What Brand Strategists Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Celebrities
What Brand Strategists Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Celebrities
Dr. Bob Deutsch
In America, we live in a “performance” culture where celebrities are our kings and queens. So it can be instructive for marketers to understand the dynamics of mind that cause us to idolize and, on occasion, turn away abruptly from those we once extolled.
The one axiom that most executives understand: when you have a blip on the screen, come clean and do it quickly. Stone-walling never works.
But there are more subtle learnings for brand managers that can help obviate future problems. The first is: TOO is never good when seeking public attention and attachment. Tiger Woods is a case in point. Tiger always seemed too perfect. While perfection is awe-inspiring, a person or product is perceived as a leader when people can project parts of themselves into that individual or brand – when they identify. Perfection is uni-dimensional – Absolute. Unknowable. Mortals cannot identify with it.
And, there are other problems with too perfect. When seeking public adulation, perfection can be associated with robotic. The public does not like those who appear unfeeling.
As examples of TOO, think of also-rans in Presidential campaigns: Gen. Haig – too power-hungry; Governor Dukakis – too bureaucratic; Senator Simon (who?) – too intellectual.
Ronald Reagan’s perceived absent-mindedness, or occasional nap during an audience, with the Pope for example, was for many a forgivable flaw they could give Reagan a pass on because they identified with Reagan’s folksy style and were comforted by his crooning voice. Reagan embodied the idea of the benevolent leader – the one who knows the way, but is as comfortable as an old shoe. Movie stars such as Tom Hanks enjoy this kind of image.
Leadership Requiers Depth of Character
The second subtlety in successful branding: When vying to be Number One, what compels peoples’ emotional attachment is a rendering of self with some complexity, contradiction and irony; just like real people. Johnny one-notes, even if the tune is likeable, cannot endure in the public heart.
A paradoxical persona is attractive, first because it’s simply more human; and second, it engages the audiences’ imagination so that narratives of identification have more elbow-room. Think Walter Cronkite – grave but grandfatherly; Greta Garbo – chaste but seductive; Elvis – profane but sacred. We all are “god and buffoon.”
In fact, human nature, and the nature of mind dictate that the design of attachment ride the cusp between two paradoxical injunctions: Be familiar and Be mythic. Be appeasing and powerful. This is true for those seeking to be an alpha-male chimpanzee, head of state or dominant global brand.
Neurological experiments have demonstrated that when we identify with another – when we feel “This is part of me” – an area in the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex is activated, a brain region much involved with self-definition. In this case, the spokesperson or product is felt to fit into the picture a person has of him- or herself.
In this case a reverie about self is provoked in which a narrative envelopment develops around the person or product. In contrast, ] when a person just feels an attribute of the person or product simply is “good,” the brain region known as the putamen lights up. This experience is rewarding, but not self-involving. The object remains external.
This helps explain the cheering crowds at Sarah Palin’s along book tour. Even more than satisfying people’s sef-interests, we humans crave the satisfaction that comes when our would-be leaders confirm our identities.
We see many of these attachment processes at work by listening to how people talk about one of the great brands of today – Apple’s iPhone. One example. “The iPhone, like Apple, is a CIRCLE, it’s smooth and it glides. It’s easy and makes me feel I can do things more easily and do more things. All other phones and network providers are a BOX; they have corners and squares, are highly structured, have too many rules, and are too technical and linear. Not like me. The iPhone is fun and natural and let’s me do my own thing. That makes me smile and my nature is to be a happy person.”
In today’s world of 24/7 access, where no one can step off-stage, the era of the mythic hero is no more. Monarch, movie star or CEO, no matter what they do, if they seek to ascend the thrown of popularity, they must be perceived as someone familiar. To stay on top they must be as “comfortable as an old shoe,” even if their own shoes are handmade and cost a king’s ransom.
February 17, 2010