One of the research lines that I am pursuing (and most likely would be focusing on for my dissertation) is looking at corporate personalities. Corporate personalities can be associated with brand personality, which is “a set of human characteristics associate with a brand” (Aaker, 1997, p.347). Corporations have their own reputations to maintain along with their brand and image, and there are times where the presence of one individual is showcased more than the company, and as a result has a significant influence over the perception of the corporation.
There was an interesting article that appeared in AdAge today about when personal and corporate brands come together online. The author focused on the case with the Ford Motor Company and how Scott Monty, who is in charge of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company, is dealing with these brand issues. Some are stating that it is hard to tell from Ford’s social media practices which represents the Ford Motor Company (values, practices, personality traits), and which ones represent Monty.
Managing a strong corporate personality is a delicate balance, and Ford is indeed an interesting case to look at. They are known as being a family-owned corporation and that has been part of their overall corporate reputation since the very beginning. Even though there are individuals that want a corporation to have certain characteristics that make them unique from everyone else, they still want to put a “face” on the corporation as well. The challenge in some cases is to determine which “face” to put on your corporation– you want to have someone that is a good communicator, represents the personality traits of the corporation, a credible and trustworthy source, and someone that consumers and others can relate to. There are some corporations that have strong corporate personalities with high profile individuals that have been successful (ex. Steve Jobs) and others that have struggled with managing their image and reputation in the media (Jerry Yang of Yahoo!). It really all depends on the perception of the corporation, its brand image, and the corporation’s stakeholders.
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
Reference
Aaker, J.L. (1997). Dimensions of Brand Personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(3), 347-356.
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