Should Cookie Monster adopt a healthy lifestyle or continue to indulge? Insights into brand icons

Abstract

Developing a brand icon has been a way for marketers to humanize and forge relationships with consumers. Icon development takes time. During this time, marketers have to face how much they stay true and consistent with their icons and how much they allow their icons to adapt to cultural changes in the marketplace. Little is known about how consumers respond to changing icons, and even less is known about whether there may be certain consumer groups that are more or less receptive to such changes. Four experiments and qualitative interviews were undertaken to gain insights into these issues. People who have a low need to belong were most impacted by changes in the icon, with effects most evident among consumers with a fearful attachment style. Feelings of rejection were found to amplify these effects. These findings have implications both for theory and practice.

Preservation, rejuvenation, or confusion? Changing package designs for heritage brands

“…Utilizing and increasing the salience of stable branding elements, in our case a mascot, however, can reduce the negative impact of substantive design changes, allowing for greater change in response to changes in the marketing environment. This finding also builds on the recent work of Merchant et al () who found that consumers share deep bonds and connections with brand and media characters and mascots. These often satisfy parasocial needs and fulfill a sense of attachment and belonging.…”

“…Many brands utilize spokes characters, such as the Michelin Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, or the Energizer Bunny, which are alternatively referred to as identifiers, icons, or mascots (Garretson & Burton, ). Practitioners and scholars alike recognize that these popular visual cues help define and position a brand and that consumers often develop deep attachments to these characters (Merchant, Latour, Ford, & Latour, ). Important to the present context, mascots are often displayed prominently on brand packages, and may provide a cue for stability.…”

“I will always hate you”! An investigation of the impact of anthropomorphism in online anti-brand communities

“…In fact, anthropomorphism seems to be the best way to express disappointment, dissatisfaction, responsibility and intentionality. Generally, in marketing communication very often the brand itself has been the object of anthropomorphization by the company (Epley, 2018;Epley et al, 2008;Golossenko et al, 2020;Merchant et al, 2018;Portal et al, 2018;Puzakova and Aggarwal, 2018;Waytz et al, 2010) and therefore consumers can use the same anthropomorphic elements that have been attributed to the product or service. For instance, Apple imbues their products with human features, such as the virtual assistant Siri for the iPhone, which is capable of understanding what users say and talk back (Wang, 2017).…”

The effects of icon updating on user visual discrimination under different working memory load

“…This type of update is a change that operators usually make to the icons in order to adapt to new trends or shifts in culture and aesthetics in the market. 3,4 For example, desirous of keeping up with the times and pursuing a healthy eating agenda, Public Broadcasting Service's revision of Cookie Monster's eating habits from gorging on cookies to a more balanced diet with fruits and vegetables along with cookies, as shown in Figure 1D.…”

“…For example, iOS has made some changes to the position of icons in different versions, as shown in Figure 1C. (4). Brand adjustment.…”