In 1971 an iconic ad campaign debuted featuring Frank Perdue as the CEO spokesperson for the Perdue chicken brand. The ads included the legendary line, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.” Though a shy man by nature, Frank appeared in around 200 ads and signalled his personal involvement with the company by the phrase, “say whatever you have to say, I can take it.”

So, what convinced Frank to be the public face of his brand and business? He was clearly committed to the success of his business and determined that the public know about his personal accountability for the product it delivered. Frank’s acceptance of responsibility is a valuable lesson for the modern CEO and corporation. 

It’s widely accepted that the strength of relationship between a person and a brand or business is influenced by many factors, including planned communications such as advertising. Other factors such as consumption experience, incidental communication and competitor activity also play their part.

Within this mix of influences some believe that the role of the CEO or other leaders can be pivotal. Synovate recently conducted a quantitative study with a 100 adults in the US looking at this very issue.

Fine to be faceless?

When people rated the overall performance of a company they said the most important factors are their recent experience (83%) and the company’s service reputation (80%). Only 15% think the company CEO is important in this overall rating. Similarly, most people don’t even know the CEO of their favourite company in a number of categories. 

This lack of familiarity is not surprising. In an equivalent qualitative exercise conducted simultaneously in the US and the UK, Synovate observed that few CEOs have broken into the public consciousness. US CEOs like Jobs, Murdoch, Gates, Trump and Welch are the exceptions rather than the norm.

There was one exception in the UK. Richard Branson and the Virgin brand appear to be inextricably linked in the public conscious. The narrative around Branson is positive and image building for Virgin. An often-quoted story is one concerning a passenger on a Virgin flight who apparently had a bad meal experience. Branson apparently personally intervened and it resulted in a meal in one London’s finest restaurants for the aggrieved passenger. 

The need to be seen

Incidents in which Toyota made recalls were much talked about in some focus groups Synovate conducted. In these groups, Synovate used a spontaneous association research technique called Mind Clouds to establish the current images and associations that dominate the brand.

The maps of the brand created by respondents show a marked contrast between the US and UK. In both markets the positive attributes that the brand has built over many years were regularly discussed: innovative, environmental, green, quality and reliability. Of course, considering events, there was some mention of the nature of the recall, concerns about specific performance issues and so on though this was most pronounced in the US.

Two important points: First, in both countries it seemed people felt sorry for the company, indicating that Toyota is a good company that suffered an unfortunate production problem. This sentiment is testimony to the goodwill built by the brand over many years. Secondly, in the US, Toyota’s CEO Mr. Toyoda was spontaneously discussed as part of the brand.

This increased profile for Mr. Toyoda is further illustrated by the “buzz” Synovate assessed in the first part of the year. Using a web-scrapping tool, Synovate looked at Toyota across the first three months of the year. Reviewing public sites such as blogs, chat rooms, social media and so on across the first quarter was revealing (These were general media sites, not those focused on the automotive industry). Synovate looked at two aspects: absolute noise around Toyota and then related noise around Toyota’s CEO. 

Considering that familiarity with CEOs appears to be limited, it is interesting that there is a direct relationship between peaks in mentions and public appearances that Mr. Toyoda made to issue statements, deal with the US Congress and so on. Clearly there are moments when the public do care about the CEO and relate the CEO with the brand performance.

What the public wants

It’s evident that people have very clear expectations at certain times. The survey showed that, in response to what the CEO should be committed to, the majority stated customer service (81%) and doing the right thing (81%). However, people also think that CEOs are interested in company profit (60%) and at the cost of doing the right thing (46%).

Indeed it’s evident that the majority want a CEO who’s committed to customer service, and 66% want the CEO to personally answer for the company product or service problems in public, while only 20% want the CEO to be faceless so that the company speaks for itself.

As Synovate explored this survey data in focus groups it became clear that consumer confidence comes from knowing that someone is ‘minding the store’ and has ultimate oversight on what happens. For most people this confidence translates to ‘guarantees me the best service and experience when things go right and, more importantly, gives me the right response/approach when something goes wrong.’

Personal responsibility 

The need then for personal ownership of service and delivery by the CEO is significant. It is fine to be anonymous for much of the time. Most people don’t mind. However, particularly at times of crisis, the CEO needs to be front and centre, signalling his or her personal involvement and commitment.

As one respondent put it in the context of how Virgin would have reacted to the Toyota situation: “He (Branson) would have run down the stairs himself to turn off the conveyor belt.”

Ged Parton, CEO of Synovate’s Global Practices & Capabilities, has been a marketing services practitioner for 20 years. His experience as a user of marketing data to drive marketing strategy covers most business sectors as well as public and social organisations. He regularly speaks and writes on brand and customer experience issues as they affect real business decision making.