Clio and Andrex

I'm sorry, that last post got a bit mathematical.

I'll keep this one simple.

In "Brand Relationships: Strengthened by Emotion, Weakened by Attention" Heath, Brant and Nairn write, "if advertising wishes to build strong brand relationships, it needs to incorporate high levels of emotional content, and this emotional content will be most effective if less attention is paid to it."

They use the campaigns for the Renault Clio and Andrex as examples of "emotional campaigns". They write (OK, let's be honest, I suspect Heath writes), "So we have a situation where two campaigns appear to have worked without imparting any specific facts or information about the brand, but rather by working on the emotions." And refer to how the "Renault Clio and Andrex toilet tissue campaigns which apparently fail to convey informational messages have been astonishingly successful."

So - we have two successful emotional campaigns. In which case, you'd expect consumers to pay little attention to the emotional content. Did they?

Well, no!

To quote the paper again: "the only thing people remembered was "Papa" and "Nicole" and their flirting. And research showed clearly that the factual informational message of "Small car practicality with big car luxury" was completely obscured and never recalled."

And, of Andrex, "The success is therefore attributed not to the message, but to the emotional appeal of the puppy itself. As Stow (1993, p. 53) says, "… this (sales) effect is due in
major part to a Labrador puppy, who has appeared consistently in Andrex' TV advertising since 1972." "

(OK, so he doesn't actually say 'people only paid attention to the puppy,' but I'd say it was implied...and even if you disagree, any English reader of this will, by now, have a clear image of that puppy in his/her head. You know you paid attention to it!).

So, a nice straightforward pair of examples from Heath's own work, that completely contradict what he claims.

The reality is, consumers pay attention to, and remember, the emotional elements of campaigns.