It never seizes to amaze me about how people’s brain’s respond to seeing images, logos, and brands. Today I walked into the elevator with a cup of Starbucks tea in my hand and I was just minding my business watching these two ladies go back and forth about an episode of Desperate Housewives.
This was painful in itself, to say the least as I stood their contemplating interjecting between them and asking if either watched monday night football last night. I just didn’t have the genitalia to ask such a question.
Both ladies had their back turned to me and then we all walked out of the elevator and noticed each other, one of the ladies noticed my Starbucks coffee cup in hand and in almost mechanical fashion like a fashion switched the whole subject of her conversation from “Desperate Housewives” to ” do you want to get some starbucks coffee”? “I have a craving for starbucks right now”. I over heard this with an eery fascination.
How could a cup with an image have such a profound effect on somebody’s mind? This did not make much sense to me. This is why offline branding will always have a greater yield over any online branding initiative. I don’t think I have seen or thought about getting a starbucks coffee while looking at one of their banner ads on sports illustrated dot com. They’re just isn’t that sense of pull going on.
Just something to think about, when was the last time your buying decision was influenced by a banner ad or just an image?
