#popular 2

[grownupchangeling]

Image description: A digital collage with a base layer of an image of Earth in space. The text "Hey buddy," leads into "this is private property! This is private property! This is property!" encircling the Earth. End description.

Lyrics from "Popular 2" by Cheekface.

Photo from here.

[goncharov-propaganda-factory]

i love cheekface

[despite-everything]

YOUR ACROSS-THE-STREET NEIGHBOR WATCHES YOU ON TV

THE FUTURE IS NOW, UNFORTUNATELY!

AND IF I'M NEVER EVER GONNA BE ALONE

HERE IN MY COMMUNITY NEIGHBORHOOD HOME

THEN I WANT TO BE POPULAR TO WATCH

IN THE MOVIE YOU PUT ON FROM THE CAMERA ON YOUR PORCH

[disciple-of-the-cycle]

I just want to be popular to watch

In the moviе you put on from the camera on your porch

Your across the street neighbor walks his dog on TV

The future is now, unfortunately

[thequarterlifecrisisblog-blog]

Marketing 101 - 3 Key Principles

In this article, we wade through the marketing milieu of buzzwords and branding and offer up three key pieces of advice for a Marketing 101.

1.    Targeting the Head and the Heart

It’s one of the most fascinating experiments in Marketing. In a blind taste test, the vast majority preferred Pepsi over Coke but when the masks were taken off, the opposite was true. What was going on? Brain scans showed the power of branding had overtaken their taste buds. Coke tap into something much more primal than Pepsi, they don’t market carbonated water they market happiness and for the customer, that is just a little more refreshing.

As Marketing maestro David Aaker explains in his classic book ‘Building Strong Brands’ people buy products for functional and emotive reasons. It’s about the head and the heart. As a friend from Ralph Lauren put it ‘mass markets sell a product, in luxury we sell a dream.’ Do people buy a Rolex for the superiority ability to tell the time or for a status symbol? Do people buy a Mont Blanc pen to write better or to look better?

People often want something on emotional reasons and then rationalise it with logic. L’Oréal waxes lyrical about their new lip stick and then adds’ because you’re worth it’. It’s how a product makes you feel as well as what you think of the quality.

2.    The Trust Test

In an age of increasing consumer cynicism and skepticism and marketers being economical with the truth to bolster their bottom lines, it is perhaps no surprise that people’s just aren’t trusting product claims any more. So how can marketers pass the trust test?

One example is the Garnier ‘Ultra Lift’ campaign. Marketing research found that customers had little confidence in anti-wrinkle product’s efficacy claims, so Garnier did something about it. Their initiatives touched on three ways to build consumer confidence, that were found by prominent psychologist Albert Bandura.

Firstly, ‘mastery experiences’, people’s trust increases significantly when they see positive outcomes. To acheve this, Garnier launched a ‘wrinkle reader’ so people could visibly monitor the anti-ageing effects. Secondly, trust increases with ‘vicarious experiences’ i.e. seeing people you can relate to have success. Garnier utilised this principle by featuring testimonials from real customers in their adverts.  Finally, confidence can be created through ‘verbal persuasion’ i.e. the endorsement of an expert. A common example of this is in toothpaste branding i.e. ‘9 out of 10 dentists use this product’.

3.    Return on Investment

As advertising legend David Oglivy said, managers don’t care if an advert is creative they just want to see the sales curve go up.

For most of the 20th Century, Marketing seemed to be in a ‘dating phase’; intent on impressing, attracting and courting customers with their tantalising propositions. However, with the findings from studies into loyalty that customers are six times more expensive to recruit than retain, keeping rather than creating customers is the new goal for positive ROI.

As an apt Marketing joke goes ‘I know half my advertising isn’t working, I’m just not sure which half!’ TV and Radio advert effectiveness are notoriously tricky to track but with Google and social media, every click can be captured and analysed. Whereas in offline marketing, you pay for adverts based on the number of views, online you pay based on the number of clicks or conversions. This means you only spend money when customers have a genuine interest. Combined with the effectiveness of word of mouth and the social sharing culture online, digital could be where the future good ROI is.

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