The Halo Effect and its application in the world of marketing
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:25 am
Marketing and psychology are two complementary disciplines of study that have the virtue of feeding back into each other. When companies seek ways to successfully relate to their customers, there are a series of cognitive biases that modulate the way in which the consumer values the brand, as well as the different services and products it offers.
Thus, the ingenuity with which psychologists and marketers (as well as advertisers and other professionals) collaborate in the conception and development of the product and the promotional campaign greatly influences its success or failure.
The Halo Effect: Generalizing our perception from an attribute
One of these cognitive biases that influence how we perceive things is the Halo Effect, one of the most relevant constructs in the field of Social Psychology. This effect was reported thanks to the experiments of Edward L. Thorndike and refers to the psychological tendency to generalize a positive or negative trait of a person. This means that, based on a single trait, we tend to form a global opinion about a person – or about anything else, such as a commercial brand.
The classic example to explain what the Halo Effect is is the all mobile company name list following: if we think that someone is highly physically attractive, we will tend to attribute to them a whole series of personal traits that we consider attractive or desirable, even though we do not have any objective element to reach this general conclusion. In this way, we not only see a person as beautiful, but we also find them intelligent, kind, trustworthy, etc.
The importance of the halo effect in brand image
The marketing world was quick to realise the power of the Halo Effect to attract or scare away consumers. When we walk through a supermarket, the initial impact that a particular product has on us is key, but we are also influenced by the overall evaluation we have of the brand that makes that product.
Just as the halo effect leads us to generalize a positive (or negative) trait of a person, exactly the same thing happens with brands and products: if we have a positive memory of a particular brand, it is easier for us to value positively the other products made by the same company. Although we do not have any empirical criteria to judge each product separately, our brain is responsible for providing us with these "trust signals" through our memory.
Thus, the ingenuity with which psychologists and marketers (as well as advertisers and other professionals) collaborate in the conception and development of the product and the promotional campaign greatly influences its success or failure.
The Halo Effect: Generalizing our perception from an attribute
One of these cognitive biases that influence how we perceive things is the Halo Effect, one of the most relevant constructs in the field of Social Psychology. This effect was reported thanks to the experiments of Edward L. Thorndike and refers to the psychological tendency to generalize a positive or negative trait of a person. This means that, based on a single trait, we tend to form a global opinion about a person – or about anything else, such as a commercial brand.
The classic example to explain what the Halo Effect is is the all mobile company name list following: if we think that someone is highly physically attractive, we will tend to attribute to them a whole series of personal traits that we consider attractive or desirable, even though we do not have any objective element to reach this general conclusion. In this way, we not only see a person as beautiful, but we also find them intelligent, kind, trustworthy, etc.
The importance of the halo effect in brand image
The marketing world was quick to realise the power of the Halo Effect to attract or scare away consumers. When we walk through a supermarket, the initial impact that a particular product has on us is key, but we are also influenced by the overall evaluation we have of the brand that makes that product.
Just as the halo effect leads us to generalize a positive (or negative) trait of a person, exactly the same thing happens with brands and products: if we have a positive memory of a particular brand, it is easier for us to value positively the other products made by the same company. Although we do not have any empirical criteria to judge each product separately, our brain is responsible for providing us with these "trust signals" through our memory.