Trends now being set to express image
Trends act as an outlet for the mass public, said Edwin Stafford and Cathy Hartman, business professors at Utah State University.
Products become props and costumes for the persona we want to portray in the world.
But first we have to look at the world to see what clothing or automobile would propagate that image, Hartman said.
Marketing revolves around the perception of image.
In the movie “The Firm,” Tom Cruise drove a Mercedes Benz – a car usually purchased by older people, Stafford said. In the book, the character drove a BMW.
Hartman said celebrity endorsers can create a different image for a product that was typically purchased by a different demographic.
Mercedes paid to have its car in the movie to advertise it to people in their mid-30s, Stafford said.
Psychological diffusion is the idea people can create a persona for themselves by using these products the celebrity endorsers have, Hartman said.
Because hundreds of ads bombard people on a daily basis, marketers try to think of more subtle ways to advertise products, Stafford said.
A running gag in “Seinfeld” involved pushing a product such as cereal, candy or technology, Stafford said.
“They did an entire show around Junior Mints. Essentially, people probably don’t process it this way, but Junior Mints was a movie theater food. So, what they really had was this movie theater idea. They went into the surgical viewing room and then took the same kind of treats that they would buy there,” Hartman said.
The value of this is it’s part of entertainment – people aren’t consciously thinking of the product. It becomes part of the cultural identity, Stafford said.
People sometimes incorporate company slogans into their everyday language, like Nike’s “Just Do it” or Life Cereal’s “Try it. You’ll like it,” Hartman said.
“This is one factor that helps to create trends because when someone mentions one of the slogans, even out of context, people will immediately think of the product that’s related to it,” Stafford said.