Brandimage : beyond company control

Companies spend huge amounts on communicating their brand through marketing. Many of these contact areas where the consumer comes in contact with the brand is con-trolled by the company. The brand image is also affected from outside the company. It can be from users, media, blogs etc.Burberry is an example of a company that got in trouble with their brand image after hooligans where associated with their products. If a company with a brand with a strong image is associated whith consumers that are not compatible with the target group the company wants, there is a risk of a negative affect on the brand image.Our purpose is to investigate and describe the phenomenom when a company brandimage is affected by being associated whith consumers not compatable whith, by the company, intended target group.We have chosen a qualitative research where we use a multiple case study. The collecting of data has been done whith depth interviews and the collected empirics has been analyzed from our theoretical referens frame.It is not possible to fully control the brand image. There is various strategies to influence it but in the end it is the user who creates its own image of what the brand stands for. A company brand image can be affected in such extent that the original target group abandon it.Program: Textilekonomutbildninge