associated with it. From the standpoint of conferring, the image of something is the systematic representation all that are known, or is said to own it. For example, documents in relation to the candidate can register taking into account the presence or absence of: 1. personality traits favorable or unfavorable, 2. background as a politician or government official, attitudes expressed about, for example, labor legislation or social care. The analysis of the uniqueness of an image, Krippendorff argues, requires making comparisons, in this case, the other candidates.
From the standpoint of association, the image consists of everything which is associated with the exclusion of all that of which is coupled, with this concept of association / dissociation of a statistical nature which assesses the degree to which concepts are selected. The image of a candidate is thus considered a cluster partnership of which that person is a part, be compared with the clusters of other candidates.
content analysis provides, as we know, many possibilities, being a research methodology is extremely important when investigating the public image of individuals and certain institutions.
Early approaches: association with traits, characteristics or attributes
quantitative approach can be said to derive more complex statistical procedures, the association with traits, characteristics or attributes is the most immediate approach to the issue of measuring the public image, understanding this widespread cliché image in the public space, so we included in this generic political image, corporate image, image brand and product image, among others.
The first option is to ask the question open. This method can be used in qualitative studies, we tried separately or at the polls when we make the first approach to the problem. Using the technique of "free choice" to interview questions are formulated in order to give their opinions visions of candidates for public office. For example:
"Now I ask him about good and bad things you see on the candidates for president. Is there anything in particular that is _________________ that it could vote against him? What? Is there anything in particular tiene________________ that could lead to vote for him? "What?"
The most used is to formulate questions in a multiple choice selection or to associate the object with certain traits, skills and desirable features. For example, the Opinion Research Corporation describes his system for measuring corporate image as a list of formulations, both favorable and unfavorable, from the which the respondent chooses those which it considers more responsive to ideas or impressions we have of the company, being free to choose as many as you like, so the tendency is to choose those issues that the respondents considered the main features of the company. The formulations include various dimensions of corporate image and reputation of their products, customer relations, corporate leadership, civic responsibility, etc. The attributes the respondent and the results are presented as a percentage of respondents who chose each formulation as property of the company's profile in comparison with other companies. A list of formulations used in research is:
* Its products are leaders in their field.
* Their products are real value for money.
* does justice to the complaints of customers.
* Honored in the direction of your business.
* You can believe their ads.
* One of the most concerned by the investigation.
* Maintain a high level of security.
* A good company to work with.
* Negotiate fairly with the unions.
* One of the best of which own shares.
* A company that operates internationally.
* Too big for the good of the country.
* Gets excessive profits.
* Your prices are too high. * You have too many conflicts
labor.
* Not quite concerned by the major social problems. * A company
traditional and backward.
As mentioned, you can use the forced choice option from a list. Has also been used classification, defined by the selection of greater or lesser degree of the attributes, characteristics or traits that apply to the measurement object. This has been done with products, services and candidates. Respondents were classified a presidential candidate on a list of statements, attributes and qualities marking, as a graduate, what elements are most characteristic and the least characteristic. You can also proceed in reverse, this is, to present the list of attributes and ask which one candidate (or what is being measured) is applied to the attribute. Still, you can place the list of attributes to measure and ask the interviewee to express if that attribute is what the candidate (or the object of measurement) a lot, somewhat, little or nothing.
has been used, including the rating of 1 to 20, and at school. He once did a study of the image of President and his ministers among journalists and design the questions so that each journalist qualify the Minister concerned in its management "of 1 to 20, and at school."
THE IDEAL AND THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL
The use of differential semantics has emerged as a powerful tool to measure public image. Usually it is used in conjunction with the concept of the ideal. The ideal concept is based on the assumption that there is in the spirit of each member of the public or audience, elector or a profile of the average consumer, business, product or ideal candidate, and that the alternative of individual moves towards that of the actual measurement objects in its collection, is closer to the ideal.
The semantic differential has been used broadly, especially and specifically to evaluate images of organizations, products, and candidates for public office or the impact of communications on these images. Calls respondents to classify each object to be measured according to various rating scales of five or seven points topped at each end by polar adjectives or phrases or antonyms. Monopolar scales can be used as sweet-not sweet, but much use of bipolar scales such as sweet-salty, for example. In each case, the respondent selects the point on the scale that approaches the ends in so far as has much of the word or phrase, and so on, until the halfway point indicating neutrality, "neither-nor" .
following steps are followed:
1. are carefully chosen pairs of adjectives or phrases that have meaning in the field being studied and the corresponding attributes or characteristics of the product / service / company / candidate;
2. rotate the adjectives or phrases sometimes positive-negative on the left and other right to avoid the halo effect;
3. is treated as an interval scale to extract the average of the scores and get the chart.
