What is your ultimate answer to this?

[twocents]

Hi guys. I am currently working on my bachelor’s thesis in university. 

My goal is to answer a specific question in the field of behavioral science.

 

Here is why I am reaching out to you:  I want to go as deeply as I can and answer it as holistically as I can. 

I know that I am limited by the guidelines of my professor, but this is more of a personal ambition of mine.

I really want to reach to the root of this topic and I am sincerely interested in hearing your understanding and wisdom.

 

My research question is this: How is fit between a brand/product and a celebrity endorser defined?

To clarify what is meant by that, here is the question formulated in other words: 

What is it, that makes an advertised brand MATCH with the celebrity, which endorses (advertises) the brand?

For example: James Bond (Daniel Craig) is appearing in the advertisement of the car brand Aston Martin. What is it exactly, that makes them fit well together? How is a good „fit“ defined? 

 

Please tell me your most fundamental and holistic explanation. 

I am aware that all concepts are interconnected, so please don’t think that your answer is irrelevant or too abstract. Also, I am familiar with most spiritual concepts and terms, including Leo’s work (Thank you Leo for showing me how much depth there is to everything, I would love to see your view on this topic). 

[ZzzleepingBear]

I'd say that pairing a person and a brand has alot to do with Ying/yang energy. The feminin and the masculine. The cause of this may not be to directly say that a product is exclusively masculine or feminine. But rather to prime or make a connection with the unconscious part of us that feel into these products, rather than rationalize wheter they are actually a fit for you or not. 

A car with sharp edges may feel to be more of a aggressive design, so such a car may play more into the masculine aspects for example.

Alot of money has been put into the science of how to create successful commercials, and alot of it has to do with subconscious cues and prime the mind through repetition.

[mr_engineer]

Watch the movie 'AIR'. It's about how NIKE designed the 'Air Jordan' and how they signed Michael Jordan on for it as a celebrity-star promoting it. It will give you a lot of insight on this topic. 

[DianaFr]

I'm not an expert on the topic, but since you do this research for your bachelor thesis, I suggest you use a bit more scientific approach, as that will make the information you gather more usable. You could start by checking out the current theories on brand psychology, consumer psychology, cognition, maybe priming, mental schemes and stuff like that. That should give you an good idea on what a "brand'' is in general and what neural mechanisms are involved. Then go ahead and formulate your hypothesis based on this insight (you will also have identified gaps or controversies in the existing research that you could specifically focus on). Also, your research question is quite broad. It could help to narrow it down a bit and maybe focus on a particular population, or look at the culture context or study a particular brand. That will add much more value and depth to your work. You could then draw up a survey targeting your specific population including questions to test your hypothesis. Or you could do interviews. Or focus groups. Collect data in a controlled way. It should be quite nice at the end

[twocents]

On 26.10.2023 at 5:36 AM, DianaFr said:

I'm not an expert on the topic, but since you do this research for your bachelor thesis, I suggest you use a bit more scientific approach, as that will make the information you gather more usable. You could start by checking out the current theories on brand psychology, consumer psychology, cognition, maybe priming, mental schemes and stuff like that. That should give you an good idea on what a "brand'' is in general and what neural mechanisms are involved. Then go ahead and formulate your hypothesis based on this insight (you will also have identified gaps or controversies in the existing research that you could specifically focus on). Also, your research question is quite broad. It could help to narrow it down a bit and maybe focus on a particular population, or look at the culture context or study a particular brand. That will add much more value and depth to your work. You could then draw up a survey targeting your specific population including questions to test your hypothesis. Or you could do interviews. Or focus groups. Collect data in a controlled way. It should be quite nice at the end

@DianaFr

Thanks for your recommendations, I appreciate that you took time to answer. 

I am just curious of how you see it based on your understanding of reality, not necessarily from a strict scientific standpoint. 

Like what do you think is really happening when a celebrity endorses a product? Or as you mentioned: What is a brand? 

What is a celebrity? Why is there a match? I'm asking out of curiosity. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by twocents
@user

[twocents]

@ZzzleepingBear

On 24.10.2023 at 10:11 PM, ZzzleepingBear said:

I'd say that pairing a person and a brand has alot to do with Ying/yang energy. The feminin and the masculine. The cause of this may not be to directly say that a product is exclusively masculine or feminine. But rather to prime or make a connection with the unconscious part of us that feel into these products, rather than rationalize wheter they are actually a fit for you or not. 

A car with sharp edges may feel to be more of a aggressive design, so such a car may play more into the masculine aspects for example.

Alot of money has been put into the science of how to create successful commercials, and alot of it has to do with subconscious cues and prime the mind through repetition.

Interesting point. Thank You

[twocents]

@mr_engineer Thanks.

[DianaFr]

On 27/10/2023 at 9:07 AM, twocents said:

@DianaFr

Thanks for your recommendations, I appreciate that you took time to answer. 

I am just curious of how you see it based on your understanding of reality, not necessarily from a strict scientific standpoint. 

Like what do you think is really happening when a celebrity endorses a product? Or as you mentioned: What is a brand? 

What is a celebrity? Why is there a match? I'm asking out of curiosity. 

I personally think that celebrities endorsing a brand has a lot to do with a desire for admiration that we all have. First of all, there can only be brands and celebrities if there are enough people who recognize them as such and "vote" for them with their money, time, energy etc. People tend to idolize celebrities by viewing them as embodiment of qualities they don't see in themselves but desire to have. So if a celebrity endorses a certain product, I might thought - oh, she loves this product and I want to be just like her so I will also get it to resemble her more. Subconsciously I may be buying back a part of myself that I long to have. As for the brand-celebrity match, I think it has to do with identity. Brands have strong and very specific identities. Just like celebrities. Some of them are a perfect match. 

[Salvijus]

An advertisement is about targeting a specific group of people. So if you're selling sports shoes. You want someone who everyone looks up to as a great sportsperson say, "these are my favorite sport shoes". That creates an image that these particular brand of shoes are what great sportpeople wear. And if you wanna be as cool as jordon. You wear this brand. Everything else becomes inferior stuff. 

Similary with James bond. James bond has a reputation and an image in the world, he's like a symbol for being a super classy, sophisticated, amazing chick magnet. So if a super classy, sophisticated, chick magnet says "this is my favorite car" all those who want to create a classy, sophisticated, successful self-image will now think "this is the car for me" 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Salvijus

[Salvijus]

A purpose of an ad is to target a specific group of people. So the best celebrity match is the one that represents that specific group of people and is looked up to with great respect. 

(a more digested answer) 

[not-a-faerie]

On 10/24/2023 at 3:12 PM, twocents said:

What is it, that makes an advertised brand MATCH with the celebrity, which endorses (advertises) the brand?

maybe it is acreative thing, an expression of both through how they match with the other. I would assume they do not say, "here is a key we need a lock" but instead take clay and form the key and lock based on each other. 

 

but I've never been or researched the topic, so this is just a wild guess