Nerd Alert: Rituals as Brand Strategy

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Marketing Architects – "Nerd Alert: Rituals as Brand Strategy"

Release Date: July 10, 2025

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Introduction to Rituals in Branding

In the latest episode of The Marketing Architects, host Alena Jasper and co-host Rob Demar delve into the fascinating intersection of rituals and brand strategy. Titled “Nerd Alert: Rituals as Brand Strategy,” the episode explores how structured, meaningful actions can enhance consumer experiences and strengthen brand loyalty.

Personal Reflections: Jeep Wrangler Rituals

The episode kicks off with Rob sharing his personal connection to brand rituals. At [00:36], Rob enthusiastically discusses the unique practices among Jeep Wrangler owners:

“I like to duck. It's so fun. You just, you make someone stay and they come. And there's so many of these. There's a whole industry now in these little rubber duckies because they come in all different kinds of characters and colors.” ([01:15])

This communal ritual not only fosters a sense of belonging among Jeep enthusiasts but also serves as an organic marketing tool that enhances brand engagement.

Research Deep Dive: Rituals Enhance Consumption

Alena introduces the core research study titled Rituals Enhanced Consumption by Kathleen Voz, Yahin Wang, Francesca Gino, and Michael Norton. The study investigates whether performing small rituals before consuming a product can increase the overall enjoyment of the experience. The discussion is structured around four key experiments conducted in the study:

1. Experiment 1: Ritual vs. No Ritual in Chocolate Consumption

   Participants who engaged in a simple ritual—breaking the chocolate bar in half, unwrapping one piece, eating it, and repeating the process—reported greater enjoyment compared to those who ate the chocolate without any ritual ([03:21]). Rob humorously relates this to his own chocolate-savoring habits:

   “Rob's got his own little ritual. Those people, they savored it for longer.” ([03:29])

2. Experiment 2: Ritualized Movement vs. Random Gestures

   This experiment tested whether the effect was due to any movement or specifically ritualized actions. Participants performing consistent, structured rituals before eating carrots experienced increased enjoyment, unlike those who performed random gestures ([04:11]).

3. Experiment 3: Delay After Ritual

   Introducing a delay between the ritual and consumption further heightened the participants' enjoyment by building anticipation ([04:12]).

4. Experiment 4: Active Participation vs. Observation

   Only those who actively performed the ritual themselves reported higher enjoyment, while merely watching someone else perform the ritual had no significant effect ([04:43]).

Key Insight: Attention and Involvement Drive Enjoyment

The study concluded that rituals enhance consumption by increasing consumer involvement and focus, rather than by altering mood or employing "magic" ([05:12]). Alena encapsulates this insight:

“Rituals make consumption feel special, even if the item is as bland as a carrot.” ([05:12])

Examples of Effective Brand Rituals

Rob and Alena brainstorm various brands that have successfully integrated rituals into their consumer experiences:

• Oreo: The iconic act of twisting apart the cookie, licking the cream, and reassembling it.
• Starbucks: Personalized drink orders and specific ways customers engage with their beverages.
• Disney: Collecting pins and engaging in themed activities at the parks.
• Guinness: Watching the formation of the perfect foam on a pint.
• Apple: The distinctive unboxing experience, characterized by minimalist design and satisfying sounds ([07:08]).

Rob adds a whimsical example with Tootsie Pops:

“How one eats a Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Pop, I think varies. Some people like it to crunch in right away. Some people like to wait. There's ritual there.” ([08:09])

Implications for Marketers

Alena and Rob discuss the broader implications of integrating rituals into marketing strategies:

• Enhanced Enjoyment: Rituals can make everyday products more pleasurable and memorable.
• Mindful Consumption: Encouraging consumers to engage more deeply with products can foster healthier habits and sustainability.
• Design Opportunities: Brands can create unique rituals around product use, packaging, and purchase flows to differentiate themselves in the market.

