A specialty coffee roastery orders 200 T-shirts to sell at its counter. They’re good quality, in the brand’s colours, with the roastery’s name printed in large letters across the chest. Eighteen months later, 170 of them are still in a box under the stairs.
The next year, the owner tries something different: a small embroidered coffee-bean motif on the sleeve, with no name at all. Only people who know the roastery would recognise it. They sell out in a month. Regulars wear them to the café and nod at each other.
It seems backwards. Surely a brand wants its name to be as visible as possible? But research on how people use products to signal who they are suggests that, for certain customers in certain categories, quieter branding can be more attractive than loud.
One Like insight: For your most knowledgeable customers, being recognised by the right people matters more than being seen by everyone.
Subtle signals
In 2010, Jonah Berger of the Wharton School and Morgan Ward published a study in the Journal of Consumer Research that challenged a very old idea. Since the economist Thorstein Veblen wrote about “conspicuous consumption” in 1899, it has been widely assumed that people buy expensive goods partly to display their status, so pricier products should carry bigger, more obvious brand markers.
Berger and Ward found something different. Analysing several product categories, including sunglasses, they found an inverted-U pattern: as prices rose, logos and brand names first became more prominent, then less so. As they put it, “High-end products are actually less likely to contain such clear brand markers.” The designer Tom Ford, quoted in their paper, made the same point more bluntly: “In fact, we don’t have logos.”
The researchers’ experiments explained why. Subtly branded products were harder for most observers to recognise and were sometimes mistaken for cheaper alternatives. But people with more knowledge in a particular area, whom the researchers described as having more cultural capital, actually preferred subtle signals. These insiders could decode them, and liked that they distinguished them from the mainstream and connected them with others “in the know”. The effect was stronger for products that express identity and in situations where people would be seen using them.
The research focused largely on fashion and luxury goods, and its findings won’t apply in every category. A plumber’s van, for example, needs a clearly visible name and phone number. But for businesses whose customers care about taste and identity, it’s a useful reminder that louder isn’t always better.
Choosing how loud to be
The practical question for a small business is how prominent your branding should be, and the research suggests the answer depends on who you’re talking to and where.
Where you need to be found, be clear. Shopfronts, vehicles, websites, packaging on a crowded shelf, anything new customers must recognise quickly: here, a clear name and logo matter. As we explored in Your Customers Probably Don’t Think You’re That Different, being easily recognised is how you come to mind.
Where customers express identity, consider subtlety. Merchandise, premium products, loyalty gifts and anything customers wear, carry or display can benefit from quieter cues that insiders recognise: a distinctive pattern, colour, shape or symbol rather than a large name.
Match the signal to the customer. Newcomers to a category often prefer obvious markers that reassure them they’ve chosen something recognised. Experienced enthusiasts often prefer subtle ones that show they know what they’re doing. Many businesses serve both, and can offer different versions.
Subtle signals only work if some people recognise them, so they depend on a strong core brand. A distinctive motif means little until enough customers know it’s yours.
[Infographic placement] How loud should your brand be? A sliding scale from Loud (large name and logo) to Quiet (subtle motif insiders recognise). Above the loud end: shopfronts, vans, websites, packaging for new customers. Above the quiet end: merchandise, premium products, items customers wear or display, gifts for loyal regulars. Caption: Berger and Ward (2010): higher-priced products were less likely to carry prominent logos, and knowledgeable insiders preferred subtle signals.
Getting the volume right
Look at every place your brand appears and ask two questions: who sees this, and what do they need from it? For first impressions and findability, make sure your name and logo are clear and consistent. For things your most loyal customers use, wear or display, consider whether a subtler, more distinctive cue would make them prouder to be associated with you.
Talk to your regulars, too. Ask which of your branded items they actually use, and why. Their answers may reveal that the quieter, more insider details are what they value most.
A few questions can help:
- Where do new customers need to recognise us instantly?
- Which of our products or items do loyal customers wear, carry or display?
- Do we have a distinctive cue, beyond our name, that insiders would recognise?
- Are we shouting our name in places where our best customers would prefer a quieter signal?
Which brings us back to the roastery and its unsold T-shirts. The large printed name made perfect sense on the shopfront, where new customers needed to find the café. On something regulars would wear, it felt like advertising. The small embroidered coffee bean, meaningful only to people who knew it, turned those same customers into proud members of a quiet club, and that was worth far more to them than a big logo.
Sources
- Jonah Berger and Morgan Ward, “Subtle Signals of Inconspicuous Consumption”, Journal of Consumer Research 37(4), 2010.
