Underdog branding

How do some brands – Apple, Google – maintain a lucrative kind of indie cool where others, such as Microsoft, become bywords for big, bad corporatism?

It is partly explained by what marketers refer to as their “underdog brand biography”, according to new research from the United States.

By continually emphasising their humble origins – starting life in a garage, just like a rock band – these brands work because they combine the theme of disadvantage and lack of resources with aspiration – “a passion and determination to beat the odds”, say the researchers, whose study will be published in the Journal of Consumer Research next February.

It’s not just brand image that is enhanced – consumers are also more likely to buy underdog brands. Participants in four experiments, conducted in Singapore and the US, chose the underdog brand 71 per cent of the time.

The more consumers were likely to identify with such a brand because of their own experience of disadvantage, the more likely they were to make the purchase.

The effect was also stronger when buying for themselves as opposed to others.

The findings may be useful for start-ups able to exploit their David versus Goliath-like battle against larger competitors. But the study also has implications for established enterprises.

“We show that companies can use an underdog brand biography to offset anti-corporate negative brand associations that derive from their large size and market power, thereby increasing brand liking and purchase interest among consumers,” write authors Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan (both from Harvard University), Jill Avery (Simmons School of Management) and Juliet Schor (Boston College).

In some good news for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the phenomenon is also pervasive in sports, religion, culture and politics.

Gina McColl

BRW

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