Brand Personality

Brand Personality
Sensitive management of a brand’s archetypal image is critical to the well
being of a brand and key to reversing the tide of ebbing brand loyalty.
Cognitive scientists  say all our store  of personal
knowledge   is   ultimately    traceable    to   brain-
mediated  models  of  the  self,  and  of  the  self  in
relationship  to  other things. We use  these models
as  metaphors  to  help  us  understand  what  exists
independently  of  us.  Consciousness  then,  is  a
sensation of the self.
To illustrate,  images represented by  the  words
up  and  down  draw  from  our  earliest  spatial
experiences.   As   infants,   help  comes   to  us
mostly  from above—mother  reaching down  to
feed us,    play  with us,  and  to  take  us  out of
our   cribs   into   her   arms.   These   early   life
experiences become metaphors that contribute
to  a  more positive  bias  to  the concept  of  up
than   the   concept   of   down.   When   we   are
happy,  we are  up.  When we  are sad,  we are
down.  When  sales  are  strong,  they  are  up.
When sales are weak, they are down. We place
God up in the heavens, and  the Devil down in
Hell.  Thus,  cognitive  scientists  propose  that
immaterial  thought  in  our  minds  is  linked  to
the material substance of our bodies.
We    have    had    uneasiness    about    the
relationship   between   mind   and   body   ever
since  Rene  Descartes  put   them  asunder  in
formulating modern scientific methodology. In
Descartes’    schemata,   pure   mind   had   no
connection with  the body.  Mind was  a  misty
realm with no temporal foundation, and came
to  be  widely  known   in  philosophy  as   the
“ghost  in  the  machine.”  It  had  no  corporeal
substance.  Descartes  argued  that  only  when
the mind operates  independently of  emotions
can    mental    output    be    trusted.    So,    he
separated   body   from   mind,   emotion   from
reason. Reason was raised up in human affairs,
while emotion was put down.
Descartes’  Error
In    his    book,    Descartes’    Error,    Antonio
Damasio  reports  intriguing  results  from  over
two decades  of research into the operations of
reason    and     emotion    that     have    major
implications  for  both  customer  research  and
marketing  practice.  Damasio,  who  heads  up
(not  down)  the  neurology  department  at  the
University  of  Iowa, studies  patients  who  are
rather like Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Brain  trauma
has  robbed them of  their emotional capacities
while  leaving  reasoning  abilities  fully  intact.
Despite     normal    comprehension,     memory
acuity   and   reasoning   abilities,   Damasio’s
patients  have  a  hard  time  making  decisions
about  matters  in  which  they  have  a  stake  in
the outcome. Their brains cannot  form models
of self and the relationship of self to the world
beyond  their  bodies.  They  cannot  cognitively
connect  themselves with  others.  Their lack  of
emotionality  deprives  them  of  a  connectable
self.
Marketers   should   not   be   surprised   that
Damasio’s  patients  cannot  form relationships
with    brands.     Most    seasoned     marketers
already  know   that  customers’  relationships
with  brands   have  emotional  underpinnings.
Customer relationships with  brands  are never
based  on  reason, yet few  organizations strive
to understand the emotional dynamics of their
customers’ relationships with their brands.
Carl Jung’s Ideas Gain Credibility
For   many   decades,   the   ideas   of   Swiss
psychologist Carl Jung were out at the edges of
mainstream    behavioral   science.    His   most
influential    contribution    to    the    study    of
behavior was probably his construct of basic
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 1
personality types  that  became the foundation
of  the widely  used Meyers-Briggs  personality
assessment.   But  relatively   few  behaviorists
gave   serious   attention   to   Jung’s   idea   that
people come into the world bearing archetypes.
Archetypes  are not  pictures and  sounds or
other sensory images stored  in brain cells like
a  song  stored  on  tape  or  undeveloped  film
stored   in   a   camera.   In   Damasio’s   terms,
archetypes   are   modeled   in   the   brain   as
dispositions  in clusters  of  dispositional  neurons.
Like  a  violin’s  strings disposed  to  acoustically
respond to the stimulus of the violinist’s bow,
the brain  contains  myriad clusters  of  neurons
that are disposed to respond to given stimuli.
