Get to the Po!nt

How Caricatures Help Your Brand

Seth Godin points out a post at Boing Boing about a study suggesting that people are twice as likely to identify celebrities correctly when they are depicted as caricatures that exaggerate prominent facial features. "A caricature falsely highlights various anomalies while diminishing the boring parts," writes Godin. "So Jay Leno gets a ridiculous chin, or Jimmy Durante gets an even bigger nose."

The concept, says Godin, also applies to business. "The best brands are caricatures of their true selves," he continues. "Yes, they must have exceptional 'features' (a step that's easy to skip, but without which leads to failure) but then, over time, those features become a caricature."

To illustrate, he cites a pair of effective corporate caricatures:

• In its early days, ads from FedEx showed dedicated drivers doing whatever it took—even renting helicopters—to deliver a package on time. A wild exaggeration, to be sure, but it made the point.


• The standard joke about Starbucks, meanwhile, is the pretentiously complex order à la "half-caf, extra hot, short macchiato, extra foam, with soy, in a ceramic mug." Everyone takes their potshots, yes, but they also know they'll get exactly what they want. Far from doing damage, a caricature might actually make your company's most outstanding features more memorable.

The Po!nt: "Coloring inside the lines and pleasing most of your customers most of the time almost guarantees you'll be bland," writes Godin, embracing personality over popularity. "It's a lot cheaper and faster and more effective to have a big nose."