MarketingSherpa Blog

If you’re ever looking for an interesting marketing read (besides MarketingSherpa, of course!), check out Robert Cialdini’s books on influence.

The two books I’m most familiar with are Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Both books cite droves of research to help explain why people say “yes” to marketing offers and other requests. We recently published an article highlighting some of Cialdini’s strategies.

Both books are loaded with takeaways and interesting background stories. I found a particularly interesting piece of marketing history in Yes! concerning Duracell and Energizer.

I’ve always associated pink rabbits with Energizer, but “the very first pink, battery-powered bunny with a penchant for persistent percussion on television was actually the Duracell Bunny,” according to Yes!.

The book explains that over 15 years ago Duracell did not renew its U.S. trademark, which allowed Energizer to create its own drumming bunny.

“North American television viewers are accustomed to seeing their bunnies running on Energizer, whereas it’s Duracell for those in the rest of the world,” according to Yes!.

Confused? You’re not alone. People who saw the early Energizer commercials could not remember which company’s batteries were being advertised. “In fact, shortly after the ads became popular, it was Duracell’s market share that grew, while Energizer’s shrunk a bit,” according to Yes!.

Eventually Energizer put its bunny on store displays and product packaging as a memory aid, “to great success,” according to Yes!

Had you ever heard of the Duracell bunny?

About Adam T. Sutton

Adam T. Sutton, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa
Adam generates content for MarketingSherpa's Email and Inbound Marketing newsletters. His years of experience in interviewing marketers and conveying their insights has spanned topics such as search marketing, social media marketing, ecommerce, email and more. Adam previously powered the content behind MarketingSherpa's Search and Consumer-marketing newsletters and carries that experience into his new role. Today, in addition to writing articles, he contributes content to the MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa blogs, as well as MECLABS webinars, workshops and summits.

Prior to joining MarketingSherpa, Adam was the Managing Editor at the Mequoda group. There he created content and promotions for the company's daily email newsletter and managed its schedule.

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Categories: Consumer Marketing, Marketing, Research And Measurement Tags: cialdini, Consumer Marketing, psychology