The Halo Effect in Brand Marketing (Essay Sample)

Literature Review: The Halo Effect in Brand Marketing
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Institution
Introduction
The halo effect refers to perceptional bias that individuals show towards others, a company, or brand as a result of the influence of the object being observed on the observer‘s feelings and thoughts. The object’s visible qualities make the observer to make an unconscious judgment that ignores the possibility of hidden qualities (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977, p. 250). Consequently, a person develops a certain image about the entity’s character or properties, which might be or might not be accurate depending on how one aspect of the entity influences the observer’s overall perception. A good example is when a person sees a ripe fruit and concludes that it is sweet, not considering that ripeness does not necessarily imply sweetness. With respect to people, one is likely to assume that an attractive person is nice or intelligent. In this case, the observer extends the positive quality of attractiveness to the whole personality trait of the person being observed. In fact, the phrase halo effect was first coined by psychologist Edward Thorndike in the 1930s in an article "A Constant Error in Psychological Errors," in reference to the tendency of perceiving people as generally good on the basis of one factor, such as physical attractiveness. The hallo effect, however, is most relevant in business marketing where companies use the positive attribute of a product to achieve a halo effect in consumers by creating the impression that all of the company’s products are good. For instance, FedEx promotes its services on the promise of timely delivery (Bamousa, 2016, p. 729). Consumers who value fast delivery will like FedEx services because of its overnight services, even without taking into consideration the possibility that it charges higher than rivals, or that its other services might be poor. In this case, offering fast delivery services for urgent shipments creates the halo effect of making consumers disregard other aspects of FedEx’s services, such as cost or customer care. Thus, whereas the term halo effect was originally coined in reference to having positive feelings towards people, the phrase’s usage has over time expanded to include, and become commonly associated with, brand marketing. It is a form of confirmation bias in which positive feelings or perceptions in one are leads to favorable attitudes towards neutral aspects. For example, a person is likely to say that Virginia Airways is good because it provides better meals than other airlines. The conclusion that Virginia is good generalizes the whole brand, even when other aspects of its services, such as punctuality and flight connections might be poor compared to rival airlines. Another person might say that Fly Emirates is the best because of quality services, when such services are offered at a higher cost compared to other airlines. In this case, the halo effect has the impact of making consumers perceive the whole brand as good on the basis of one aspect. The focus of this paper is to review the existing literature on the relevance of the halo effect in marketing. The paper will examine how businesses use the concept of the halo effect not only to promote a particular product, but also to create a strong brand name.
Literature Review
The etymology of the term "halo" is rooted in the religious concept of a glowing crown over the heads of saints, as depicted in medieval and renaissance paintings (Stratman, 2011, p. 1). The halo showers the saints’ faces with heavenly light, suggesting that they are sinless and therefore, of good virtue. While the halo is a physically observable phenomenon, it does not really reveal the person’s true character (Stratman, 2012). However, the observer concludes that the person over whose head the halo appears is good. The presence of the halo’s light makes the observer to overestimate the worth of the person being observed. The halo effect thus functions by making the observer to bend their judgment favorably according to one patent characteristic- the halo.
The halo effect works both positively (when one positive attributed leads the observer to liking the whole) and negatively (when one negative aspect leads the observer to dislike the whole) (Nisbett, 1977). Also known as the devils effect or the horns effects, the halo effect works in reverse when people allow one undesirable aspect to influence their overall perception and evaluation of an individual’s other traits (Cotter, 2011). Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez suffered from the devil effect as a result of his brutality, which made him to be demonized to the extent of overshadowing any other positive achievements he may have brought to his country (Glennie, 2011).
The halo effect has become a crucial concept in brand marketing by enabling businesses to use a single positive feature of a product to create a positive image of the business’s brand name (Pitta & Lewis, 1995, p. 54). This is most notable in Apple’s marketing strategy of using the iPod to promote the Apple brand name and other Apple products (Opland, 2012, p. (6). The iPod’s popularity and positive consumer reviews created a halo for all other Apple products, such as computers. Subway also created a halo effect through its positioning as the number one choice for healthy fast food (Chandon & Wansink, 2007, p. 302). Subway’s self-branding as marketers of healthy fast foods not only causes health-conscious consumers to prefer its foods, but equally important, to underestimate the caloric content of many of its dishes. Just because Subway brands itself as a marketer of healthy foods does not make its dishes any healthier than, say, McDonald’s, but the fact that the company promotes this image makes consumers to have a positive attitude towards Subway foods. Thus, marketers take advantage of the impact of the halo effect on consumers’ attitudes to sell more products and services, as well as create a strong brand name.
The halo effects also extends to the use of celebrities to endorse a particular products by targeting the audience’s positive evaluation of the celebrity, and which translate into positive perception of the product being endorsed (Schlecht, 2003). The use of media personalities and sporting stars suggest marketers’ attempt to transfer the celebrity’s halo effect to the product (Schlecht, 2003). For instance, if 100m world record holder Hussein Bolt is used to endorse a Ferrari, the assumption is that the target audience can associate the Ferrari with speed, even if there are other faster cars.
Edward Thorndike’s experiment, whose findings he wrote an article "A Constant Error is Psychological Rating" (Thorndike, 1920), showed that the way people rate someone on one trait correlated with how they rated the same person on other traits. For instance, a person rated as physically attractive is likely to be rated as both intelligent and charming as a result of the halo effect caused by his or her attractiveness, with which "he impressed others" (Thorndike, 1920, 26). As a result, the halo effect functions by compelling people to see things as either all good or all bad. Although Thorndike characterized the halo effect as a source of measurement bias- and therefore an unreliable variable in collecting empirical data- it has become the foundational concept of modern brand marketing. Customers show the halo effect bias when they develop a positive impression of a service or product provider after interacting with one of its representatives or partners. For instance, a customer will rate a company’s customer care positively if they had a good experience interacting with one of the customer care people, despite the fact that other customer care attendants might have poor people skills. The positive experience with one agent can extend to customers having a favorable impression of the firm’s brand or products (Cotter, 2011). Virgin Group’s reputation under the leadership of Richard Branson exemplifies this scenario, whereby a business is associated with the personality of its leader. In the context of brand marketing, the halo effect represents a customer’s favorable bias towards a company’s products and services after a positive experience with one of the company’s products or employee. It is driven by the concept of brand equity, which seeks to improve the value of a brand by promoting its image. Strong brands such as Gillette or Mercedes-Benz owe their strength to the image of quality and prestige associated with their products.
The first practical application of the halo effect concept in brand marketing can be traced to the first supermarket chain established by Micha...