What makes a marketing campaign memorable? Beyond a big budget, which always makes things easier, there are some principles that could help your brand stand out. Here are my four tips to consider for your next marketing campaign:
1. Features vs. values
Your customer isn’t interested in learning about the objective features of your product. Focus on the values to get your customer’s attention.
Marketing that highlights features is usually not effective
Let’s take a car, for example. The most prominent feature of this car would be ‘safety.’
The easiest thing for a marketer is highlighting the car’s outstanding safety test scores. But if you truly want to lead the customer to buy the car, you should use that feature to find values.
From the feature ‘safety,’ we could find several strong values that would affect people: protecting my family, being a good parent, saving money in the long term, etc.
Volkswagen - Family is a tough job. Enjoy it.
This leads to Tip #2.
2. Engagement
By showing your potential customers the values of your brand, and the benefits he/she would gain from using your product/becoming your customer, you can achieve the most important goal of marketing: engagement.
De Lijn - It's smarter to travel in groups
But engaging someone in the product isn’t that simple. Here are some basic rules:
Find your differentiation
Refer to your target market
Address a need and demonstrate how your product/service meets the need
Treat your customers like your partners
Stay true to your values, always
Another rule, which I personally think is crucial in creating engagement:
Your marketing campaign should feel like a non-marketing process
That’s the reason why viral videos, which are usually made on a tiny budget, are sometimes more powerful than a million-dollar commercial. Viral videos tend to tell simple stories, instead of looking and feeling like “commercials.” We are more likely to share a video that made us laugh, cry or think.
Take Blendtec for example. George Wright, Blendtec's vice president of marketing and sales created a marketing campaign called “Will it Blend”?, with a $50 budget (!). The results have shocked the industry:
The first video became viral very fast, nearly half of the viewers went on to visit the company website, and 15% of those made a purchase.
The first video helped drive sales of the blender up to 500% in 2008, and up to 700% in 2009. As of September 2015, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 265 million views on YouTube.
Blendtec - Will it blend
3. The power of humor
Humor has always been a way to “break the ice,” to get people closer. Using humor in a marketing campaign can lead to amazing results, as long as it’s well-prepared and tested on your market target.
Humor can increase retention of the advertising message
Newsday ipad commercial
Consider mixing humor with some level of intimidation. The dichotomy could lead to new, hilarious ideas.
Asics running commercial
4. Use your slogan
Your company’s tagline can (and should) be an inspiration for your marketing campaign.
If you don’t have a tagline yet, or if you’re rebranding your product, consider using a negative feature, and turn it into a positive value.
"Good things come to those who wait" is Guinness Beer’s slogan. The marketers’ proposal was to turn around the negative consumer opinion of the length of time required to correctly pour a pint of Guinness from the tap (about two minutes).
Slogans create brand awareness of customers. Use your slogan to make a unique marketing campaign
Base your ideas on the brand’s slogan, considering all other four factors mentioned in this article, to make a unique, unforgettable marketing campaign.
Evian - Drink pure and natural
If you would like to share more ideas from your experience, or if you have any question, please comment here and I’ll do my best to help.
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References:
Olenski, S. (2012). “What Makes A TV Commercial Memorable and Effective?”. Forbes
Kaliszewski, S. (2013). “Through a Narratalogical Lens: An analysis of the storytelling elements in award-winning advertisements”. The University of Warwick
Mazursky D., Goldenberg, J. (2002). “Creativity in Product Innovation”. Cambridge University Press
Motwani, D., Agarwal, K. (2013). "Impact of humorous advertisements on customers' behaviour". International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences
Solomon, S., Levav, A., Mazursky D., Goldenberg, J. (2009). “Cracking the Ad Code”. Cambridge University Press
Goffer, N., Barak, M. (October 2002). “Fostering Systematic Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving: Lessons Education Can Learn From Industry”. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, Volume 12, Issue 3, pp 227-247
Cai, C., Xiao, R. (March 2008). “The method for uncoupling design with the aid of systematic inventive thinking”. Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
Colgate Plax ad
Volkswagen commercial - "Family is a though job. Enjoy it"
Guinness ad - "Good things come to those who wait"
Evian commercial - "Drink pure and natural"
Blendtec commercial - "Will it blend?"
Asics running commercial
Newsday iPad commercial
De Lijn commercial - "Take the bus"
DISCLAIMER: We do not own the videos and photos. The article was written for educational purposes.
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