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How Marketing Affects The Expansion Of A Brand

Grayson Garrett

Entrepreneurship and Business Academy, Kempsville High School

Mrs. Sarah Routsis

TE 4550-231

May 07, 2021

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How Marketing Affects The Expansion Of A Brand

Introduction

Not everything is as it seems. A lot of words and visuals nowadays are used to trick, alter,

or influence your way of thinking to get to do one thing or another. Most of the time one may fail

to realize it, but these tactics are crucial to how business functions.

For myself personally, I have become aware of a lot of these tactics that are used around

me to influence my decisions in purchasing and others. They might be villainized at times, but

these tactics are nothing to be looked down upon. I found myself intrigued by them and

interested to utilize them in my own way. I looked for where I can utilize these tactics in a way

of marketing to help a business expand.

This search journey led me to my internship that I am ultimately with now. My internship

is with No Father No Excuse, a non-profit organization that looks to help adolescents succeed

who are without the presence of an active father in their lives. No Father No Excuse, or NFNE

for short, does a lot of work to help these kids become successful adults in their lives and gives

them the necessary tools to do this. Fathers provide so much support in a child’s life and when a

child has an absent father, NFNE looks to come in and provide that support to them that their

father is not. There are actually two sides to NFNE though. One side is the non-profit side, which

looks to utilize tools to help these young kids succeed. The other side is the LLC or business side

which helps fundraise for the non-profit side. My interest and intrigue is more aligned with the

LLC side of NFNE. My mentor is Steve Dent who is the founder and CEO of NFNE. He

provides much guidance while I take on endeavors within this organization. One reason that I am

interning for NFNE is for my Senior Capstone Project with the EBA, but another reason is that I

really am interested in taking an organization and being a part of an organization that grows and
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becomes something special. Even within my short time interning for NFNE, I will be able to see

it grow and prosper into a more successful business and organization than it already is. I believe I

can use specialized marketing tactics and physiological concepts to help not only expand the

business but help it prosper. There are so many more aspects to NFNE and my internship that

helped me find much knowledge.

What I Wanted To Know

Through my internship and research I wanted to answer one main question: How can

certain physiological marketing concepts be used to target consumer’s desires to expand a brand?

My internship experience not only granted me the in person and first hand experience that I

needed to find out the answer to my question, but it also showed me what worked and what

didn’t.

I also took it upon myself to find research on many different physiological marketing

concepts and terms in general that can be used for marketing and targeting consumer’s desires.

What I found in my research was many different concepts that could be used, for example a

concept that was utilized was congruence theory. Congruence theory is just one example of the

many and many concepts that can be implemented within marketing in order to influence a

customer’s purchasing intentions or desires. I have implemented and assessed the effectiveness

and efficiency of a bunch of different varieties of concepts within marketing to answer my main

question. Within my internship, there were multiple instances where I could utilize these

concepts in order to attempt to grow and expand the brand of NFNE. There has been sales being

put up on the shop in order to entice customers to purchase items. There have been deals being

done on the products in order to make the customer think they are getting a bargain which will in
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turn drive up the profits and help expand the brand. There’s also been promotional campaigns

being done to not only help the products reach a wider audience, but to also get the brand of No

Father No Excuse out there to more people so that this new audience can help contribute to the

cause and the organization. There was always something going on to grow and expand the brand

using these physiological marketing concepts and strategies.

While utilizing these concepts in my internship and doing research relating to them, I

hoped to find the answers I was looking for.

Congruence Theory

When you go out or see online someone that you are aware of in one way or another

endorsing a product, you might be more inclined to take a second look at that product. This is

essentially the concept of congruence theory. The formal definition of congruence theory is the

“match that exists between the product and endorser” (Lee, 2015). You see, when something as

small as seeing someone you admire like a celebrity endorsing a product, it will influence your

thought process and change your desires just based on that one site. According to the theory of

congruence, “the effectiveness of an advertisement is enhanced when a fit or match exists

between the product and the endorser'' (Lee, 2015). For example, let’s say you are really into

clothes and you shop for clothes a lot. One day you see an advertisement for a clothing brand

that you have never heard of before, but you see Michael B. Jordan is wearing the clothes in the

advertisement. Let’s also say that Michael B. Jordan is your favorite actor. If it was just some

random model wearing those clothes in that advertisement, you wouldn’t think twice before

scrolling or looking away. Although, since it’s Michael B. Jordan someone who you admire

wearing the clothes, you are more likely to buy those clothes for yourself. Michael B. Jordan
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single handedly altered your desires and purchase intention in benefit of the brand or company.

