What is the single most strategic element for a product's marketing? You guessed it right - it's advertising. While advertising per se has many manifestations, of late, it's the TV commercials and videos that has caught my attention - for an interesting reason. And yes, this post is about that very reason that triggered my curiosity on the subject. Want to know the reason? Read on!
For the sake of brevity, I'll focus only on the TV commercials (or TVC as they are usually referred to) and also some videos that we come across in the Internet. Traditionally, advertising has been mostly about the product itself. This is how an ad used to be (and mostly is) - a person or a group of people talking about the product, more specifically, they try to address a problem in their daily life using the product and how wonderfully it solves the problem at hand. Now, this is very valid case and I think it's usually the concept that comes to the person creating(for the lack of a better term) the advertisement. The purpose of the advertisement - advertising the product - is achieved and everyone's happy. Only that no 'connection' is made with the consumer in this case. It's more like a superficial campaigning that fails to make a deeper impression on the consumer. Until now.
More and more companies these days are trying to focus on that 'deeper impression' or the 'human connection' through their video commercials. In fact, the focus of these companies has somewhat shifted from the 'product' to the 'user' and from 'item' to 'brand'. This is a huge shift in the way content is produced and the way it's actually consumed by the consumer. There's an underlying message in each of such commercials - something deeper than their products per se - and this 'something' is trying to make that 'deeper impression' in the minds of the people. Perhaps, companies now want to associate themselves and their brand with something more abstract, something more than just the products they create.
Let's take a simple and very familiar example to illustrate the point I'm trying to make here - Apple and Samsung. Again, this example is not meant as a direct comparison of the commercials of the two companies - they're totally right in their respective positions and contexts. While Samsung's commercials are focused more on the product it self, Apple's commercials focus on the 'user'. One of their commercials is about all the wonderful things people can do - and nothing else. Their product is just an enabler - at least that's what is the underlying message in their commercial. In fact, most of the ads from Apple are in that direction. What is it that Apple is trying to do here? They want to make a deeper connection with it's consumers, an impression at a 'sub-conscious' level that is more permanent than talking about any one product.
Our Indian companies are no exception - consider Airtel. I think they are one of the early adopters of such paradigm with their 'smartphone network', 'express yourself', 'one touch internet' campaigns. Again, it's not the product that's the hero here, it's the human emotions that take the center stage and Airtel is just an enabler. Same is the case with the latest TVC of Hyundai in which a father brings home his wife for his son - it's not the car that matters, it's the enabler.
What is in it from all this to us? I believe it's a very powerful indicator of the way human emotions can be tapped to make a lasting impression on a brand. Rest will follow. I guess my idea is clear to the budding entrepreneurs :-)
For the curious, here're the links to the commercials I mentioned in the post:
Airtel:
Hyundai:
Dove:
Lifebuoy:
P&G:
2 comments:
Good thoughts and perspectives Rakesh
Your last post was in December 2014 almost one and half year. Start write now.
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