Are engagement and brand mutually exclusive?
Can this product really be called ‘The Greatest Fires In History’”? I suppose it could be one of those humorously long-form brand names like ‘So Long Sucker’ (ice pole) ‘I cant believe its not butter’ (margarine) and Mr Zogg’s Sex Wax (surfboard polish). You just can’t tell from the images or the reporting of the product’s launch.
The press release says that the product is a paraffin block, or fire starter, although that isn’t at all clear from the pictures either .
Yes the gorgeous new pack for the paraffin block that dares not speak its name, seem to break all the rules of packaging. Most conspicuously, it doesn’t seem to reveal its precise meaning at a glance.
Obviously it’s something to do with fire. The images of burning cities; Tokyo, Rome, Chicago, San Francisco and London plus the line ‘The Greatest Fires In History’ usher you in the right direction But what? Matches? A fire mit?
Instead of being told, you have to make a deduction. But if were a shopper, would I pause to find out? Or would I simply move on to something that screamed ‘FIRE STARTER’ in 45 Point and made its meaning absolutely clear?
Actually I like to think I’d spare time for this product. Whatever its name may be. That’s because it seems to have gone for engagement rather than what you might call conventional branding.
The designs are beautiful, unexpected and vaguely seditious. Images of burning cities, in which presumably many thousand of people died, will strike many as tasteless and insensitive. That’s only exacerbated by the line ‘The Greatest fires in the world. In your living room.
But at least it has got an attitude or personality and the attitude is rooted in the product.
All communication has a choice to make. It can try to explain its key messages what it wants lucidly and clearly. So readers/viewers/consumers can understand exactly what you are trying to say. The problem with that is that what you want to say may not necessarily be interesting to readers/viewer/consumers. Do they really care that you only use the finest ingredients? Or that your product cleanses and refreshes? Maybe not.
An alternative route is engagement. Make your message so intriguing that people are drawn to it. The problems with that are firstly, you may fail to engage. Secondly, having engaged, people may fail to understand what you are about. Your brand. Your essence.
The fact that this work was created by JWT Amsterdam, an ad agency perhaps explains the emphasis on engagement.
I cant help thinking that the world would be a more interesting place, if more new products took this approach.ENDS
kianamaiart
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
areudirty
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
