Social Media: Personifying Brands and Building Loyalty
Social Media: Personifying Brands and Building Loyalty
Connecting and engaging with consumers on social media in today’s digital-obsessed marketplace means cutting through the clutter and creating a brand persona that speaks directly to a target market. One way companies are engaging with their consumers is through brand personification, or the creation of a brand’s “emotional identity” that gives it human characteristics designed to resonate with the brand’s target market (Sinha). A well-developed brand persona works “to engage customers, talk to them…and present a friendly and accessible ‘face’ to the public” (Sinha). Successfully developed brand personification then leads to increased and long-term consumer loyalty because “consumers are more likely to identify and stay loyal with brands that closely resemble themselves in terms of personality” (Lamoureux). While brand personification can and should be utilized across all media platforms to build a consistent brand message for consumers, social media channels provide an effective avenue to utilize brand personification to directly increase consumer engagement with the brand and, subsequently, consumer brand loyalty, which can then lead to increased company revenue.
Historically, companies have defined their brands through typical branding elements consisting of “colors…value proposition statements, and target market” (Loomis). Marketing messages created with the defined brand in mind were limited to product or service attributes and benefits that typically targeted one market segment. Advertising executives then created static messages for traditional media channels (e.g., television, radio, print, billboards, etc.). In fact, in large part, consumers were largely “persuaded only by rational factors invoked by advertisers” (“Brand”).
Today, with the onset of the Internet and subsequent popularity of social media channels, rationality and practicality still ring true, but real engagement with a brand occurs when that brand is personified and that personality shines. “Brand personification is a projective technique where people think about brands as if they were people, and describe how they would think and feel” (Lamoureux). Connecting with a brand as if it was a person with a distinct personality creates a situation where “people are persuaded emotionally through immersive marketing that employs consumer behavior modification” (“Brand”). In other words, consumers are connecting and engaging with brands they need, but only if they also connect with, like, and approve of those brands’ personalities.
Successfully creating and conveying a brand’s distinct personality is not an easy task. However, because “a brand that has engaged in personification has the opportunity to be seen as a friend, or at very least a member of the community, as opposed to being viewed as a faceless monolith,” it is important for company executives to create a personified brand that can confidently enter the company’s target market scene (Lamoureux). There are some best practices guidelines that can help companies develop a brand personality that represents the core values of the company, while also replicating the values and goals of the target audience. First, the company can create content that speaks in the same manner as the company’s typical consumer. “Use the same language, pacing, emojis and little extras that you would as a real human” (Rhodes). Second, whether a company chooses to use a mascot, influencer, celebrity, or real person to represent and project the brand’s personality, the content and look and feel of the brand personified should be carefully defined and utilized so the brand personality is cemented in consumers’ minds. Additionally, while each brand’s personality must align with the company objectives and those of the target market, data has shown that companies “can improve their brand perceptions and engage customers on social media by making a personal connection with them through upbeat, light-hearted posts, direct replies and witty remarks” (Sinha). Finally, the channels used to convey the brand’s personality should align with the target market’s use and include consistent messaging across all channels.
Once brand personification is established, projecting that brand personality and connecting with consumers is most effective on social media. Social media has become the hub of consumers throughout the world. More than 244 million people use social media in the United States alone, and experts project that 2.95 billion people worldwide will be using social media by 2020 (“U.S. Population”). Whether people are buying on social media or simply talking about products and services of interest, in order to keep pace with consumers’ changing thoughts, feelings, and needs, companies must dedicate time and personnel to monitoring and participating on social media sites. In fact, successful brand personification includes understanding the changing “business conditions, marketplace wants, regulatory shifts, and a host of other factors,” and this information is best and most easily acquired on social media (“Brand-Building”).
Brand personification and the promotion of that brand personality is important to consumer connection and engagement, but it is also an artful strategy that must be given careful consideration. Throughout the years, some companies have attempted to personify their brands, but made poor choices because they did not fully understand their target market. “The more [companies] interact with [their] customers, the better informed [the company will] be about their needs, their priorities, and their perception of [the] company’s value to them” (“Brand-Building”). Dismissing the need for consumer interaction or turning a blind eye to consumers’ needs in today’s highly visible social media world can result is catastrophic brand failure and, subsequently, significant decreases in revenue.
