A Serious Consumer Insights Perspective on Silly Content
Marketing levity for consumer insights marketing: Humor can help mitigate bad press, explain serious issues, and of course, attract a willing audience. During these days of rising health, political, and economic concerns, plenty of people can use a laugh. As many respectable and completely serious doctors and scientists have done before, Clarity Clinic even says that humor can provide good medicine for mental and physical health issues. Perhaps, that makes this the perfect time for a little media levity, even to address very serious topics. With that in mind, gain some perspective from a consumer insights company to see how adding a bit of levity to marketing content can help attract an audience and even improve a brand’s reputation. How a consumer insights company treats humor as serious business A company like Netflix doesn’t just offer marketing content; for them, content provides the basis for their entire business model. Some people may find it surprising that a show like “The Floor is Lava” has even trended to the top for popularity in the U.S. market. On the other hand, even Mashable TV critics praised the show for offering some levity and fun during 2020, a year when many people have found little to celebrate. Using humor to take the edge off of poor PR events From the view of a consumer behavior analysis agency, some companies have done very well incorporating jokes, even in the face of poor PR. Take a look at an example of the great KFC chicken debacle. Apparently, KFC changed suppliers, and ensuing problems resulted in chicken shortages that even led to a number of store closings. In those pre-pandemic times of just last year, it was always easy to buy such staples as toilet paper and chicken. Nobody ever thought twice about eating inside a KFC, rather than using the drive-through. Thus, consumers expressed outrage when they could not immediately dine on their favorite meal in 2018. In response, KFC took out plenty ads to apologize to their loyal and hungry fans. Instead of printing KFC on the image of a bucket of chicken, they rearranged the numbers to spell FCK. According to The Drum, the naughty humor worked because the public appeared to forgive them. Their ads and images even went viral on social sites. A marketing and consumer behavior analysis agency named Mother came up with this effective strategy, which also generated quite a bit of positive attention for them. Can humor always take the edge off of PR disasters or other serious matters? Obviously, KFC’s mistake pales when compared to some other PR disasters. For instance, an audience personas agency probably would never have suggested that Equifax try to use humor to cope with their massive data breach. Consumer insight marketing professionals should think about the audience before they suggest the right tactic to take for different types of problems or errors. On the other hand, marketers can find examples of businesses using humor to address very serious issues. As am example, Melbourne’s Metro released a “Dumb Ways to Die” campaign to help promote safety and reduce the number of accidents. The videos ended up with a greater number of views than the amount of people that even live in the whole country of Australia. According to their media staff, they wanted a way to educate their community about safety without turning them off. As another example, Burger King used a humorous video to educate the public about their company stance on the serious issue of net neutrality. After they interviewed average people, they found that most internet users really did not understand the idea behind the controversy. Thus, they used a humorous video that showed the order taker giving higher priority to people who paid more for their Whopper than those who paid the regular place, which they equated to internet providers throttling bandwidth for some websites but not others. The pros and cons of using humor to grow a marketing audience Marketers may sometimes use humor to help address very serious issues, as discussed above. Used right, funny content can work just as well for everyday marketing too. With that in mind, consider some benefits of employing humor to help grow an audience for marketing campaigns: Attention grabbing and relatable: Consumers get bombarded with lots of ads for companies that want to sell them something, and they may pay attention to and even care more about a company that makes them laugh too. Memorable: Studies have linked humor with better recall, so any company that wants people to remember their name might earn the privilege with some levity. Often share-worthy: Internet users like to share funny videos, quotes, and memes and may feel less inclined to simply share an ordinary advertisement. On the other hand, businesses need to avoid certain pitfalls that almost all comedians have fallen into at some point. They should remain wary of giving offense, appearing amateurish, or simply not landing their joke. As in the case of Equifax, for example, plenty of comedians may have joked about them, but they wisely decided not to choose that exact time to laugh at themselves. Why consult a consumer behavior analysis agency about humor in marketing? Mark Twain called referred to humor as mankind’s greatest blessing. Particularly during stressful times, a bit of levity can lighten up many heavy loads. By expertly incorporating a funny scenario or even a self-effacing joke into marketing campaigns, businesses can gain more attention and in many cases, even do their target audience a favor.
