Why Do (Some) Humans Hate or Love Brands As if They Were Human?
How brands trick us to buy by resembling humans we like.
A few days ago, I told Siri, iPhone's AI assistant, to set up a 30-minute countdown so I could read. I was about a few feet away from my phone, so I gave the same command three times. After she finally set it up, I said, "thank you, Siri," relieved and annoyed. That's when I realized how deep I had sunk into the madness of humanizing brands.
My excuse was that I'm a respectful and kind human, so why should I not thank Siri?
The real question is, why should I?
I won't hurt its feelings if I don't thank her. Nor will she sue me for criticizing her failed attempts to understand me. Yet, like most people, I sometimes treat and refer to brands as human beings. Or, to get into the scientific realm, I anthropomorphize them.
A "thing" is anthropomorphic when it has human-like traits. These traits could be emotions, behavior, or mental states. When people perceive these traits in a brand, the brand is anthropomorphic— human-like.
Some companies have evident anthropomorphic traits. Tony The Tiger from Frosted Flakes talks, thinks and motivates children. Many of Gaultier's perfume bottles have a female body shape. After buying Twitter, Elon Musk became the embodiment of the brand.
Sometimes, humanization is less evident, like in Substack's case. The newsletter platform feels human when it takes stances on what writers should do. In an essay criticizing the exclusive use of Twitter to share ideas, Substack makes bold claims:
"If you publish on Twitter, you do labor for it."
"If you publish on Twitter, you are the product."
"If you publish on Twitter, you don't have real agency."
These claims show Substack's cognitive similarities to humans. Like us, it takes stances on what people should do, imagines alternatives, and thinks through problems.
Humanizing brands has become a marketing tactic. Its goal is to make the brand resemble someone we like to increase their odds of selling.
Understanding why we prefer these brands can better determine if we are buying the "best" products or services. Or if we are buying the ones that appeal best to our interests, beliefs, and values.
Humans prefer humanized brands
Mariana Puzakova is a brand anthropomorphism researcher. She and other scholars found humans have an easier time remembering humanized brands. Each visual, tactile, mental, or audible cue is a memory to recall. I don't like driving, so I've never had to buy a new tire. But if I had to, I would buy it from Michelin because it's the only tire manufacturer I remember, thanks to its mascot.
Researchers from three business schools found customers prefer brands with human-like elements to those without them. All other things equal, a consumer would pick a brand that seems capable of reasoning and shares its principles over one that doesn't.
This is we stick to brands we have trusted for so long, even if a viable alternative exists. The trusted brand has proven it can act as it should—should is set by us, the buyers, based on our beliefs and what the brand says and reflects. On a quick view, Coca-Cola and Pepsi sell the same beverage. Their taste is different, but one product could replace the other. Yet, both were profitable, even before Coca-Cola invested in other drinks and Pepsi in snacks. They've done this by appealing to people with different values, behaviors, and interests.
The researchers' literature review also found people like humanized brands because of our need for social affiliation. As a writer who travels a lot, I never talked to writers with the same challenges I had, which frustrated me. Then I found Foster, a community where editors and writers read your essays and provide feedback. It met my need for social affiliation and turned me into an advocate through human acts:
Invited me to 1-1 calls with their founders to discuss what I'm struggling with as a writer
Helped me accept the parts of me I found unacceptable to make me a more confident and transparent writer
It made me part of a selected group of writers within the brand that can share their views of what the company should and shouldn't do.
Mind you, most of the time, the relationship between a human and a brand remains in affiliation. Person A needs to affiliate themselves with someone, and the brand shows up as that someone. But the relationship seldom turns into a bond.
While I love Foster, I will leave the community if a brand member disrespects me considerably. I would tolerate such an act if a close friend or relative did it.
Humans are likelier to hate humanized brands
We don't like every human. Social Psychologist Agneta Fischer found three common causes of hating:
Events contradicting our goals and interests
Perceiving someone's behavior is not fair or justified
Assessing something as morally inferior or nauseating
Since brands can feel human, we don't like when they do something a human we like wouldn't do.
Chair Marketing Professor Hyokjin Kwak found consumers thought a brand was unfair when it raised its prices. Buyers don't think this is fair or helpful.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, it gave the platform a human face. No matter how well Twitter runs, users who don't like Elon won't enjoy the brand as much as they used to. These consumers don't like the values, beliefs, and attributes of the human linked to the company.
Finally, consider Assistant Professor of Marketing Rolland Schroll's findings. He noticed people eat less of a meal that has human traits.
Because consumers associate the meal with a human, they assume the food can feel pain and that consuming it is immoral. If you don't think this would apply to you, look for baby-shaped cakes. Seeing a knife close to the "baby's" neck will make most of you uncomfortable, even though we know it's a cake.
Question the brands you are using daily
Many of us use products and services that don't provide us with the most value. They aren't the fastest at solving a problem, cheapest, or most pleasant to use. Yet, we go back to them because they project our beliefs, values, and interests.
Think about these unideal products the next time you are close to having to buy them. If you have doubts about buying an alternative despite knowing what you've always bought is not the best solution in the market, brand anthropomorphism is at play.