In 2004, Chanel spent $33 million dollars on a commercial for its No. 5 perfume. This three-minute commercial, starring the one and only Nicole Kidman, tells a story about a celebrity who escapes her luxurious life for four days. During these four days, she stays at a man’s apartment who doesn’t know that she’s famous. Eventually, she returns to her life as a celebrity after her secretary demands she does so. The scene closes with the two smiling at each other on the top of a building with big bright letters reading “Coco Chanel”. 

Did this three-minute story influence many customers to go buy Chanel’s No. 5 perfume? Did Chanel sell $33 million dollars worth of product? Probably not. 

But research suggests that advertisements such as this commercial impact consumer behavior in other ways. Advertisements send your brain signals that can alter your perception of a brand. This is called brand signaling. Messages about the company’s product confidence, reliability, and trustworthiness can all be portrayed through these signals. 

A 2020 study by the research agency house51 investigated how brand signaling changes a consumer’s perception through various platforms. In Consumer Behavior Insights, we explore these platforms and signals using the house51 study as a base. 

The Methodology of the Study on Brand Signaling  

To measure how signaling alters consumer’s perception of a brand, 3,600 participants were provided descriptions of brands in various categories with different advertisement campaigns. The types of categories included online retail, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), cell phone networks, and home insurance. The means of advertising discussed in the advertisement campaigns were TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, social media, video sharing sites. 

To examine brand signal strength, explicit questioning and implicit timed responses were used. Explicit questioning is when individuals consciously think of their answer to a question. The implicit timed response method is used to collect data on a consumer’s gut reaction without them being able to consciously think about their response. Participants were also asked to agree or disagree with a statement about their general perception of and their response time was collected as an implicit method to analyze trust. Lastly, the researchers interviewed the participants about their general media and brand perceptions. 

The Results and Implications of Brand Signaling in Advertisements on Consumer Behavior  

The results from this experiment suggest there are two specific types of brand signaling that occur in advertisements: fitness signals and social signals. Fitness signals portray feelings of financial strength, brand confidence, and quality from a brand. For example, you are more likely to believe a company is more financially stable because they are spending money to broadcast their product. Second, social signals show that the company is confident in the product’s quality, success, and popularity.

TV advertisements displayed the strongest fitness and social signals out of all the media categories. The results suggested that TV advertisements are most likely to lead consumers to perceive the brands as highly financially stable, trusted, best quality, most popular, and strongest brand fitness. The researchers believe this could be because it takes more effort for a company to make a TV advertisement and knowing that others are seeing the same advertisement leads to a sense of common knowledge and cultural meaning. The second best signaling platform was a radio and the two that are least likely to deliver signals are social media and video sharing sites. 

Platform and channel preference were factors in signaling strength. Participants who saw the brand on a channel they regularly watched, reported an increase in fitness and social signals. Social media had a negative effect when the brand was shown on a platform they normally use. 

This research has many implications for brands of different sizes and how they should advertise. For small brands, the researchers suggest that building trust should be the goal of advertisements because it leads to brand resilience. The best way to do this, as indicated by the results, is by TV advertisements. In addition, the researchers highlight that larger brands differentiate how they signal consumers. They state that the best way for large companies to continue marketing in different ways is to advertise on TV.

Believe it or not, Chanel’s $33 million dollar commercial was probably worth it, but in a way that we don’t expect. The company benefitted as many consumers received fitness and social signals while they followed Nicole Kidman and her lover through a romantic adventure. It may not be $33 million dollars worth of product, but as this research indicates, it has positive effects on consumer’s perception of Chanel in the long term.

Your Pop Neuro Consumer Behavior Insights: 

• Consumers receive fitness and social signals from advertisements, influencing their perception of a brand 

• Fitness signals portray a brand’s financial stability, product confidence, and quality 

• Social signals portray popularity and success 

• TV had the strongest fitness and social signaling

This is an exclusive, members-only post. To get access to more posts like this, sign-up for the Consumer Behavior Insights Magazine here

References

Here Are the 10 Most Expensive Commercials Ever Made. (n.d.). OppLoans. Retrieved October 2, 2020, from https://www.opploans.com/blog/here-are-the-10-most-expensive-commercials-ever-made/

Signalling Success | Thinkbox. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2020, from https://www.thinkbox.tv/research/thinkbox-research/signalling-success/