Get to Know Your Customers with Consumer Insights Marketing
Consumer insights marketing can help you understand your audience’s motivation, perspective, and behavior so you can discover more opportunities. As a business owner, you probably think you know your customers pretty well. You might be right, but these days, you need to go beyond some general demographics in order to obtain true consumer insights. Beyond the likely age, gender, or even actions of current or future customers, you will benefit by digging deeper into the motivation, perspective, and information that drives their behavior. Find out how consumer insight marketing can yield surprising information and even better, great results. Why focus upon consumer insights marketing? In an era when a consumer’s experience with a company outweighs the products they offer, attention to consumer insight marketing will help you connect with customers. For example, you may have some idea that your customers mostly base their purchase decisions upon such objective and obvious measures as product quality and price. Deloitte, a prominent consumer insights company, ran a large survey in the US, UK, Brazil, and China for 2020. According to their consumer behavior analysis, a sizable percentage of respondents said they considered these measures when deciding which business to buy from: How businesses treat employees: 28 percent How businesses treat the environment: 22 percent How businesses treat their communities: 19 percent For your own business, your customer base may vary somewhat. On the other hand, knowing that about 20 percent of your customers want to patronize companies that care about their employees, the environment, and their community could certainly inform your marketing. For example, you might focus upon social posts and ads that introduce enthusiastic employees or highlight your contribution to worthy causes. In fact, consumer insights marketing may have even more importance than it did only a year ago. Deloitte noted that they ran a similar survey in 2019. At that point, their consumer insights found that most customers still cared about price and quality the most. This year’s survey found that 55 percent of consumers think businesses have a responsibility to support issues that relate to their purpose. Deloitte concluded that companies that fail to demonstrate they align with consumer motivations risk getting displaced by businesses that do a better job. On the other hand, understanding and aligning with their customer’s point of view gives businesses an advantage of competition. How consumer insights marketing will help your business compete As a real-world example, Unilever has 28 brands they market as good choices for people interested in sustainable living. These include such well-known names as Lipton, Dove, and Vaseline. Considered sustainable-living products, they deliver the bulk of Unilever’s revenue and also have enjoyed more rapid growth than the company’s other brands. Such items as tea, soap, and petroleum jelly appear pretty interchangeable, but Unilever did a good job of differentiating them as sustainable in order to grow its market share. Certainly, consumers still care about price and quality; however, in a crowded market, knowing what extra factors will prompt customers to favor one company over another can make all the difference. How to gather consumer insights By now, you might wonder how you can possibly start to understand your customer’s motivations and perceptions. If you lack the time or training, you can find market research services that offer affordable packages for all sizes and kinds of businesses. The smaller and newer your company, the more valuable you may find this sort of help. On the other hand, you can begin by studying general consumer behavior analysis, such as that provided by the Deloitte survey mentioned above. Even better, you should start to monitor your own customers on social media or offer surveys. If you’re starting a new business, you may not have many customers yet. At the same time, you can try to peek at your potential competitors’ customers to understand why they buy from other businesses. You might also try setting up a booth at a trade show or local event. Not only will this give you a chance to introduce more people to your brand, you will also have the opportunity to meet the kinds of people who have an interest in the products or services that you offer. Start conversations with people, so that you can learn what motivated them to make similar purchases in the past and could prompt them to buy from you in the future. Why start investing in consumer insights today? In any case, you should know that consumer insights marketing has become more than just the latest marketing term. No matter what you sell, you can’t assume that price and quality completely drive customer behavior. In fact, the more you know about your customer’s motivations to prefer one company over another, the less you may need to compete on price. In fact, getting customers to identify with your company in positive ways is a type of marketing that money almost can’t buy. On the other hand, you can achieve that beneficial status if you invest in consumer behavior analysis and work to always view your business through your customers’ eyes. In any case, if you thought that all of your customers were simply getting online compare prices, you should be pleasantly surprised to learn that you can find other ways to earn their business. You just need to figure out how to do it, and that’s exactly why you need consumer insights.
