The Persuaders

This very insightful program about marketing began with the industry term “clutter”. Clutter in marketing refers to the amount of messages that consumers are bombarded with everyday. An example not talked about in the video, is schools. Some schools facing budget issues have allowed local businesses to advertise on school papers including study guides and tests. All of us are bombarded with an immense amount of advertising. The most well known example would be Times Square in New York City.
In the past brands would market a differentiation between themselves and other brands. For example, a laundry detergent would suggest that their product gets clothes whiter than the competitors’ brands. Today’s consumer believes that all brands will get the job done in a similar fashion. Today’s products and the advertising that goes along with them is geared around a lifestyle and sense of belonging to a group. “Brands become an invitation to a lifestyle.” Marketers are aware that we want to be a part of a group and they use that desire to “create a cult-like status”. Examples of companies that have been successful in this are Saturn, Macintosh, BMW, Nike, and Budweiser.
With the advent of the digital video recorder, advertising through the traditional format of the thirty second commercial has become less successful. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” That was the comment of an advertising executive discussing the decline in success of the thirty second commercial. Companies are now engaged in “product-placement”. This is the act of placing the actual product within a show or film. Two examples of successful product-placement are Absolut Vodka in HBO’s Sex in the City and Fed-Ex in the film Cast Away. One fear about product placement is that consumers will be turned off by this distraction in their entertainment and refrain from purchasing the product.
“Consumers are driven by unconscious desires.” One of the preeminent experts in the field of consumer research says that we make purchase decisions based on our reptilian desires. SUV that are most successful have been successful in meeting the of our desire of having the feeling that we are dominators. Therefore, the larger and more powerful the vehicle is, the more likely it is to meet our primal desire of being the dominant member of the group. “The secret of persuasion is convincing a person to persuade themselves.”
I would use this with students to help them become more aware of the advertisements that they are exposed to. A great project would be to have students decide what brands they are drawn to and write about the lifestyle that these brands express to them. This would be followed by creating “the perfect brand” for the lifestyle they would like to be a part of. What would be the demographics that you would market this product for?