Hidden faces of hidden champions: communication strategies of niche market leaders

Abstract

Understanding how firms portray themselves to customers and talent by communicating their image is of great interest in increasingly dynamic and global business environments. As public image transmitted via media is considered a valuable intangible asset, this study investigates niche market leader firms’ communication strategies for valorizing their public image to appeal stakeholders. The content analysis of textual and visual elements of a sample of 158 corporate websites identified four communication strategies: (1) customer and product, (2) success, (3) tradition and family, and (4) globality and regionality. Our results show that firms primarily communicate their competencies of technological supremacy, accentuating their high-quality products and services to customers. Potential talent is addressed by highlighting employability with passionate sentiments using external awards or certifications to highlight the employer attractiveness. Surprisingly, firm owners are rarely in focus and barely visible. Instead, firms are personalized through textual characteristics promoting the firms’ uniqueness via slogans, sentiments, and metaphors and visual elements of impersonal product objects and buildings underpinned with references and awards as sources of legitimation.