The 2008 presidential election finally drove this marketing concept home: “…this was never about me, it’s about YOU” (insert massive crowd cheering here). As Generation ME started determining what and how we shape (and send) marketing messages, companies are still a bit slow to take up the torch… well, in truth the entire (and somewhat simplified) point is we have to pass the torch to the consumer, rather than hold it on our own; reaching to be the brightest lighthouse in the pack that’s efforting to blind the way into the ports of consumer purchase.
The inner most desire of most Western consumers? To be the person in control, and that everyone who sees their VLOG loves them for how special they really are. Socialized celebrity. Effectively marketing to this new, openly-internally-focussed cultural personality-type requires letting go of the normal dictatorial control over the branding and message that marketing departments tend to protect with their lives (Stay On Message!!!) – we have to trust the consumer or voter to help shape the brand identity… Wait a moment… see? No lightning strike. “Trust the consumer” used to be the three little words most prone to get someone fired by the bolt-wielding gods inhabiting the top floors of the tallest architecturally interesting buildings. But now… not so much. Not if you’re smart, anyway. The bottom line is that the most powerful marketing message will always be one that is not about the product – it’s the one that’s about the consumer.
The primary question for brands, products, and politicians, then is: can you control the debate and narrative while still making the content all about the fans, the consumers, or the voters rather than about what you’re actually selling? Can you maintain brand and message integrity? As usual, it’s all about perception and how we actually define integrity.
I’m the first to admit that it’s very easy to stray from a marketing plan’s theory and strategy. It’s easy to keep it easy by means of writing flashy tag lines packed into ads full of good lighting, attractive people, and no more than 10 words detailing the path to a total life fulfilled. But as social media and me, Me, ME continue to overtake how people interact with products and brands, we’re forced to keep perspective at the forefront of our minds: it’s not about the product. It’s about the consumer. It’s more than the customer is always right… the customer is sort of what we’re actually selling… you gotta get meta when dealing with personalities who from birth have been plugged into the Internet.
Every good business school professor (and even mediocre ones) will tell you that any good product must fill a void; it needs to meet a clear need for the customer: “I need to do blank, this thing does blank, therefore this thing is good and I will buy it.” Mr. Jobs was able to create a consumer void from the existence of the product (neat trick), but in that process, actually ended up exacerbating the “ME problem” facing marketing messages and branding: It’s not about the product. The need isn’t so much tangible void in action-ability, or tabletop, or refrigerator, it’s somewhat a void in lifestyle desire (but only by proxy of self-importance).
Hot products fill what’s somewhat a not-yet-existent void… a void not yet realized outside of their hopes – as what the person viewing an ad thinks they are on the inside waiting to get out – products need to feed the inner-ego; laser targeted on how important the person is to this world and how the product is a tool to make them even more important, valuable, and celebrity-like in this world. Cynical, yes, but we’re only humans doing one thing: seeking legacy – two forms of legacy: DNA, and instilling lasting memories in others who spread our influence geographically as well as in time… that’s basically what it all boils down to until Mr. Spock lands his space ship in a corn field to give humanity another new perspective. 😉
Brand Managers like to grey and blur these lines insofar as building culture and loyalty by means of ownership being “a status statement.” This is very effective, no denying (tell me why again, all BMW drivers are total a-holes?) – but even status purchases are about the consumer’s most fundamental need: to be accepted while still being unique and identifiable – more important than the other guy… a better mate, really. Peacocks have it easy, we have to buy cars and clothes.
Targeting and retargeting have enabled advertisers and agencies to get very specific about to whom their advertisements are delivered. Whether this is good or bad in the long run still remains to be seen as a matter of potential consumer backlash (Particularly in America where we all love to be catered, but simultaneously jump up in outrage if anyone has our personal information – the catch 22 for national security in the 21st Century is the same for marketing.) The research says that retargeting is workable. Theory says it’s great, but in the long term, no one seems fully convinced. Just as having 500 million people on one social network can breed anonymous bullying and adults acting like children, maybe being too specific and too targeted will have an overall negative impact on either individual or social behavior in the long run. As is always the case with business, people tend to go for the quick dollar to make our profit goals for the quarter – but those leaps of monetary faith create bubbles that we’ve seen burst ever since the creation of the coin. Over and over and over again they burst.
But back to where we were: the message, the imagery, the events, the interaction, polls, questions, services, products, keywords – everything is about the consumer.
Someone watching your commercial should not only be able to identify with the people in it; they should be able to literally say, “That’s Me!” just the way we all can watch a sappy love story, see someone act like a buffoon as a result of new love and we all can say, “Yup… that’s Me… I’m going to get all teary-eyed now.”
The best leader, the best boss, the best marketing campaigns don’t take credit – they try to give it to everyone else – celebrating the viewer not the actor. As my father told me long ago, upon my complaining about having to attend countless networking “parties” (which to this day I cannot stand): “Just get people to talk about the one thing they love the most: themselves. Do that and everyone you meet will be your best friend, because they will always feel happy when they walk away from the conversation.”
So muse on marketing messages. Muse on a message that could care less about the product. Just give it a go and see what happens. It might tank or it might be great, but either way you’ll be on the correct path to marketing to Generation Me (and all those thereafter). It ain’t easy… but that’s what makes it interesting.
