Image may not be everything, but it certainly matters, and it matters a lot.

A medical school wanted to hire Selzer & Company to measure the institution's visibility to pre-test a public relations campaign. We said, that's fine, but we could do more: Test the school's accomplishments to learn which elements of the school's story are most powerful to the public.

When the findings were presented to the board of directors, the school's president interrupted numerous times to instruct his staff that those findings would be the basis for his talking points as he traveled the state. He was hearing the story he knew would resonate, build prestige, and earn the respect of donors.