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Amy Smith. That’s not her real name but it’s what we’ll call her. Amy was the girl in college that every guy fell in love with at first sight. Incredibly attractive. Seemed to have everything going for her – to the point where she was simply unattainable for almost everyone, certainly for me. To make a long story short, through a series of chance interactions with her, and what I suppose were positive first impressions on my part (or more likely, momentarily lapses in judgment on her part), I actually scored a date with Amy. Of course, I immediately became the envy of all my college buddies.
I knew our date was going to be perfect. We were going to click. Amy would fulfill all of my expectations, and I hers. During the week leading up to the big date, my friends got in on the action; they helped to plan the evening, and hyped the date just as you would expect a bunch of hormone-driven college guys to do. Yes, everything was going to be perfect. How could it not be?
But then something happened. We had the date. And it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t even close to perfect. The conversation didn’t flow. We learned we didn’t have the same interests. Things fell incredibly flat. What happened? Well, after viewing Amy from afar and talking endlessly with friends about how “perfect” it would be to date her, I fell in love with the idea of Amy and all of the hype that surrounded her. There was so much build up that she didn’t have a chance of living up to my expectations.
There is a lesson to be learned here for CPG marketers. Often consumers fall in love with something based on how it is promised (or hyped) to them—how the product is represented through ads, packaging in the store, or via online chatter. One could argue that the primary part of our job as branding and design experts is to create hype, to create demand. However, we need to make sure that the actual product lives up to that hype or suffer a subsequent loss in consumer brand loyalty.
iPhone 4 presentation on October 4, 2011
Just this past week, we saw a negative example of hype-followed-by-letdown in Apple’s launch of the iPhone 4S. Across the blog-o-sphere, you could virtually hear the collective moans of Apple Fanboys when the much-hyped iPhone 5, with its (supposed) sleek new industrial design and larger display screen, failed to make an appearance at Apple’s big reveal. Instead, we got the 4S. Ho Hum. Yeah, it’s got some nice new bells and whistles, but it’s still packaged in the old body style. One tweet captured it perfectly: “How will anyone know I have the new iPhone if it looks the same as the old one?”
To Apple’s credit, the company didn’t create the hype directly; others did it for them. The hype was “earned” via PR versus “paid for” via traditional advertising; when a brand disappoints in that situation, fans are usually quite unforgiving — and quick to share their frustrations with others. Things were further complicated by Steve Jobs’ passing on October 5; who now will don the mantle of Apple’s chief visionary and trustworthy master of hype?
In the CPG world, we strive to get consumers to choose our brands at shelf during—as P&G coined it—the critical “First Moment of Truth.” However, when generating strong consumer desire for a particular product or brand we have to be careful that we don’t create unrealistic expectations.
As consumers, we’ve all experienced this letdown: It’s opening the “HUGE” bag of chips and finding that it’s 80% air inside. Or buying the “perfect” backyard volleyball net and discovering that the assembly instructions are written in Mandarin. I personally experienced both of these disappointments and they soured my 4th of July party this year. Not that I’m still bitter or anything.
Building anticipation and hype can be a really great thing, when it’s done correctly. My colleague Fred Richards, Interbrand’s Global Executive Creative Director for Consumer Packaged Goods, avidly promotes the practice of celebrating a package’s “Opening Ceremony”; designing a package so that it builds mystery and creates anticipation every time it is opened, thus strengthening the consumer-brand relationship.
The key to success for CPG marketers is to make sure that a product lives up to the hype when it is opened, used or consumed. (The “Second Moment of Truth,” for those keeping score at home.) So who is doing this well? Wrigley’s Orbit brand is a good example. Great opening ceremony; great-tasting gum. Similarly, Maker’s Mark, with its uniquely identifiable bottle tops hand dipped in red wax, certainly sets high expectations. And, importantly, the product lives up to them. These brands successfully demonstrate the balancing act that we have to carefully navigate: Make the big promise and then deliver on it in a big way.
As you think about building the hype for your next big branding or design initiative, make sure your product has real substance that consumers can fall in love with when they meet. You don’t want consumers to feel like they just had a date with Amy. Trust me.
About the Author
Brian Erdman is Vice President/Group Account Director at Interbrand Cincinnati. He joined the company in 2010, bringing valuable experience and perspective from both the client and agency sides, including six years in brand management at Procter & Gamble.
Brian’s thought leadership has been featured in publications including BRANDWEEK, ADWEEK, and BrandPackaging. He can be reached at brian.erdman (at) interbrand.com or 513.421.2210.