The starting place for any marketing effort involves an analysis of an organization's current image with target audiences.

What is Cooperative Extension's image with elected officials, clientele, the media, and the public? How do these images align with the actual programs?

Are these five circles concentric or widely separated? Is our image accurate and up-to-date? Does the image reflect our current mission: to meet the educational needs of rural and urban citizens by delivering up-to-date, research-generated knowledge from the land grant university and the U.S.D.A.? Or are we seen as a folksy, fragmented agency that distributes recipes and agricultural bulletins to rural audiences?

Cooperative Extension can learn how to shape its image from recent market research that has been conducted in the private sector. Corporate leaders are recognizing the importance of marketing their companies as well as their products. A recent study conducted by Anspach Grossman, and Portugal, Inc., a New York based public relations firm, found that over 2,000 companies changed their names in the last two years. The researchers concluded that the name changes were an attempt to create a new, unifying image. As Elaine Silverstein, vice president of Silverstein and Partners Advertising, put it, "The divisions are disappearing. Sophisticated corporations now realize the importance of a unified, strategic, communication plan."

An example of a new corporate identity program was conducted by Burroughs Corporation, a $5 billion dollar Detroit-based supplier of office and data processing products. "We were projecting a mom-and-pop shop image," recalls Jeanette Lerman, vice president of corporate communications. "We're located in 100 countries around the world, and each division had created its own identity. The net result was that the population at large did not recognize that Burroughs was as large and diverse as it really is." The logic behind the identity program, which was initiated by Burroughs CEO Michael Blumenthal, was immediately apparent to everyone. We're now projecting the image of a unified global corporation."

Research conducted by Dudley, Anderson, and Yutzy points to the importance of creating a unique organizational identity. The study surveyed 78 chief executive officers of America's largest corporations. Ninety-three percent of the executives felt that a unique organizational identity was either essential or important. Organizational identity was defined as the company's overall definition, direction, and distinctiveness as perceived by its various publics.

In light of these two research studies, how is Cooperative Extension perceived when phones; signage, and outreach materials communicate "Extension," "Agriculture Program," "Cooperative Extension," "4-H." and "Brown County Cooperative Extension?" Does Cooperative Extension project the image of a unified, research-based, educational system backed by a university and the U.S.D.A.? Or does the public see us as a small department within county government or an independent non-profit organization? Cooperative Extension's identity can be further clouded by vague logos and the absence of a clear, well-designed outreach material outlining extension's definition, direction, and distinctiveness.