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The Advertising world is recently changing its tactics and approaching its consumers with a new angle. This new angle is aiming to give a ‘face to the company’. This different take on advertising is aiming to create a relationship with the consumer on a more personal basis. This will not only hopefully give companies a better understanding of their consumer’s needs but also build loyalty between the two.
It makes sense that if a company is more ‘human’ to the consumer, then they appear more approachable. Customers, if a problem arose, are more likely to forgive and return to a company that has treated them well and delivered products well in the past.
The ways in which companies are trialling this is by producing advertising that will relate more personally to the consumer. For example, if a company was trying to sell their latest dog food, they would create an advertisement that would aim to ‘pull on the consumers heart strings’. This leaves them feeling that this food is the only food good enough for their dog. Although this technique has been used for decades it is also a clever tactic as the product quickly progresses from a choice to a need for the consumer. Results show that the straight forward ‘Buy me! Buy me!’ approach has fast worn out, consumers nowadays want to feel connected to the company as oppose to just another customer.
Other ways in which companies are communicating better with their clients is through social media. By asking questions and creating competitions they are not only showing interest and rewarding their existing customers they are also enticing new ones. This is another cost effective way of keeping up to date with what the consumers are looking for by collating their data directly.
This approach was demonstrated well by The Guardians article ‘What is The Future of Branding in the Digital Landscape?’
“Dean Johnson, vice president, Brandwidth Innovation Lab
Advertising versus UX: Successful brands now disrupt consumer narrative. Sounds like buzzwords but means the brand talks to its audience at an acceptable level, and introduces products and services in a meaningful way. A two-way conversation, rather than an ignored billboard or skipped web or TV ad.
Social media and brands: Social media is the most important brand channel – but only if staffed by humans rather than viewed as yet another broadcast opportunity. Our Citroën Click campaign was massively successful for the client as we crowdsourced the first Facebook car – and put the end result into production. You can't do this every time, but the audience understands this and still feels part of the brand.”
Sky has taken this angle further by raising awareness through their programmes. Recently they broadcast a series called ‘Lily Coles Amazon Adventure’. They took a supermodel (Lily Cole) and placed her in a Brazilian rainforest. This is a perfect way of giving the viewers what they want, but also raising awareness as well. This approach is ideal as a way of providing an engaging TV series for their customers as well as providing awareness of the environment and their affiliation with WWF.
“ "We have 10.5 million customers across the country … and many of them are not people who naturally would be thinking about environmental issues, much less the rainforest," says Graham McWilliam, group director of corporate affairs.”
People are complicated characters, which do you think is more effective- the urgency or emotional approach?
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