The Business Blog

Brands definitely acquire personalities of their own, and serious research is undertaken aimed at encouraging consumers to articulate their feelings about the personalities of products they buy regularly. It is used by brand managers to explore the scope available to them in dealing with the user/non-user dilemma, since new images in promotions ought to be acceptable to existing users if they are consistent with a brand’s personality. In the case of so-called ‘executive cars’, the brand personality is sufficiently powerful that aspiring buyers will not include certain marques on their lists for factual research and test driving unless the personality effect is acceptable. You only have to think about the circumstances in which people – men, mainly – insist upon commuting alone in their cars to realise that there is often an exceedingly complex relationship between a man and his motor.

Where a human personality is actually subservient to – or expressed through, as you prefer – the personalities of the brands the person chooses, this phenomenon is referred to as a projection of situational self-image. This could not arise without publicity, and frequently has something to do with advertising. (Someone once remarked that if you can create a public image without advertising, it is immensely valuable. Unfortunately, it was John Delorean, whose credentials were rather discounted after his eponymous motor car factory closed with losses to creditors and HM Government before any cars were sold.) Awareness is important in ostentatious brands, since it matters to the consumer to be seen, for example, to carry Louis Vuitton luggage or wear a Rolex watch. This depends upon other people recognising the choice, and of course, these have to be ‘the right’ people. A division develops between mass and exclusive brands in such circumstances – for so-called adults. Exclusivity is essentially at odds with market share, so for frequently purchased goods, exclusive brands tend to be small scale affairs where the commercial objective is to sell out available production capacity for the maximum revenue. The products actually have to be high quality as well.

In the final analysis, persistent advertising claims which are unsupported by the products they represent fail, much as the marketing industry would like to have the final say. The person who wrote the slogan ‘great taste, great value’ (which appears on a pack, not an advert, in fact) may have been particularly pleased at coming up with something undeniable. It features on packets of catfood, so the human cannot comment on the taste, nor the cat on the value. The cat can refuse to eat it, though, and has the last miaow.

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