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T0 WHAT EXTENT DOES MOULDING BRANDVALUES INTO A MEMORABLE CHARACTERHELP TOWARDS THE INCREASE OF A BRAND’SAWARENESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE; WITHCLOSE REFERENCE TO THE COMPARE THEMARKET CAMPAIGN AND OTHER BRITISHPRICE COMPARISON SITES.
By Frances O’Brien
Student number:
200419538
The School of Design,
University of Leeds,
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Art and Design
31/03/2011
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Contents:1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………...........……2
2. Literature Review………………………………………………………………………...4
2.1 Chapter 1: Branding…………………………………………………………….4
2.1.1 The History of Branding…………………………………………....4
2.1.2 What is the Role of a Brand?.............................................................5
2.1.3 The Changing Audience…………………………………………….7
2.1.4 The Changing Environment………………………………………...9
3. Chapter 2: Characters……………………………………………………………………13
3.1The History of Characters……………………………………………………....13
3.2 Characters in Price Comparison Sites……………………………………….…15
3.3 Celebrity Endorsements………………………………………………………..18
4. Chapter 3: Methodology…………………………………………………….......……....19
5. Chapter 4: Results and Discussion……………………………………………………....21
5.1 Brand Metrics…………………………………………………………………………..21
5.2 Brand Associations within the Name…………………………………………………..22
5.3 The Marketing Strategy of Compare the Market………………………………………25
5.4 The Competition………………………………………………………………………..27
5.5 The Human Characteristics……………………………………………………………..31
5.6 The Accent and Tone of voice……………………………………………………….....33
5.7 The Humour………………………………………………………………………….....36
6. Chapter 5: The Conclusion…………………………………………………………….....38
7. The Bibliography................................................................................................................41
8. The Appendix.....................................................................................................................47
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The Introduction
The use of characters in advertising have been around for decades, however new technology
and marketing trends have affected the way they are used to sell products and services.
Characters used to be quite limited and synonymous in approach where they lacked a proper
engagement with customers, appearing primarily in printed form. With the advancement of
technology, particularly in computer animation, characters are now able to form more of a
unique identity and personality. Traditionally, characters were used in above the line
advertising but in the digital age, there is now so much pressure to compete making it vital to
promote them through a wide variety of channels at more of a personal level in order to
survive (Costa, 2010).
The recession has led to a widespread societal change in terms of purchasing behaviour (DDB, 2009).
This has resulted in an increased desire for customers to seek “real” connections with brands and so
characters are proving to be successful brand ambassadors (Costa, 2010). Furthermore, the recent
revival of the animated film industry, which was once rooted on children’s entertainment, is
now targeted at all age groups and has thus created a great appreciation for characters
(Calcott, 1994). With the widespread respect for characters today and the vast improvements
in technology, they are now seen as incredibly powerful marketing tools as they have the
ability to create memorable brand associations and form strong relationships with customers.
Chapter one will access the changing environment, which has directly affected customer
needs and it will also look into the developments of branding throughout history up to its role
today.
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The creation of brand awareness is vital in the early stages of advertising in order to
differentiate itself from the competition. It can play a dominant role in purchasing decisions
as the more aware consumers are of your brand, the more likely they are to buy from you.
The changes in the environment and the audience as well as technological advancements
have resulted in a highly competitive environment. This has also changed the expectations of
people as to what brands should be offering and therefore the concept of the brand experience
has been introduced. This concept engages people more through the senses and helps
competing brands stand out from one another. In the digital age, differentiation seems to
come from the on-demand digital services they deliver to your customers rather than the
actual products they are selling. Products are now transforming into services just so that they
can stand out from the competition (Mathieson, 2010).
The greatest use of brand characters largely comes from highly commoditised sectors such as
insurance, food and utilities. The top four British price comparison sites, Compare the
Market, Go Compare, Money Supermarket and Confused, all contain characters. Such sites
used to promote their services in conventional ways where they stated how much money a
customer could save. The price comparison market is now extremely competitive and so
companies have realised that it is necessary to compete on more than just price and volume
where they must create something memorable in order to connect emotionally with
consumers (Dolak, 2005). Purchasing is an emotional decision making process so if a
character evoking an endearing quality is created, the brand will have an advantage over
rivals. Chapter two will deal with the history of characters so comparisons can be made
between the past and present. The focus will move onto characters in price comparison sites
where it will involve looking at what they have done in the past and then chapter four will
access what they must now do in order to compete.
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Branding
The History of Branding
The history of branding can be traced back many centuries ago during Greek and Roman
times, long before the term was actually established. Messages would be written informing
the public of the local trade (Murphy, 1987). However, this system of marking by hand, made
it difficult to attach meaning or add values to goods.
Modern branding and the use of individual brand names have its origin in the nineteenth
century. The Industrial revolution and the consequent development of advertising and
marketing techniques as well as innovations in production, printing and packaging made the
mass branding of goods possible and available for consumers to buy (Moor, 2007). However,
these products and services were produced on such a large scale that they catered for a
national market with a common use of iconic national imagery, rather than by targeting a
select few (Moor, 2007). They were also mainly targeted at women in general who tended to
stay at home whilst the husband worked and was therefore in charge of buying household
products (Dotz, 2003).
The dramatic transformation of brands came in 1967 when Corporate Identity was introduced
by Henrion and Parkin who published Design Coordination and Public image (Moor, 2007).
Corporate Identity consisted of creating a unique identity of an organisation so that its
strategy, structure and vision were all visible. As globalisation became more dominant there
was a rise in multinational corporations, which meant that the national corporations could no
longer function properly. Therefore the use of the corporate identity strategy was
implemented, which is now an important practice used today. It is becoming even more
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popular as products and services are becoming harder to differentiate, which means that
consumers make purchases on emotional rather than rational grounds (Olins, 1994). It used to
be possible to choose between competing products and services on the basis of price, quality
or service. Today this is not the case as there is no real difference between the products and
services of the leading organisations within the market, especially within the field of
insurance. Therefore emotional factors are playing important roles in achieving that
differentiation and that is why companies are increasingly investing in corporate branding
structures. All organisations have an identity but it is the management of it that sets apart
successful brands from one another.
