Identity Crisis Within A Brand or A Strategic Plan?

Now a days, we have pills for people with Multiple Personality Disorders. In the past, we use to throw them in a padded room and let them entertain themselves.

Are you familiar with the Geico Insurance Commercials? How many spokes characters can you identify?

Despite contrary belief, there are multiple spokes characters; the Gecko, the Caveman, the Googly-eyed stack of Money, the Talking Pothole, the babbling Fire Hydrant, the Movie Announcer Guy and more.

I’ve asked a few colleagues which Geico Insurance spokes person they can identify. Naturally, most mentioned the Gecko, a few named the CEO and one or two recalled the Caveman. When I mentioned the Googly-eyed stack of Money or the Talking Pothole, everyone said something like, “Oh Yeah!”

How does having multiple spokes characters affect the brand? Does this cause the brand to appear to have Multiple Personality Disorder or is it simply targeting different audiences?

Over the past few months I’ve only seen the Gecko, Caveman, Stack of Money and the Talking Pothole. This could be because the insurance company has retired the commercials or because I’m not part of those target audiences.

I attempted to understand if the characters where being used to target different audiences or if something else was going on. Of the people in my office, most recall seeing three or more characters on TV. The office is comprised of people from all spectrums of life; Sports Junkies, Tech Nerds, Moms, Dads; you name it, we have it. Since most of the people in the office can name almost all of the different Geico characters, it makes sense to assume that the company’s strategy isn’t about targeting audiences with different characters. It’s much bigger.

Each character has it’s own style, personality and message:

Gecko - “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on your car insurance.”
Caveman - “So easy, a Caveman could do it.”
Googly-eyed stack of Money - “This is the money you could be saving on your car insurance.”
Talking Pothole - “Accidents are bad. But Geico’s good, with emergency road service”

While Geico may be confused with it’s multiple distinct identities, each with its own patterns of interactions with consumers, but it also creates connections with consumers on various levels. Each character creates a multi-teired connection with its audience, connecting at a deeper level compared to other marketing messages. The overall strategy works well for the brand. The ads are like having 5 people people tell you about a product or service. Think back to brands like Nike, who has many different spokespeople, all these people are telling you a different story about the brand. If you combine them together, consumers are getting a well-rounded impression of the brand.

Combined, the Gecko, the Caveman and the talking Pothole are telling consumers: “Save Money. Be Safe. It’s Easy.”

Who said having multiple personalities was a bad thing?