Branding, Behavior – and Ice
Do brands mirror human behavior or motivate them?
Just, for example, let’s take a look at “hard” apple cider. When introduced, it seemed designed purely for youthful, inexperienced alcohol consumers. Tart, bubbly, a touch sweet and inexpensive, it was a perfect beverage to mark the rite of passage to adulthood, or at least 21-hood, on college campuses. Basically, it was this generation’s Boone’s Farm flavored apple wines (yes, Gallo still makes those). A post-finals week alternative to keg beer and flavored vodka. Sure, that market was OK, but that isn’t how the makers of hard cider wanted to be seen. That’s too small a niche.
Time to work on brand personalities.
Strongbow started by giving us a horse running on a beach in slow motion, then struck a humorous chord with ads featuring Sir Patrick Stewart. Nice move. An award-winning Shakespearian stage actor (as well as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) being upstaged by an ice-filled glass of hard apple cider and a rude narrator. “More beautiful shots of ice. Just ignore the Sir Patrick parts.” Then they fired Stewart. On camera. That’s a brand that thinks of itself as classy and fun. Just like the lovely people in the ads, partying around the dolphin ice sculptures.
The latest to take hard apple cider off Greek Row is Stella Artois. The Belgian brew with its own gold-rimmed “chalice” now has a hard apple cider. But they don’t call it cider. That’s too, well, common. So call it, “Cidre.” The dude with the accent in the television commercial instructs us to the correct pronunciation as he wades through more beautiful people. “C’est CIDRE. Not CIDER.” Heaven forbid we get it wrong.
Cleary, these brands are expressing personalities that embody upscale but attainable lifestyles, approachability through humor, and good taste, both figurative and literal. These brands mirror the market they attract and keep, and they hope to motivate an even larger share of the market to try them out. The college graduates and beyond.
That is what brand personalities are supposed to do. Mirror and motivate behavior through personality. Personality is the life in a brand. It makes the human connection. Ever have an amazing time on a very first date? Head home eager to text or call that person and set a second date? That’s because of personality. You connected. Clicked. On a very real level.
It’s the same goal for brands. Connect personally. Get you to ask them out again. And have some fun with them. Like you would with a six-pack of really classy apple cider.
Sorry. “Cidre.”