What is the role of a brand?
Brands prevent products from simply becoming a commodity so that they can add value to
their products (Murphy, 1987). Their main function is to attract the customer’s attention and
then retain their loyalty thereafter. The challenge for all brands is that they have a distinct,
clear image that matters to customers and truly differentiates them from the rest (Aaker,
1996). In order to accomplish this, they must be memorable, communicate something about
the product and be linked to a visual image (Ries, 1995). They must also adapt to the
changing environment and needs of the audience as Davidson states,
‘A brand is a constantly changing mental inventory inside the customer’s mind.’ (Cocoran,
2007, p. 27)
In recent times, dramatic changes to branding have taken place where their role has
completely altered. Branding now plays a part in everyday life in Western societies and it
affects more sectors than ever before as the competition in the markets increase at such a
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dramatic rate. It has moved from the periphery to the centre of corporate concern where there
has been greater investment on it. (Olins, 2008) It no longer just applies to businesses alone;
it has evolved so much that it is now commonly used in non-commercial organizations as
well as individuals and places that want to ‘rebrand’ themselves. (Davis, 2009) Branding is
set to expand even further as globalisation continues to introduce western brands to
developing countries, resulting in new markets and therefore offering huge potential. With
the increase of new technologies being introduced all over the world, branding and brand
awareness is spreading like never before. Wally Olins has written several books on brands,
continuously highlighting their impact on society today:
‘The brand has become such a significant phenomenon of our time that it is almost
impossible to express any ideas, or even delineate personalities, without branding them.’
(Olins, 2003, p.23)
Brands clearly play such a dominant role in our lives where they represent more than just the
development of a memorable name, a logo and a slogan but instead must combine effectively
to create a differentiated personality. They now seem to show even more importance than the
products and services they sell. The digital age has made brands strive to contain all the latest
media channels and social networking sites without showing much relevance to what is
actually being sold and in some cases the quality of the product. Their main role today seems
to be more about being memorable and creating as much brand exposure possible.
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The changing audience
Consumers seem to have more control over brands than ever before so much so that they are
developing the brand more than the marketers themselves. According to a recent IPA Future
Foundation report, social networking has had such a huge impact that it is transforming
society. The report stated how it is turning the tables on convention and putting the consumer
in control (Mitchell, 2009). Customer demands have changed where their needs are no longer
part of a mass audience but are centred on a real empathy. Hoffman’s research involves
elevating a brand’s functionality to a more emotional one where she states,
‘Brands are inherently emotional things. A brand is not owned by the people whom
manufacture it, it’s owned by the people who think about it. The customers. It’s the
responsibility of brand managers to tap into some essential human need that a certain group
of consumers think about and share.’ (Adamson, 2009, p.62)
This statement is accurate as consumers are more likely to engage in a brand that offers a
personal element that they can relate to. The editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, Chris
Anderson, backs this up by suggesting that business growth comes from creating niches
rather than the mass market as he states:
“"They satisfy narrow interests better, and in one aspect of our life or another we all have
some narrow interest." (Duff, 2011)
Therefore, adding a personal element is clearly an important part of forging stronger
relationships with customers.
The theme of emotion in branding is examined throughout the book, Passion Branding where
Duffy talks about today’s society as ‘the passion economy.’ In her words, this consists of:
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‘An economy where brands on their own are no longer enough, where consumers demand
that they be treated like people and that marketers respond to both their customers’ emotional
and functional needs.’ (Duffy, 2003, p.6)
So she is saying that it is crucial to find out more about your consumers so that you can
discover their needs and from them on treat them with respect by engaging with them
regularly. Duffy brings up the point of how everyone is trying to build a brand and the way in
which to differentiate your products and services is to engage more with customers, creating
stronger connections. Ravi Naidoo, Managing director of Interactive Africa blames this
sudden popularity of brands on the digital age,
‘We seem to live in an age of super parity-similar products being overlaid by similar
marketing campaigns...With the pervasive reach of media, most marketers read the same
articles and start to sound alike...it needs to be more human, more visceral, more authentic.’
(Duffy, 2003, p.13)
In order to make it more personal, marketers need to think of more ways to engage with
customers. Peter Dene from Churchill believes a character can do just that;
“In such a crowded, competitive market a character can create pure brand salience.” (Costa,
2010).
However, Bryan Urbick, director of research consultancy the Consumer Knowledge Centre
(CKC) stresses the importance of the brand’s management,
“Any brand can create a character, but it depends on how it is executed.” (Costa, 2010)
Therefore the character’s management is of utmost importance as well as getting to know
your audience so that the character can engage to its full potential.
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Simultaneously, marketers have never had as much control over customers until now where
they are being invited into the public’s lives by making personal information available and
easily accessible online. Marketers have access to real time information such as buying habits
and other related personal information. They also have easy access to customers’ thoughts
and actions, whether they are posted on blogs, on corporate websites, review boards or on the
walls of social networking sites. Customers can also directly engage on a one to one level
such as where brands have the opportunity to communicate with consumers through tweets,
participate in review sites and comment on blogs (Adamson, 2008). The digital space is also
a way of keeping the conversation ongoing and so it is a useful way of keeping customers
engaged over a long period of time. This interactivity on the web has overall resulted in a
deeper understanding of consumers, their interests, needs and desires and therefore even
closer relationships can be formed. The better quality the insights are, the more chances there
are of meeting customer demands.
The changing environment
Technological advances have resulted in a change to human activities. Digital media
consumption has not yet overtaken television as the most effective way of reaching large
audiences in a short period of time, however it is certain that audiences are now spending
more time online in favour of conventional media than in the past (IAB Europe White paper,
2010). Research published in 2010 reveals that a third of television viewers now watch their
favourite programmes online (Hutchinson, 2010). The main reasons for this change has been
a rise in high speed internet connections combined with higher PC ownership, which has
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been made possible by lower prices of new PC hardware. Between 2004 and 2009, the
proportion of those claiming to have broadband at home increased by 48.3%, according to
BMRB. There has also been an increase in the amount of PCs within a single household and
so this allows numerous members to be logged in at the same time (Mintel, 2009). It is vital
for a brand to adapt to social change in order to retain its position in the market and so brands
must compete online whilst still delivering offline. This has dramatically changed the
relationship between a brand and its customer. It has opened up many opportunities for
brands with the most obvious being an easier format of targeting customers, as personal
information is easily accessible. This has also resulted in a change in customer demand where
they now expect more from a brand and seek deeper, more personal connections.