This is exactly what congruence theory is. It’s even been proven that, "congruence in product

advertising--such as through celebrity endorsements, background music, or atmosphere--plays an

important role in generating advertising effects" (Lee, 2015). Congruence theory can be utilized

in so many ways to change or alter an attitude towards an advertisement, attitude towards a

brand, or purchase intention. Within my own internship, I got to witness some celebrities

wearing NFNE merch. One in particular being La Jill Hunt, a famous author, who has worn

NFNE merch multiple times in support of the organization. Customers and people in general

who saw her wear the NFNE merch were more likely to look into the organization and buy the

merch themselves. When we look at how this concept of congruence theory can play a role in

marketing to expand a brand, we come to see how even the slightest influence of an endorser on

the customer can have a great impact on the purchase intention of a specific product. This is just

one concept that can be used for marketing and there are many more.

Consumer Ethnocentrism

Nowadays it seems like every product and every item we use are made overseas. On

basically everything you can turn it over and see “Made In China” written on the bottom. When a

consumer sees a product or advertisement that says the product is produced in the United States,

they might feel some type of pride in it. According to Guo, “The meta-analysis confirms that

consumer ethnocentrism has a positive influence on domestic product judgment and willingness

to buy that product, while it has a negative influence on foreign product judgment but not on

willingness to buy foreign products.” Consumer ethnocentrism pretty much means that when a

consumer sees a product is made domestically within their own country, they are more willing to
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purchase that product. When a consumer is aware it was made in the United States, they might

think that it is helping the economy by giving jobs to people in the US to produce this product

instead of outsourcing. They might also think that it might be made more durable and long

lasting since it isn’t made super cheap in a foreign country. The catch with this though is that,

even if they see that the product is made in a foreign country, it won’t affect their willingness to

purchase the product, only their judgement on it. When it comes to domestic made products

though, a consumer is much more likely to purchase that product for the simple fact that it was

made in their home country. This gives it the edge to alter purchase intention. This also gives the

edge to the business or organization who benefit from this. All of the products that are attached

to No Father No Excuse are all made domestically within the United States. This advantage

allowed me within my internship to promote and advertise the products as supporting domestic

and local business to further expand the brand of NFNE. Products made on foreign soil have a

negative appeal attached to them for the reason of taking away jobs from domestic workers and

more. It is for this reason that consumer ethnocentrism can be used in marketing and advertising

to entice a customer to support a product that is made domestically which will in turn benefit the

brand exposure.

Ideal Self-Concept

Why do we like to customize products so much? It’s because we want to make that

product our own. We want to make it original to ourselves. We want to be the only one who has

this product customized in this certain way. We want it to be our ideal version that relates to

ourselves. Ideal self-concept is what you want yourself to be, but it doesn't always apply to just

your view of yourself. It also applies to your wants and needs. When it comes to customization,
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you want to make something that you are happy with and is the ideal outcome. You want the

ideal product image that you have in your mind. Customization allows this. Most people's views

are influenced by other people. They care about what others think. It has been proven that there

is a “match between ideal self-concept and the customized product was a strong determinant of

emotional product attachment” (Park, 2016). When a product is customized, a consumer is more

likely to be emotionally attached to that product therefore causing them to be more inclined to

purchase that product. The catch with ideal self-concept is that it only applies to highly visible

products. A consumer wouldn’t care about other people’s opinions on what pillow they have in

their house, if no one will ever see it but that consumer. This is because the pillow is a private

good to that customer. There are many visible products though that can play into this concept. A

t-shirt for example, is a highly visible product because people will see it in public. Within my

own internship, No Father No Excuse, the consumers were allowed to customize what color of

logo and t-shirt they wanted for their orders. Relating back to ideal self-concept, this affects the

customer's choice when customizing and buying it. Not only did it most of the time positively

influence the buyer’s purchase intention, but it also helped the brand of NFNE expand as a

whole. Ideal self-concept is not the only concept that can be used for marketing and purchase

intent, scarcity can also be used to give similar effects.

