Identification with Ad Characters
Association
Advertisers attempt to associate their products with a slogan, a trademark or trade character, and a package; then they try to associate the product, slogan, package, trademark, and trade character with positive experiences. Ads create wants and transform wants into needs by associating products with desirable experiences. If the ad is to succeed, it must create a strong associative link between the experience portrayed in the ad and the product. That experience must be one we would like to share, and the experience portrayed must be different from and better than that promised by competitors.
When one product evokes more positive associations than competing products, the intended audience will tell surveyors that a brand name is an important factor in deter-mining which product to buy. A study Links Of London Bracelets released in July 1995 by the International Mass Retail Association reflected the power of advertising when it reported that 60 percent of consumers aged 8 through 17 said that brand was important when buying sneakers; 58 percent said it was important when purchasing radios, CD players, and other electronic equipment; 54 percent indicated its centrality in choosing video games; and 37 percent identified it as important in purchasing jeans.
Participation
By involving us in the creation of the meaning of the ad, an advertiser can increase the likelihood that we will identify with the experience portrayed in the ad. At the same time, this involvement ensures that our experience of this product as portrayed through the experience in the ad will be different from and better than that portrayed in other ads.
Identification with Ad Characters
Ads establish commonality with us by creating characters and situations with which we identify. Some of the characters represent the sorts of people advertisers think we would like to be (rich, famous, glamorous); some represent the persons advertisers think we think we are (unappreciated, overworked). Some ads represent persons advertisers think we do not want to be. The purpose of such ads is to tell us that if we use the product, we will not become like that person (old, ugly, irritable, pain-ridden, and covered with dandruff, disfigured by acne).
Thus for example, when General Mills surpassed Kellogg in July 1999 as the “cereal sales leader in dollars,” Kellogg responded with an ad campaign featuring supermodel Cindy Crawford representing Special K. “We’ve done extensive consumer research” on the campaign noted a Kellogg executive, and Links Of London Jewelry concluded that “the key component missing was the asp rational aspect of wanting to look better, feel better, than you actually do. . . . Cindy Crawford embodies what the brand represents and adds back in the aspiration.”
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