Don't Send Mixed Messages

Imagine the following scenario for a moment.
You have been dating Brian for some time. He has been with you through thick and thin; your strong emotional connection can weather any storm. He is completely loyal and faithful to you. However, one day, you realize that his wealthy friend, Ryan, is pretty darn attractive. You change your look and attitude in order to more successfully woo Ryan with the aim of keeping Brian on the side. You win Ryan. Yet, by sending mixed messages, you confuse and lose Brian, thereby losing that emotional connection and loyalty. What is the lesson of this story? You can’t have it all, so don’t send mixed messages. This cautionary tale applies beyond the dating scene to the marketing industry as a whole.
In the current recession, many companies find dropping sales alarming. Some companies may feel the need to evolve their brand image to convince consumers that their product is still worth the extra dollar. However, recent examples indicate that revamping one’s brand image has the potential to be even more damaging to sales in this economic climate.
Most people are familiar with Tropicana’s branding redesign earlier this year. Tropicana simplified its packaging design and removed the familiar orange with a straw protruding from it. The result was a product that was nearly indistinguishable from other generic brands. Tropicana’s most loyal customer base was confused and outraged, and sales of the product suffered as a result (Elliot, 2009). In the process of changing its image, Tropicana lost touch with its central brand attributes that drew individuals to the product. The packaging no longer reflected the deep emotional connection that the primary consumers had with the brand. In fact, Neil Campbell, the President of Tropicana North America, was quoted as saying, “We underestimated the deep emotional bond… that wasn’t something that came out in the research.” Apparently, the research methods used during the brand redesign initiative failed to accurately measure the emotion that consumers unconsciously associate with his brand.
Ironically, by trying to halt its drop in sales due to the recession, Tropicana catalyzed its own reduction in profits. Why did redesigning the brand’s image prove to be so detrimental? It’s not that consumers don’t like change; they don’t like mixed messages. In the process of trying to boost sales, Tropicana turned its focus away from its most loyal consumers in an effort to attract new consumers to the brand. Tropicana wanted to have it all: keep the loyal consumers while also attracting other segments of the population. Back to our dating example, they wanted to keep Brian but also bring in Ryan for the money. They sent mixed messages, so they lost some of their loyal consumers (the “Brians” of the world).
A recent Harvard Business Review article highlights the importance of consistency and reinforcing your most loyal consumers’ emotional connection with your brand during tough economic times (Quelch & Jocz, 2009). Companies need to keep an eye on the long-term. Changing strategy might attract new consumers in the short-term but ultimately isolate and confuse the most loyal consumers. In other words, the best marketing approach to adopt is one that “reinforce[s] an emotional connection with the brand.” Tapping into your consumers’ emotions drives their willingness to pay a premium for your brand.
If reinforcing emotional brand connections is the key to branding success, then how can companies know what types of emotion to bolster in their brand? It’s simple, really. With Sentient’s Center for Automatic Brand Associations, marketers can easily determine what emotions consumers automatically associate with their brand equity. For instance, Tropicana may have found that “fresh” was most closely tied to their brand equity and that this association was bolstered with their old packaging but not the packaging redesign. Nothing better illustrates fresh than drinking out of an orange with a straw (their signature image that they removed during their redesign). In the absence of the image, Tropicana consumers lost the reinforcement of why they were so drawn to Tropicana in the first place. A generic looking package does not exactly exude freshness and quality.
What about new campaigns that get the emotional associations right, but still miss the mark in terms of driving new sales and commanding a price premium? The new marketing campaign that PepsiCo initiated in January for its flagship sports beverage brand Gatorade at first seems to epitomize this ideal recession strategy. PepsiCo tried to bolster the “cool” factor associated with Gatorade to tap into its consumers’ desire to achieve higher status. The emotionally charged ads, propelled by an invigorating beat, depict a diversity of world-renowned athletes both describing and exemplifying what it means to be “G.” They inarguably exude the brand’s emotional attributes of status, determination, and endurance.
So if the Gatorade ads admirably reinforce an emotional connection with the brand, why has Gatorade lost 5% of its share in the sports drink market to other competitors like VitaminWater in the last few months? The answer in hindsight now seems obvious: PepsiCo sent mixed messages in the confusing reinvention of Gatorade. The campaign was intended to simplify the brand image by reducing it to a simple and bold “G.” The marketing was anchored around one fundamental question: “What’s G?” That’s a good question. It seems that even Gatorade’s most loyal consumers couldn’t figure out the answer (Bauerlein, 2009). Consumers were utterly confused by the new message and couldn’t tell Gatorade from its lower-calorie version, G2, or differentiate between the varieties anymore. The emotional connection was there, but the consumers could not sort their way through the confusion to identify that emotional connection.
The question remains, though, if Gatorade can still benefit from its new campaign in the long run. Right now, consumers are baffled because they are inundated with mixed messages. But, if Gatorade can sustain the intrigue of “What’s G?” and continue to progressively unveil what the brand stands for, consumers might finally reach a resolution leading to long term boosts in loyalty and repeat sales.
Whether it be in the world of dating or marketing, it is important to convey a consistent emotional message to the primary target audience, whether that be your boyfriend or your most loyal consumers. Sending mixed messages only hurts everyone involved.
References
Bauerlein, V. (2009, July 23). Pepsi sweats over Gatorade. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124825804221871367.html
Elliot, S. (2009, February 22). Tropicana discovers some buyers are passionate about packaging. The New York Times. Retreived July 23, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tropicana&st=cse
Quelch, J. & Jocz, K. (2009). How to market in a downturn. Harvard Business Review, 1-12.