I was checking out Things and Stuff, my classmate Claire Eagle’s always-interesting blog, and she had one cool post about broccoli. I’ve seen those ads and they made me laugh – however, I’d thought the ad was part of a campaign from broccoli farmers to support their industry (kind of like the baby carrots thing, but without all the packaging). Imagine my surprise when the ad turned out to be an experiment from TVB, proving that “advertising can sell anything”.
After some reflection I’m not sure if this broccoli ad is the best example for the idea that “advertising can sell anything”. Here are a few reasons why:
1. Anyone who knows a little about healthy eating knows that broccoli is good for you – they might not know about all the nutrients in broccoli, but they’re already aware of its benefits. As a result the ad had to just convince people a little more about broccoli’s value so they’ll actually buy it at the grocery store.
2. Continuing off #1: there’s growing awareness about obesity and other food-related health problems. Eating more fresh vegetables is part of combating these problems. How do we know that the ad caused the increase in broccoli sales, and isn’t just a correlation?
3. Broccoli isn’t “new to the world” – it’s not facing any hurdles preventing its sales apart from the general “I don’t like the taste of it”. What if someone had come up with a product that is not a food, that wouldn’t be familiar to the market? Would clever advertising truly be able to “sell anything”?
4. Broccoli is relatively cheap. I’m not sure if this holds true in other cities, but I know here that if Kin’s has a sale on broccoli, it’s usually the freshest, most amazing broccoli available. As we’ve learned in marketing, new to the world products are usually more expensive – the company has to cover r+d costs and their high marketing costs. If you think of broccoli as a commodity, would non-commodities be able to sell the same way with an ad like “the miracle food”?
If there’s one thing I’m learning from marketing, it is that customers want to exchange their money for something they value. It’s easy to value the miracle properties of broccoli (I’m a personal fan – there’s nothing like sweet broccoli simply stir-fried with a little garlic); after all, food is essential. However, it’s harder to value something customers don’t know, or don’t relate to.