Alice in marketing messages land
Everyone is creative and that is a fact. Those who say that aren´t don t know that they are :). Being creative is our natural way of being as humans, that is how we´ve got so far (with the good and the bad ). Being creative is: inventing stuff, playing, thinking, expressing, communicating, interacting and acting. My 3 years old daughter is constantly inventing stories, mixed, without logic sometimes, with a lot of connections from different places and events.
When I see marketing messages from various companies, from B2C or B2B reminds me of our innate creativity. Nothing wrong until it comes into the game the fact that a marketeer expects results from those messages and sometimes puts a lot of money in online marketing or offline (where a lot of money can be waisted or worse, make a lot of damage to the brand).
Do you dare to play it?
I will share with you what I´ve learned working with top worldwide established brands, that did not become established over night, but with persistent and consistent communication over time, and with a brand guardian. The key is not in the inspiration, neither in the creativity sometimes, but in methodology and investigation.
People use to say: “But I am not Coca Cola, people don´t know me as Coca Cola that has a huge distribution and everybody knows its slogan”. They sell the same emotional promise over years, in different forms, that is how it became established in time and over time! OK;
Even if you are not Coca Cola, you can learn from this article how the famous brands develop their message structure.
A professional marketing message is NOT:
- a text, a funny claim
- a word sheet with the ideas of the CEOs
- some ideas of a consultant that works/ or not in that field
- what some clients say
Think of a pyramid, like the Maslow one, and let us work each step we take from bottom to the top. Each step is important and we´ll see in the end how.
- At the lower base is WHAT IS YOUR PRODUCT — with PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES. Wether it is a technological product, a drink with vitamins or a Saas, the first level of this pyramid is a list with product features, ALL that you can think of, nothing more. If it were Coca Cola, that was created in a pharmacy and sold as a drug first, it is caffeine with sugar, liquid form, gaseous, brown, sweet. Or if it a fiber cable for B2B it is white, plastic made, with anti-dust treatment, water resistant — for example.
2. WHAT DOES YOUR PRODUCT SERVE FOR — or the RATIONAL BENEFITS in marketing jargon. For example: it hydrates you, helps your internet to function, feeds you, teaches you x, y or z, helps monitoring your sales, takes you from A to B point, saves you time in social platforms.
3. HOW DO YOU FEEL USING THE PRODUCT / SERVICE — what it does for you on emotional level, or the EMOTIONAL BENEFITS.
We live in a time where the emotional benefit of “stress relief” for example, can be supplied by a Saas, a Thai massage, or a surprising text message from a brand.
The feeling territory is not only my favorite one because I am intense emotional person, but because is where the differentiation really starts.
There are hardly products so unique in the world, or so different from attributes and rational benefits point of view. The whole context of usage, communication forms, even poetry or art included in brands can build one personality or other, attracting one group or another only on emotional level. That is how I, and so many others, buy things, even expensive products like cars, it has to touch my core. Is not enough a single message repetitively seen, heard, in all mediums and interaction, in various creative forms, but also expressing its personality or its story. This is where love brands are build — with money for media of course — those who’s examples you read from books — but there are B2B brands that do a good job on that that you probably never heard of!
So, what is your emotional list for your product or services? Do you sell happiness like Coca Cola, energy, time, lack of stress, feeling great about yourself using the product, smartness, uniqueness in tech, control, cleanness, security, attractiveness, confidence, excitement ?
As you can see, is not enough to identify the emotional benefit, or a couple, you have to put it in a diverse creative context and give repetitive consistent messages in various forms and medium to have an impact.
4. WHAT IS THE MAIN PURPOSE — the top of the scale has an indefinite name, it may be PURPOSE or INTEGRATION or SOCIETY, what is true is that it is above the “how does it make me feel”. In relations it may be the marriage union with the purpose of making a family, because it makes me feel complete. In the end at this point a purpose can be an illusion, as the illusion of love and marriage :), but for sure it is essence there, even further from the top. Our main motivations of our choices are many times hidden by ourselves. Why do you want more money, is it for buying material things, for status, out of your childhood frustration, to donate because you had a tough childhood? Experts agree that one has to ask 20 times in order to get the true answer.
For a brand it has to be true, otherwise the consumers sense it, reject or even mock the main purpose, or ignore it and counts for nothing. Companies usually make these gorgeous statements that they fight for a better nutrition, healthier, support sports activities, donate to ONGs and they do good, but because their product has flaws on exact those attributes. Or there are brands that want to share and contribute to the society overall, and in fact they struggle with data protection issues….How can a brand be true to itself. Do not worry if you did not find the top yet, you have the time, better think it long and good, talk to customers rather than make something fake.
Can your company really help the woman managers to build a healthy family life in their role of women, do you really care to improve your part of what you do in the society, do you care for education for all? Are you really against animal testing and in which way are your products ECO or sustain small communities?
How can you contribute on a long term on the issue that preoccupies you, can you make a statement and a plan?
Usually, the first group that chooses a new product or a service are in this main purpose group, on the top of the pyramid, they want to make a change and challenge ethe status quo.
This reminds me of the purpose the Steve Jobs gave to Apple, the number one brand in the world. Apart from “Think different” slogan, so simple and so impactful, that speaks directly at top level of the pyramid, for the rebellious, the ones who see things differently, who changes the rules and push the human race forward (what purpose can be more elevated than this one?)
Nowadays a brand should speak at all levels, with a systematic approach of which message on which channel depending on the brand lifecycle and brand notoriety.
For Apple it took more than 20 years to emit this emotional message with a consistent and credible brand heritage behind, they started communicating the product attributes, unique ones, than passed to product benefits, reaching naturally in the end to an emotional belonging, being able to claim this purpose. That emotion was always there, in Steve presentations, the PR tactics, at the cue of the consumers waiting all night for a shop to open!
There is a fact that an emotional message appeals and gets a chance to strike out from the crowd, in the end the emotion drives in all brands B2B and B2C.
The rationales have to be there, well aligned, expressed and convincing, to support the emotional decision, to justify the choice, well exposed to product catalogues, demos, trials, testimonials, content marketing video and foto and find all the brand universe sparkling when the emotion gets you there.
The emotion stays and even if you are not ready to buy now you will remember later when you will convert into a customer. The emotions stay, and as Dan Hill said, without pleasure there is no emotion, with no emotion there is not relationship, neither for brand (experience) neither.
Enjoy the ride in Alice in marketing messages land!
A play with reason and judgment, ration and emotion.
What is emotion, which is the pallet of emotion that a marketeer can invent and play with? When they start and after 20 years — soon in another article :).