We  arrive in  this  world  with vast  numbers
of  clusters of dispositional  neurons. When we
are hungry as infants, clusters  of dispositional
neurons  that   are  already  organized   in  our
brains   prompt  us   to  cry.   When  hunger   is
relieved   with   food,   inherited   dispositional
neurons prompt us to please mother with coos
and smiles. In so pleasing mother, we reinforce
her caring for us. We trigger the flow of  mood
uplifting  oxytocin—sometimes  called  the  love
chemical—which  mother  can  get  more  of  by
giving  us  more  care.  Pictures  of  infants  in
family  photo  albums  and  also  in  advertising
can  trigger  oxytocin,  although  in  much  lower
amounts.
As  we develop from infancy, we constantly
add   to  the  count   of  dispositional  neurons
through  the  experiences  we  have  and  their
memorization. But underlying all dispositional
neurons  acquired  by experience  are  those  we
are  born  with,  including  those  that  represent
Jung’s  archetypes,  awaiting  some  future  time
to   be    aroused.   A    marketer    could   view
dispositional  neurons as  “hot  buttons,”  some
of  which can trigger predisposed responses  to
the contents of the marketer’s message.
Archetypal “Hot Buttons”
In   another   web   site   article,   Listening   to
Customers, we describe a customer relationship
methodology  called  Developmental
Relationship     Marketing     or     DRM.     The
foundations of  DRM are  based  on archetypal
structures    that     predispose    attributes    of
behavior.  A  fundamental  premise  of  DRM  is
that  marketers should strive  to  key into these
archetypal  “hot  buttons”  in  every  marketing
campaign to arouse interest among the greatest
number of customers.
However,      more       commonly,      product
messages mainly key into superficial attributes
of     customers,    attributes     that     are     not
archetypal.  This  narrows  a  product’s  market
to    customers   with    those   attributes.    The
broader  approach  of  keying  into  archetypes
enlarges   a  product’s   market  to   encompass
everyone    with   a    need   for    the   product,
regardless        of       individual,        superficial
distinctions.  In  this  respect,  DRM  raises  this
counterintuitive proposition:
Relationship  marketing,   especially  in
its  application  to  mass  marketing,  is
more  effective  when  based on  customer
commonalities  rather  than on  customer
differences  as  argued  by  proponents  of
traditional   relationship  or   one-to-one
marketing.
That  is  not to say  that  customer differences
do  not  have  a  role  in  relationship  marketing.
They     do.     In     fact,      keying     marketing
communications   to   customer   differences   is
essential      to     building     strong,     enduring
relationships  with   customers.  However,  the
foundations    of    relationship    or    one-to-one
marketing   should   reflect   universal   human
properties.
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 2
Coca-Cola  has  been particularly effective in
building    relationships   with    customers   by
connecting  with  their  commonalities.  In  the
1970s,   Coke  introduced  a  new  theme  song
with the words,  “I’d like to build the world a
home  and  furnish  it  with  love/Grow  apple
trees  and  honeybees  and  snow  white  turtle
doves.”  The  images  invoked  by  those  words
key    to    archetypal   desires—every    normal
person   has   them.   The   song   enjoyed   such
popular success that it ran for six years.
Michelin     also     connects     to     universal
commonalities  with its  depiction of  a  smiling
infant  sitting  in  a  tire  or  in  cherubic  ascent
against   a    blue   sky.    Invoking   the   Infant
archetype  (a  link  to  the  future  that  must  be
safeguarded   for   the  good   of   the   species),
Michelin’s  product   messages  spell  “safety”
without the word ever being used. It paves the
way  for  an  array  of  motivating  responses,
such as,  “I  want  to  protect  my  family,”  or “I
want to show that  I am a responsible person.”
Those thoughts may not rise in consciousness,
but they work in the background to help shape
customers’ archetypal reactions to Michelin ads.
Power Brands Project Strong,
Unambiguous  Archetypal  Images
Growing   interest   in   archetypes   signals   a
major  transformation  in  marketers’  attitudes
about  the misty regions behind the curtains of
consciousness.  Everyone  is  looking  for  new
answers.    Increasing    disappointment    with
traditional customer research is causing greater
tolerance  of  nontraditional ideas  and  making
it  more acceptable to  talk  about archetypes in
mainstream business.
In  their trailblazing  book, The  Hero and  The
Outlaw,  Margaret  Mark  and  Carol  Pearson
assert   that   12   archetypes   dominate   brand
genre.  They  base  their  claim  on  an  extensive
quantitative  analysis  of  brand  archetypes  in
which  they  identified  major  archetypes  and
examples of  brands that  invoke them (Exhibit
1 contains a sampling).
