Image of a Bank in the Mind of an Individual: structure and contents (results of a pilot study)

Abstract

The concept of image has been used in the literature since the 1960s. Nevertheless, it has come to the foreground of attention of both scholars and marketing personnel primarily in the 1980s and 1990s. This reflects the fact that the image as a phenomenon influencing consumers’ decision-making and their loyalty to a company has become increasingly important. This is because com petitive companies offer products which are more and more similar to each other and the prices do not differ much either; in such a situation, the consumer is ‘flooded’ with a great amount of Information. As a consequence, the image of a company as a more or less positive "sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person holds of an object” (Kotler and Clarke 1987, cited in Javalgi 1992) makes it subjectively easier for the consumers to find their bearings and make decisions.