Marketing And Branding Are Like A Car Accident
Have you ever noticed while driving how traffic seems to come out of nowhere such as in Los Angeles where terrible traffic is the norm? Typically, heavy traffic areas result in disastrous car accidents. Have you noticed how people tend to stop and watch from their cars? Bingo! That is exactly the type of interruption it takes to create and execute a successful marketing campaign. Marketing has always been about buying and selling good feelings. The simplest way to change consumer behavior is through creativity and ideas that make them stop and think!
Here are the five steps for marketing and branding your business:
Interruption And Marketing: The car accident is just one example of interruption that induces behavior changes. This behavior change does not have to be caused by some disaster. It can be calculated and fun. For example: Volkswagen created a campaign that catered to their experience by branding themselves as the “people’s car.” They produced positive, life-affirming, and entertaining feelings with their target audience, which engaged them with their ad.
Remember when Lady Gaga appeared on stage packed in a meat outfit at the Video Music Awards? This was a genius idea for her branding. She mastered the art of marketing by making people pay attention to what she wanted them to pay attention to while discouraging them from paying attention to exactly what she didn’t want them to notice.
Breaking The Rules: Sometimes this can be risky, but it can be well worth it at the same time. Do you recall the book Zappos published about how they ran their call centers? Guess who won the award for the best customer service company? If you guessed Zappos you are correct. They did something out of the ordinary and somewhat edgy for their work policies. When you make a change to your business, your response changes. Breaking the rules means going beyond the standard to deliver something powerful to your customers to make their lives easier. Zappos reaffirmed their customer service policy to their customers that reassured them that they could be trusted.
Expected Solutions Are For The Uncreative: When I was in college, I remember working for an ad agency that typically defaulted to purchasing ads to drive traffic to their website. It made me think that anyone can just sit and purchase ads. Why don’t these businesses reach outside of the box to fulfill their client’s expectations? For example, if a client gave me a $3 million ad budget, I would not resort to purchasing ads. I would put a team together to brainstorm a unique campaign and create a movement where everyone got involved. How do we do this?
We start off by using the money from the budget to build a foundation and on this foundation the supporters could add their own twists to it (not unlike the “Love Lock Bridge” in Paris). This is the best type of advertising where everyone gets a piece of it. People are able to embrace things more when they contribute to the process. Add a twist to your spending budget by daring to be different instead of just purchasing something only for the eyes to see.
Win Their Heart By Surprising Them: This year for my birthday, my best friend and I went to Las Vegas and stayed at the Encore Hotel. I didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as we arrived, the hotel was extremely welcoming. They made us feel as if we’d never left home. “Can we bring this to you? How are you getting along? Would you like more? Thank you for coming!” What with the friendly and sincere greetings and concern for our comfort, we had an enjoyable experience. Why would anyone want to leave?
We had planned many different festivities while we were there, but decided to spend the majority of our time at the hotel because they treated us so well. The Encore Hotel is one of the top performing brands because of their amazing hospitality. They treat their customers with uncommon respect and kindness. I can tell you that this is how you win a consumer’s loyalty and build brand integrity.
A/B Testing and Experimenting: After years of experience, I have come to one conclusion about ad testing. It should not be the only means of knowing your consumer. I mean consumers aren’t parrots. They have feelings, too. It is much more important to evoke their emotions than hope that they will memorize some theme song or regurgitate a slogan.
Nowadays, the ads that engage, evoke, and enlighten emotions are the ads that come off as most relatable to consumers. If you decide to use focus groups then watch their physical reactions and body language. Facial expressions speak for themselves. Observe how they react to your product. The best insight from a marketer’s point of view lies within the consumers’ feelings and emotion versus words, words, and more words.
Did I miss anything? Comment below!
