Would you believe a picture of a frog can improve your ROI? Well, it's true. While most conventional marketing would have you believe that your brand should represent your company or business, it's much more powerful if it's relatable to your customers instead. You probably just read through that last paragraph without taking any of it in ? because you're still wondering about the picture of the frog. Okay, okay, I'll explain.

A new study took as its springboard the fact that one out of five new table wines introduced to the marketplace had pictures of animals on the label. Not only that, the AC Nielsen company found that so-called ?critter wines? outsold the others by more than two to one!

This goes back to the old sales canard that emotions are much more effective than facts when it comes to advertising. Consumers like animals on labels because they can process them faster than some abstract logo ? and in this case, familiarity breeds buying, not contempt! To test this theory, researchers had participants in their experiments visualize an object like? a frog! They then showed them two wine bottles ? one that had the object they were to visualize on the label and another that didn't. Most picked the wine bottle with the object they were already trained to recognize.

The strength of this effect, however, did diminish depending on how much time people were given to choose which a wine bottle. If they were asked to pick instantly, they'd go for the familiar label. If they had a few seconds to think about it, then fewer opted for the familiar.

Obviously, if a wine label were to truly represent itself, it would have the traditional picture of grapes or a vineyard, as many still do today. An animal really has nothing to do with wine as a product ? but the sales success of critter wines proves that it doesn't matter.

People like friendly-looking animals ? it personalizes the brand and makes it more accessible. Which explains the ongoing success of Tony the Tiger, Smokey the Bear and other animal pitchmen ? or, should I say, pitchcreatures.

If you put an out-of-the-box image ? whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral - on your product or service, it actually could improve your overall ROI even though it may have no direct relation to what you do. As long as it doesn't work against your business ? I don't know that a cockroach would be a great logo for a restaurant, for example ? it would be a plus if it evokes a happy, familiar reaction. That kind of imagery ? even if just used for a single direct mail piece or marketing campaign ? also makes you stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Copyright (c) 2009 Richard Seppala