One of the largest societal shifts for brands has been the introduction of social networking
sites, which offer brands new ways of engaging with their audience. The most popular ways
in the UK include corporate Twitter accounts to allow one-to-one interaction with customers
and corporate brand pages on Facebook, allowing brands to share content and news, gather
feedback and build a fan base. With the increased access to high speed Internet, there has
been a direct increase in popularity of social Networking sites and it is now considered an
integral part of people’s everyday lives. These sites are graphically intensive, and would be
slow and difficult to manage without a Broadband connection. At the same time the
permanent online connection makes it possible for more frequent visits to such sites.
Facebook in particular has the highest penetration of UK Internet users, the highest daily rate
of visitors and the greatest number of average visits per user. It now has over 300 million
users globally, according to the company (Mintel, 2009). This system of using social
networking sites is personal, creating exceptional brand exposure and it ensures targeting
where brands only connect with their fans. This viral form of communication can be spread
further and wider than ever before and at a quicker rate online than offline. However online
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and offline brand exposure are just as important as each other as if the two do not connect
well, customers find it difficult to engage in the brand and soon lose interest. Cross media
campaigns dramatically improve branding metrics due to the fact that they are engaged more
intensively with the message. The inclusion of online advertising to compliment a television
advertisement is proven to increase the brand awareness, brand favourability and likelihood
to purchase by 18% more than a television campaign alone (IAB Europe White paper, 2010).
Many of today’s top marketers are already moving beyond the first wave of viral video,
social networking, user-generated content, and mobile marketing campaigns, and are now
thinking outside of the box. They have realised that products are more like services these
days where they are delivered digitally and on demand. In particular Anderson talks about the
younger generation who have grown up in an almost completely digital world and who live a
digital lifestyle, making them an on-demand economy (Adamson, 2009). Traditional media is
becoming less able to reach all audiences and specific target groups such as younger
consumers across the day. Placing more emphasis on digital within the media mix has shown
significant impact on brand metrics and sales (IAB White paper, 2010). However, marketers
need to remember that success is not about understanding technology but its more about
getting to know your customers and then capitalising on that insight across the digital
platforms to best suit your customers. Adamson talks about how it is the idea that drives the
branding rather than the technology stating,
‘When you have a clearly defined brand idea, a strong point of view, the branding
opportunities become intuitive.’ (Adamson, 2009, p.69)
So while it’s important to build a presence beyond what the brand sells and to have as many
relevant media channels as possible, branding today is not about the media; the idea should
be well thought out prior to the marketing channels.
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The recession has also had a major impact on the environment where there has been a
dramatic change in consumer saving and spending where people are more conscious of where
their money goes. Other than seeking good value for money, Datamonitor identified key
issues impacting consumer behaviour in relation to the recession, which included a record
decline in consumer confidence and a lack of trust in financial services institutions (DDB,
2009). Therefore marketers have realised the importance of building trust between their brand
and customer where there is an ever stronger desire to form a real relationship with their
brands. The brand experience will help to regain trust and loyalty, which can be executed
well in the form of a character whereby they can form real relationships, connecting on a
more personable level. Furthermore research from Dotz in the next chapter proves that
customers are more likely to trust the marketers if an endearing character and in particular, an
animal is used. Therefore characters have that ability to relate to customers in a unique way
where the brand is given more acceptance and appeal.
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Characters
The History of characters
Characters have been used in advertising for hundreds of years with the unified aim of
enticing customers into buying their products whilst personifying the brands they represent.
Many brands began small but some managed to create such huge success with the use of
characters that they managed to dominate in their field where the characters have become
famous icons. The first characters to come about were at the start of the twentieth century
when manufacturing inventions and innovations led to efficient mass production and
packaging of consumer products. Significant changes also occurred in the media at the same
time where magazines were introduced and therefore brands began to spread. One of the first
brands to be adopted by a company was in 1920 by Quaker Oats. (Dotz, 2003) The
company’s initial trademark in 1877 was seen as too serious and did not appeal to consumers.
Therefore the character, featuring amiable, plump, and rosy-cheeked man was introduced. It
transformed the brand and has been so successful that the character is still in use today.
As early modern-day advertising became more sophisticated, characters developed even
further where they emphasised their unique selling point in order to compete within the
market. The Michelin man is a particularly good example of highlighting the appeal of
advertising characters in general. The Michelin Brothers introduced it in 1898 where it
contained an anthropomorphic design where a stack of car tires contained human limbs. This
character proved the point that if you give object human features, it instantly becomes more
appealing and it has the ability to acquire a personality, which can enhance that emotional
connection to customers. (Dotz, 2003)
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The advent of radio and television developed characters even more, developing more rounded
personalities and character traits as well as story lines. It was also realised that well known
cartoon characters that were already in use were also a good source of characters to enhance
brands and gained a major marketing advantage over its competitors. This use of already
known characters is still in use today such as the recent Wallace and Grommit campaign,
which promotes npower and the characters demonstrate ways of saving energy in the house in
a humorous way, which people can relate to and in a more enjoyable way.