Scarcity and Exclusivity

Everyone wants to know that they have something that is exclusive. It makes them feel

special. When a product is set as a limited amount and once that product is gone it won’t come

back, there is an incentive in a consumer’s mind to get that product. According to Jamieson, "If

something is only available in limited quantities or for a limited time, we make a mental shortcut
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and assume it is more valuable and of higher quality - because it’s harder to get." Exclusive

products appeal to people who wish to seek status or establish their uniqueness because they are

seen to be of higher value. In this case, rarity implies value. This reaction is so strong that they

become desperate to get things they wouldn’t even want if they weren’t scarce. The concept of

scarcity also “triggers an emotion response because we find it hard to resist wanting things that

are scarce. Scarcity floods us with emotions and generally makes clear thinking difficult"

(Jamieson, n.d.). When we see that something is scarce, our mind is flooded with emotions of

needing that product. We assume that the product has a high value because it is rare and scarce.

Within my internship at NFNE, there were a few opportunities where shirts or wrist bands were

only available for a limited time or a sale was only available or a limited time. This exclusivity

period gave off the effect to customers that they needed to purchase a shirt or wrist band within a

certain amount of time. When scarcity and exclusivity are combined, the concepts can be utilized

to market to customer’s to influence their emotions to raise higher values to certain products

even when those products might not even possess those higher values in the first place. This in

turn positively influences purchase intent towards the products and successfully helps the goal of

expanding the brand of any business.

Loss Aversion & FOMO

People will do anything they can to avoid loss. It’s human nature to want to be included

and to not miss out. The psychology of losing something weighs more on a person’s

subconscious than when something is won. Loss aversion is seen in how we refuse to give up our

place in a queue or line. Even if a consumer is in line and knows that the probability for being

able to purchase an item with a limited quantity is low, the individual will stay in line just in case
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for the simple fact of them potentially missing out on that item. Nowadays, “more than half of

social media users say they worry about missing something — breaking news, an event, or an

important status update — and they take steps to ensure they don’t miss out” (SKUlocal). People

currently want to be up to date on everything that is new, including the latest trends, all the way

to the point where they have a fear of missing something if they look away for one second. It’s

this fear of missing out or “FOMO” that will make them take precautions to ensure that they

don't miss out on these things. It has gotten to the point where, "60% of millennial consumers

said they make a reactive purchase after experiencing FOMO, most often within 24 hours”

(SKUlocal, 2017). If someone feels as if they have missed out on something, like a deal, they

will alter their purchase intention and make a reactive purchase to make up for that feeling of

missing out in the first place. I have experienced this first hand within my own internship. We

ran a sale that lasted for a short period of time and advertised it as a “don’t miss out” type of sale

in big bold letters. By the time the sale had ended, we had seen the sales of the NFNE t-shirts

grow. Along with that, our social media presence had gained a significant amount of followers

off of this advertisement that helped to expand the exposure of the brand. The physiological

concepts of FOMO and loss aversion can single handedly alter a consumers purchase behavior

and desires all by a few little words used in a marketing advertisement or campaign.

Mere Exposure Effect

The more a person is exposed to something, the more they feel comfortable with that

something. When a customer purchases an Apple laptop, they get familiar with it over time and

when it is time to go and purchase a new laptop they are more likely to go back to purchase

another Apple laptop. They have become familiar with the brand of Apple and are more likely to
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prefer it over competing brands. This is the concept of mere exposure effect. According to

Foster, “the mere-exposure effect happens when customers have a preference for something,

simply because they are familiar with it." The mere exposure effect suggests that the more

familiar your customers are with your brand, they will place your brand on a higher esteem. A

consistent presence across multiple channels works well with this as well. There have been

mixed results on whether the mere exposure effect positively or negatively affects purchase

behavior for customers though. In one study, students who were in college were shown different

banner ads as they were reading an article on the computer. The groups that got exposed to the

"test" banner had a better rating of that advertisement than any other ad shown. In a different

study though, it has been seen that having too much exposure can be linked with lower

reputations for companies. Too much exposure caused an indifference towards the company.

