THE PUBLIC IMAGE – FACETS AND STAGES IN ITS CREATION

Public image is the representation or the idea that the public envisages as to an institution/organization and that special literature coins as: institutional image, enterprise image, prestige publicity, brand image, product image, institutional communication – all of these phrases representing multiple ”facets” of the public image whose unique goal is to create a positive representation of an institution. These facets – which are essentially different – often overlap.Thus, in this paper, we intend to distinguish between the multiple facets that the public image implies and, in order to do this, we firstly refer to the definition, characteristics and structure of the public image, so that we separately analyse its forms of manifestation and reveal the specific difference of the institutional image – which in its pure form aims at creating in the consumer’s/citizen’s mind an identity and a clear organizational representation, which is particularly different from commercial mark images. In the conclusion section to our paper, we indicate the steps that have to be followed in order to create a positive image for an organization.