True, but most CEOs are unknown to consumers, only to employees and share-holders. Usually there is a “culture” of a company that is a blender of PR, advertising, marketing, etc. Here Musk became associated with the brand though. Tesla existed before Musk and worked well… but was nowhere near a popular. I hate Musk yet I feel it’s fair (and please if you have data showing I’m wrong, do share, I’d love to remove any wrongful attributed credit from him) to say he made Tesla enormously more popular than before he invested in it. So… you are right in most cases people buy cars, and other products, without knowing about the CEO but that specifically does not apply to Tesla where the hype precisely came from a self branded as IronMan.