We see over a thousand brand names and logos every day. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, company logos are being flashed before our eyes. Whether we’re watching a baseball game, in a movie theater, or going to a Broadway show, we remain awash in brands.
Over the years, companies have become more bold in choosing when and where to expose consumers to their brands. Product placement in films has tastelessly married good storytelling with brand invasion. Schools are no longer safe havens from product promotion with schools offering happy meal coupons as a reward for achievement. Even novels aren’t safe from brand intrusion. One popular romance author received a large payment to weave a product brand into her story.
And just recently, Hasbro released a new version of its classic Monopoly game with property names replaced by brand names. Family time, when kids sit in the den playing board games, will now have kids rolling the dice and chanting brand names.
I once asked a brand custodian of a major corporation if they were concerned about overexposure of their brand intruding into people’s lives. He replied, “We’re not concerned about that. Our customers will let us know if we go too far.”
The reply struck me as a willingness to try to unring a bell rather than prevent a brand marketing crisis, but the message to consumers was clear. We need to draw a line in the sand and use social media channels to tell companies who have gone too far to back off. We need to put a stop to brand intrusion before the last sanctuaries are invaded. Otherwise we’ll be hearing sponsored sermons at church, hike on sponsored trails, and enjoy sponsored views of natural landscapes, maybe even read customer testimonials on toilet paper.
Brands and their logos, slogans and imagery are meant to engage customers with a promise of more convenience, joy, or security in their lives. When brands appear too often where they are uninvited, they risk the chance that customers will reject them. Sadly, they are banking on the hope that we will mindlessly absorb their name and image and associate it with positive unrelated experiences.
*Image courtesy of Hasbro
Our guest blogger is Kevin Heney, a creative director and brand strategist.