When the advertisement is oversaturated it leaves a bad taste in the customer's mouth about the

company. When it comes to familiarity with a brand, sometimes having too much can cause the

customer to turn away. This is what makes the mere exposure effect an uncertainty on whether it

benefits a brand’s expansion or not. Although, the mere exposure effect does seem to work best

for businesses that are newer and in their earlier stages. In my own personal experience with No

Father No Excuse, which is my internship, I have been able to use the mere exposure effect to

market the brand of NFNE. The results though were inconclusive. I reached out to all of the past

customers from last month that were familiar with the brand and I let them know that we had a

new color t-shirt. We had some sales growth, but not enough to warrant any huge exposure or

expansion of the brand in totality. At the end of the day, the mere exposure effect might be

beneficial for the profitability of a business, but when it relates to the exposure and expansion of

a brand it just doesn’t offer much.

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Guarantees

When a product is purchased, usually there is a warranty or a money back guarantee that

comes along with it. But these types of guarantees can’t always be promised. It’s easy to

guarantee a repair of an item like a phone or a faulty remote, but how can a repair be guaranteed

for a bad haircut or bad lawn mowing job? Exactly, it can’t. The phone usually has a faulty

coding or machinery that can be replaced or fixed, but the damage on the bad haircut is already

done and can’t be reversed unless you have a time machine. For investments or products that are

expensive, guarantees are important to gain the trust of your customers. What can really be

classified as a service guarantee though? According to Hart, “It is unconditional, easy to

understand and communicate, meaningful, easy (and painless) to invoke, and easy and quick to

collect on." It needs to be unconditional so that it will happen no matter what and the customer

cannot be finessed either way. In order for it to entice an individual, it has to be easy to

understand and communicate so that the customer can easily understand their benefits to the

guarantee. For it to be meaningful means it actually offers something that incentives the

customer to purchase the product or service knowing that the guarantee is beneficial if needed.

Easy to invoke means that it won't take an arm and a leg to get the customer their guarantee.

Being easy and quick to collect on would mean that at any moment after the service or product is

purchased, the customer can collect on the guarantee regardless of any other circumstances. My

own personal experience with NFNE, we got to include a 1 year warranty as a factor of the

product for the t-shirts as a 1 week sale and include this factor within our marketing campaigns

in order to further expand the brand. Knowing that a product comes with a guarantee, no matter
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what the guarantee is, gives the consumer the push they need to alter their purchasing intentions

and habits in order to benefit the business or company in the long run.

Autonomy/Choice/Options

Choices and options are everything nowadays. The more choices an individual has, the

more likely they are to choose one of them. The more options someone has, the more likely there

is for one of them to be individualized to that specific person. Every business or company that is

trying to sell a product or service should have choices or options. When choices are presented,

the customer feels autonomous which helps them feel more comfortable with purchasing a

product. I asked my mentor, Steven Dent, what type of choices or options NFNE offers to

customers and he had this to say, “NFNE offers many options including colors and different

merch as well as different checkout options in order to help the customer feel as if they are able

to pick themselves from a large option pool and to feel more comfortable with the brand as a

whole.” The t-shirts sold by NFNE are offered in many different colors, sizes, and styles. For the

everyday NFNE customers, they are able to choose what platforms they would like to purchase

t-shirts on whether it’s Etsy, Instagram, Facebook, etc. I also asked him how do these options

benefit NFNE & he said, “well when one of our customers are given more than one choice they

might feel more inclined to at least buy one t-shirt because there are more chances they might

like one of them compared to if there was just one color and they didn’t like that color.” With

more options and choices, we can see how customer’s purchase intentions can be altered and

how the options can be marketed to influence customer’s desires.

