Corona and the effects of Apophenia
The coronavirus outbreak has (officially) infected around 85,000 people and caused more than 3,000 deaths. And China, one of the biggest and most influential economies in the world, is at its epicenter.
With around 90% of all infections being in China, it is inevitable to foresee a negative impact on global economies. Dow Jones and the S&P500 have both dropped around 10% in the last 5 days, and that might be just the tip of the iceberg. On the other hand, we can also see companies taking short term advantages of this situation such as mask and hand sanitizer makers.
Although there are many issues to be covered, such as whether it is morally wrong for companies to raise mask prices or countries to ban the entrance of Chinese citizens (check out “Justice” by Michael Sandel for more details on this topic), I would like to focus on something more specific, something that I’m pretty sure many curious people have already searched for: Apophenia. Well, Apophenia is not exactly what people are searching for, Corona is the word! No, not the virus but the beer brand.
What’s Apophenia and how does it relate to corona and Corona?
“Apophenia is a human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data”
Simply put, Apophenia is the act of finding relationships between two or more data that have no common point. Most people have never heard about it, but often fall victim of it.
Let’s start with an extreme example. Look at the graph below. If we focus on the graph, the data seems strangely convincing.
Some could say that “due to the increase of power generated by US nuclear power plants we have seen an increase in radioactivity, leading to an inability to swim which, consequently, lead to an increase of the number of people who drowned while in a swinning-pool.”
We all know it is A LOT unlikely for that to be true. It’s common sense! Regardless of the graph, who in the world would believe in it, right? Well… there are people who do believe…
Similarly, for the coronavirus outbreak, people are also falling victim of misconceptions.
Corona is a Latin word for “crown”
When the virus took the spotlight of news channels, one of the things that came into my mind was the beer brand, Corona. Why do they share the same name? Where did the name come from? Will this affect the Corona beer business?
Corona, the beer, has the following slogan: “la cerveza mas fina”, or “finest beer” in English. A relationship between “corona, the crown,” and a high quality beer. While for the virus, “the name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (…) which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona.”
Do you see any relationship besides the name? Is it common sense? Maybe… But what really is common sense?
Recently, the public-relations agency 5WPR surveyed 737 adult US consumers about Corona and found that 38% said they “would not buy Corona under any circumstances.” A total of 16% said they were “confused about whether Corona beer is related to the coronavirus.” (source: business insider)
One thing is to say that workers from the Corona beer factory have been infected which lead to sales drop due to possible beer contamination. Another thing is to say that the virus came from the beer like magic, out of nowhere…
Marketing | Branding
As a marketer, branding is one of the most difficult tasks we have. We constantly take human psychology into consideration when choosing the right word, color, time and platform.
This time, indeed, there was no way Corona could have known that there would be a virus outbreak with such name. But still, often times we underestimate the impact human psychology has on brand image. Just because you like a color or a name, it doesn’t mean it will attract customers.
We are experiencing a change where the demand for customized services are growing. Modular technologies and tailored services will further increase and bring challenges not only to branding but to data analytics as well.
With AI and Big Data we are able to gather an infinite amount of information and create fancy charts. The question is, will you be able to properly analyze it or will you fall victim of Apophenia?
I am personally curious to see when, how or even if Corona, the beer, will deal with this situation.
Praying for the safety of all.
ESPY: to discover, as a distant object partly concealed, or not obvious to notice;
“The obvious is not always obvious”
