Chelsea Media's president discusses the symbolic ingredients of today's affinity-based advertising environment and how consumers transfer these key ideas to their perceptions of self and the brands they choose.
Uncovering how a product becomes a brand -- and how consumers attach meaning to that brand -- has kept marketing pundits busy. The last big mantra -- that brands have personalities -- was shot down by research. After more articles, books, blogs and research, there is still no consensus on the difference between a product and a brand, what brands mean to consumers and how meaning is transferred to a brand.
Of course, these are not easy questions. But light can be shed on them by understanding the symbolic ingredients of the media advertising environment and how consumers transfer these ingredients to help them create and share their personal identities.
Consumers co-exist in a mediatized culture that is awash in cultural signals (ideas) on how to think, behave and be in the world. These ideas are choices that consumers use to help shape their identities -- who they are and who they appear to be to others. Whether it's a newspaper story on mortgage defaults among young marrieds, a Dove TV spot, an episode of "Boondocks," or the latest poll data on Hillary, media overflows with ideas on how to live. And personalities are the most dominant symbols in popular culture. Each personality is, in essence, an advertisement that incorporates a unique collection of many ideas.
Furthermore, media is an idea milieu where consumers come for entertainment and ideas to help construct their own lives. Of course, it's also the milieu where products are marketed. For an advertised product to succeed in this arena, it also must contain ideas that consumers can use to express who they are. If a product doesn't have an idea or constructed identity, it stays a product. Many products with shelf space and high awareness but no idea can ultimately only be commoditized products.
Consumers exist in personal and professional networks where cultural signals are used to communicate status, beliefs, attitudes and values. The clothes worn, TV shows viewed, music listened to, restaurants visited and media personalities favored are just a few of the signals people use to express who they are. Product brands are important symbols in this expression -- if one doubts this, they must also doubt advertising and our consumer culture as a whole. Consider that there are some products, such as Harley-Davidson, Apple and Starbucks, that have connected with consumer identities so strongly that they have ballooned into brand identity communities.
Understanding what a product brand means -- or might mean -- to consumers can be a holy grail for marketers. However, this is a challenge, as frequently consumers themselves can't explain it. One way to uncover this meaning is to infer it through personalities that the products customers identify with. Personalities -- Jennifer Lopez, Bono, Tyler Perry, and Chris Matthews -- all mean something to consumers. They carry ideas that consumers can use in their lives to navigate their personal and professional networks. They are human brands.
Research suggests that people seek personalities that strengthen their identities with social groups or reinforce a specific part of their identity. Understanding what human brands a product's customers are attracted to can provide clues as to the underlying symbolic meaning consumers may be finding in a product. It's likely that the meaning consumers take and transfer to their own lives from a personality is reflected in the meaning they find in a product.
If a marketer finds that its product's consumers identify with Brit McCoy, Gisele Bundchen and Arcade, for example, it has a starting point to dig deeper into what about that product customers are identifying with -- similarities, attitudes, beliefs or underlying values, for example. The next step is to sift through this identification to find the commonalities -- identity characteristics that all customers share -- that can be used to shape your creative messages to connect your products with the right consumers.
What we know
Our knowledge about how consumers identify with human brands is limited. However, we do know that consumers make these identifications on a continuum of interest, ranging from liking someone or something to outright imitation of them.
At the most simplistic level consumers simply "like" someone in the media. It is usually based on some perceived dimension of similarity (e.g., ethnicity, Midwestern roots, a shared Yankees fandom); it's a basic form of identification. Moving to the next level up the continuum is "wishful identification." This is the desire to transfer some of the identity attributes of a personality to oneself -- looks, gender attitudes, political attitudes, the car they drive, hairstyle, et cetera. These consumers have transcended "liking," based on perceived similarity and ideally want to transfer chosen characteristics of a human brand to themselves. Finally, the most extreme level of identification is "adoption." These are people who actually do adopt some, or all, of the identity characteristics of a personality. It could be hairstyle, particular mannerisms, beliefs, dress, actual behaviors or even values; an extreme example of this are Elvis impersonators… or any of the contestants on "The Next Best Thing." Whatever brand a consumer may use, what he/she identities with in a personality (e.g., the swaggering arrogance of a Mel Gibson, Bono's shades or Angelina's adoptions) will provide clues to the meaning embedded in that brand, which brand managers can use in developing creative messages or symbols for their target audience.
Media personalities are brands with ideas that connect to consumer's identity in some way. Any marketer would die for that type of engagement with their product. Understanding what the ideas are that a product's consumers are transferring from a personality to themselves can be helpful to marketers in understanding what about their brand is making a personal connection.
Grant McCracken, years ago, argued that personalities were symbolic "super consumers" for marketers to use to transfer ideas from a person to a product. Today, they're much more. Consumers also transfer ideas from personalities to themselves in constructing their identity as they navigate personal and professional networks to achieve a desired life. Understanding what meaning a product's customers find in a personality can uncover clues as to the meaning those customers might be finding in the product. From there, marketers have a creative map to develop positioning ideas that connect with their customers and in the process turn the product into a brand.
Bob Maxwell is president of Chelsea Media, a research consulting firm employed by both research suppliers and media companies. Read full bio.