As an example of the importance of semantic differential is worth quoting McGinnis, in his famous book 'How to sell a president': (1)
John Maddox said he had toured the country urging people to assess the presidential candidates on a scale of 1 to 7, and also asking evaluate the ideal qualities a president should possess. If you thought that Humphrey, for example, was very generous should award it a seven on the line of mean-generous ... Maddox had outlined what he called President Ideal Curve, which was the line connecting the points representing the average score in each category, by reference to the ideal ... The gaps between line and line Ideal Nixon represented the personality traits that Nixon would try to improve by all means.
The result, with proper precautions to attribute success solely to this, was largely favorable. The terrible image of Nixon, the man defeated by Kennedy and the remember the famous TV-debate- the politician had not even been able to reach the California state government, was installed as tenant of the White House.
THE IMAGE POSITIONING AND FACTORIAL ANALYSIS
According to Aaker and Myers point out, the term positioning has begun to be used frequently to mean image, except that it implies a frame of reference for the image based on competition as a benchmark. With regard to public image, one must understand that objects can be seen at various levels of an organization: the firm as such, their products, their brands and that an image can be associated with each and every one can be positioned with for alternatives competitive. If a bank is trying to position as smaller and affable leader in deposits, places greater emphasis on its image defined in the context of an attribute (kindness) and a competitor (the leader in deposits). That context is usually implicit when using the term position rather than image. Clearly
positioning can be deliberately sought, as is implicit in the example above. But in regard to the essential purpose of this article, we refer more to the position resulting not only from a deliberate message, but all the factors that contribute in shaping the image public, which in the case of corporations, Costa has been divided into direct action or interaction (what the company does, products, services, performances, events, etc .-, how does "quality, style, corporate personality," what appears to do, "contradictions between the first and the second-, making involuntary acts without knowing it-) and indirect action or communication (which says explicitly, advertising, information, speakers, etc .- This unspoken connotations or not predictable, aesthetic values, "which suggests" reading between the lines, misunderstandings, ambiguities, "what is not said and should say" disinformation-). Not to have what others say about her (news, rumors, opinions of others) and personal experience with the products and services. This scheme that we adapted to other work in the field of public leadership in any case we refer to indicate the multiplicity of variables that can form a positioning and public image. As noted by Abascal and Grande, image is the result of considering not only the qualities or attributes, tangible or identifiable. Also influence their perception beliefs, attitudes, roles and previous experiences that individuals have about brands, products, services, candidates and even countries.
The imaging and positioning, which will combine traditional descriptive analysis and principal component analysis or correspondence, plus others, such as multidimensional scaling and automatic classification, pursue, according Abascal and Grande, the following objectives:
1. evaluate the spontaneous or assisted visibility of products, brands, institutions or people, because as I pointed Lindon, the first step to fame is the public image;
2. know the attributes and characteristics that define the image and are important to consumers / public / voters, both positive and negative terms, with such features tangible, symbolic or social
3. find distinguishing features in the images received and the relative position of the company, brand, product or candidate relevant attributes;
4. determine the best location for the product or brand, that is, the imaging study should not be absolute but relative, as people may very well evaluate an attribute, but the opinion does not necessarily imply a competitive advantage, it also competitors may possess.
By multivariate analysis is possible to construct maps to assess the situation regarding the products, candidates, companies, etc. In respect of others with regard to their essential attributes, thus makes it easy to modify, discard, segmentation, knowledge of the aspirations of the people, etc. The correspondence analysis is at the same level of features and objects, highlighting each object (brand, candidates, institutes, etc.) Features that stand out in it and the objects that score high on this attribute. The principal component analysis, the position of measurement objects indicate whether it has the characteristics that are studied in greater or lesser extent than the average.
In this plane one can study the relative positions of the cars and their relation to the attributes. The reading level is complemented by the study of absolute and relative contributions of the variables in the formation of the axes.
qualitative research to study the public image
Qualitative research can also be used to study the public image. In imaging studies, qualitative methodology is most often used the focus group. There is no precise definition of the focus group interview, because, as Pope, the term describes a general procedure, not a specific technique. However, the focus group usually comprises six to ten people recruited so as to meet predetermined characteristics (age, use of a product layer social, etc.) The dynamics is usually done in a relaxed atmosphere and informal style conference room or room of the receipt of a home, to encourage participation in the conversation, it usually lasting one to two hours and led by experienced facilitators working according to a schedule of topics for discussion. In the country there are specialized companies and market research in this exciting area and also devoted to quantitative studies have been incorporating technology. Can be combined with projective techniques and depth interviews and generally provides information on issues such as: 1. background information on a particular field which do not have any knowledge, 2. determine attitudes, opinions, beliefs and motivations of people, 3. Identification of new concepts, 4. to reduce subsequent response modalities quantitative research, 5. for further information on previous quantitative research.
