By: Jelmer Wit and Sabien van der Sluis
Can you link the people in the picture to the right brand? You will probably come a long way! Research shows that using well-known people as Distinctive Brand Assets is very effective. Chances are that you were already thinking of Nespresso, even before you had a good look at George Clooney. Still, using celebrities to get your brand across is trickier than it looks. In part 3 of this blog series we share the do's and don'ts.
To understand the power of using familiar faces, here is a bit of theory. From an evolutionary point of view, it is useful to be able to recognise faces quickly. You can distinguish friend from foe, you can judge whether someone is happy or angry and you know when it is better to stay away. Recognition is so important, in fact, that we have a special area in our brains for faces, fusiform face area called the fusiform face area.
Faces attract our attention, but what about the faces of familiar people? We recognise familiar people faster than strangers and have more associations with them. People we know stand out more and make more of an impression on us. And that's not all. Since we would like to be as beautiful, athletic or successful as the person in the advertisement, we are more likely to copy their behaviour and buy the products or services they advertise. It should therefore come as no surprise that one in five commercials already makes good use of famous people.1.
However, using celebrities to convey a brand or feeling does not have only advantages. Did you recognise George Clooney and Harry Piekema, the supermarket manager of Albert Heijn? What you may not have known is that Harry no longer runs a supermarket (Ilse does that now), but is the face of 50+ mobile. Or what about Andy van der Meijde, who first went through life as King TOTO, but now has a transfer made a transfer to competitor BetCity.nl
So well-known people tend to change employers. Not ideal, because building strong association networks takes time and requires consistency. If you are not consistent, you risk losing up to 23% of your turnover. It is also true that in many cases we know familiar people from different programmes or activities. So they evoke different associations in us. The better known the person, the greater the risk that he or she will evoke unwanted associations. Then there is the vampire effect. This means that the celebrity overshadows the brand, so that attention is not focused on the brand, but rather on the protagonist. When you saw Brad Pitt, did you think of Ocean's Thirteen or the De'Longhi coffee commercial? Finally, famous people are just people. Like everyone else, they make mistakes. The only difference is that their mistakes are often made public, which does not always help their image or that of the brands they represent. There is always a risk in that.
So does a well-known person add value as a Distinctive Brand Asset? It certainly can, but be aware of the associations this person creates and the risks he or she brings. How do you find this out? By looking at it from a consumer perspective.
If you want to know more about this, please mail to jelmer.wit@validators.nl
Source Images: Nespresso, 50+ mobile, Albert Heijn, BetCity.nl, De'Longhi
This article also appeared on MarketingTribune.
By: Jelmer Wit and Sabien van der Sluis
Can you link the people in the picture to the right brand? You'll probably come a long way! Research shows that using well-known people as Distinctive Brand Assets is very effective. Chances are that you were already thinking of Nespresso, even before you had a good look at George Clooney. Still, using celebrities to get your brand across is trickier than it looks. In part 3 of this blog series we share the do's and don'ts.
To understand the power of using familiar faces, here is a bit of theory. From an evolutionary point of view, it is useful to be able to recognise faces quickly. You can distinguish friend from foe, you can judge whether someone is happy or angry and you know when it is better to stay away. Recognition is so important, in fact, that we have a special area in our brains for faces, fusiform face area called the fusiform face area.
Faces attract our attention, but what about the faces of familiar people? We recognise familiar people faster than strangers and have more associations with them. People we know stand out more and make more of an impression on us. And that's not all. Since we would like to be as beautiful, athletic or successful as the person in the advertisement, we are more likely to copy their behaviour and buy the products or services they advertise. It should therefore come as no surprise that one in five commercials already makes good use of famous people.1.
However, using celebrities to convey a brand or feeling does not have only advantages. Did you recognise George Clooney and Harry Piekema, the supermarket manager of Albert Heijn? What you may not have known is that Harry no longer runs a supermarket (Ilse does that now), but is the face of 50+ mobile. Or what about Andy van der Meijde, who first went through life as King TOTO, but now has a transfer made a transfer to competitor BetCity.nl
So well-known people tend to change employers. Not ideal, because building strong association networks takes time and requires consistency. If you are not consistent, you risk losing up to 23% of your turnover. It is also true that in many cases we know familiar people from different programmes or activities. So they evoke different associations in us. The better known the person, the greater the risk that he or she will evoke unwanted associations. Then there is the vampire effect. This means that the celebrity overshadows the brand, so that attention is not focused on the brand, but rather on the protagonist. When you saw Brad Pitt, did you think of Ocean's Thirteen or the De'Longhi coffee commercial? Finally, famous people are just people. Like everyone else, they make mistakes. The only difference is that their mistakes are often made public, which does not always help their image or that of the brands they represent. There is always a risk in that.
So does a well-known person add value as a Distinctive Brand Asset? It certainly can, but be aware of the associations this person creates and the risks he or she brings. How do you find this out? By looking at it from a consumer perspective.
If you want to know more about this, please mail to jelmer.wit@validators.nl
Source Images: Nespresso, 50+ mobile, Albert Heijn, BetCity.nl, De'Longhi
This article also appeared on MarketingTribune.