The Art of the Advertising Character delves into the history of characters used in advertising
and focuses on examples to highlight their success. One in particular was relevant as it
connected to my featured case study of the use of an animal in character branding. In 1941, a
cow was used to promote Borden milk-bottle caps. The cow was further developed so that it
contained human qualities such as a voice, a personality and it stood on two legs instead of
four. The selection of a cow was an obvious association with milk but it contained so much
more in terms of its symbolism. This human quality helped in relating it to motherhood and
fertility as well as the nurturing relationship between humans and animals. Throughout the
book, Dotz backs up his case studies with research. This popular use of animal advertising
characters can be explained by studies that show that the mere presence of animals makes
humans seem more trustworthy. Therefore this theory would also apply to advertising where
customers are more likely to trust the marketers if an animal is used. Dotz’s reaction to this is
also relevant:
‘Perhaps advertising characters appeal to us because they don’t connote the materialism that,
in out cynicism, we often associate with their corporate owners.’ (Dotz, 2003, p.24)
This statement is understandable as people would much rather be entertained than have to
endure a boring advertisement stating the companies values. This use of entertainment as a
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way of enticing customers was seen in the past when characters were commonly to promote
products aimed at children. Particular focus was placed on food advertising with breakfast
cereals, crisps and sweets being some of the most frequent products with branded cartoon
characters. These characters were used to communicate the 'fun' elements of their products to
children without giving information on the taste or nutritional content. UK cartoon characters
have now been banned in television advertisements, which are high in salt, sugar and fat due
to the fact that they brainwash children into buying products. This is similar to the use of
characters in price comparison sites, which are primarily for entertainment reasons and brand
awareness rather than placing emphasis on the services available.
Characters in Price Comparison sites
Price comparison sites were first introduced over ten years ago and they have progressively
become more popular where they are now entering one of the UK’s fastest emerging internet
markets and therefore are now worth more than a billion pounds a year (David, 2008). They
have dramatically increased their traffic in recent times, particularly during the recession
where people are consciously trying to cut back. According to Mintel, more than 24 million
people use one price comparison site each month (Sweney, 2010). Most comparison sites
earn money by charging suppliers a commission for each customer lead and as a result many
of these sites have invested lots of money towards major marketing campaigns in order to
increase brand awareness in the competitive marketplace. This is particularly important due
to the fact that competitors in the price comparison market all offer very similar services with
no presence on the high street. According to Mintel, in 2006, about £35 million was spent on
advertising by price comparison websites with that figure now rising to £85 million (Sweney,
2010). However, price comparison sites rely on visitors coming in from a search engine and
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so in order to survive, they need to focus on the delivery and therefore need to differentiate
themselves from the competition.
Price comparison sites are an example of where brands must go beyond the rational benefits
and think of new ways to engage customers, which is why the use of characters is becoming
more frequent in this market. With little perceived difference, consumers shop for
commodities primarily on a low price basis and so characters are a useful way of creating that
unique selling point. Guy Kemplay, brand strategy director at market research firm TNS
states,
“Increasingly, when there’s very little to choose from between products on the rational side,
emotion simplifies choice and gives that connection to the consumer.” (Roberts, 2010)
For that reason, brands are now seeking more of an emotional connection, which was a
common trait, used in the past. Many top insurance brands used to be structured around a
memorable character with an affectionate personality. An example is the computer-animated
nodding bulldog, Churchill, which was founded in 1989. His famous catchphrase, in response
to those who ask if he can save them money on insurance, is a cheerful "Oh yes," which is
said in a soft northern accent. The comparison site category then developed where its focus
changed to paying more attention to the revolutionary product than creating brand awareness,
as the generic benefit was revolutionary at the time. The advertisements were generally
perceived to be the same with computer screens, cars with stars and price saving claims.
Today price comparison sites have moved far beyond these services where more emphasis is
put on entertaining the public in order to increase its brand awareness. A prime example is
Compare the Market, which was launched in 2006 as a motor insurance price comparison
site, however its success was only made apparent in 2009 when Aleksandr Orlov, the
meerkat, was introduced. The first series of advertisements for Compare the Market were
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introduced in 2007 where they involved displaying a low-cost car insurance with vehicles
falling from the sky and flashing prices. This type of advertising shared around 1,500
television spots a day and so as a result, it became hugely unpopular and none of the
companies stood out. Mark Vile believed in order to differentiate from the competition, it was
essential to introduce a lovable character. The creatives at VVCP developed the meerkat
character for the company, which has become even more important than what it sells. Before
this character was introduced, the company was not well known at all but now it is
considered the fourth most popular UK price comparison site. It ranks behind leader, Money
Supermarket with Confused second and GoCompare third. (Sweney, 2010) The character
consists of an anthropomorphic Russian meerkat where the advertisements focus on his
frustration as people keep on mistaking his website for car insurance because ‘market’ sounds
similar to ‘meerkat’ when spoken in a Russian accent. This character has become so
successful that it has transformed the price comparison market. Adamson states
‘If the character of the brand is so well defined that it becomes real to people, it brings the
branding to life. (Adamson, 2009, P.125)
That is exactly what the meerkat has achieved and is the reason for its success.
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Celebrity Endorsements
Endorser brands provide credibility to brands in the top of their market to help them expand
out into new markets. Endorsements also come in the form of celebrities who become the
face of a particular brand to gain more popularity over customers who want to own the same
product as someone famous.
Today there is a growing reluctance to use celebrities in advertising as their private lives can
affect the brand. George Prest, the executive creative director of Delaney Lund Knox Warren,
warns of the perpetual danger of celebrities becoming the brand. Hamish Pringle, on the other
hand talks about the importance of the selection process where it is crucial to choose a
celebrity that shares the same brand values. Many celebrities have been dropped in recent
years and several brands are now opting for fictional characters or unknown people such as
Morrison’s, the supermarket chain, which has recently opted for ‘real people’ over the use of
celebrities (Tylee, 2010). The use of generic characters over well known people reflects a
new trend in advertising toward using someone unknown or creating a character (Faulhaber,
2009).
Signing a celebrity is always a risk for advertisers whereas characters are much more reliable
where their personalities and story lines can be created in order to appeal to a mass audience.
According to CKC’s Urbick, he talks about how the use of a character can help to revitalise
the brand’s image and positioning. He also stresses the importance of its delivery where he
states “Any brand can create a character, but it depends on how it is executed.” (Costa, 2010).
So the use of a character can create that differentiation that brands are desperately aiming for
whilst retaining its brand values.
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The Methodology
An investigation into the top four UK price comparison sites with brand characters took place
to see how they created brand awareness and competed against the competition within the
market. This included looking into both online and offline ways of promoting their brands.