To avoid a social media faux pas or embarrassing interaction with a consumer, there are a couple of key points that company executives should keep in mind when examining brand personification. First, consumers of today expect companies to react to their requests posted on social media and interact with them if they choose to take the time to interact with the company. This reciprocal interaction from the company, when done appropriately, can work to increase consumer brand loyalty because the company appears to be human, rather than a machine or some type of automated response generator. For that reason, canned responses from a company’s customer service team is to be avoided because “an organization that conducts its business in a highly methodical and clinical manner can develop a brand image of being cold, impersonal or even ruthless” (Sinha). While this unapproachable strategy may work for some brands, research has shown that unapproachable brands on social media do not reap long-term success. However, when a company does make its brand personification one that is approachable and considered more human than mechanistic, they also need to be careful because the brand and the company are “often held to higher standards than non-humanized brands” (Sinha). Company executives need to acknowledge this higher standard and consumer expectation for the inevitable times when the brand experiences trouble. Finally, companies must understand that the personification of their brand must do more than simply tell a human story—it must inspire and encourage consumers to purchase the company’s products. This call to action requires carefully chosen words and, frequently, a subtle approach to sales that appears non-direct, rather than a direct demand to buy a product.
There are some textbook examples of companies that have personified their brand, used social media to promote that personification, and then engaged and connected with consumers to the point that brand loyalty was successfully established.
Snickers
Once just a candy bar struggling to stay afloat in a sea of candy bars, Snickers’ struggle changed in 2016 when the company chose to personify its brand. Using the intense hunger pains felt by all people when they need something to eat as the foundation for their personification, the marketing team at Snickers “distilled the thinking into a universal human truth: when you’re hungry, you’re just not yourself. And, when you’re not yourself, it has a real impact on your ability to remain part of the pack” (Miller). Knowing that every person around the world understood these hunger pains and the subsequent unpleasant feelings that typically accompanied such feelings, Snickers executives knew they had hit a sweet spot.
Although the campaign initially relied on television—including a highly coveted Super Bowl spot—social media played a major role in continuing the campaign. Throughout the world, Snickers’ executives launched region-specific social media campaigns to support the longevity of the campaign. Snickers has millions of followers on its social media channels (the Snickers Facebook account has the largest number of followers, followed by Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram), and Snickers marketers used these channels and the large amount of followers to “drive awareness…through a fun and exciting campaign as well drive new consumption occasions for self and for casual gifting to friends” (Neogy). For example, in one of their many worldwide Twitter-based hashtag campaigns, Snickers asked consumers to tweet about what happens to each individual consumer when intense hunger strikes, using the hashtag #WhenYouAreHungry. In this campaign, “#WhenYouAreHungry received 4,731,366 [tweets and retweets] between November 10 – November 16” in 2017 (Neogy). In the UK, Snickers’ executives “decided the campaign should be launched in a fresh way using Twitter. Five celebrities sent four out-of-character tweets, before revealing in a fifth tweet that they had been hungry and needed a Snickers” (Miller). These regional and worldwide campaigns connected the humanized Snickers bar to consumers everywhere and successfully engaged them in a way that inspired them to purchase a Snickers. In fact, through a calculated series of text posts, tweets, hashtag campaigns, memes, and videos, and text posts, “In its first full year, "You’re not you when you’re hungry" helped increase global sales of Snickers by 15.9% and grew market share in 56 of the 58 markets in which it ran” (Miller).