Archetypes and Their Primary Functions in People’s Lives Exhibit 1
Oprah’s Book Club Understand their world Sage
Levi’s Maintain  independence Explorer
Ivory Retain or renew faith Innocent
Calgon Affect  transformation Magician
Harley-Davidson Break the rules Outlaw
Nike Act  courageously Hero
Hallmark Find and give love Lover
Wendy’s Be OK just as they are Regular Guy/Gal
Miller Lite Have a good time Jester
American Express Exert control Ruler
AT & T (Ma Bell) Care for others Caregiver
Williams-Sonoma Craft something new Creator
Brand Example Helps  People Archetype
Source: The Hero and the Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson, McGraw-Hill, 2001
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 3
In  another  web  site  article,  Speaking  with
Customers,   we   discuss   how   storytelling   is
becoming  the  heart  of  marketing.  Archetypes
play critical  roles in a storyteller’s tale. Stories
with  characters  that  have  weak  archetypal
definition  lack  dimension  and  will  likely  not
command   much   of  an   audience.   Similarly,
brands  with  weak  archetypal  definition  are
less  likely  to  have  strong  relationships  with
customers.Reflecting  the  idea  that  archetypes
help  us  find  meaning  in  what  we  encounter,
Mark   and   Pearson   call   brand   husbandry
meaning  management.  Product  messages  are
about  managing  the   meanings  of  products,
including their connections to customers in the
deeper    zones    of     their    existence    where
archetypes    exist    and    function.    Sensitive
management of  a  brand’s  archetypal  image is
critical to the well being of a brand, as a recent
Coke ad campaign demonstrates.
Coke’s  core archetype  is  the  Innocent. Red,
white and blue, all  things true. (Remember the
tagline,  “It’s  the  real  thing.”)  In  late  2000,
Coke  left  the  Innocent  archetype  reservation,
so  to  speak.  Looking  to  move  into  Pepsi’s
youth   market,   Coke   ran   several   edgy   TV
commercials   showing   people  throwing   ugly
tantrums  after  asking  for  a  Coke  and  being
told     Coke     was     not     available.     These
commercials   could   have  worked   for   Pepsi
with  its  Jester  archetype  image.  But  not  for
Coke. Coke  fans  around the  country phoned,
mailed  and  emailed  their   outrage  over  the
compromise    of   Coke,    the   Innocent.    The
spontaneity   of  negative   response  indicated
that  the commercials irritated something deep
within people’s psyches.  It struck them wrong
in  their gut.    The  meaning of  Coke’s Innocent
archetypal  image  was  not  well  managed  in
this case.
Coke’s     recent     experience     with     edgy
commercials    argues    a    critical    truth    in
marketing     that     has     not     been     widely
understood  and  appreciated—customers  own
brands, not  companies. Companies are only the
trustees of the brands they create for customer
consumption,    materially    and     perceptually.
When  a  company  changes  or  compromises  a
brand’s  persona,  it  invites  negative  reactions
from  customers who  have  identified with  the
persona of that brand.
While  Mark  and  Pearson  correctly  observe
that  a  brand  does  best  by  being  identifiable
with  a  single,  unambiguous  core  archetype,
product messages can also associate the brand
with  other  archetypes.  Done  in  a  way  that
does    not    compromise    the    brand’s    core
archetype,  this  will  broaden  market  appeal.
Brands, like people should not be held to some
rigid  expression of  persona.  As  social  beings,
we  continuously  shift  from  one  persona  to
another    in    our   interactions    with    others.
Healthy   brands   do   the   same,   frequently
through  surrogates—human  and  even  animal
and  cartoon characters  in broadcast  and print
advertising.  However, care  needs  to  be  taken
to   avoid   surrogates   who   conflict   with   a
brand’s  core  archetype,  as  happened  in  the
Coke example above.
Wild About Harry
The    California-based    HMO,    PacifiCare,
whose Medicare customers are primarily mid-
middle    class    and    a    bit    lower,   ran    an
astonishingly   successful   commercial   for   its
Medicare   brand,   Secure   Horizons.   In   the
commercial, a character  named Harry projects
the  Sage  archetype,  as  he  tends  his  plants
while   talking   about   how   Secure   Horizons
made it possible to give his wife topnotch care
with  a  minimum  of  financial  and  emotional
distress. Another Harry commercial was made
with similar success. Customers were just wild
about Harry.