Therefore the media channels were analysed as well as the other varieties of ways brands
engaged with their customers. Furthermore the brand metrics were accessed to see whether
there was a connection with the brand awareness rankings. The importance of the brand as a
driver of business value and success is widely discussed however surprisingly few businesses
actually use a system to allow them to link up with business performance measures (Munoz,
2004). Therefore the survey enabled this analysis to be made particularly with the questions
asking who had joined a social networking site connected to the brand as well as who had
visited the website.
In order to measure the brand awareness of characters, a comparison chart of the fan base of
social networking sites was developed as well as a survey. A qualitative survey was used in
order to see exactly what characteristics people looked for in a character and its brand
identity. This approach was much more probing than would be the case with quantitative
research, and therefore the sample size was much smaller (Blythe, 2005). Finding the right
mix of respondents was also important in order to draw conclusions about the target market
as a whole. Therefore it was decided that the survey would contain a variety of age groups as
each is likely to have different habits such as the technology used and the frequency of
advertisements seen. Therefore ten people from each age category were interviewed, making
a total of forty people. The survey technique consisted of a personal structured interview as it
gave the researcher control over the process whereby the sample size and age categories were
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controlled as well as targeting individuals so that they were not influenced by others. This
process had a high refusal rate but it was the most reliable for this study and was a non biased
approach where people were confronted face-to-face and did not have the opportunity to look
up information online.
The survey was piloted once in order to see if there were problems with the questions. It is
useful to get as much information as possible from these interviews without the public losing
interest and so a total of ten questions were asked (please see the attached survey in the
appendix). The questions were structured around brand recognition to see just how successful
the brands have been at creating associations between the brand name and character used.
The use of "aided recall" was used to measure the extent to which a brand name is
remembered when the actual brand name is prompted so that it was possible to see how many
people could make the connection between the brand name and character. It was also
important to access whether people were more successful at connecting the brand name to the
character or whether it was easier to make that brand association when prompted with an
image of the character. In terms of brand exposure, companies want to look for high levels of
unaided recall in relation to their competitors and so before handing out the survey, the
following question was asked: ‘Can you name any price comparison sites.’ This question was
not included in the actual survey as some names were displayed on it and therefore they
would have had the ability to copy from it, however it will be useful for my findings.
Overall a full analysis of the top four UK Price Comparison sites were taken to see how each
one used its character in order to increase the brand’s awareness. The media channels and
brand metrics were also taken into account to see if that had a direct effect to the success of
the brand. The main focus was on the meerkat in Compare the market, which has gone far
beyond its initial services and in turn become a marketing phenomenon.
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Results and Discussion
Brand Metrics
Popular advertisements have the ability to go viral where the public can discuss the brand
both online and offline, spreading it across a wide variety of channels but the underlying
issue is whether the product or service actually shows an increase in sales. In order to see if
brand metrics link up to the brand awareness, here is a table rating the top four UK price
comparison sites in terms of their position in the market compared to the results undertaken
from the survey on brand awareness (please see Appendix for the survey):
Figure 1 (BGL, 2009)
Price Comparison sites Position within the market Position in terms of brand
awareness
Compare the Market 4 1
Go Compare 3 2
Confused 2 3
Money Supermarket 1 4
As you can see these results are very surprising as they appear to be positioned in the
opposite order confirming that whilst the use of a character may boost brand awareness
significantly, it does not necessarily mean that more people will use its services. This means
that other factors such as the offers available also have an impact. As well as having number
one position in the market, Money Supermarket also has the highest rankings on Google. The
main reason behind this success is that it is considered an authority by Google where lots of
22
PR is associated with the brand and it is also promoted widely through all the respected
websites, which shows that the brand’s values are also a factor in market ratings. (Nixon,
2010)
It was also discovered from the results that the largest group involved in joining social
networking sites was the youngest age category, 15-24. However, this same age group only
had a very small percentage of people who actually visited any of the price comparison sites.
Whereas in contrast, the group that ranked the highest for using these websites was the age
group, 45-64, which also had a very low percentage who were linked up to the social
networking sites. This evidence links up to the literature review whereby Anderson talks
about the younger generation living a digital lifestyle and so it is clearly important to place
more emphasis on digital within the media mix when targeting this particular group of
individuals. This shows the importance of knowing your audience where brand awareness
and marketing channels should be chosen depending on the target group. However it seems
that all four of these price comparison sites are more interested in creating as much brand
exposure as possible where they are not taking the audience into full account. Overall these
findings clearly show that the brand awareness does not directly link to the market share.
Brand associations within the name
There are two types of awareness: spontaneous, which measures the percentage of people
who spontaneously mention a particular brand when asked to name brands in a certain
category; and prompted, which measures the percentage of people who recognise a brand
from a particular category when shown a list. Both the spontaneous and prompted
measurement was used. For the spontaneous method, the following question was asked:
23
‘Can you name any price comparison sites?’
The top four comparison sites featured a great deal as seen in figure 2, which confirms that
brand awareness connects to the success of the brand:
Figure 2
Compare the Market
GoCompare
MoneySupermarket
Confused
Other
24
Figure 3 displays the results for the prompted method where the public were asked to connect
the brand name with the character as well as connect the character image and name of the
character:
Figure 3
As you can see from the survey results in figure 3, Compare the Market is by far the most
recognised brand out of the top four UK Price Comparison sites. This is because the meerkat
states in every advertisement that there has been a misunderstanding between Compare the
Market and Compare the Meerkat and so this constant reminder of the brand name makes us
remember it. This is also due to its ubiquitous nature of this brand, which now seems to be an
important trait in the delivery of brands today. It was, however surprising to see that the
character name was only known by 15% whereas, Money Supermarket, which scored the
lowest brand and character recognition, had the highest amount of people that knew the
character name. This is due to the fact that this character is a famous comedian and actor and
so many people were aware of him, despite being unable to make the connection. The
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Compare theMarket
Go Compare MoneySupermarket
Confused
Brand and characterassociation
Character imagerecognition
Character namerecognition
25
character name recognition was higher than the brand and character association as well as the
highest for all the characters involved, which shows that this character has a competitive
advantage over its rivals due to its celebrity status.
The next trend the graphs show is the character image recognition is higher than the brand
and character association, which means more people were familiar with the brand when
shown a picture of the character than when they were asked to connect the brand name with
the character used. This gives evidence that the having a memorable character helps towards
remembering a brand and therefore is a highly successful way of creating brand awareness.
