Did You Know?

Psychologist Erich Dichter found that consumers are more apt to relax and accept advertiser recommendations when the tone is that of a friend or an unbiased authority.

(Source: Emanuel Rosen, The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing. New York:

Doubleday, 2000, p. 210.)

There is a direct correlation between advertising spending, brand awareness, and market share (given that the brand’s distribution is equal to that of other brands in the category and consumers like the brand’s point of difference). In fact, James Gregory and the Corporate Branding Partnership (and others) have linked advertising spending to increases in sales, earnings, market share, and stock price.

A brand’s perceived quality increases with increases in advertising impressions, regardless of message.

Research has shown that the media environment affects advertising claims. For instance, quality claims are more effective on elite or prestigious websites because people associate the claim with the media environment.

(Source: Dean Donaldson, “Location Matters: How Ad Environments Affect Performance,” Advertising

Age, December 10, 2009, adage.com/article/digitalnext/location-matters-ad-environments-affectperformance/

140980/.)

Aspirational, upscale, and high status brands have the potential to alienate customers who lack confidence. While these customers might admire these brands, they don’t feel comfortable using them. Building warmth, humor, and less formality into the brands to make them more approachable helps overcome this problem.

(Source: Max Blackston, “Observations: Building Brand Equity by Managing the Brand’s

Relationships,” Journal of Advertising Research 32, no. 3, May/June 1992, pp. 79−83.)

Risk taking, innovation, breaking industry rules, products that outperform, and services that exceed customer expectations strongly contribute to brand vitality. “Adequate,” “suffice,” and “good enough” are not a part of a vital brand’s vocabulary.

The products and services that achieve the most “buzz” and that benefit the most from buzz are innovative, leading edge, and of superior quality—often creating a new standard for customer experience.

The typical No. 1 brand is worth 10 percent more than the No. 2 brand to consumers (range: zero percent to 35 percent).

© 2015 Brad VanAuken, excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.