Does your brand need a compelling story to sell its product?
In the recent past most of the brands have started campaigning about their products and services through story telling. Be it TATA AIA Life with Daddy and Zoey
or Icici with Hukus Bukus
or Bajaj with Invincible Indian Stories.
These ads connect with us, the Children in Hukus Bukus make you smile towards the end of it, the Daddy and Zoey make you want to secure a future, Bajaj makes you aware of the people across our country doing great things and being heroes.
What we don’t realise is that although these stories, and related narratives are beautifully executed and showcased, they can also mislead the viewer. Yes one wants to secure the future of their child, or get rewards, or want to feel like a hero when they ride a Bajaj V and so on, but what the consumer does not realise is the choice. These ads and campaigns are great examples of successful marketing, as they have motivated the viewer to join hands with them. But does the viewer want to be the consumer of the brand is the bigger question.
When these ads or campaigns are watched, what remains is the story which leads to (a) brand recognition and (b) goodwill. Agenda A of the brands to make the viewer remember its name is definitely solved by these styles. However, is the brand making these campaigns to indulge viewers in stories or in making them use the service?
With the changing times, everyone wants to have things in a fast forward fashion leading to platforms like YouTube and Instagram, Facebook etc to come up with a skip the ad or a mute option. To overcome the problem of conveying a story brands now invest in ads under 5 seconds, to convey their messages. Marketing agencies and other analytical firms are tracking every click of the viewer/ consumer for optimum reach of the brand.
While most of the brands are investing in heavy productions and huge signboards across the land to compete amongst each other, they forget that choices confuse the viewer. To give an example when one visits a usual road side thelawala he knows what to demand from the vendor, but when at a restaurant or a 5 star hotel the 10 page long Menu with fancy dish names for a regular cuisine confuses the consumer and leads them to unexpected results. Some are happy while some are disappointed. Well, this is always going to be the case. One cannot always satisfy 100% of the lot. While we are globally coming a lot closer to each other every minute, there is a section of people motivating and practicing the art of minimalism.
The entire idea to bring this up, is for us to think if we want to get consumed in the rat race of these brands, or make sensible choices and be sure of its ownership. Every human follows a lifestyle, which means that not everyone needs to own an iPhone or a car or a 5BHK house to live in. Some might just be satisfied in what they have as it leads to easy living. They are sure of their choices, because they know their standard of living. This does not mean that people owning a BMW or a Microsoft Surface are wasting themselves, it is just a part of their lifestyle, they have optimum usage of the product they own to justify the cost benefit and the usability of the product.
So when brands market themselves in a compelling manner through emotional stories and interactive campaigns, one need to know what to take from it apart from appreciating their effort to embed themselves into your brain. Instead of getting consumed yourself and the brands investing a whole lot sum to earn consumers, they can come up straight about their product/ service. In any case one cannot force you to buy something you don’t want. But you don’t even want to buy the product just because you want to show your status in the society or compete with your envious friend/ neighbour or kitty.
Remember there is a loop, brands are opting for a method to reach to you because you are consciously or sub consciously encouraging the same. For e.g., with the freedom of expression people nowadays are literally putting up shit content online which is being watched by millions, making them the #trendoftheweek etc. You don’t believe it? Then tell me how do you or even me know about ‘Hello friends…chai peelo’ or dhinchak Pooja singing ‘selfie Maine le liya’ etc. It is because we are not making optimum use of the technology we have in hand and are getting consumed over wasteful content.
Brands observe this pattern of yours and come up with ideas to reach you, by making memes on the basis of these worthless content, or making someone like Dhinchak Pooja (as an example) a brand seller. With this more and more people everyday, every minute come up with more worthless content, just to be famous or #cool.
Market today is in a serious tandem of content versus reach. The desperateness to sell is making your brands behave in a certain way, while all you as a sensible or an honest consumer need to do is to let me know with your choices, that the product can be bought by a simple advertisement which may or may not hold a story or an upcoming trendsetter who is like a cloud in the sky #inconsistent. You as a consumer can let them know that you trust their product or their services because it suits you. Be it the quality, quantity, suitability, budget etc, the stories or the vague expression of coolness does not make you their consumer.
Nobody wants to invest a lot of time in making decisions nowadays, then why waste time in getting consumed for it.
Think! It will be worth it.