The Marketing strategy of Compare The Market
As confirmed by the survey results that Compare the Market is the most recognised brand,
the focus will now be on Compare the Market, looking closely at the main media channels
used and the important features of the character that make it memorable and set itself apart
from other characters.
The character was introduced in 2009 and as you can see in figure 4, there has been a
dramatic rise in sales and customer numbers since the advertisements were released.
Figure 4
2009/10 2008/09
Pre tax profit £62 million £54 million
Profit growth 16 % 24%
Number of customers 3.5 million 2.7 million
26
The success of the meerkat character in Compare the Market is all down to its marketing
strategy, which has significantly increased its brand awareness and in turn, has made the
insurance market interesting. This market has never been considered particularly engaging to
consumers and so in order to capture the public’s attention, the company has released
advertisements that have nothing to do with insurance and instead has focused on building
brand awareness. It is more of a form of entertainment where the advertisements are laid out
as a three part trilogy so that they are reminiscent of a film trailer. It is very realistic where
there are film reviews and the opportunity of meeting the cast. There are also a series of
documentary style advertisements with new stories and characters to keep it fresh. This is
successful as it is a unique concept, which keeps customers on edge, waiting in anticipation
to see the next part of the story and therefore an ongoing brand engagement is sustained.
Although these advertisements do not directly link with insurance, it has proven to be a much
better way of advertising where the character becomes a shortcut reference to the brand and
overall more interesting than the brand itself.
In terms of the website, there are two separate sections to the official website containing a
blog from Meerkovo village as well as a section where you can compare meerkats. This is
particularly clever as it engages the customer as well as showing the creatives what sort of
meerkats are in demand by the general public so that new characters in the advertisements
can be introduced.
27
The use of social media has been key to the success of the Compare the market campaign.
From their website, you are able to link directly to Facebook and Twitter from the home page
as well as view and download all the advertisements and share them via these sites. Twitter in
particular is proving to be a recent success in building brands where people are able to
discuss brands, products and services in real time. (Mortimer, 2009) It can be used in a
variety of ways depending on the needs of the company. It can be used to send out
promotional offers, to build the brand’s voice or as a way of dealing with customer service
queries. Compare the Market uses it for brand awareness where Aleksandr Orlov’s
grammatically incorrect English tweets are used to give life to the meerkat beyond the
television advertisements. This is successful as it creates an ongoing engagement between the
brand and customers and it is a useful way of not bothering those who are not interested in
the brand.
This accessibility has enabled maximum brand engagement and the potential for the brand to
go viral. These advertisements are all on Youtube, which gives consumers the option to view
them when they want and also gives them the potential to spread internationally. The meerkat
is connected to all the most popular UK social media sites, giving it full brand exposure and
the fact that it is linked up with all the social networking sites, makes it more human and
easier to engage with. However as stated before, the digital emphasis engages mostly
younger people who are less likely to use the price comparison sites and so it is successful in
creating a strong brand presence but less so at boosting profits.
The Competition
The Times Online states that the Compare the Market site increased its market share of UK
insurance comparison site visits by 76 percent has driven up traffic to the website by 83 per
cent since the campaign was launched January (Judge, 2009). At the same time Money
28
Supermarket lost 25.2 percent of visits, Confused dropped five percent and GoCompare lost
31.8% (Andrews, 2009).
The meerkat has since become a catalyst for a significant change in advertising in the price
comparison market where every competitor of Compare the Market has now radically
changed their advertising where they have had to re-evaluate their strategies in a bid to win
back market share. The chief executive of Confused has stated ‘The meerkat has raised the
bar.’ (Ramsay, 2009) In reaction to this they have recently introduced a new brand character
called Cara. Money Supermarket launched a fourteen million pound advertising campaign
featuring Dragons’ Den entrepreneur, Peter Jones. However these advertisements were soon
replaced with a character in order to compete. Like the meerkat, the new campaign is
centered around humour with the use of the actor and comedian, Omid Djalili, who plays an
Iranian character. Another comparison site competing directly with Compare the Market is
Go Compare who in an attempt to regain market share, responded with the launch of a
campaign featuring an opera singer called Gio Compario, which cost twenty-one million
pounds. Seeing as the top four price comparison sites have all chosen characters to promote
their brands confirms their success in building brand awareness.
In order to see what these sites have done to compete, a table (figure 5) has been produced to
make that comparison displaying the media channels used and other such means as well as
the amount of fans they have all accumulated as a result.
29
Figure 5
PRICECOMPARISONSITES ANDMARKET SHARE
SOCIALMEDIA(more than1000 fans)
WEBSITE TELEVISION RADIO VISUALS GAMES ANDMERCHANDISE
OTHER
COMPARE THEMARKET (11%)
GO COMPARE(15%)
MONEY (38%)SUPERMARKET
CONFUSED (16%)
30
The fact that the top four comparison sites all contain the main social networking sites show
how this is an essential element for brands these days. As all the characters are used for
entertainment purposes, each one offers a variety of ways to engage with the brand from
games to applications and merchandise. This table (Figure 5) shows the extent to which the
top brands in the price comparison sector are going to and the abundance of media channels
they are using in order to compete. It also shows how the services on offer are no longer of
much importance and instead demonstrates how today’s marketers are going beyond
traditional branding techniques by offering such a large variety of online and offline
measures to ensure ultimate brand exposure.
From the survey, 75% claimed to have seen these advertisements the most on television with
the internet behind on 20% with the largest age group being 15-24. This confirms my initial
research from the IAB White paper about the importance of placing more emphasis on digital
within the media mix as it has clearly shown a big impact on brand metrics, particularly
amongst the younger age group who spend more time online these days than in the past.
The other findings I sourced from the survey consisted of what aspects of the character stood
out to the public. Here are the characteristics, which kept on featuring, which I will look at in
depth:
31
The Human characteristics
This particular characteristic is only relevant for the meerkat as it is the only featured animal
out of the four characters. The meerket has physical human attributes where it walks on all
fours, wears clothes and talks. These human characteristics have given the character the
opportunity to do more in order to increase the brand awareness and for that reason, the brand
has gone far beyond its main marketing channel. As seen in the research by Dotz, by giving
an animal human characteristics, it instantly becomes more appealing where it is able to gain
a personality, creating more of an emotional connection to customers.
