Doppelgänger brand image

A doppelgänger brand image (DBI) is a collection of disparaging images and stories about a brand which are circulated in popular culture by a fairly loosely organized network of anti-brand activists, bloggers and opinion leaders. Such images are most likely to be spread via social media, blogs, and websites of anti-brand activists such as Adbusters. They are often intended to highlight ethical issues regarding the product advertised and are commonly associated with the brand's lack of authenticity. The purpose of creating doppelgänger brand images is to expose the true nature/effects of the company at stake, since it is believed to promote untruthful claims about its products.

"Hacker Inside", a parody of the Intel inside logo

The word Doppelganger is actually the German word Doppelgänger. Doppel means double and ganger means walker. Thus a doppelganger is a double walker. This was based on a belief that people have an alter ego that looks like them, but is ghost like in nature and if they encounter doppelganger face to face, bad things will happen.

A 2012 study concluded that doppelgänger brand images were able to negatively affect sales, because they created a perception of mistrust in the minds of the customers.[1] A 2006 study concluded that, Doppleganger has an impact on emotional brand image of a brand. ' Emotional Branding and the Strategic Value of the Doppelgänger Brand Image Journal of Marketing, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Jan., 2006), pp. 50–64 In a 2006 paper, Craig J. Thompson, Aric Rindfleisch and Zeynep Arsel suggest that doppelgänger brand images are a sign that "an emotional-branding story is beginning to lose its cultural resonance", and can be useful as a warning symptom.[2]

Usually when customers perceive a brand is inauthentic they are more motivated to create Doppelgänger brand image. Generally customers perceive a brand as inauthentic because of two primary reasons. The first reason is imitation-when customers start to feel that a particular brand is trying to copy the basic ideology of another brand they lose trust in that brand. The second case is when there is a mismatch between the existing image of the brand and the promotional activities of the brand. This happened in the case of McDonalds when they tried to portray themselves as an eating joint with healthy food choices.

Usually, the brands that face Doppelganger brand campaigns are the big and more popular ones, which have a large customer base and more reach.

Most DBIs are created as a form of individual protest and often located on a individual's blog, Twitter account or Facebook page. Sometimes these individual accounts are picked up by a larger digital media outlet, such as Reddit, Digg, BuzzFeed, or even more traditional news channels.