Here’s my latest Adnews article. It’s about Utility Marketing, trying to use every possible opportunity to give people what they want. It’s an alternative to the ‘emotional ádvertising’ thing people talk about (see previous blog posts).
I’d be interested in peoples thoughts.
Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.
Comments
Seb
Sep 15th, 2009I love it. It's just spot-on. It's time for comms people to realise that 'doing something for people' has now become incredibly more powerful that just saying shit… A perfect example for me would be the Nationwide iPhone app in case you crash your car (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/04/nationwide-is-on-your-iphone/).
Amen to that!
Richard
Sep 15th, 2009I think there's a place for both emotion and utility. Both Apple and Commbank are pretty big spenders on advertising, but only one of them has the emotion vs utility spend balance right. Which one? Well I love my iPhone …
Anonymous
Sep 15th, 2009Some people over think everything. If the role of advertising isnt to generate awareness it's very close to it.
Fritz Bachen
Sep 15th, 2009Hi Seb thanks for the comment and totally agree. Comms people and the comms process has a lot more to offer the consumer rather than disruption or interuption.
Richard you're right. Sometimes the point has to get made by presenting it in an extreme way. However, I'm sure the advertising that isnt utility building for both CBA and Apple helps build their respective brands.
Anon. you're right some people (including me) can over think things. However, by the looks of things I doubt you would.
showcase Jase
Sep 15th, 2009Admit it, the emotional angle was just another pitch from marketers. It was meant to say 'we can give you something different' and now the pendulum is swinging away again.
Carolin Dahlman The Love Group
Sep 15th, 2009Hey Fritz, Nothing wrong with wanting to create an emotional connection between brand and customer if you do it the right way! You are totally right of course, I just added some extras in my comment on my blog
http://love-branding.blogspot.com/2009/09/Fritz-Bachen-on-emotional-and-utility.html
Cheers
Carolin
Rog
Sep 16th, 2009Great article!
As a suit, I always cringe when we get client briefs stating they want to "create an emotional connection with consumers".
More often than not this is the easy way for a marketer to say their product/service is utter rubish and it is up to the agency to come up with a miracle idea that will change people's perceptions.
Some examples I can think off the top of my head are Telstra, NRMA, Commbank, Westpac etc etc etc
Anonymous
Sep 19th, 2009Fritz, great piece, but not sure that a products utility has a direct correlation with the emotional connection I may develop with it. After all, what a product or brand says about me (i.e. what my purchase of it 'signals' about me to everyone else) is often just as important as what it does for me. While 'utility marketing' may be vital to certain categories, I think it has more limited application with regards to luxury goods.
Todd Alchin
Sep 20th, 2009Hey mate – my current favourite example is what Best Buy is doing here in the US.
Similar to Bing Lee, they sell electrical appliances, but they've launched a service called Twelpforce – which harnesses the collective power of their knowledgeable sales staff via Twitter.
So if you've got a techie question you tweet the Twelpforce, and someone will give you an answer in minute or so. It works well because the salesforce is so large.
Great demonstration of brand utility and true to the what the Best Buy stands for.
That then provides a new role for advertising … telling people about the service. The emotional connection builds through using the service, not observing the advertising.
I tried it today as a punter and I was pretty impressed.
[Disclosure - Best Buy is a client of CP+B]
Check out the ads on YouTube if you're interested to see how it's handled in broadcast advertising.
TA
Fritz Bachen
Sep 26th, 2009@Showcase Jase I think teh 'emotional angle' is still valid – just not the only answer.
@Carolin – you are right of course.
@Rog unfortunately I have to agree with you. It's often easier for an organisation to market what it has, rather than re-shape the product / service to better meet consumer needs. Not sure I agree on the examples. Why have you chosen these ones?
@Anon even if you have a luxury good (perhaps especially if you have a luxury good) then communications can give, whilst proving the proposition. Many luxury goods already operate in this way. They choose, for (a bad) example, to have a high end cocktail party for a select few people rather than a high gloss ad.
@Todd great example – and looks like you are enjoying life at CP+B. I agree with you – exactly the type of thing Im talking about. You can then advertise this added service if you need too.
no no hair removal face
Dec 8th, 2010in our days technology is everywhere and it is the thing!
you can't avoid it because it's the most practical way to advertise and etc.
I really enjoyed reading this linked article, thanks.
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May 19th, 2011Thanks for the interesting article. But Right now there are people that they don't need much marketing because web 2.0 magic.
xlpharmacy
Dec 14th, 2011It was meant to say 'we can give you something different' and now the pendulum is swinging away again.
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