Brand Personification
Wharton School offers up an interesting article on Martha Stewart entitled:
When the CEO is the Brand, But Falls from Grace, What's Next?The article explores Brand Personification—when the brand is tied to an individual. Several great examples of businesses moving on after the CEO/brand leaves the company are offered. While there were not a lot of examples directly relevant to Stewart's case, one good point is to strike a balance when you rely on the CEO as your brand:
"Perhaps the key is to strike a balance, where the company benefits from an appealing public personality like Martha Stewart, Donald Trump or Michael Dell, while it builds a strong identity that doesn't rely on the individual. That strategy is suggested by Alan Siegel, chairman and CEO of the eponymous Siegel & Gale, a strategic branding company that developed the Dell brand image.'Like Martha Stewart, Donald Trump places his name on everything he gets involved in: buildings, gambling casinos and airlines. He is a visible, vocal brand voice,' says Siegel. 'Ralph Lauren and Michael Dell, on the other hand...have cleverly created a separate, institutional identity that doesn't make them so vulnerable if they have a personal problem.'”
MSLO was moving in that direction with Real Simple and some other magazine projects that do not bear Martha's name. It will be interesting to see how much more they will need to change at MSLO to strike a balance.Thanks to Robb Hecht at
PR Machine for the link.
