Excerpted from Brandchannel, “Risky Business: When Personalities Promote Brands” by Mya Frazier, April 20, 2009
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Including marketers—or any other employee for that matter—as brand representatives in marketing campaigns raises a bevy of questions, especially considering the propensity for real people to get into trouble.
Think Kate Moss snorting cocaine in a British tabloid and the immediate scrubbing out by H&M, Chanel and Burberry of the supermodel’s image in ads. Or consider Kobe Bryant. Or Michael Vick. Or Michael Phelps. The list of brand representatives falling prey to their own humanity goes on and on. It’s why fictional brand icons, from the Pillsbury Doughboy to Tony the Tiger, remain so popular in the history of advertising.
By branding around execs and other employees, brands might save money… however, CEOs and marketers are not the most trusted people these days.
It’s certainly arguable that the inclusion of employees is an inherently risky venture, though perhaps not in the trainwreck style of Moss.
The popularity of celebrity spokesmen (think William Shatner for Priceline.com or Dennis Haysbert for Allstate) remains relatively steady, perhaps for the degree of separation from the company. After all, if a scandal erupts, most consumers understand that despite being held up as the personification of the brand, the celebrity isn’t the brand.
However, using a marketer or other employee is an entirely different beast. It’s the ultimate merger of person and brand. They embody the company more completely simply by being an employee. He or she also bears a level of responsibility and accountability for corporate actions, especially a brand’s environmental impact, particularly if the campaign carries a green message.
That’s perhaps why when employees such as marketers are held up publicly as the stewards of a brand, critics are even more emboldened to attack.
The inclusion of “real” people—such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Sprint’s Gary Foresee or the Body Shop’s late Anita Roddick—arguably brings a level of authenticity to ad campaigns in a way the no-name commercial actor can’t. But striking the right tone is not easy.
“Consumers demand more authentic connections with brands. Authenticity is one of the six drivers of brand credibility in my book. Transparency is another one, and in a transparent environment consumers can quickly vet out what the CEO believes and stands for anyway, so the executive might as well be proactive.”
Building trust, of course, is key. And when claims of going green are made, consumers can sense when brand representatives are coloring the truth.
Edit by NRV
Full article:http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=474
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May 15, 2009 at 9:36 pm |
Professor,
Have you heard of/read Geoffrey Miller’s “Spent”? It’s relatively new and the work of an evolutionary psychologist, but I wanted to see what you thought of it (I expect it to be far deeper and much more insightful than Gladwell’s banalities).
Laj