Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

56 BRAND RELEVANCE
objectively it may have been a good choice. It ran into the
wrong frame, which rendered it irrelevant.
Lakoff observes that frames are often cognitively unconscious
in that people don ’ t necessary even realize that there is a
frame or that the frame infl uences. 7 That is in part why framing
is so powerful. The frame does not achieve dominance because
it is logically appropriate or fair; it just slips in there because one
competitor exploited a fi rst - mover role, created a vivid metaphor
to represent a frame, or was simply louder and more persistent
than the opponent.
A frame, once established, can linger. It is hard to change
even when fi rst introduced. Lakoff likes to start off his Berkeley
classes with the admonition not to think of an elephant. Of
course, students fi nd it impossible to get the elephant out of
their minds.
Empirical Evidence
A host of experiments have demonstrated that people process
information and make choices that are affected by framing. A
study showed that if meat is framed according to how lean it is
rather than how fat, it will be preferred. 8 People consistently
prefer 75 percent lean to 25 percent fat. The number 75 percent
seems high, and so the judgment is made that the fat content is
relatively low. When the label says 25 percent fat, the fat statistic
is in your face. In general, attributes that are portrayed positively
have a greater impact than the same attributes portrayed
negatively. In general there is a preference for positive framing
over negative framing.
Another study showed the difference in customer opinions
that occurs when a fi rm is framed as a not - for - profi t instead of a
for - profi t institution.
9
Researchers showed and described to one
experimental group a women ’ s bag by Mozilla.org . The use of
the .org suggests a not - for - profi t. Another group had an identical
experience, except the bag was reported to be by Mozilla.com .