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Posts tagged Marketing
New era in brand communication
I believe we are witnessing a new era when it comes to brand communication, and clearly this picture below is the best example:
The communication strategy is not new, since it has already been seen before but it seems it is under constant refinement by our fellow marketing “masterminds”.
The story: Hugh Grant was caught drinking and driving by photographers
Facts: There was a beer can in Hugh’s car but it could have been the passenger on the right doing the drinking.
The communication strategy: A dubious photo agency made available this picture showing a catchy red circle zoom of the tasty alcoholic beverage inside Hugh’s car – the zoomed part is also suspicious (you can see why). News magazines and tabloids quickly jumped at the photo and published since people are starved for celebrities gossip (that’s the real reason you are reading this as well). They all wrote about a big celebrity drinking this beer in the car. Yes, Hugh Grant himself!
Consequences: Getting thirsty. You go to your local supermarket and buy Carlsberg. Heck, if Hugh Grant drinks it, why won’t you? 
P.S. I hate Hugh Grant.
Trendspotting
We are all aware that Google does everything better- even trends. Google Trends is the best thing since sliced bread and the wheel (probably even since man invented fire!). What’s it do you ask me?Well, it tracks trends in searching and gives a breakdown by such awesome categories as city, region, or language. Not only does it track trends, but it also provides a graph broken down to years and months.
Of course I couldn’t resist the temptation of searching my own name inside this nifty little webmaster tool that the almighty Google has bestowed us. It was pretty hard for me to think of the “competition, so instead I compared the search trends with my favorite artists I was listening at the time. Here are the facts (for last year):
Seems Brandon Flowers (lead singer from The Killers band) sure knows how to put up a fight. On the other hand take a look at Brian Molko, singer from Placebo – he is not even trying! (I rekkon it has something to do with Placebo‘s breaking up last year).
Of course, my name is no match against Oprah – I really think she is God! Oh well it was worth a shot.
In case you are still skeptical about the results, feel free to test these hard facts for yourselves. 
Post-modern consumer marketing
4 years ago
in Marketing
Every day we sit back and hypothesize about the effect of advertising on the general public. We develop concepts and ideas on how to best reach our target audience and convince them to act in a manner we so desire. One thing that each and every one of you should do is take a few moments every day and be the audience, be the client, be the consumer you are speaking to. Be the person who sees these ads and react as you would if you were them.
I believe that we often analyze advertising from am marketer’s point of view. Quite rarely we react from the consumer’s point of view – so my advice for all you marketers out there is to take some time out of your busy schedules and react to the media as your target audience. It doesn’t matter how you achieve this – you can browse the web, read a magazine, watch some TV, listen to the radio – just be a regular member of the public.
Let me tell you this experience will be eye-opening, close to a real epiphany. As marketers we are training our creative brains to be in tune with the message we are conveying to the target audience, but this process desynchronizes us from the average consumer that tends to ignore most of the ads we throw at him every day. There isn’t much that can be done – this is just a “natural” defense mechanism of the human mind. The consumer is “attacked” every day by more than 3000 advertising messages- so, by trying to maintain a healthy level of sanity, the brain blocks a high amount of those messages – just imagine if we were to positively react to all that advertising. It is easier to block a message rather than interpret it and come up with a reaction.
That will bring you to a better understanding of 2008′s post-modern consumer. He is a person – not a target, do not market to him – communicate. Stop spamming his email, wearing out his name and stop calling him your “friend” – he is not (you don’t even know him). A consumer doesn’t buy from a company – he buys from a person; if you stop keeping your marketing communication to a personal level, he will not buy from you. If you keep bragging about your success as a company, he will dislike you – just like he dislikes a bragging person.
If you truly want to change how the consumer buys your products or services you must first change the way you market. His trust is not for sale, you must earn it. Marketing is conversation. As long as you provide your consumer with real choice, you will communicate with him successfully and you will earn his trust – that is my definition of permission marketing. A real choice for the consumer means that:
- he is marketed (talked to) in his own communication style (pos, phone, tv, e-mail, etc.);
- he is able to choose companies that deal with him fairly and equitably;
- he is given all the necessary information to make a buying decision;
- he is able to opt in/out, purchase or return easily.
These are the strong points, us marketers need to remind ourselves – it is so easy to get carried away in all this excitement that is marketing and forget the utter most important thing – our consumer.