Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Aim for the heart, not head...like Mr Tayto



I was asked to present on some brand and marketing stuff earlier this month. I spoke about brands needing to be interesting if they want us to be interested in them.

Nothing new here. But still not a whole lot of interesting stuff going on. It might be a bit of the 'rational' versus 'emotional' appeal debate. Most ads lead with the rational reasons to buy stuff - the benefits, features and unique selling proposition.

While my marketing origins are in direct marketing, influenced by likes of Claude Hopkins, I side with the folk that believe emotional advertising is more effective than ads that lead solely with rational, logical benefits. I'd encourage you to pop over here to read what the highly respected Paul Feldwick has to say about this.

The recent Mr Tayto autobiography is a lovely example of this. Very charming. Made me smile. I'm sure it has ignited a few conversations.

2 comments:

Brendan Hughes said...

Agree Paul. Much advertising of late simply reduces conversations down to price. Undrstandable these days, but it seems to me that we need to start talking about the other reasons to buy products and services. Emotional brand engagement is far more important in the long run than short term tactical price reductions. Tayto have done a good job here - selling books about crisps in a recession for goodness sakes.

Happy Christmas. Looking forward to more good reads in 2010.

Lisamaree said...

Buying is always emotional. That's where the old fashioned sales rep (like, ahem, Me) has the advantage as they know that people will buy from people they like. Yes, the product must be well priced and suited to their needs, but ultimately they have to feel good buying or they wont.

xx