What most businesses strive for is a formula that ensures success in the form of more customers, more clients, more online sales and a larger audience, and marketing is most often seen as the mechanism that leads to this form of success. It’s not that “more” is not important, but rather it’s how we go about achieving more that can get in the way of our true goal.Why? Because the way we market ourselves is sending both a direct and an indirect impression to an audience, and it’s the indirect impression that says something about who we are as a company.
When we invite people to “Buy” a product or service, or simply to “Learn More,” we are inviting an audience to go further. That’s the direct message. The indirect is how the message feels.
The Place We Feed Within an Audience
A billboard for a personal injury lawyer with an image of a menacing looking man in a suite and copy that says “We fight for you” is saying we have what you want, not what you need. More deeply though, such an ad speaks to an egoic place within people who want to feel more powerful. They don’t feel powerful in their life, and they just got rear ended at a traffic stop and now (through this lawyer) they have the ability to feel powerful.
Selling products with sex appeal speaks to a similar place within us. Or appeals to purchase designer jeans that everyone with status wears. Or a car with a robust amount of horsepower. Or even marketing gurus claiming to have the next silver bullet that leads to more customers.
This form of marketing (common as it is) speaks more so to what we want than what we need, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. I don’t need a frozen yogurt smoothie on a hot day, I want one. I don’t need to eat out at a high-quality restaurant, I want to.
The difference is the place within an audience that we feed. Do we feed their desires for power and status, or do we feed their souls with products and services that make a difference? Do we overlay our messages with hype, or do we say it the way we really want to say it—with authenticity?
The Real Reason for People to Use Our Products & Services
Why is this important? It’s important because more so than what we feed within the psyche of an audience, is what we’re saying about who we are as a company. If we’ve created a product or service that we truly believe in, and then market to an audience by appealing to base human desires, we are cheapening the value of what we’ve created. More importantly still, we are failing to convey the real reason people ought to be using our products and services.
It’s a subtle difference in execution, but powerful in effect on brand building. It’s the difference between,
“We make this because it makes a difference and we feel you are someone who cares about making a difference.”
And,
“We make the best . . .” or “We are the best . . .” or “Buy now so you can be more powerful, desirable, obtain more status,” and so on.
What We Are Really Saying
Appealing to desires for status or power says (very subtly) that we don’t truly feel our product is good enough on its own merit to earn your business—that we have to resort to emotional manipulation to get you to buy.
Or . . . it’s saying that we do feel our product is worthwhile, but we don’t have the time or the money to show you, so we will resort to manipulation to get you to buy. And what that says is that we don’t care enough about you, to be real with you.
Or we can state (directly or indirectly) what we stand for as a company by communicating how our product or service makes a difference. What this says is we care.
The Subconscious Mind Gathers Data
“Academic,” you might suggest? Brain science has shown us that our subconscious minds gather and retain vast amounts of data from all forms of input. We gather and retain subtle messages all the time—body language, tone of voice, choice of words, colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and even electromagnetic fields.
We gather, we store, and we are affected by everything, both subtle and overt, and when it comes to marketing, sophisticated marketers have been playing to this fundamental axiom of human consciousness for quite some time. It is why manipulation is used—because it works.
For Those Who Care
And yet in present day, a sizable portion of our culture is moving in the direction of valuing and desiring authenticity. For those who wish to engage with companies who care about making a difference—about making things just a little better—they will gather subtle clues and input, and they will assess how they feel about a brand more so by the tone of the marketing, than by features and benefits or even price.
For this audience, the subtle messages we convey through our marketing will be picked up and felt by those who care enough to want to do business with companies who care more about making a difference than merely generating “more.”
To this audience, the tone speaks volumes.
This article was originally published on Medium.com.
Would love to know examples if there are ANY who do it right!!!
Hi Gail,
Literally every large company that engages in mass market advertising is conveying a tone. Only a small number of them though, are conveying a tone that has depth and meaning, and/or tells a compelling story.
For example, Coke tries to tell us that if we drink their product that we will be better people, which is a hallow message and side steps the nature of their product, which is made with high fructose corn syrup, which is not easily metabolizable by the human body. I would characterize their tone as inauthentic.
By contrast, Apple conveys simplicity, elegance and beauty, which they have mostly achieved throughout the years, or at a minimum have strived valiantly to achieve. They are conveying a more authentic message.
Nike with their Collin Kaepernick ad shows that they are willing to stand for their values even if it will piss some people off — authentic.
Southwest Airlines with their heart logo graphic and a steadfast focus on customer service and customer care is authentic.
Oil companies that try and position themselves as being concerned about the environment while they systematically suppress their own research which indicates the harmful effects of a heavy reliance on fossil fuels.
A less obvious example, but equally as inauthentic, would be the style of advertising employed by car dealerships. They largely advertise by discounts and rebates. That’s about the only hook they can come up with to drive traffic to their dealerships, which commodifies their product and reduces what they do to a mere transaction. They are inauthentic because they are not venturing deeper into why they exist, and taking a very easy road to marketing at the expense of their brand.
Thanks for the question Gale. I’ll have to write a blog on this.
All the best,
Glenn
I appreciate your vision re Apple, for example, despite their ability to “trap” the user into their products. They pretty much force the user to ‘figure it out’ in order to keep up with the product. Ex: a recent update on my phone put several apps on their own predetermined icon … my ‘wallet’ and ‘notes’ went into their icon called ‘productivity,’ whereas my Starbucks app and my Storm Shield app suddenly landed TOGETHER in ‘food and drink.’ The negative ones you mention are clear as a bell as inauthentic and perhaps my wish for authentic sets the bar a bit too high. Thanks for your perspective. Gail
Yes, the negative examples are pretty clear, and it’s easy to become jaded regarding the positive efforts of large companies. It’s important to recognize that company values are aspirational—that no company will get it right all the time. Better, I think, to acknowledge the positives, not forget the negatives, and keep a vigilant eye on the trajectory of a company. In this sense, I guess you could say the trajectory speaks volumes as well.
Yes. And I have to laugh at my unrealistic expectation that companies should do a better job at meeting that aspiration when I, as an individual, cannot either!! AS long as they are open to that aspiration as I am open to it, there is hope and a positive direction despite plateaus and even regressions on the path!!
That’s pretty deep Gail, and spot on. Companies consist of people, and we are all imperfect. Being optimistic, acknowledging positive progress, being nonjudgmental—all important attributes for striking a deeper cord in marketing and branding, and to no small measure, making a positive impact on the world. 🙂