Focus groups have become so popular, aside from the obvious lower cost than the quantitative study because: 1. encourages interaction and, therefore, useful information, 2. produce synergy among participants, resulting, if not neglect the dominant individual effect, an interaction in which individuals are more creative, interested and reflexive whether individually interviewed, 3. the affinity of the participants will create a sense of partnership, 4. provide security and freedom, as in some issues the group can help to disinhibit participants and comfortable, 5. stimulates the fun and playful sense of participation in the dynamics, 6. are flexible in the sense that you can adjust the dynamic guide to another, 7. the result is obtained with speed and even the customer's own observation results can be discerned, 8. as a result of the above, the observation can obtain first-hand impressions and 9. therefore stimulate the ideas of the beholder.
The depth interview is Aaker and Day defined as a qualitative research method designed to explore the feelings, values \u200b\u200band deep ulterior motives or interviewed by a personal interview with the interviewer. The authors point out that should not be confused with what they called "clinical interviews / real depth" in which the interviewee is encouraged to respond to stimuli consisting of subjects or words saying everything that comes to mind, like words, ideas and feelings. The in-depth interview seeks to go beyond the superficial answers are usually given in surveys and is usually associated with the investigation of motivations, but this designation has lost its popularity once had. Can be applied to any object of study, encouraging the interviewee to express their ideas for products, services, candidates, social causes, institutions or companies. A famous study in-depth interviews was to investigate the image of California prunes, which resulted in a distinctly negative image, "a symbol of old age," "loss of energy," as "dry" and not having "nothing to offer." All such information obtained by this technique was reversed in a heavily advertised that changed the image of the product and made it successful. With in-depth interview obtained complete response and basic and may make answer individual questions would not be willing to say in a focus group (of course, as we saw earlier, if the director of the dynamics are working, rather it can be an advantage in this other group interview technique.) However, its duration is much more expensive than the focus group and can be quite cumbersome to process and analyze. In studies
positioning and image, often begins with a qualitative phase, generally focus groups or to a lesser extent, in-depth interviews. At this stage qualitative answers which products, services, brands, etc. which takes into account the public and should be compared. For example, Grande and Abascal reported in a study Image of shampoo brands, a qualitative phase to detect relevant product attributes, including interviews with housewives, hair care professionals and others with different types of hair or concerned about conservation. Then there was a quantitative study whose data were analyzed by correlation analysis. Another study reported on the perceived attributes of toothpastes began with focus groups with college students, which was drawn up a questionnaire whose results are also applied correlation analysis. CONCLUSIONS
piecemeal in the lines we just read, we have tried highlight the role that the topic of public image, and particularly the study are for the activity of communication. Venezuela can say that is not lagging behind in relation to the investigation of the image. Advertisers, advertising agencies, market research firms and consultants use and understand the importance of research tools, may be the recommendation to emphasize the methodological training and quality control of information resulting from studies.
is highly desirable that the management of the public image of companies, institutions, people with common knowledge, products, services and social causes, research using the image, with various methodologies quantitative and qualitative. In this sense, it is useful the concept of Information System Public Image.
Since the company opened in 1954 CA Data market research in Venezuela, the topic of the picture has been emerging as one of the fundamentals. At the end of the day, the world is in the image. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Weirs, Ronald M. (1987). Market research. Edit. Prentice Hall. Mexico. Figure # 1
Image
Venezuelan public leadership Source: Abreu Sojo, Ivan. Leaders and public image in Venezuela
Figure # 2
image and positioning of vehicles
Source: Abascal, Elena and Ildefonso Grande. Commercial research applications
NOTES 1. McGinnis, Joe. How to sell a president. Edit. Alliance. Madrid. l972. Pp 86-87
Dr. Iván Abreu Sojo, 2001, the study of public image: the key to success?, In Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, No. 39, March 2001, La Laguna (Tenerife), on the following website : http://www.ull.es/publicaciones/latina/2001/latina39mar/111abreu.htm
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