Some advertisements have power to touch people’s heart and make a significant difference in the buying behaviour. Let me start this blog with couple of examples. Think about the Apple Company’s “Think Different” campaign, Proctor and Gamble’s “Best Job”,or Nike’s “ Find Your Greatness.” There is just something very special about these ads that makes audience relate to them. I am personally a big fan of these advertising because they are not just trying to sell me another product, but they are selling an idea or a lifestyle. An idea that we can be great in our own way (Nike campaign), we can think differently and change things (Apple’s campaign), and to know that raising a champion is a lot harder than becoming a champion (P&G’s campaign.)
Although these ads don’t promote any products in particular, they associate these touching ideas to their brand and leverage it in their marketing campaigns. As a customer, I am a lot more willing to spend on those ideas than a pair shoes without any interesting story.
As the world is progressing out of sole consumerism, companies should stop selling products and start selling ideas and lifestyles. As a consumer, when I want to purchase a pair of shoes there are hundreds of brands and thousands of models available for me to choose from. By introducing different stories and promoting ideas and lifestyles, companies can differentiate all of their products from the crowd. This type of approach makes potential customers very open to products as oppose to the classic “by one get one for free” style of marketing.
In this day and age people like to be touched emotionally and want to skip logical and boring facts. This approach of embedding emotional values in advertisements makes watching them enjoyable and fun. Just imagine having fresh, funny, and thoughtful Superbowl ads all year around as oppose to boring Subway’s ads (no offence Subway).