FOLLOW US

Mark Zuckerberg is the guy who built Facebook and probably the guy who’ll destroy the company and its new rebrand.

During a virtual company event on Thursday, Zuckerberg that Facebook now has a new name — Meta. Basically, Meta will be an umbrella corporation that will own two businesses. The 1^st is Facebook as we know it. The second; Reality Labs— the company that will turn Metaverse into a reality.

"From now on, we are going to be Metaverse first, not Facebook first," Zuckerberg said Thursday.

Zuckerberg's reputation is on the verge

Helen Edwards, a branding expert, and co-founder of marketing firm Passionbrand, told Business Insider that with Zuckerberg as CEO, Meta’s future will be tied to Facebook’s disasters.

"Mark Zuckerberg himself is so much the face of the company – whether it's Meta or Facebook, the social media pummeling will come back to him not the brands," she said in an email to Business Insider.

"He is associated strongly with both – to give Meta its best shot, he might need to step back as the face of the business and find other people to represent the brand," she added.

Meanwhile, Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson wrote in a column on Friday. "He (Zuckerberg) will be the biggest branding issue for Meta as of today," Ritson wrote.

Jim Prior, CEO at brand agency Superunion, agreed Zuckerberg's personal brand could have a negative impact on Meta.

"With any corporate brand there is an inevitable strong link to the reputation, personality, and performance of its leader — and that is particularly so in founder-led firms. So, yes, Zuckerberg's personal brand will be associated with Meta and any criticism or negative experience of him will impact the corporate brand," Prior told Insider.

Before Facebook’s Meta rebrand, there was a similar decision taken from Google in 2015 when it created its parent company Alphabet. However, Google’s founders stood away from the company as Alphabet was restructuring.

Zuckerberg said in an interview with The Information,  that he has no plans to step back from his role as CEO of the company. "I really run the company on a day-to-day basis," Zuckerberg told The Information.