From Kodak to Coca-Cola. And from KitKat to Kool-Aid. Over the years, many brands have been born with the letter -K as their first phoneme. This preference among branding practitioners was so apparent that Schloss (1981), who was first to quantify the overrepresentation of the letter K, has dubbed his linguistic discovery the “K effect”. 

Is there something magical about the letter K that made it the phoneme of choice among brand creatives? Should new brands adopt it as well, or is it wiser to avoid it nowadays? And how did the K effect fare in recent years? Recently, a new study has been conducted to see whether K has held its ground in 2021.

We all know stories that show us a conflict followed by a solution. These are called reversal stories.Conflict reversal stories in advertising can help consumers understand product benefits. The stories present obstacles and solutions that consumers themselves might identify with. → If consumers can connect with the story, they can connect with the brand. However, when the conflict in such a story is for example a hurricane, this has a more positive effect on products like furniture or clothing than it would have on experience products like a pain killer. Want to know why? Then read our latest article!

A lot has been said and written about the current COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve learned much from it. In the past year, great advances have been made in fields such as healthcare, hygiene, viral transmission and governmental responses to crises. Keep reading to find out the lessons we learned which can turn out to be a great advantage for governmental institutions and businesses in all sectors!

Let’s try an experiment. Close your eyes and imagine someone running through your field of vision.

I’d bet your imaginary friend was running from left to right. How do I know? Because we are subconsciously conditioned to expect left to right movement. When our expectations aren’t met, this can create subconscious friction which in turn can affect our evaluations.

Want to know more about this interesting phenomenon and how you can use it to your advantage? Keep reading.

A couple of years back I was browsing through my Facebook feed when I came across an ad from a brand selling high-end watches, promoting one of their new products. At first, I barely glanced at the ad, I didn’t care, it was just another ad.

Here’s when it became interesting.

A few days later- as I was sluggishly reading my Facebook feed- I came across this same ad. With the same copy, offer and image. There was not a slight change in the ad and yet my response was very different.

What had changed? The difference was that I realized two friends I look up to had liked the ad. Therefore, I decided to give it a chance.

To make a long story short. I ended up reading the ad, watching the 25-second video, reacted to the ad (I’m sure I gave it a heart), and finally clicking on the ad.

So what happened? Simple: We like the things that are liked by the people we know. Keep on reading to discover the psychology that lies beneath this interesting phenomenon.