Bush Brothers & Company
Bush’s Baked Beans is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of brand personification in the U.S. food market. In 1993, “Jay Bush, the scion of the founding family of Bush’s Best—which, among other things, is responsible for around 80% of the baked beans consumed in the United States—put a human face on the brand. And his dog, Duke, [gave] it a canine face” (Wachtel). Appearing in television commercials in households across America, Jay Bush and Duke quickly won the hearts of bean lovers everywhere. In large part, this can be attributed to the fact that, “Human-to-human interaction is well received in a world that has become more and more automated and transactional, with technology solutions replacing human interactions” (Lamoureux). People no longer viewed Bush’s Baked Beans as simply a company; rather, they saw it as a real person, who, just like many of them, owns a dog that is a genuine part of the family. The campaign resonated so well with consumers, in fact, that shortly after the campaign personifying Bush’s Baked Beans with Jay Bush and his dog, Duke, went live, Bush’s Baked Beans saw a previously unprecedented double-digit sales increases.
Today, the brand personification remains steadfastly intact and equally successful. This success is, in large part, due to Bush’s active social media accounts. With hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of monthly views of their recipes and videos across all of their social media accounts, Bush’s is making a concerted effort to connect and engage with consumers online—all while promoting the personification of their brand through Duke and the Bush family. The Bush’s marketing team doesn’t use their social media accounts for only connecting with consumers; they created a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that also uses the popular Bush’s social media accounts to direct followers to their blog that is filled with recipes and fun family activities, as well as a photo app and two gaming apps, which, in turn, “encourage activity on their social media channels” (Chambers).
Nike
In 1988, Nike “was trying to reverse a mid-decade decline in which it lost its position as the United States' top-selling shoe brand” (Taube). Brought to life was the now iconic “Just Do It” tagline that remains strong today. It wasn’t Nike’s catchy tagline alone that revived the company’s brand—it was the tagline coupled with the faces of famous athletes in all sports. For years, Nike had only focused on the sport of running and using the faces of everyday people or no people in their advertising. In 1988, Nike debuted the “Just Do It” campaign and proceeded to personify their brand as the shoe of elite athletes that everyday people can also wear to achieve their personal sports goals. “From Roger Federer, LeBron James and Michael Jordan to Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few, the who’s who of sports are associated with Nike. By personifying the brand through these sporting legends,” Nike has successfully developed a brand of individual empowerment that is felt by its consumers, most of whom will never reach a professional level in sports, but still feel inspired to reach their own personal physical or sporting goals (Ravi).
To continue promotion of the “Just Do It” campaign and the personification of the Nike brand, Nike created a solid social media presence. Today, Nike has millions of followers on its major social media accounts (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest). Nike’s social media coordinators have multiple pages or accounts that are sport-specific within each social media account. These sport-specific accounts allow users to personalize and further narrow their experience with Nike to align with their personal interests. This way, people who only want to see golf posts or content, for example, can follow only the Nike golf account, rather than the general Nike account, which contains posts and content from all sports. Additionally, “each category [social media account] posts regularly with videos, photos of latest product models and celebrity-endorsed inspiration” (White Walker).
Throughout the last few years, Nike has seen dramatic increases in sales. Much of this increase is due to the company’s large social media presence and its use of social media for the promotion of its brand personification and products. For example, although Michael Jordan—a long-time face of Nike—hasn’t set foot on a professional basketball court for years, his reputation as the greatest basketball player of all time (in the minds of many people) continues to ring true, and his personification of the Nike brand continues to sell basketball shoes. This strong connection between Jordan and Nike is evidenced in the revenue generated by Jordan’s shoes through extensive promotion on social media, which “is expected to generate $4.5 billion in annual revenue for Nike by 2020” (Kell).
Competing for that basketball greatest of all time title is LeBron James, who is also a Nike endorser. Nike heavily promoted a new LeBron James shoe in 2014 on all of their social media sites, and the result was “Nike sold $340 million worth of James’ signature shoes” in a 12-month period of time (Badenhausen). While Nike’s impressive shoes sales from social media campaigns is not limited to the sport of basketball, this is perhaps one of the best examples of how brand personification and the promotion of that brand personality through social media can connect and engage with consumers, and build consumer loyalty that results in increased revenue.
