7&8 - Psychology of Brands

Question 1

What is a brand?

Answer 1

A brand is a category.

Products are elements of the category

Question 2

Why do brands matter?

Answer 2

• They are ubiquitous
• They influence our economic decisions
• Influence our perceptions and cognitions (Informational value, categorisation)

Question 3

Describe the three experiments that demonstrate the powerful nature of experiments

Answer 3

Peanut Butter Study
- 3 jars of peanut butter with varying ranges of quality. Participants always selected branded peanut butter even if had low quality inside.

Chicken Nugget Study

• Liked McDonald’s packaging better even though same product inside white bag.
• Children were tested, so they knew brand already

Coke Vs Pepsi Study
- in fMRI, unlabelled bottle; no change in taste. in Labelled bottle preference for Coke and activity in PFC and hippocampus (memory)

Question 4

What makes us consume a brand?

Answer 4

We are aware of the brand

The brand satisfied our psychological needs

Question 5

What is brand awareness?

Answer 5

The degree to which you are familiar with a brand

Consists of:

• recognising the brand
• correctly associating it with product/service

Question 6

What helps cultivate brand awareness?

Answer 6

• Logos (powerful, represent infinite concepts, quickly perceived, but double-edged sword)
• Colours (detected easily, effectiveness depends on context)
• Names (sound symbolism; align sound to brand/product, invoke meaning. Fluency important)

Question 7

Why are logos, colours and names important?

Answer 7

Provide marketers with multiple routes to increase brand awareness.
Give brands public visibility
Advertise themselves

Question 8

Overall, how does a brand satisfy our psychological needs?

Answer 8

Self-definition, reflection and signalling
Uniqueness
Belonging
Effectance

Question 9

What symbolic meanings to brands possess?

Answer 9

Values/purpose

Personality

Question 10

Define brand personality?

Answer 10

Set of human characteristics associated with a brand

Question 11

What are the effects of brand personality and describe it as a concept

Answer 11

Creates differentiation between brands.

It is stable over time and is influenced by context

Question 12

Aaker’s 5-factor of the self describes brand personality. What are the factors she found?

Answer 12

Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness

The first three are human characteristics.
Change across contexts

Question 13

Which needs regarding the self can the symbolic quality of brands help to achieve?

Answer 13

Reflecting the self (i buy x because i care about the environment)

Signal the self (i buy x to show others I care)

Define the self (i care about the environment because I bought x)

Question 14

In terms of brands and the self, what changes from 8 to 12 year olds?

Answer 14

At age 12, children understand that brands can signal something about the self.

8 year olds treat brands as informational perceptual cues.

Question 15

What is a self-brand connection and how can it be measured?

Answer 15

The extent to which a consumer has incorporated a brand into their self-concept

Explicitly; this brand reflects me, I use this brand to communicate who I am

Implicitly; RT assessing associative strength of brand and “me”

Question 16

Why might some brands elicit stronger self-brand connections?

Answer 16

Mac users show stronger associations than PC users.
Could be because they’re a minority and therefore relate to the in-group more strongly.

Stronger brand connections with;

• associated with the in-group
• congruent personality to us

Question 17

In terms of self-brand connections, what products or brands do we avoid?

Answer 17

Something that represents undesired identities of groups.

Men avoid “ladies” steak, Canadians avoid American