The Marketing Message in a Recession
These are dark days, especially if most of your money is in the stock market and the rest in real estate, like me. I’ve been through many recessions, and they always feel like the end of the world, but then they end and things do get better. Right now, like many people reading this blog, I am pretty blue.
I read in Brand Marketing Magazine that recession answers for marketers include: line extensions; switching to e-promotional efforts, which are geometrically more efficient (and often more effective) than traditional ones; and keeping good employees, so the marketing plans can be carried out. Spoken like an employee.
I am not so quick to define broad tactics for every company. As you know, I feel that each product needs its own custom marketing plan, based on objective research, to determine strategies and tactics. I do not believe in most generalities.
But there is one generality I do believe in: human nature. Media and technologies may change, but not human needs. I think back to the old Spielberg movie, IQ. Perhaps you remember it: it is about a boy robot and his robot dog that are adopted by a human family. The boy and dog have chips in them that give them emotions. The boy robot falls deeply in love with his human mother.
The boy is treated horribly by his human family and other humans. The world is destroyed and 1,000 years later, the boy robot and his robot dog are found by an advanced civilization. They wake the boy robot and ask if there is anything he wants. All he wants is to spend a day alone with his human mother, the way he envisioned her. They grant his wish, and in his computerized brain, he spends the day with her, then tucks her in at night and puts her safely to bed. And he is completely happy with his memory of her love. And the movie ends.
Your mother’s attention, affection, and uncompromising love. Recession or not, this is what we all want, isn’t it? My mother passed away 10 years ago, but I would give all the money I have, everything, anything, just to see her alive again. I have a wonderful wife and son, but that would be my last wish, just like the robot boy.
Match your product’s marketing message to the very depths of human emotional needs and you cannot miss. No matter what target market. No matter what economy.
Ed Sucherman
The Marketing Machine
Nice post, Ed. Lovely and powerful at the same time.
It reinforces how I talk about the art I make, about the cultural, emotional and spiritual values present when I present it, write about it, display it. I’m always exploring what I do at the deepest level, and it is indeed a compelling message to my audience.
I never really thought about that as “marketing”, but if marketing is simply forming connections from what we make (whatever that is) to who will buy it (our audience) based on what it brings and means to BOTH sides, yeah, I can see that!
Thank you, this was nice to read today!
[...] an invitation to connect from the person’s spouse, which led me to his blog, where I found this little gem [...]
Thanks, Luann. You are right — communicating with your customer is what marketing communications is all about, no matter what technology is involved.
Ed Sucherman
http://www.edsucherman.com
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