Alena emphasizes the strategic advantage:

“If you're designing a product, a package, a purchase flow, don't just think about what people get, think about how they get it.” ([07:11])

Rob echoes the sentiment, highlighting the potential for brands to build distinctive experiences:

“As someone who is maybe a little obsessive compulsive and loves little rituals, trying to think about how you can inject that into your brand experience is really cool.” ([08:09])

Consumer-Driven Rituals and Brand Growth

The conversation touches on how consumer-initiated rituals, like Jeep’s ducking tradition, can organically amplify brand presence. Alena points out the possibility for brands to encourage such behaviors:

“Brands too, about creating their own, so it's definitely doable.” ([08:22])

Rob adds a light-hearted example related to soda can opening habits, illustrating that even seemingly trivial actions can become ritualized and linked to brand identity ([09:37]).

Conclusion: Building Meaningful Brand Experiences

Wrapping up the episode, Alena summarizes the importance of rituals in creating meaningful and memorable brand interactions. By embedding small, consistent actions into the consumer journey, brands can enhance engagement, foster loyalty, and differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace.

Closing Remarks

The episode concludes with a reminder to listeners to consider how rituals can be strategically implemented in their own marketing efforts, encouraging a deeper connection between brands and consumers.

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Notable Quotes:

• Rob Demar [01:15]: “I like to duck. It's so fun. You just, you make someone stay and they come.”
• Alena Jasper [05:12]: “Rituals make consumption feel special, even if the item is as bland as a carrot.”
• Alena Jasper [07:11]: “If you're designing a product, a package, a purchase flow, don't just think about what people get, think about how they get it.”
• Rob Demar [08:09]: “As someone who is maybe a little obsessive compulsive and loves little rituals, trying to think about how you can inject that into your brand experience is really cool.”

Final Thoughts

“Rituals as Brand Strategy” offers valuable insights for marketers seeking to deepen consumer engagement through thoughtful and intentional brand interactions. By leveraging rituals, brands can transform mundane transactions into memorable experiences, ultimately driving loyalty and revenue.

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For more insights and discussions on the latest marketing trends grounded in research, subscribe to The Marketing Architects on your preferred podcast platform and follow them on LinkedIn.

Transcript

[Rob Demar]

Nerd Alert. Learning is important, right?

[Alena Jasper]

Yes, exactly. What a bunch of nerds.

[Rob Demar]

Nerd alert.

[Alena Jasper]

Marketing Architects. Hello and welcome to the Marketing Architects, a research first podcast dedicated to answering your toughest marketing questions. I'm Alena Jasper. I run the marketing team here at Marketing Architects, and I'm joined by my co host. Rob Demar is the chief product architect of misfits and machines. Hello. Hello. We're back with your weekly Nerd Alert. Every week I'll take a deep dive into academic marketing research and translate its complex ideas into simple, understandable language for Rob and of course, for all of you. Are you ready to nerd out, Rob?

[Rob Demar]

Oh, I've got my ticket to Nerdapalooza and I'm ready to do some stage diving, Elena.

[Alena Jasper]

All right, let's do it. As always, we'll link the research we cover in the episode notes. This week I read a study titled Rituals Enhanced Consumption. This is by Kathleen voz, Yahin Wang, Francesca Gino, and Michael Norton. But before I get into things, Rob, let me ask you this. Do you have any rituals that you only do because they are specifically tied to a brand that you purchased?

[Rob Demar]

Oh, I do. Absolutely.

[Alena Jasper]

I know you do. I have one in mind in particular for you.

[Rob Demar]

I've got a great one. The Jeep wrangler.

[Alena Jasper]

Yep.

[Rob Demar]

Has a very specific ritual. What is it, Elena?

[Alena Jasper]

The Jeep wave and the rubber duckies?

[Rob Demar]

The rubber ducky are both. Yeah, both of those are great. But the rubber ducky is awesome. If you may or may not know us Jeep. Jeep wrangler owners, we like to duck other Jeeps. You put a little rubber ducky on the door handle of a fellow wrangler owner and you start to build your little collection right on top of the dash. And it's a wonderful. It's a wonderful community inspired ritual.

[Alena Jasper]

How often do you receive a duck?

[Rob Demar]

Oh, man, I would say at least once a month.

[Alena Jasper]

Wow, that's a lot.

