Beyond the Company Logo: How Advertising Contributes to the Personal Branding of Pakistani CEOs

Abstract

Personal branding of corporate executives has also become a strategic build of organizational communication in recent years, especially in the case of developing markets. This paper explores the way Pakistani CEOs apply advertising practices in building and sharing their leadership vision, core values, and professional self. The study will be founded on the qualitative research design since the proposed research will utilize in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior executives across various sectors in Pakistan such as the banking industry, telecommunication, FMCGs and emerging industries. The data on the interview were theoretically examined in order to identify some repetitions in the advertising based branding habits of the CEOs. The results show that Pakistani CEOs are becoming more and more involved with advertising as not only a promotional instrument of the corporation but as a method of telling the leadership stories, projecting their credibility, and supporting the value-based leadership. The advertising techniques are used to spread the long-term organizational vision, accentuate the ethical responsibility, and identify personal leadership with the national, cultural, and socio-economic environment. The paper also brings out the balance between visibility and authenticity by CEOs as they tend to place strategic positions as visionary leaders, which may be in line with the corporate goals. It became evident that the visual symbolism, framing of the message, and the choice of media presence are some of the most important methods of how professional identity can be built and maintained. This study can be applied to the literature on executive communication and leadership branding and advertising strategy because it concentrates on the under-researched situation of Pakistan. Both the theoretical understanding of the topic of personal branding in non-Western settings and practical implications of the study contribute to the value of the work to the CEOs of the company, the communicational strategists, and advertising specialists who want to utilize the visibility of leadership and remain authentic and trusted.

Keywords: Personal Branding, Advertising, CEO Branding, Integrated Marketing Communication, Cultural Communication, Ethical Branding