Brand Impact and Popular Culture - Essay Example

Brand Impact and Popular Culture Choice of Brand and Celebrity Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers of automobiles in the world. The Japanese behemoth manufactures cars, hybrids, SUV, UTES and vans. The company has numerous popular brands like Aurion, Camry, Corolla, Prius, Rav4, and Tarago in its product repertoire (Toyota, 2014). The present paper argues that Matthew David McConaughey would be an ideal brand endorser for Toyota Corolla. Matthew McConaughey is an American actor well known for his role in films like Dazed and Confused (1993), Amistad (1997), and Failure to Launch (2006). In recent years, McConaughey has featured in small, independent films and has featured in some exigent roles (Rea, 2013). Toyota Corolla was launched in 1966 primarily as a family car. It was positioned as a progressive and friendly vehicle. The newest version of the Corolla is focused on providing an instantaneous good feeling to the customer (Toyota, 2014). There is a picture of a sleek, attractive Toyota Corolla zooming along the river side on the first slide of the theme board. The photograph of a smiling, friendly brand endorser (McConaughey) on the same slide is used to encode the feeling of goodness. Brand and Celebrity Typology The Brand Typology model suggests that brands can be classified into eight categories namely Clean Slates, Weak Brands, Little Tigers, Defenders, Olympic, Classic, Specialist and Fading Stars by analyzing their momentum and familiarity in the marketplace. Olympic brands are illustrious and have a large customer base. These brands are usually the talk of the town and serve as benchmarks for other brands. At present Toyota Corolla is an Olympic brand. The car was launched in 1966 and is now pegged as the ‘World’s Most Popular Car’. The Japanese company has manufactured more than 40 million Toyota Corolla cars since its launch. The model is sold in more than 150 countries and regions around the world (Toyota, 2014). McConaughey too is recognized worldwide. The experienced actor has staged a remarkable mid-career comeback and his popularity has increased tremendously in recent times (Coyle, 2014). Good looks, humility, and award winning performances have made McConaughey an admirable person (Covert, 2013). The idea behind choosing McConaughey as a brand ambassador for Toyota Corolla is to help the product brand become a ‘Classic’ brand as given in the typology model. Thus, with celebrity endorsement, it is desired that Toyota Corolla will further cement its position as a solid brand and will become a market leader for a specific target market. As a company, Toyota has numerous brands in its car product line. Different brands in this product line are targeted at different segments. Accordingly, Toyota Corolla will be targeted at a specific target market, the discussion of which has been carried out in the ensuing paragraphs. Influence on Target Market In real life, heterogeneous markets can be divided into smaller homogeneous groups on (Taylor-West et al, 2008). The automobile market has been segmented on the basis demographic and psychographic factors in order to decide a suitable target market for Toyota Corolla. It has been decided that the car would be aimed at 32-45 year old males who are working at mid-level and high-level positions in the corporate world. These people have been successful because of their knowledge, skills, and experience. The target market is technologically-savvy and futuristic. It embraces technologically advanced products that lend comfort to their lives and at the same time reflect their intellect and ability to take correct decisions. The target market is in the mid-age of their lives and has assumed many responsibilities on the professional as well as domestic front. These customers have a family and therefore generally plan for the future. Their present day decisions are likely to be the ones that will reap benefits in the long run. Prior (2004) avers that McConaughey was roped in by Stetson as a brand ambassador because the actor personified the lifestyle of a modern man. The people that Toyota Corolla intends to target have a positive attitude in life and are go-getters. The corporate world can be pretty demanding and can make people hard-pressed for time. In many cases, people have hectic jobs because of which their exercising regimen takes a back seat (Koubova &Buchko, 2013). However Toyota’s target market ensures that it does not lead a sedentary lifestyle. Playing golf is important to them. They are also adept at maintain life-work balance. Going out for long drives is a norm since driving is a hobby. Such long drives also ensure that these customers spend quality time with their families. Influence on Individual The use of McConaughey as a celebrity endorser of Toyota Corolla will help an individual member of the target market to evaluate the brand and self-concept. In case the consumer’s self-concept is linked to the business brand, the company tends to enjoy sustainable competitive advantage (Kemp et al, 2012). McConaughey will help create a positive attitude towards the Toyota Corolla brand. Since the endorser is an Oscar winner, the perceived quality of the automobile will also increase. McConaughey appears as brand endorser for very few products (Bainbridge, 2011). This aspect will lend uniqueness to the Toyota Corolla brand. Slide 4 of the theme board is used to depict the persona of an individual in the target market. The visual of a person sitting in a car with an open briefcase and some documents and a newspaper is identical to what an individual of the target market does in daily life. The face of this person is deliberately not shown in the picture. The intent is that the target market individual should visualize his own face on the picture. At the same time, the photograph of McConaughey has been shown in the inset so that the audience can relate to him. This will enable the audience to compare the perceived self-image and