The meerkat has been given the name, Aleksandr Orlov where he is treated like a physical
being with a celebrity status. Podcasts have been produced featuring Orlov interviewing
famous people as well as interviews on both the Daybreak and the Sun newspaper. He is also
The most appealing character characteristics
The accent
The humour
The catchy tune/phrase
The human qualities
Other
32
the first character to have its own Twitter and Linked in account and to release an
autobiography, which is entitled ‘A Simple’s Life.’ A record company has even expressed an
interest in releasing a single featuring the meerkat as well as a campaign created to add the
catchphrase, ‘simples’ to the dictionary (Gibbons, 2009). The fact that the meerkat is treated
like an actual person makes engaging with it more accessible and so consumers are able to
interact with the brand in a large variety of ways. This backs up Adamson’s quote about how
the branding is brought to life if the character becomes real to people.
Offline measures have also played a part in the brand awareness such as the creation of an
application for the i-phone where well-known phrases by Orlov can be downloaded.
Hundreds of meerkat merchandise now also exists from meerkat electronic games to meerkat
cuddly toys where they were selling at Harrods over the 2010 Christmas period. Orlov is also
the first ever character to produce an autobiography; this book focuses on the history of
Aleksandr Orlov from his ancestors to his current life in charge of meerkat comparison.This
is an example of how marketers are thinking out of the box in order to catch customers’
attention and to stand out from the competition where the brand experiences are becoming
even more important than what is being sold.
These marketing methods have all shown a dramatic rise in brand awareness where the
character has had so much impact that there has been an increased interest in keeping these
animals as pets. The BBC Look North had to produce a news report encouraging people not
to purchase meerkats as pets in reaction to this and so London Zoo are now promoting an
adoption scheme, which has proven popular (Nettleton, 2009). Furthermore there has been a
significant increase in visitors to the meerkat section of the zoo. (Wilkes, 2010) The zoo are
taking advantage of this sudden popularity in meerkats that they have recently created ‘The
Meerkat Experience’ where the public buy a voucher that entitles you to a meerkat
33
experience day in which they have the opportunity to interact with the meerkats inside the
cage and are also given the just to feed them. In reaction to the huge popularity of these
animals, the film entitled, ‘The Meerkats,’ narrated by Paul Newman was released in 2009.
Lastly the Aleksandr Orlov autobiography has sold more than 130,000 copies, topping the
Bookseller list and the cuddly was proven much popular than they sold a many more than had
expected, which prompted the owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, to give the entire stock
to children's charities (Owen, 2010).
The Accent and tone of voice
Research from the Central Office of Information and the Radio Advertising Bureau reveals
that the effectiveness of advertising can be improved depending on the accents it uses,
creating more of an engagement between a brand and its customers. The research confirmed
that local accents could do just that whereby they are associated with real, ordinary people
and seem to be more effective at conveying credible real-life experiences. The perceptions of
accents have changed in the last fifty years where the 20th century ‘Received Pronunciation’
(RP) accent is no longer generally accepted as the accent of authority. Social change as well
as the popularity of celebrities, has created a softer modern day RP (Government Contracting
Opportunities, 2009). An example is the use of the cockney accent for the use of the character
in the American price comparison site, Geico, which consists of an anthropomorphic gecko.
In current advertisements, the gecko’s accent is more working-class in order to further
“humanize” him.
The meerkat character in the Compare the Market advertisements was inspired by Geico in
terms of its humour with the use of accents and pronunciation. His voice is supplied by
34
Simon Greenall, who played Alan Partridge’s friend, Michael, in I’m Alan Partridge. He
speaks in a Russian accent, mispronunciating certain words. Both of these advertising
strategies use accents to create humour, proving that this strategy can successfully imprint a
brand into the mind of the consumer. The meerkat’s accent also gives the character lots of
charm which leads to people talking about the character in an enthusiastic way. This viral
form of discussion is more successful than relying on the jingle getting stuck in your head or
with the use of an annoying character that sparks controversy.
The use of this Russian accent has also created controversy where many Eastern Europeans in
particular have claimed the advertisements to be offensive. In a letter by the Advertising
Standards Authority in response to a complaint referring to the racist associations of the
advert, it stated "Whatever impact the mild stereotyping of the eastern European accent has is
undercut by the fact that it is a cartoon rather than a live actor. As such we do not feel that the
content of the commercial is likely to provoke widespread offence." (Jones, 2009) Therefore
it seems that the cartoon status means this issue cannot be taken seriously but if it was a real
person, the case would probably be different. This relates to the celebrity endorsement in the
literature review, which talks about how celebrities can affect a brand negatively whereas a
character can be controlled and is much less likely to misrepresent the brand. In another
response to a complaint, they stated that characters that are supplied with an accent are
“elevated” to the status of “funny” and highly saleable creatures (Lyux, 2010). This is similar
to the study made by Dotz where he talked about how the use of animals changes the delivery
where mocking a foreign accent is less insulting than a human doing the same. When
completing the survey, 25 % were a fan of the character due to its accent and so this
characteristic clearly plays an important role in the humour and shows it would not be as
successful without this key element.
35
The accent is central to all of the four characters. Omid Djaili, who originally has a British
accent, puts on an Iranian accent in order to highlight the difference between cultures where
he berates the British for their inability to haggle and compares it to the people in the Middle
East where it is part of their culture. It is particularly funny how he leads the viewer into
thinking he has an Iranian accent and then he suddenly switches by impersonating the British
accent by saying certain words with a cockney accent. David Osborne, Money Supermarket’s
marketing director, said:
‘Omid plays on the differences between British and Middle Eastern cultures as part of his
comedy routine so using him as a figurehead for this campaign really helps highlight the
message we want to deliver’ (Blake, 2010).
Therefore the use of this character is well thought out and its humour is executed well, which
is the reason why it delivers such successful results.
