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The real reason fans love (or hate) some World Cup kits | Nudge Newsletter

Published about 2 hours ago • 1 min read

The Halo Effect

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The World Cup is here, and England's kit looks a bit naff.

The kit seems ill-fitting; it looks far too baggy around the shoulders, and the neck is too wide.

If Nike surveyed my opinion for their market research, I'd give it a 1/5.

But my opinion could change very soon.

Success shifts perception.

In 2019, researcher Gerd Nufer¹ asked 3,178 football fans to rank the quality of their club's kits.

For the study, six Bundesliga clubs were chosen: FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Cologne, Hamburg SV, and VfB Stuttgart.

Fans of these clubs were surveyed three times across the 2015/16 season, and a control group of people not interested in football was also included.

The findings are telling.

Fans of clubs that had an unsuccessful season rated their football kit significantly lower than fans of successful clubs.

For example, fans of successful clubs — such as Bayern, who won the league and cup — rated their kit at 4.10 out of 5, compared to fans of unsuccessful clubs — such as Stuttgart, who were relegated — who rated their kit at just 3.45 out of 5, almost 19% lower.

The football kit isn't linked to success at all, as it is designed and manufactured before the season even begins.

So this difference in perception can only be explained by the halo effect. We associate success with quality.

  • A football kit looks better after a league win.
  • A restaurant feels more upmarket after a 5/5 newspaper review.
  • A phone feels more premium after a Super Bowl ad.
  • A hotel feels more luxurious after a celebrity stay.

Which means my current disdain for the England kit could change dramatically come July 19th.

The half effect is one of 85 principles you'll find in the Nudge Vaults.​

In fact, inside the Nudge Vaults you'll find 8 more insights specifically about this bias.

Get access to all 544 insights right now →​

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Cheers,

​Phill​

P.S. If you want to know more about the halo effect, listen to my recent podcast episode on the (failed) Enhanced Games. Listen here.​

¹Nufer, G. (2019). "Say hello to Halo": the halo effect in sports. Innovative Marketing, 15(3), 116–129.

As a behavioural science practitioner, I believe in the peak-end rule.

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Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

I spend 18 hours each week turning marketing psychology into readable newsletters.

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