[Rob Demar]

Yeah, at least. And I carry a bag of ducks in my Wrangler. I like to duck. It's so fun. You just, you make someone stay and they come. And there's so many of these. There's a whole industry now in these little rubber duckies because they come in all different kinds of characters and colors and. Or maybe that already existed. I'm sure, I'm sure the duck people aren't like, we got to make more ducks because of the wrangler owners.

[Alena Jasper]

But that'd be fun, though, to see as, like, increases in Jeep wranglers have gone up.

[Rob Demar]

Have rubber duckies There was a great marketing strategy that came out of it for it was a company here in Minneapolis that does custom Jeep work. And they were ducking Jeep owners with a special duck that had their logo on it and a little tag saying, hey, check us out for X, Y and Z. I thought that was a really great way to know your audience, and I didn't want to throw their duck away.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah, that's a great, just marketing idea. Yeah, I had a feeling you would say the Jeep Wrangler either. Yeah, like the Jeep Wave I think is nice, but yet the ducking in particular is a great example of this. So this study looks into rituals in advertising. And the researchers, they ran four experiments to test this idea. Does performing a small ritual before consuming a product actually make the experience more enjoyable? And let's walk through what they did. In the first experiment, participants were asked to eat a chocolate bar. But before they could do that, some had to perform a ritual. They broke it in half, unwrapped one half, ate it, and then did the same with a second half. Others just ate the chocolate.

[Rob Demar]

I like to smell it. Do you like to smell the chocolate? I like to crack it and smell it.

[Alena Jasper]

There you go. Rob's got his own little ritual. Other people just ate it.

[Rob Demar]

Come on.

[Alena Jasper]

What?

[Rob Demar]

Don't you like to smell the chocolate?

[Alena Jasper]

I don't, no. But maybe I will. Because the people who did this ritual compared to people who didn't, they actually enjoyed the chocolate more. So, Rob, you probably enjoy your chocolate more than the average person because you've got your little ritual. Those people, they savored it for longer. They were even willing to pay more for it just from that little pre snack routine. Then in the second experiment, they tested whether the effect came from any movement or only ritualized movement. So they had one group do a consistent ritual before eating carrots, and another group just did random gestures and then ate the carrot. I love these. I wish I could run these. Like, how fun is this? I would wonder if I was on like a TV show if people were asking me to do this.

[Rob Demar]

Totally.

[Alena Jasper]

But only the ritual group showed more enjoyment. Meaning it's not just about movement. It's about meaningful, repeated and structured movement. And here's the twist. They also introduced a delay. So if people had to wait after the ritual before eating, their enjoyment went up even more. The delay increased anticipation, which enhanced the whole experience. In another experiment, they looked at personal involvement. So participants either performed a ritual themselves to make lemonade, or they watched someone else do it. The people who did it Themselves enjoyed the drink more. Watching didn't cut it. So if you've ever insisted on pouring your own wine, slicing your own cake, you might be onto something. And in the last experiment, they figured out why this all works. And it works because of involvement. Rituals pull us into the movement. They make us more focused, more intrinsically interested, and more aware of what we're about to experience. It's not about mood or magic. It's about attention. And that's the big insight. Rituals make consumption feel special, even if the item is as bland as a carrot. So, Rob, what brands do you think have the best rituals associated with them?

[Rob Demar]

Gosh. One that just was inspired by your chocolate bar example is Oreos. Like, how do you like to eat your Oreo? Did they. Maybe they. I wonder if they did they have a campaign on that years ago. I don't even remember. But there's just so many different ways, Right. You can take it apart. Oreos is a big one for me. I think Starbucks has, like, a thousand rituals people have just in terms of how they like to order their coffee, how they experience the coffee once they receive it. Disney's really good at that, too. They have, like, their whole pin collection stuff that you do when you visit the park. That's kind of a ritual for people. Also a money maker for them, obviously.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah.