Brand personification is one of the most effective methods available to company marketers today to connect and engage with consumers. Personification transforms a company from a machine to a human who cares about consumers’ needs and wants. Coupling brand personification with social media and the billions of people throughout the world who regularly use at least one social media channel, companies have an incredible opportunity to not only connect and engage with consumers, but also build a brand loyalty that increases revenue. As witnessed in the Snickers, Bush’s Baked Beans, and Nike brand personification and social media uses, the goal of increasing revenue through one campaign is realistically achievable, particularly if the brand’s personification and social media presence are strong.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. “LeBron James Is NBA's Top Shoe Salesman With $340 Million For Nike.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 18 Mar. 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2015/03/18/lebron-james-is-nbas-top-shoe-salesman-with-340-million-for-nike-in-2014/#589d2ee94e56.
“Brand-Building Best Practices.” Inc.com, Inc., 22 Oct. 2015, www.inc.com/theupsstore/brand-building-best-practices.html.
“Brand Personification: Humanizing the Brand.” Evok Advertising, Evok Advertising, 13 Mar. 2018, www.evokad.com/brand-personification-humanizing-the-brand/.
Chambers, Tori. “Bush's Baked Beans: A Tasty Interactive Marketing Strategy.” EnVeritas Group, EnVeritas Group, 22 July 2014, enveritasgroup.com/campfire/bushs-baked-beans-tasty-interactive-marketing-strategy/.
Galgano, Keely. “Brand Personification in the Digital Age” LinkedIn SlideShare, LinkedIn Corporation, 11 May 2013, www.slideshare.net/keels223/independent-study-final-draft.
Kell, John. “Why Celebrities Are Peddling Sneakers and Yoga Pants.” Fortune, Fortune Media, 19 Mar. 2016, fortune.com/2016/03/19/nike-adidas-kevin-hart-kanye/.
Lamoureux, Marc. “Being Yourself: Why Brand Personification Increases Customer Engagement.” Veriday, Veriday, Inc., 30 Oct. 2018, www.veriday.com/blog/personification-increase-engagement/.
Loomis, Coralyn. “Brand Personification: The Ultimate Way to Get to Know Your Brand.” MarketingProfs, MarketingProfs, LLC, 18 May 2016, www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/29950/brand-personification-the-ultimate-way-to-get-to-know-your-brand.
Miller, James. “Case Study: How Fame Made Snickers’ ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ Campaign a Success.” Campaign US, Haymarket Media Group, Ltd., 26 Oct. 2016, www.campaignlive.com/article/case-study-fame-made-snickers-youre-not-when-youre-hungry-campaign-success/1413554.
Neogy, Sarmistha. “Snickers Spins a Supportive Social Media Strategy for Hunger Bars Campaign.” Social Samosa, 16 Nov. 2017, www.socialsamosa.com/2017/11/snickers-hunger-bars-campaign/.
Ravi, Kavya. “6 Ways Nike Built a Strong Brand on Social Media.” Unmetric Social Media Analytics Blog, Unmetric, 25 Apr. 2018, blog.unmetric.com/nike-social-media.
Rhodes, Danielle. “Humanize Your Brand with Social Media.” Impulse Creative, Impulse Creative, Inc., 15 Aug. 2017, www.impulsecreative.com/blog/humanize-your-brand-with-social-media.
Sinha, Jay I. “The Risks and Rewards of Brand Personification Using Social Media.” MIT Sloan Management Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 3 Aug. 2015, sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-risks-and-rewards-of-brand-personification-using-social-media/.
Taube, Aaron. “25 Nike Ads That Shaped The Brand's History.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 1 Sept. 2013, www.businessinsider.com/25-nike-ads-that-shaped-the-brands-history-2013-8.
“U.S. Population with a Social Media Profile 2019.” Statista, The Statistics Portal, Statista, Mar. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/.
Wachtel, Thomas. “5 Successful Examples of Brand Personification.” Element Three, Element Three, 19 Mar. 2019, elementthree.com/blog/5-successful-examples-of-brand-personification/.
White Walker, Alice. “Brand Focus: How Nike Excels on Social Media.” NukeSuite, 4 Aug. 2016, www.nukesuite.com/brand-focus-nike-excels-on-social-media/.