The Changing Nature of SMS Marketing for Businesses
Throughout your day, how long do you go without sending or receiving a text message? While I’ve been putting this post together, I’ve already sent six texts… and it’s only 8:30 a.m.! It’s no wonder marketers are starting to truly understand the value of reaching customers via text. Alongside messages from people you care about, it’s becoming increasingly common to also see messages from brands you care about. While it has long been the norm for radio stations and TV programs to encourage communication via text, the team at BIGEYE’s Orlando ad agency has noticed that mainstream brands have been reluctant to catch up. And it’s likely due to the heavy reliance on email marketing, or a simple failure to understand how a short text can portray as much information as other forms of marketing. Think about it: People receive dozens of promotional emails each day, and some of us even opt to keep those promotional message divided into “tabs” so we don’t have to be inconvenienced by them while we’re perusing more important messages. And, as far as using Facebook as a marketing tool, businesses who invest heavily in social media sometimes learn that only a small fraction of their total followers have actually seen their posts. SMS Marketing is the one realm where businesses can send messages and know with a matter of certainty that the reader will receive the message. In fact, it’s this thinking that has prompted the new iBeacon, which pushes text messages to peoples’ smartphones when they’re near a store that has a beacon housed therein. Many people expect this to become a mainstay of technology, unlike QR codes, which are used heavily abroad but haven’t taken off in the United States. For many people, text is the preferred method of communication. [quote]I even have a friend whose voice mail says, “Don’t bother leaving a message, because I won’t listen. Just text me.”[/quote] Unscheduled phone calls have become invasive, and instead they opt for text as a primary form of communication. So, it should be no wonder that people are feeling more comfortable than ever receiving text messages from the companies they adore. In fact, SAP reports (registration required) that 64% of consumers think businesses should converse more with customers via text. Further, of the people polled, 76% said they were more likely to read a message sooner if it were a SMS instead of an email, and 70% thought SMS was a good way for the business to get their attention. For some consumers, SMS is more useful in providing “peace of mind” about identity and data, which is something to understand given a current climate of recent data leaks and hacks. This all makes a SMS strategy sound rather impressive, doesn’t it? If you are considering investing in SMS, there are a few things to remember, like even though it seems as if everyone you know has a smartphone, as of January 2014, only 58% of adult Americans had smartphones – many people are still relying on “dumb” phones that might not automatically read website links. Of course, the specifics of your SMS plan will involve researching and understanding your target demographic and understanding their mobile usage behaviors. [featured] For more ideas as to how your company can effectively integrate an SMS strategy, please contact us today to learn how our Florida ad agency can help you! [/featured]
Here are the Tips for Comprehending Consumer Behavior
Imagine that I owned a store next to your office, where you would occasionally drop in to buy candy. Imagine I were to tell you that you could buy some candy today for full price, but that you could come back tomorrow and all the candy would be 75% off, chances are you’d wait until the next day to buy that candy (unless you were seriously craving some Hershey’s Kisses!). After all, you can save a lot of money that way, so it seems like the rational thing to do. However, the entire story changes when the dates matter. Imagine I told you that candy would be cheap tomorrow, February 15, because it’s the day after Valentine’s Day. If you were standing in the store on February 14 because you hadn’t already gotten your partner a gift, you’d gladly pay full price. While it seems technically irrational, it’s a matter of understanding the emotional needs of a consumer. A person isn’t necessarily always driven by the lowest price —there are so many competing factors that brand managers need to take into consideration when they try to comprehending consumer behavior. Luxury brand managers are able to do this with expert finesse. People will often irrationally spend money on impractical items simply because of the prestige that comes with owning such a product. Think of a wedding ring. People are willing to pay so much for diamonds because of the symbolic representation of what a big, beautiful ring implies. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to be a luxury brand to be able to capitalize on human emotions. People purchase Nike shoes because they feel inspired by the brand, the brand’s image, and the brand’s commitment to improving individuals through athleticism. Or, a person may choose Coke over Pepsi because of the element of nostalgia that comes with purchasing a Coke. [quote]The good news is that by tapping into consumer behaviors, you can also learn to influence their purchasing habits.[/quote]The team at our Florida marketing agency sees this as the entire rationale behind marketing —how can we convince people to spend their dollars with us? The best way to know where to start is to explore differentiation, which means creating and defining a distinguishing characteristic about your business and highlighting it. Brands with a defined point of view tend to see more success than competitors. Think about any brand you love and think about why you choose it over alternatives: it might be that it’s cheaper, it tastes better, it’s more convenient, or it simply looks more interesting. Emphasizing what sets your business apart from others is the best starting point to build a bigger strategy for your brand. From there, you can design marketing campaigns around that distinguishing feature. Taking into account these human emotional behaviors, you can create a campaign that’s aspirational, inspirational or just funny —these are all types of things that might encourage a person to use your item or service over a lower-priced competitor. For more information as to how you can use customer insights to create a marketing strategy, contact our Florida ad agency for a consultation.
