Image Consultancy in the United Kingdom: Recipe Knowledge and Recreational Employment

A person's image incorporates three principal elements: how you look, sound and present yourself. Alterations in the world of work have increased the importance of image in the work place and have created a demand for a new form of recipe knowledge - impression management. This has encouraged the formation of specialist image consultancy companies, as well as the development of new techniques of image construction and management. This article provides an analysis of the image consultancy industry in the United Kingdom. It explores the geography of the industry, motivations for establishing an image consultancy firm, the networks consultants develop and the methods of client acquisition. The results of a postal survey of image consultants are reported.