NEW YORK (AP) -- Mobil sponsors "Masterpiece Theatre" and runs full-page ads espousing its views on various issues.A customer pumps gas at an Exxon station in Maine. A Mobil station is seen across the street.Associated Press
Exxon, by contrast, keeps a low profile. Its handling of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was derided as an example of how not to handle a public-relations disaster.The merger of the nation's two biggest oil companies combines very different corporate cultures -- from their public images to how they explore for oil. As Exxon and Mobil come together, that could be a stumbling block to forming one smoothly running oil giant.
"Exxon and Mobil are both competitors, they both have a lot of pride and they would like to see their own way of doing things prevail. That obviously can't happen in both cases," said Howard Bonham, who heads an energy research firm in Houston that bears his name.
Finding ways to bring together disparate cultures has become a vital skill for companies as increased competition is creating mergers at a record pace across many industries.
"The reason most mergers fail has nothing to do with the fact the strategy didn't make sense, or that the economics didn't make sense," said Dennis Carey, vice chairman of executive search firm Spencer Stuart U.S. "It has everything in almost all cases to do with the integration of people and cultures into a new combined entity."
The new company will be led by Exxon chairman Lee Raymond. Mobil boss Lucio Noto will be vice chairman. Both insist they will be able to work together even though both are used to running their own giant companies.
"I've spent 36 years with Mobil and, believe it or not, for 32 of those years I actually worked for people," Noto said. "I think I can adapt myself."
Raymond, a South Dakota-born engineer, is seen as a stuffier counterpart to the Brooklyn-born Noto, who is schooled in physics.
The executives' opposing personalities emerged at the news conference announcing their deal Tuesday, as a more subdued Raymond ran through profit projections and drilling technologies before Noto took the podium with jokes and a plain-talking approach.
"Noto is more spontaneous, more of a PR guy," Bonham said. "As long as I can remember, Exxon has been more of a buttoned-down company than Mobil."
Mobil has worked to raise its public profile by sponsoring "Masterpiece Theatre" and speaking its mind on a range of issues in "advertorials" in major newspapers. The company has also tried to reach out to drivers through its "Friendly Serve" program, which embraces nostalgia by bringing back greeters to clean windows and even offer cups of coffee.
Exxon, however, shies away from publicity. Its handling of the 1989 oil spill in Alaska was criticized as insincere. The company's appeals of a $5 billion jury award to people harmed by the spill has been a PR black eye.
The contrasting images apply to the company's business strategies.
"They've correctly been characterized as Mobil being more feisty or more aggressive and Exxon being much less outgoing, much more focused on the numbers, much more controlled," said Kate Warne, an energy analyst with the brokerage firm Edward Jones.
Mobil has been able to strike deals to break into Russia and Kazakhstan, and its 1996 agreement to combine European refining and marketing operations with British Petroleum helped fuel the current merger boom sweeping the oil industry.
Analysts say those moves are more aggressive than Exxon would be likely to undertake as the companies come together.
"There is a potential issue in terms of the cultures melding together well, retaining the aggressiveness that Mobil has with the discipline of Exxon," Warne said. "My guess is that the discipline will to a certain extent win out."