[Rob Demar]

Oh, Guinness is another one. Guinness has the poor. Right. That they. And people like to sit there and watch the foam gather on the Guinness beer.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah, those are all great examples. I know that Oreo. I don't know if this. I think this counts. They had that, like, dunk in the dark, like, thing that went viral during the super bowl, remember, like, lost power or something? And they were talking about, thinking about other rituals. I agree with you all. Those are great examples. I was also thinking about Guinness, but Coca Cola, they, like, share a Coke bottle thing, you could say, as some sort of ritual. But yeah, those are all great examples. I agree with you. Like Starbucks, I know they're trying to get away from these crazy personalized orders, but that is a little bit of a ritual. Like, you get your certain drink.

[Rob Demar]

Is there. Is there like, light beer and belching. Is that like just really grotesque frat boy belching after you chug a beer? That would be a ritual, right? Maybe not. Not a good one.

[Alena Jasper]

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I guess it would. According to the study, it might work. I'm surprised you didn't mention Rob. One of one brand that has very, like, a distinct unboxing ritual.

[Rob Demar]

I was going to say, I just, I use Apple too much. But yes, Apple has an amazing. I knew you were going there with the unboxing thing is a ritual, right? Like, they don't even have shrink wrap on their boxes anymore. It's just that elegant. And the box is. It's just, it makes a noise when you, when you.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah, I can hear it.

[Rob Demar]

You know, it's like, it's. Yeah. So for sure.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah. That's a great one. Well, the implications of the study are pretty cool. So rituals, they might help us enjoy food more, drink more mindfully. Maybe they make healthy habits feel more rewarding. But there's this potential in wellness, fitness and sustainability anywhere where we might need a little nudge to appreciate the process, not just the outcome. And this even works on carrots. So if rituals could make a carrot more pleasurable, imagine what they could do for brands and categories that people already like. So if you're designing a product, a package, a purchase flow, don't just think about what people get, think about how they get it. Because just a little ritual might make the whole thing more meaningful and more memorable. And I love that idea of the next time you're working on a video, a commercial, could you start to establish a little ritual? It's like a distinctive asset. You could have your mnemonic, your color, a mascot, and then a little ritual. Why not? Rob, real quick, A ritual is like a drum roll before a big moment. It builds anticipation, heightens emotion, and makes the experience feel worth remembering.

[Rob Demar]

I love this topic. I just. As someone who is maybe a little obsessive compulsive and loves little rituals, trying to think about how you can inject that into your brand experience is really cool.

[Alena Jasper]

Yeah. Fun for any brand to think about. It makes me wonder how, like, did the ducking thing happen from Jeep themselves or was it a consumer?

[Rob Demar]

It was a. My understanding. Although I can. You can easily fact check this. It actually started in Canada and it was. It just went viral on social media. Someone was sharing that they were doing it and then it took off.

[Alena Jasper]

Okay, they got lucky. They had customers create the virtual forum. But you hear brands too, about creating their own, so it's definitely doable.

[Rob Demar]

I love a famous one. In some ways. I don't know if this is a ritual or not, but how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? I mean, there's just. I love Tootsie Roll. I keep a bag of them in my car. I think they're the best Road tripping candy on the planet. And because it's multi stage, you've got the sucker, you've got the Tootsie Roll in the middle. But how one eats a Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Pop, I think varies. Some people like it to crunch in right away. Some people like to wait. There's ritual there.

[Alena Jasper]

No, I think that's a good example. It is hard to think of, like rituals. It's. It was hard for me to think of exactly what they are because they could be a lot of different things. Right. Like according to the brand, like, it's easy to. The easy answer is like the Oreo, take them apart or something. But.

[Rob Demar]

Right, right.

[Alena Jasper]

Even things like, yeah, your packaging or what people do after they buy your product. Like a lot of different things could be rituals if you make them.

[Rob Demar]

I think it's interesting and you're right. I don't know if this is a ritual or not, but people open soda cans differently and just. And do they leave their. Do they like to leave their tab up, down to the side? Like, it's just. We're creatures of weird habit. So. Yeah. How do we connect that to our brands, people? That's an opportunity.

[Alena Jasper]

That's it for this episode of the Marketing Architects. We'd like to thank Taylor De Los Reyes for producing the show. You can connect with us on LinkedIn. And if you like the podcast, please leave us a review. Now go forth and build great marketing Marketing Architects.