Who do you think you’re talking to?

January 5, 2009 | 4 comments | Tweet This

no-hear

Not one to beat around the bush, this year will obviously prove challenging for many companies, and out of it I think a lot of `dead wood’ (in the nicest term) will be removed from the equation.  In order to survive the year ahead, companies must now more than ever, put themselves in the shoes of their customers and talk to them in a way that would be welcomed in this economic climate.  Well done for stating the obvious, but what’s my point? To let you into a secret, sometimes on a weekend one of my favourite guilty pleasures is buying a couple of trashy women’s magazines (In Style, Elle etc.) and lying on the sofa with music on in the background taking myself away from real life for a couple of hours.  Reading this month’s array of articles (not for intellectual satisfaction of course) I found myself getting more and more frustrated.  It’s January.  The month of the year when most of us find that we are skint and just to ensure I stay away from the sales we are officially in a recession.  Have the editor’s of these magazines been on another planet?  One article entitled something like “101 quick outfits” or something just as uninspiring, offered to provide ideas on what wardrobe stables I should be searching for.  Not a single one of the solutions presented cost less than £150 per item.  Now I don’t earn as much as I would obviously like to, however I don’t do badly either but do the editors of these magazines really think this is the time when I would consider going out and spending £250 on a jumper for work or that I would really think I need to be buying those £300 Joseph trousers this month.  No!  But it’s not the actual content of the article that offends me as if I had read this 4 months ago say, I probably would have enjoyed it a whole lot more.  It’s the fact that in this instance, the magazine editor seems to be affraid to discuss the issues that we are actually facing.  They are making no effort to show me they understand what I am thinking at this time and empathising with decisions that I may face.

As human beings, we want to feel that we are being talked to by someone who understands us and this must be the same principle that all companies adopt for 2009 if they want to come out the other side unscathed.  If a client were to approach me now with a high priced product to market, and state they feel their `brand’ were enough to convince their audience to buy it, I would have difficulty not to laugh in their face.

We need to take into consideration issues that we may have not necessarily wanted to be associated with in previous campaigns.  People will make their own mind up if they want to buy a product or not, but painting a rosey picture in order to push it is not an option.  We are pretty intelligent really, a notion that appears to be lost on some brands (Elle you can step up here), and by showing us beautiful artistic shots of products we may want but simply cannot consider at this time will in the long run be damaging to your brand as I will remember that you rubbed it in my face.  If you have a high priced product to sell you can still survive in the forthcoming market but you will need to find other messages to show the benefits that people will be getting (low upkeep costs, holds it’s value, additional free items.).

I can understand why some companies will prefer to bury their heads in the sand, but in order to come out the other side unscathed use this as an opportunity to allow people to develop positive associations with your brand, they won’t forget it.  At the end of the day do I want to support a company who shows me they understand my current concerns and talks to me at my level, or one who encourages me to get into debt so I can also look like a airbrushed waif who does not have a care in the world?

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Marketing  | 4 comments | Tweet This

Comments

4 Responses to “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  1. eaon on January 6th, 2009 2:06

    yep. good work.
    Classic example of this kind of brand 'narcisism' and dumb arrogance is the Norwich Union bullshit campaign that Doddsy kindly trashed.

  2. Arminthenatives on January 6th, 2009 2:42

    Agreed - good points and well made but . .. . .. . .
    do you know how long in advance magazines have to be produced, photographed, written, edited, printed and distributed. I fully agree with your sentiments but I think that a little elbow room could be given to the mags. although I suppose that we have been going down this particular hill for a while now and maybe they should be listening from all of us that are "fashion conscious"?

  3. Peter Moody on January 9th, 2009 4:37

    I'm not sure what it is but there was something about that post i didn't like. Things are tough to a certain extent but the UK does have this morbid fascination about things and that it is all doom and gloom. Japan has, to some extent, been in a depression for a decade, but its never been a topic of conversation to the extent that the UK or my friends and family take it too. When you go out drinking and eating with friends here in Tokyo, work and the troubles of the economy would never come up as everyone was and still is, in the same situation. To counter your example, Luis Vitton grew there business to the size it is, predominately because of Japan (something like 75% of their WW revenue came from here at one point) which was during the height of hard times. As an agency you might say to a company that they should consider their product range in terms of focusing on for example more accessories rather than their prime products, but as for toning down their language, there I don't agree. If anything that 250 pound jumper might be that ray of hope, that stress releasing purchase because at the end of the day it has a far less financial burden than say their mortgage. For me I will support and respect the company who says stop your moaning, we are all in it together, get on with it, and start making this country what it was. Come on people, lets make a mark, nows the time. If you don't, Asia will. Gone off on a bit of tangent there….

  4. jamiec on January 9th, 2009 6:08

    Welcome Peter, nice to see you on here. It won’t surprise you to know that I don’t completely agree with your comments but I am a big believer that debate is healthy so I did really welcome them as it is good to get a different perspective. I agree with you that the UK is fairly morbid at the moment, and I understand that Japan has been through difficult times for a decade. Your points are interesting but I don’t believe it’s as simple as comparing like for like. I really don’t mean to create stereotypes but there are a lot of cultural differences that must be taken into account as these will invariably have the biggest impact in the differences in behaviour i.e. the way that the UK are being very open in talking about the current climate to the Japanese who potentially keep their feelings much closer to their chest. The UK has been shaken over the last few months because we are visibly starting to see some of our big brands collapse. Brands such as Woolworths and Zavvi were staples on the majority of UK high streets. You couldn’t pull up to a retail outlet without passing an MFI and companies such as Royal Doulton and Whittard which are regarded as being quintessentially British will soon sadly be no more. In less than two months we have seen all of these companies go into administration, companies that many people have grown up with so on the contrary, I completely understand why so many of your British friends are currently talking about it. It is predominantly the short time scale of such significant change that has caused the morbid undertone as first and second jobbers find themselves experiencing their first economic downturn, and their expectations of a mortgage and job security are now being threatened. You referenced LV doing so well out of a Japanese market which is great, but that is in Japan and again you cannot compare markets like for like. In the Observer on Sunday, it was reported that Chanel have cut 200 staff and have also cut back their shows for this year, Marc Jacobs reduced his live by 40% pre-Christmas to encourage spending and numerous designers who have taken the choice to cancel their menswear shows for the forthcoming year, all due to the lack of public spending. There are various geographical and national attitudes to recession, and economic issues are one of the challenges facing global brands and global agencies. What works for Louis Vuitton in Japan almost certainly won’t in the UK and that is where good marketers will rise to the top. In terms of “we are all in it together” I agree that this will need to be the tone once the dust has settled somewhat but in the current climate, it is not going to be welcomed by people who are losing their jobs and their hom

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