Image of an Organization as a Condition of its Competitive Advantage

The current study is aimed to the study of the image of organization and its components as a condition of the companies’ competitiveness. The paper examines the main theoretical aspects of the image of the company and its components, tools for the developement and management of the image. Also, tendencies in the sphere of image and branding were analysed. In the empirical part of the study, approbation of image management tools was carried out. LLC "Shefs Group" – HoReCa company in the Volga Region, Nizhny Novgorod, was selected as the object of study. Using the tools to manage the image of the organization, the strengths and weaknesses of the current image of the organization, opportunities for improvement, and weaknesses that are important to eliminate were identified. On the basis of the data collected, a number of recommendations were compiled, which subsequently raise the level of the image of LLC Shefs Group both as a whole and of all the components of the image separately. The practical significance of this work is to apply the theoretical aspects of managing the company's image to the current situation of Shefs Group LLC, as well as to the realities of the Russian market.