Few marketers would dispute that brand image is an essential part of the DNA of any successful brand that’s out there today. However, as important as brand image may be, the construct does pose quite a challenge: measurement.

Over many decades, studies show that the top-performing brands on brand image scales outperform competitors on a variety of outcomes. To name a few, a positive brand image results in the brand grabbing more attention, increasing the consumer’s willingness to pay price premium, and even succeeds in making the product usage experience more pleasant. You can deem brand image as the heart of a brand, pumping oxygen into the many separate systems that keep it healthy and thriving.

Did you click? Clickbait is a strategy for viral journalism, where the hunt on clicks is accelerating. Powerful and emotional words can make your headline irresistibly clickable, as previous research already showed that clickbait headlines were successful in baiting clicks.

A loyal example of clickbait usage is the website Buzzfeed, where titles are calling on emotions and curiosity by not revealing the conclusion of the article (see figure). This website is known for its rigorous use of analytics and A/B tests, showing that they will be fully aware of the effects that these clickbait headlines have on article clicks.

But does clickbait also contribute to shares and word-of-mouth or do they elicit a certain level of distrust or disappointment?

How often do you research a product online before going to the physical shop to make your purchase? Most modern-day shoppers can no longer live without the so-called process of webrooming.

In fact, at least 74% of shoppers are webroomers. Almost half of webroomers do so because of a need for touch (NFT): the desire to feel, touch or smell a product before making the decision to buy.

Understanding such cross-channel customer experiences is a must for modern-day retailers. Get ready to find out just how going through online shopping windows and the need for touch influence customers’ in-store shopping behavior.

In their battle for customer attention, food packaging designers are eager to implement techniques from psychology. It gives them an edge over their competitors in grabbing customer attention and increasing sales.

Especially in the aisles containing your typical vice products, most purchases are unplanned. This leaves a major role for on-pack visuals and claims to determine which products end up in our shopping baskets. 

Over the years, consumer psychologists have unearthed many of these design techniques, which are often quite eloquent and subtle, such as:

• Getting the typography right (did you know that round fonts reinforce our perception of sweetness?)
• Cleverly arranging the various visual elements (did you know that bottom-heavy pack designs increases our perception of the amount of product we’ll be getting)
• Using nature’s principles of beauty (did you know that designs following the golden ratio are regarded more beautiful?)

As we focus on ever-more subtle design techniques, we may be overlooking the most powerful weapons of influence that are in front of our faces all along. A recent study by Huang et al., (2022) has thrown the spotlight on one such factors: image size.

Imagine coming across an ad saying that the advertised shoes will help to tone your muscles and burn extra calories, or that snail oil will cure all acne. You might think that you won’t fall for this claim. But in fact, a lot of people will. Consumers falling for misleading and fraudulent claims isn’t something new. But since social media is rapidly evolving, false information spreads faster and wider than ever.

How do we interpret the credibility of information and what influences if we’re going to believe false claims?