Gio Compario, the opera singer character, consists of an Italian accent, which is well suited
as opera originated in Renaissance Italy and now the country is extremely famous for this art
form. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery,
and costumes as well as dance. Therefore it is well suited as words can be incorporated into
the song to highlight the insurance deals available and so the added accent adds to the
humour. The dramatic opera-like song is loud and over the top, which is ideal as it is very
memorable.
Cara in Confused.com consists of a very warm, northern accent, which highlights my point
about how people engage more with local accents. The use of a woman is also more engaging
where her soft intonation is very appealing with mother-like qualities, which is more trusting.
36
With the most recent advertisements, she is now singing with the voice of the West End star,
Louise Dearm (Parsons, 2010). This use of a celebrity is once again employed where the
advertisement is turned into more of a form of entertainment than promoting insurance itself.
Overall the tone of voice of each character is light hearted, which works well as it makes the
serious topic of insurance more appealing. It is a chore to sort out insurance and so these
characters offer an enjoyment factor, which people prefer to being pitched.
The Humour
Humorous advertising is the most difficult to create successfully due to its subjective nature.
However if the right balance is created, humour can evoke an emotional response and in turn
become very memorable. From my survey, the meerkat was by far the most appealing
character with the majority of people using the humour as their primary reason. With the
influx of Eastern Europeans to England, we very much live in a multicultural society where
many can relate to the difference between nationalities and the confusion that comes with it.
Therefore the meerkat, with its Russian accent and mispronunciations is very warming.
In GoCompare, the look of the character is funny in itself. It consists of an overweight,
clumsy looking opera singer with a funny looking moustache where the whole advert is over
the top with humorous song lyrics and exaggerated dance moves. It is also funny in the way
that it starts with an everyday setting and then the whole room bursts out into song and dance
in quite an unexpected manner.
Money Supermarket creates humour with the use of the comedian, Omid Djaili where he
compares in a humorous way the differences between the British and the middle East. People
37
can easily relate to this as it is accurate as to what British people are generally like in terms of
their reserved attitude as confirmed by research conducted for money Supermarket that shows
that whilst, as a nation we hate paying more than we have to, just 10% of us regularly ask for
a better deal when we make a purchase. Therefore it appeals to a mass audience with a
humorous twist on the British way of life.
38
Chapter 5- The Conclusion
Characters have clearly come a long way since they were first used in advertising.
Advancements in digital technology have played a major role in their development from
characters, which were primarily seen in printed form to those with distinctive personalities.
It is now essential to be connected to all the main social networking sites as well as a wide
range of media channels in order to engage to the full potential with customers and to
compete in the market. This ongoing engagement is evidently an important factor of
maintaining a brands’ loyalty with customers. Furthermore this has given marketers more of
an insight into their customers’ thoughts and needs. However at the same time, brands today
seem to be placing more emphasis on the media channels than what is being sold and so
creating ultimate brand exposure seems to be of higher importance.
While the abundance of marketing channels both online and offline are vital to increase brand
awareness, it is the delivery of the character in terms of its image and personality, which are
of utmost importance. Without good management, the character can fail to communicate the
right message and in turn give the brand a bad name. Those that produce the best results are
adaptable to the public’s needs so that they evolve at the same rate as the markets and
technological improvements. Getting to know customers first so that the relevant channels
can be sought is an important trait in branding. However these case studies demonstrate how
brands are now using every possible channel in order to maximise the brand exposure to its
full capacity.
It is also evident that if managed well, a character can help a brand to stand out from the
competition, particularly in the price comparison market. This statement can be backed up by
the research collected from the survey where the image recognition was higher than the brand
and association for all four characters. This market is highly competitive due to the fact that
39
they have increased in popularity in recent years and as a result there are so many available
with a large percentage offering the same services. Characters have become more popular in
commodity selling where marketers have realised the importance of offering unique ways of
differentiating their brands rather than cutting prices. Characters are therefore used to create
that distinct brand voice, which in turn helps the brand to stand out.
Today’s customers are more demanding in their expectations of what their brands should
deliver and so this has led to even more competition between rivals where brands are creating
even more brand experiences. Marketers are thinking out of the box and developing unique
ways of creating brand awareness. Compare the Market is a key example where it has gone
far beyond selling services and is an example of how brand experiences and creating brand
awareness are more important than what is being sold.
As seen in the case studies, characters today are used to entertain in order to increase brand
awareness, which seems to be a developing trend where the rational forms of selling products
are becoming less frequent. The changing needs of the public have transformed the way
brands relate to people where an emotional connection within a niche target audience is
becoming more of a featured trait and where trust and loyalty play key factors. However, in
the price comparison market, it is difficult to try and relate emotionally to the commoditised
services it offers. Therefore the products and services on offer are less important where the
characters take over where their main aim is to create brand exposure through entertainment.
The characters also appeal to such a large age group that very few of the younger generation
do not actually use price comparison websites. This means that the brand metrics are not
directly linked to the popularity of a character. So while it is clear to see that characters are
successful tools at increasing brand awareness, they do not have the power to completely
40
alter the customers’ behaviour where the services on offer and other factors play an even
more important part.
41
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The Appendix
1. Please state your age and gender: 15-24 25-44 45-64 64+
Male Female
2. Do you know which characters are used in the following price comparison sites?
Compare the Market .........................................
Go Compare .........................................
Money Supermarket .........................................
Confused ..........................................
3. Now look at the pictures of these four characters (please turn over to see the images).
Which characters do you now recognise?
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
4. Do you know any of their names?
1......................................
2......................................
3......................................
4......................................
5. Which character have you seen the most of?
.........................................................................................................
6. Where have you mainly come across this character?
Television
Internet
Radio
Other
48
7. Which character appeals to you the most?
...........................................................................................................
8. State the reason
The accent
The humour
The catchy tune/catch phrase
The human qualities
Other (Please state).....................................................................
9. Have you joined any social networking groups connected to these price comparison
sites? And if so, which one?
.............................................................................................................
10. Have you visited any of these price comparison websites? And if so, which one?
................................................................................................................
f
fd
d
d
d
d
d
d
49
Image 1 Image 2
Image 3 Image 4