Corporate Sigils and Logo Magic

Ars Technica notes the power of brand logos to influence behavior.

Now, a new study… suggests that the vaunted Reality Distortion Field may be grounded in reality… not only do consumers consider Apple creative, but the subliminal display of an Apple logo is enough to motivate them to be more creative.

To test this, the authors compared the role of two brands in motivating student performances: Apple and IBM. Both were rated equally positively by the students, but they had distinct brand personalities, with only Apple being assigned the quality of “creativity.”

…exposure to the Apple brand, even subliminally, primed the students to greater creativity.

They then used a brand associated with honesty—the Disney Channel—and registered the students’ choices in situations that balanced honesty with social niceties (”does this dress make me look fat” type questions). Those motivated to improve their honesty through the survey emphasized it after exposure to the Disney brand. Those exposed to a different brand or who felt satisfied through a remembrance of past incidents of honesty did not.

…the authors conclude that “exposure to brands may well have a profound influence on social behavior in everyday life.”

“These experiments demonstrate that most any brand that has strong associations with particular traits could have the capacity to influence how we act,” said Tanya Chartrand, one of the study’s authors.