Personal Branding: Cristiano & others
The Ronaldo Effect
As you may already know, during a European Championship press conference, Cristiano Ronaldo moved away two Coca-Cola bottles that were in front of him as a sponsor. The Portuguese superstar was obviously annoyed with the drink’s presence.
A few moments later he placed a bottle of water in front of him saying “agua” in his mother language. He wanted to encourage people to choose water over a drink full of sugar.
The results? Some days later Coca Cola’s share price fell from 56.10$ to 55.22$. We’re talking about a decrease of 1.6% in a very short period of time. The market value of Coca-Cola also fell tremendously. 4 billion dollars in losses, just some days after Cristiano’s action.
Some years ago, it would be painfully hard for someone to believe that a single person could influence the market to this extent. But times change, and people change with them. After the rise of social media, we observe a large increase in the influence of personal branding.
Cristiano in particular has 300 million followers on Instagram and the circle of his influence expands even further than his social media channels. He is the definition of successful personal branding, meaning that other people produce content based on his persona and achievements, increasing his influence even more.
Influential tweets and birthdays
Beyond Cristiano’s occasion, other people also influence others largely.
For example, Elon Musk’s tweets about Bitcoin affected the cryptocurrency’s price and popularity big time.
At first, the real-life Tony Stark was almost in love with Bitcoin and its capabilities, considering their technology as a component of his business model. Even Tesla invested in it and Elon announced that the hybrid car company would accept Bitcoin as a method of payment as well.
It was at this point that Bitcoin reached its maximum price, 58.000$. Paradoxically though, Elon changed his mind. After a while, the billionaire claimed that cryptocurrency is harmful to the environment. His tweets aren’t so kind anymore and guess what, people listen to him, they value his opinion.
Certainly, men aren’t the only ones that influence people and trends. Kylie Jenner is considered the top influencer of the fashion industry, even surpassing the dutchess Meghan Markle.
Kylie’s influence is out of this world, she is a person that single-handedly sets the fashion trends, clearly one of the most influential celebrities. It is enough to mention that after she wore a pink mini-dress to her birthday party, the total worldwide searches for “pink dress” increased in the extent of 107% in the following 48 hours.
Τhe psychology behind the curtain
But why is that a thing? Why are people so influenced by other people?
From a certain perspective, people use to identify themselves with other people they admire. It’s like the persona represents everything their fans dream of achieving.
In more detail, people listen to what Cristiano has to say about diet because he has proven that he knows what he is doing. In the same way, they value Kylie’s taste in fashion because not only she has proven that she knows her way around clothes, she represents the aesthetic of success that people pursue. The same goes for Elon and all the other “influencers”.
Another point of view, related to the previous one, is that people are influenced by celebrities because their persona makes them feel a warm feeling of familiarity.
When a kid listens to Cristiano, he doesn’t hear just words from a superstar football player, he listens to his idol. Someone who has often in his mind and is fond of. In the same way, a girl values Kylie’s opinion because she feels that her voice is something familiar to her, not just a celebrity who sells clothes.
In a more general context, studies have shown that people want to be told what to do. Even though we want to be free, everyone experiences a feeling of certainty when someone else (more “expert”) has the wheel.
As the influence of social media grows bigger every day, the same goes for the capabilities of personalized influence. In 2021 everyone has the power to pass their message to the rest of the world, and influencers take advantage of this phenomenon in a very effective way.
