Nowadays, “LESS IS MORE” can be an effective motto that marketers should take into account.

The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted this motto to describe his particular way of designing buildings and objects. The purpose was to highlight the beauty of simplicity over the exaggerations and the excess of the previous art movements.

Likewise, companies can benefit from a reduction in the dimensions of their offers. The starting point for such a revolution has to be a good understanding of the world’s economic conditions. The economic downturn has radically changed the spending patterns of people all around the world. Above all, the number of people that show the possibility to follow a free spending pattern has decreased. Every consumer is more careful in the product evaluation before purchases. Here comes the time to eliminate excesses!

According to one of Rohit Bhargava’s posts, the VALUE is what consumers are really looking for. Stressing and underlining the value offered is the only way to attract and create loyal consumers. The excess is not consistent with the real needs of the contemporary era. What’s more, the huge sizes, that even often sacrifice the quality, are no more appreciated. Thus, it is better to invest on quality research rather than wasting money augmenting sizes. A cut in the quantity of portions and a reduction in the broadness of the product line can help in decreasing costs. Indeed, carrying few different products should help firms to offer only those that customers really like. Consequently, marketers have the fundamental task to persuade the public about the real value of the offers. Then, marketers’ researches and surveys have now to be even deeper, in order to figure out the intimate desires and needs of buyers.

Furthermore, the advantages won’t be only on the economic side. Indeed, this approach would help in eliminating wastes, resulting in a more environmental friendly link to the nature.

In conclusion, once again, the key is to help consumer to understand these policies through meaningful campaigns! So, explain, explain and explain again!

The process that leads consumers to choose a particular product/brand is seldom rational. Being aware of this irrational component helps marketers to find effective strategies to influence consumers. According to this, emotion is a word that marketers have always to keep in mind. Indeed, people are more attracted by products that are able to create positive emotions and feelings in them. And, among all the emotions, fun is one of the most meaningful.

I agree with Bryn Green’s who entitled one of his articles “Humor sells”.  An effort to make advertising funny is always a worth effort.

I’m passionate about the automotive market and I think that it is one of the segments where marketers are able to create the most fascinating advertising. In the European market there are a lot of firms that use humor as an important tool to attract customers. Volkswagen makes the ads that I like the most for the emotions proposed.

The two emotions that VW marketers want to convey are passion for the tradition and love for the humor. These feelings are different but are both effective in order to consistently sustain the image of the brand. On the one hand, they want to appear as one of the most innovative and technological firms. As a matter of fact, it has always introduced brilliant solutions and revolutionary models. For instance, the marketing campaign devised for the launch of Golf V proposed the new model as the continuation of an icon, a myth. On the other hand, they use humor to attract new generations and to create positive feelings about the brand. This tendency toward humor is also linked to the desire of the company to create funny models such the Bettle (1938).  Anyway, among the recent VW ads, one of my favorites is the New Passat CC commercial, called “The nice try”.