ABSTRACT
Shortly after World War II, management theorist Peter Drucker observed that the corporation has a significant role in American society. In 1916, Harold Laski noted in the Harvard Law Review that courts saw them as “persons who are not men” and increasingly were approximating the corporation’s position “to that of an ordinary individual”. The corporation as an artificial person was a natural outgrowth of the rise of corporate-like structures in 16th-century Europe, noted M. Blair. Looming behind the confusion within the marketing perspective about the corporate persona is the imperative that an effective corporate identity is one that helps the organization attain and sustain profitability. The constructivist view that the corporate identity is shaped so as to address multiple audiences appears to be well grounded. Business worked to project a credible and truthful story that proclaimed to Americans the need to resist threats in both the existential and temperamental realms.