The   success  of   this  customer-to-customer
approach    in    getting    its    message    across
inspired PacifiCare to develop several new TV
commercials   with   different   actors.   In   one
commercial, the  starring character  delivered a
similar  message  about  Secure  Horizons  as  he
handled   an   ornate   clock   from   his   clock
collection.   In   another   commercial,   the   star
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 4
character  was  involved  with  a  horse.  When
both commercials failed expectations, we were
asked to analyze them for why.
The  personas   of  the  clock   hobbyist  and
horse  enthusiast  did  not  reflect  PacifiCare’s
core  market.  Harry’s  persona  was  more  in
sync  with  Secure  Horizon’s  core  market.  He
had  an  unhoned earthiness  and  an  authentic
personality  with  a  hint  of  benign  blue  collar
demeanor.     Harry     was     a     huggie     bear
personality  the  market  liked—no,  loved.  The
other  two  characters  were  too  refined.  Harry
was lovable, the other characters respectable.
The     importance     of     matching     actors’
personas  to customers seems so obvious as to
not  warrant  discussion.  Yet,   as   Mark  and
Pearson  observe  in  The  Hero  and  the  Outlaw,
creators  of  marketing  messages  routinely  fail
to   do   so.  This   supports   the   idea  that   if
creators  of  marketing  messages  had  a  better
understanding    of    human   behavior,    many
disappointing  results  in  marketing  could  be
avoided.
Archetypes  need   to  be  chosen   and  their
meanings     managed     with     sensitivity     to
customers’ season of life. As examples  of such
sensitivity,  Harley Davidson’s  “Outlaw”  and
Nike’s  “Hero”  clearly are  expressed  in  terms
of the behavioral proclivities in late Spring and
throughout   Summer.   On   the   other   hand,
Hallmark’s   Lover   has   been   developed   to
appeal  to  customers  in  every  season  of  life.
Keeping in  mind that  brand stories  with their
archetypal  characters  help customers  process
their  lives,  it  is  critically  important  that  the
primary  survival  focus  and  story  themes  of
each  season  of  life  be  taken  into  account  in
managing   archetypal   meanings.   To   repeat
those   survival   focuses   and   story   themes,
which are described in more detail in Speaking
with Customers:
Irony Reconciliation (making sense of life) Winter
Tragic
Romantic
Comedic
Story Theme
Play (learning)
Work-play (search for meaning) Fall
Work (becoming somebody) Summer
Spring
Primary Survival Focus Season
The  primary  survival  focus  of  each  season
provides   clues   as   to   content   of   product
messages,  while  the  story  theme  of  a  season
gives   guidance    for   the   style    of   content
presentation.   It   is   not   uncommon   for   a
product   message   to   use   an   inappropriate
message  voice  for  otherwise  sound  content.  A
hotel    television    commercial    that    yielded
unhappy  results  is  an  example.  The  content
was    sound:    a    waiting    staff    and    hotel
ambiance   would  help   relieve  the   stress  of
business  travel.  But  the  message  voice  was
wrong.   The  depiction   of  an   irate  business
traveler on his way  to  the hotel, blocked on a
narrow  road  by  the  car  of  an  elderly  couple
squabbling    as    their    vehicle    crept    along,
offended  seniors, a significant clientele for the
hotel. People don’t lose their sense of humor in
Winter,  but  they  do  have  humor  preferences
that   don’t   always   coincide   with   those   of
young      people      who      create      television
commercials.  Most  people  in  the  Winter  of
their  lives  generally do  not  appreciate  humor
that  makes  a  person  or  class  of  people  look
silly or stupid.  This is also  true for many who
are in the Fall of their lives. The kinder, gentler
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 5
edge  that  commonly  emerges  in  the  Fall  and
Winter   of  life   changes  what   is  considered
funny.
The Brand Personality Book: Insurance
Against  Marketing  Blunders
Advertising  blunders  happen,  but  a  brand
personality   book   can   significantly   reduce
chances  of  that  happening.  Large  companies
take  great pains to  protect  their logos through
detailed   instructions   in   manuals   of   logo
presentation,       but       rarely       give       such
institutionalized   attention   to   protection   of
brand image in marketing communications. As
a   result,   product   messages   often   contain
conflicting personality images.
A  brand   personality  book   is  a   book  of
personality sketches. It defines the personality
attributes  of a  brand’s core archetypes and  of
the complimentary  archetypal  characters  that
may be projected into the marketplace through
surrogates.  The  character  sketches  should  be
developed  with keen  sensitivity to  variations
in    worldviews,     needs    and     motivations
between the four seasons  of  life. For example,
if  a  brand’s  core  archetype  is  the  Hero,  the
Hero  could  be  suitably  projected  into  youth
markets  with  narcissistic  overtones  to  imply
that   the   brand  can   augment   a   customer’s
social  standing. Nike does this  as  well as any
one does.