perceived brand-image and make Toyota Corolla a preferred brand for them. Kingston (2008) asserts that celebrity endorsement of any brand has a positive impact on the target market. The same holds true for Toyota Corolla’s endorsement by McConaughey. The Meaning Transfer Model will have the biggest impact on the individual in the target market. McConaughey is smart and handsome. He has recently won the Oscar; one of the most coveted awards. When McConaughey endorses Toyota Corolla, these traits will be transferred to the brand. Brand (2008) avers that meaning transfer is considered successful if the audience believes that there is a definite link between the usage of the product and the claims made by the endorser. In the stage 3 of the model, the individual consumer (James) will have a positive attitude about the brand and will consider Toyota Corolla as ‘smart’ and ‘winner’. Positioning Fuchs & Diamantopoulos (2010) state that positioning refers to the concept of the brand held by the consumer. In simple words, positioning refers to the place that the brand gets in the minds of the consumers. Toyota brand is presently positioned as a non-sporty vehicle in the mid-price segment. In the perceptual map, it shares the same quadrant as Ford and Volkswagen (Flixya, 2014). The objective is to position Toyota Corolla as a stylish and dependable vehicle meant for corporate executives. The idea is to take it further away from the sporty image and make it a vehicle for formal uses. The core benefit of Toyota Corolla is transportation. The actual product, which is the world’s bestselling car, is sleek and sturdy (Roberts, 2013) .The endorsement by Mathew McConaughey will highlight two attributes of added value. The brand and celebrity personality epitomize competence as shown in the seventh slide of the theme board. The target market individual will thus perceive Toyota Corolla as a reliable and dependable vehicle. The endorser scores very high on ‘attractiveness’ and ‘similarity’ determinants. The attractiveness of the endorser transposed on the brand suggests that Toyota Corolla is not only good to look at but is also equipped with a high-tech engine. The other specifications of the vehicle also point to the class of the vehicle. The similarity between the endorser and the receiver reinforces the self-concept and urges the target audience to go in for the purchase. Brand Values Quality, reliability, and futuristic are the three authentic brand values of Toyota Corolla that are expected to be projected as a result of the link between the brand and McConaughey. Akin to human beings, brands also have a personality. The ideal situation for a marketer is that the brand personality is congruent with the customer’s self concept (Gill & Dawra, 2010). The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion would come into play to project these brand values and create a positive impact on the audience. The celebrity endorsement is likely to create influence through central route of persuasive (Morris et al, 2005). The target market will be highly motivated to see an icon McConaughey in the advertisements. Since the target market has been narrowed down to a demographic and psychographic profile that is identical to the endorser, the motivation to think about the advertising message is likely to be pretty high. The resultant deep processing by the audience will ensure that these three brand values of quality, reliability, and futuristic are cemented in their minds. These values will attract people who have done well in life, are successful and are ambitious to do more. These attributes are present in the brand endorser as well as the brand. Toyota Motor Corporation unveiled the 10th generation of the Corolla in 2006. The company is committed to add new innovative features in the car. The manufacturer strives to make Corolla the No. 1 brand in its market highlighting the attributes of quality and reliability (Toyota, 2014). References Bainbridge, J. 2011, Smelling success, Haymarket Business Publications Ltd, London. Brand, M. 2008, Sports drinks, print ads and endorsers: The impact of viewer skepticism on the meaning transfer process, TUI University. Covert, C. 2013, Matthew McConaughey: The thin man, Washington. Coyle, J. 2014, Oscars Countdown: Matthew McConaughey, Spartanburg, S.C. Flixya. (2014). [Online]. Home to Millions of Videos, Photos and Blogs. Available from: http://www.flixya.com/ [Accessed: 05 April 2014]. Fuchs, C. & Diamantopoulos, A. 2010, "Evaluating the effectiveness of brand- positioning strategies from a consumer perspective",European Journal of Marketing, vol. 44, no. 11, pp. 1763-1786. Gill, M.S. & Dawra, J. 2010, "Evaluating Aaker's sources of brand equity and the mediating role of brand image", Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, vol. 18, no. 3-4, pp. 189-198. Kemp, E., Childers, C.Y. & Williams, K.H. 2012, "Place branding: creating self-brand connections and brand advocacy", The Journal of Product and Brand Management, vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 508-515. Kingston, A. 2008, Gossip Sells The Goods, Rogers Publishing Limited, Toronto. Koubova, V. & Buchko, A.A. 2013, "Life-work balance", Management Research Review, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 700-719. Morris, J.D., Woo, C. & Singh, A.J. 2005, "Elaboration likelihood model: A missing intrinsic emotional implication", Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 79-98. Prior, M. 2004, “Coty Signs a Matthew McConaughey For Stetson”, WWD, vol. 188, no. 86, pp. 8. Rea, S. 2013, On Movies: McConaughey literally goes out on a limb, Washington. Roberts, G. 2013, Japan: Toyota Corolla tops 40m sales, Bromsgrove. Taylor-West, P., Fulford, H., Reed, G., Story, V. & Saker, J. 2008, "Familiarity, expertise and involvement: key consumer segmentation factors", The Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 361-368. Toyota. (2014). [Online]. Available from: http://www.toyota-global.com/ [Accessed: 04 April 2014] Read More