Known makes loved

This article appeared in MarketingTribune 16, 2019 in the MarketingTrends section and was written by Sytse Kooistra, Strategy Director at Isobar. Read it in Dutch here.

The quote ‘I am not influenced by advertising, I only buy famous brands’ from the book Zapklare Brokken by Hans van Dijk has always stayed with me. It tells a lot about the skeptical attitude of people towards advertising and their love-hate relationship with brands.

I increasingly notice this attitude around me, especially towards opaque and non-authentic forms of advertising. You also see this natural selection happening with the new type of celebrities. They definitely have more influence than we think, but are often still looking for the best way to deal with paid assignments. Influencers who put a sponsorship on top of it, or who recommend brand X one day and find competitor Y great the next, can increasingly count on negative reactions from their followers.

Parody on advertising

Various brands have responded creatively to the sentiment described with campaigns claiming to be a parody of advertising. Such as Newcastle Brown Ale in the No Bollocks campaign with copy such as There are many beers out there. This is one of them. and If this coaster doesn’t make you want a Newcastle, then the coaster sales guy song to us. And, more recently, Oatley with ads like Posters don’t have feelings, so you don’t have to pretend to be interested and Maybe a social media influencer will take a photo of this poster and you will see it on Instagram and like it way more than you do now. Campaigns that can only exist because of the skeptical attitude towards advertising — very meta all of them.

The influence of a brand

When people learn that I work in advertising, I get a response like “I don’t allow myself to be influenced by advertising” about one in four times. Yet they almost always display typical buying behaviour. Purchasing behaviour that is more attributable to the strength of the brand than to the so-called objective quality-price ratio. Not that I judge that, by the way. I have for some time given up the hope to rationally justify all my purchases to myself and others.

The latest version of the National Beer Survey shows the same effect: 33 percent of respondents indicate that they think the brand is important when choosing a beer. Only one in three. Well I have done enough research for various beer brands and scoured with a dust comb to be able to say that in practice this number is many times higher. The adventurous choice for an IPA with exotic hopping or the limited edition whiskey matured stout, but the Dutch beer drinker underestimates the big influence of the brand on their beer choice.

What do you want to be known for?

Studies by the UvA, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and the British IPA also show it: Well-known makes loved. Being known is clearly a precondition for successful brands. Fortunately, becoming known (and staying) does not only mean a media game to be seen and heard as often as possible; After share of voice, creativity is the most important factor for effectiveness. Creativity as an ‘ unfair advantage ‘ to become known.

“I am not influenced by advertising, I only buy the well-known brands” is just as relevant as when it was published twelve years ago. However, I do think that how you become known as a brand has changed and has become more important.

Do you want to be loved because you are known or what you are known for? Or simply put: are you Kim Kardashian or Patagonia?