However, when the Hero represents a brand
with  a  strong  customer  base  in later  Summer
and older markets, it may be more effective to
project   the   Hero  with   altruistic   overtones.
Coke’s famous  “Mean Joe  Green” commercial
in   which   sports    bad    boy   Joe   Green   is
humanized by a small  boy’s offer of a  Coke is
a  compelling example  of  a  Hero presentation
with altruistic overtones.
Conducting   an   historical   assessment   of
personality    attributes    can     help    in    the
development  of   a  brand   personality  book.
This ensures continuity between  the past  and
the  present  should  a  decision  be  made  to
change  a  brand’s  personality  to  any  degree.
Often,  when  a  brand  appears  to  be  losing its
edge in  the marketplace, the agency  of  record
is  fired, and  a  new one brought in that feels  it
must  redefine  the  brand.  The  existing  brand
persona and  customers who identified with it
are  often  ignored  in  new  research  that  the
agency  uses  to  justify  a  new  brand  persona.
Miller  Lite  played  out  this  scenario  a  few
years  ago   when  it   launched  its   “Dick  the
copywriter” campaign  in which  it  lampooned
advertising.     The  campaign  hued   to  Miller
Lite’s  Jester  archetype,  but  went  too  far  into
the   realm   of   silliness,   and   worse,   into   a
farcical   regard   for   advertising   itself.   Sales
continued to fall.
Customer     research     will    obviously     be
necessary  to  learn  how  customers  currently
perceive the brand’s  personality. The research
may indicate a need to make changes in brand
personality along the lines of  what  Starbuck’s
Scott Bedbury meant when he said,   “A brand
is  a  metaphorical story  that’s  evolving  all  the
time.”  In  some  cases,  it  may  be  advisable  to
return  to  an  earlier personality  profile  as  the
Jack-in-the-Box brand  did  a  few years  ago to
rebuild sales after the company served tainted
hamburger meat to customers.
Developing  a  brand personality  book  is  an
exercise    in   applied    psychology.   Someone
should  manage  the  project  who  has  a  sound
footing in behavior. The advertising agency for
any   major   brand   has   a   team   of   account
planners   who  are   suited  for   managing  the
development   of  a   brand  personality   book.
Generally    speaking,    independent    research
houses that  specialize in quantitative research
are   not   the   best  candidates   for   the   task,
although  the  project  may  justify  quantitative
research.
Account planners, by tradition, tend to have
a  stronger  behavioral  orientation  than  most
quantitative     researchers.     Many     account
planners   are   now   drawing   extensively   on
anthropological research techniques to observe
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attributes of customers’ behavior that may not
be revealed by their direct testimony. In fact, it
would   be   worthwhile   to   add    a   cultural
anthropologist   to   the  team   developing   the
brand  personality   book.  The  services   of  a
Jungian   analyst   should  also   be   considered
because of  his or her intimate familiarity with
archetypes and Jungian personality types.
A  brand personality book can be invaluable
in   managing   the   meanings  of   a   brand   by
decreasing  the  influence  of  raw  opinion  on
marketing  decisions.  It  contains  benchmarks
against  which  every  campaign  and  product
message  can  be  assessed.   Movie  producers
have directors of  continuity to  make sure that
everything   hangs   together   in   a   film.   The
“continuing  metaphorical  story  of  a  brand”
should  be  given  similar  attention.  The  brand
personality  book  is  a  tool  to  help  maintain
continuity in a brand’s story  because it makes
it  more difficult  to  stray  from the  archetypal
reservation  without  solid  evidence  for  doing
so.
Why Brand Loyalty is Falling and What To
Do About It
Failure   to    appreciate    the   psychological
dimensions     of     brand     connections    with
customers’ psyches  may well be be one of  the
biggest  factors  in  the widely  reported decline
in  brand  loyalty.  Broad  consensus  once  held
that  promoting  product features  and  benefits
was  key  to  getting  customers  to  distinguish
between   brands.  It   has  now   become  more
difficult to distinguish brands by their features
and  benefits because  brands  within  the same
general    price     range    usually     have    few
differences.
Some  observers  think  product  parity  has
eroded  the importance  of  branding  products.