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Analysis

Within each concept, I got to utilize them within my own internship to get first hand

experience on the effects of these concepts and how they play into consumer’s desires and the

expansion of a brand. I’ve seen how a promotional campaign like getting a celebrity in the

famous author La Jill Hunt to wear No Father No Excuse merch has positively impacted the

organization and helped NFNE reach new eyes and new customers. Also how NFNE offered

guarantees to customers in order to build trust within the customer base that helped grow it even

further. There were so many times and opportunities when concepts were used to help expand

this brand of No Father No Excuse and I was able to witness it first hand while doing my

research. The data that came out of it was able to support the question whether physiological

concepts can be used within business and marketing to target customer’s desires in order to

expand a brand. Not just within my own internship, it was also supported in the other research

and experiments that I had mentioned previously. The takeaways from this research within my

own internship and from outside of my own internship has proven and provided me with the

information needed to say that a customer’s desires can be altered and targeted within marketing

in order to expand a brand, in this case the brand of No Father No Excuse.

Conclusion

Many physiological concepts can easily be used to target consumer’s desires in order to

expand a brand as I have proven time and time again. The match between the product and

endorser in congruence theory can be used to entice a consumer to purchase a product based on

someone they admire. This will expand the exposure of the brand to more consumers. Positive

influence associated with domestic made products in consumer ethnocentrism can be used to also
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help a customer feel better about a company’s products meaning they are more likely to purchase

from that brand and spread the word about them. Being able to customize a product to make it

the ideal-version for yourself relating to ideal self-concept is used once again to entice the

customer which can lead to more customers and can also lead to an expansion of the brand or

organization. The more rare a product, the more value it will have. We see this in scarcity and

exclusivity especially in business. The more rare products are the more value they have, the more

they are talked about. This means the more people that will be aware of the brand. In loss

aversion and FOMO, we see how people will go to extreme lengths to avoid a loss and this

applies to products within a brand. This can lead to higher profits and more exposure to the

brand. The more familiar people are with a brand the more likely they are to purchase more from

that specific brand is the mere exposure effect. We can see the mere exposure effect play a role in

the expansion of a brand when more people become familiar with such a brand. Offering

guarantees not only puts trust into the customer with the brand but also makes them more likely

to spread the word leading to expansion. Having more choices and options leads to potentially

more customers which leads a bigger and more well known brand. These concepts are so

essential to today’s marketing and business. There are millions of concepts that can be used as

well to target customer’s desires. Increased expansion of customers and exposure of a brand can

lead to more and more success. Throughout my internship and my research experience, I have

learned a lot that I can use in the future to become successful and prosper.
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References

Foster, Henry. "What Is the Mere Exposure Effect? How Does It Apply to Marketing?" RSS, 17

Dec. 2020, www.growthramp.io/articles/mere-exposure-effect.

Guo, Gongxing, and Xing Zhou. "Consumer ethnocentrism on product judgment and willingness

to buy: a meta-analysis." Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, vol.

45, no. 1, 2017, p. 163+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A483701905/OVIC?u=viva2_tcc&sid=OVIC&xid=e46e6200.

Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.

Hart, Christopher. "The Power of Unconditional Service Guarantees." Harvard Business Review,

1 Aug. 2014, hbr.org/1988/07/the-power-of-unconditional-service-guarantees.

"How Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Impacts What Consumers Are Buying." SKUlocal, 10 Feb.

2017, www.skulocal.com/insights/how-fear-of-missing-out-fomo-impacts-what-

consumers-are-buying/.

Jamieson, Sarah. "Persuasion Psychology - Scarcity and Exclusivity." Persuasionworks.com,

www.persuasionworks.com/persuasion-psychology/scarcity-and-exclusivity.htm.

Lee, J., Kim, J., & Yu, J. (2015). Effects of congruence of product, visual image, and consumer

self-image on art infusion advertising. Social Behavior and Personality: An International

Journal, 43(10), 1725+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A437879310/OVIC?u

=viva2_tcc&sid=OVIC&xid=605718a2.

Park, M., & Yoo, J. (2016). E-mass customization: effects of self-congruity and functional

congruity on consumer responses. Social Behavior and Personality: An International

Journal, 44(8), 1379+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A474042397/OVIC?u

=viva2_tcc&sid=OVIC&xid=8116f4a4