Most  companies  and  their customers  will not
be well served by  embracing this  view. Brand
loyalty has fallen largely because marketers, in
an  era in which product features and  benefits
have  become   less  influential   on  customers’
decisions,      have      not      developed      new
approaches      for      presenting     brands      to
customers. So, if product features and benefits
are not enough to bond a customer to a brand,
what  will?  What  is  the key to  halting decline
in brand loyalty?
Customers   are   attracted   to   brands   with
interesting  personalities,  the  same  way  they
are    attracted    to    people   with    interesting
personalities.    Steve    Jobs    brought    Apple
Computer back  from its deathbed  by focusing
on  the  personalities  of  the  company  and  its
products.    The    tagline    “Think    different”
aligned    the    company    with    breakthrough
thought  that  reflected  its  Outlaw  archetype.
Repackaging Apple  computers in fruit colored
cases   made   the  product  the   most  visually
engaging computer on the market.
Arguments  have been  waged for  years over
whether or not customers identify with brands
as  personalities.  New  insights  into  how  the
brain     works     and     research     by     media
communication  researchers  Byron Reeves  and
Clifford  Nass,   published  in  their   book  the
Media   Equation,   goes    far   to   resolve    the
argument.    It    can    now    be    stated    with
confidence    that    brands,    like    any    other
inanimate   object,   are   personalities.   People
react  to  brands  using  the  same  social  rules
they use in reacting to each other.
Across  12 years  of  research, which included
brain      scans      and      other     sophisticated
techniques,  Reeves  and  Nass  learned  that  at
the  deeper levels  of  brain functioning,  people
respond to depictions of reality using the same
rules they  use in  responding to  actual  reality.
To  the  brain,  in  its  preconscious  activities,
“People  presented  in media  are  perceived  as
actually  present,”  they  write.  This holds  true
for  what  is  happening  in  the  environment  of
people     shown     in    media.     A     depicted
thunderstorm  is  a  real  thunderstorm—not  to
the conscious mind of  course, but certainly to
the more primitive levels of the brain.
To   better  appreciate   how  the   brain  and
conscious  mind  can  differ  as  to  what  is  real
© 2002 Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC Page 7
and  what  is  not  real,  think  about  how  you
react  while watching an  intense action  film or
mystery  thriller.  While  your  conscious  mind
tells you it is  only a  movie, your brain pumps
out  adrenalin,  ratchets  up  your  heart  beat,
dries  up  saliva  flow,   changes  your  muscle
tone—all  of  which  are  ancient,  predisposed
responses to danger. Your primitive brain does
not   know  that   what  is   happening  on   the
screen  is  not  a  threat,  so  it  reorganizes  your
body chemistry to prepare for fight or flight.
Reeves    and    Nass’s    work    leads    to    a
conclusion  of  great  significance  in  marketing:
people  do  not  consciously anthropomorphize
inanimate   objects.   Inanimate   objects   enter
consciousness      already      bearing      human
attributes.  The  brain  divines  those  attributes
before it brings awareness of an object into the
conscious  mind.  Keeping  in  mind  the  earlier
discussion about  how  all  personal knowledge
is  traceable to  metaphors drawn from our self
awareness,  it  is  completely  logical  that  the
brain  sees  inanimate  objects  in  terms  of  our
self-aware humanness. In other words, the
only  way  we  can  relate to  a  brand  is  by  our
brain    reacting   to    it   as    though   it    were
human—like ourselves.
The issue of product parity aside, promoting
product features and benefits worked better in
the past when markets were youth-dominated.
As  discussed  in  our  website  article, The  New
Customer Majority, young  minds operate  more
objectively;   therefore    promoting   the   more
measurable aspects of  features and  benefits in
the  past  was  more  effective than  it  is  today.
Adults  in  the  Fall  and  Winter  of  their  lives
dominate   today’s   customer   universe.   They
have  developed  into   more  subjective,  more
qualitative,   and  more   relationship  sensitive
customers. They have no compelling interest in
staying in relationships with  brands  that  lack
interesting personalities. The present condition
of  declining brand loyalty was  predictable for
that  reason.  The  remedy  for  declining  brand
loyalty    begins    with    giving    brands    more
interesting personalities.
u u u
David Wolfe is a principal of Booth Morgan Consulting, LLC and author of Serving The Ageless
Market, McGraw-Hill, 1990. His latest book, The New Customer Majority, will be published by
Dearborn in 2003.
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