Super Sunday? Bah. Bring on Mature Marketing Monday, and our regular round-up of the top links of the week.
1. MOST SHARED: Can narcissism sell t-shirts – and health? So suggests a social marketing case study via MediaPost. A boutique used social media to test whether its customers would be more motivated by product-in-use photography or a discount. They found that the price-driven ad for a fitness shirt drove fewer clicks and fewer conversions (purchases). That photo represented the type of body that buyers were working towards. As Kathleen Stockham reports:
“So, are your health consumers totally in love with their own image of who they are or at least what they want to be? Probably.
Are you marketing to them in a subtle way in social media feeding that budding narcissism? If not, maybe you should be. A well-known lingerie retailer recently concluded in a study that showing the products displayed out on a table, or flat surface in social media suffered far less conversion activity than being shown on a pretty model. Okay, no surprise there. But did you know that the same theory could possibly work for supplements, health food/diet food and even equipment?
Your social consumers are more likely to share, like and comment on images that are closest in representing themselves, or the image of what they want to be via affinity.”
In the eBook, Photo Finish: Images that Motivate Mature Consumers, we report the results of Creating Results’ research into photography that spurs action. In aging our brains shift to the right side, which is where emotions reside. Images tell a complete story that is more quickly perceived by older consumers. (We get the gist faster than youngers.) Photos can trigger emotional reactions.
So it makes sense to us that the photo that told a story of fitness success, of a woman who had achieved her goals, would achieve better results than a discount offer.
Read the post: http://bit.ly/YwZ2sX
2. MOST CLICKED: People define your brand. Brussels becomes defined by a naughty statue — Manneken Pis — which is now replicated in dozens of ways (including chocolate) and used to sell everything from fries to fine art.
What can your organization learn about branding from Brussels’ experience?
Read the Wall Street Journal article: http://on.wsj.com/14zPLnl
3. MOST AGEIST? Yesterday’s Super Bowl will be remembered for many years for the unexpected plunge into darkness. Author Brent Green (Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers) is wishing it were remembered for better advertising. While many advertisers try to use humor to connect with their audience (not a bad strategy!), today’s social awareness means it’s a challenge to use humor in a way that doesn’t offend. Green writes:
“Even in these hyper-vigilant times, one class of citizen still remains a favored ironic target of advertisers, a proverbial butt of the joke: our oldest old and wizened. And for this Super Bowl season, Taco Bell and its ad agency Deutsch L.A. have rolled out a TV spot brimming with stereotypes, a storyline that’s absurd and denigrating.”
The HuffingtonPost’s John Kehe analyzed the ad this way: “Taco Bell’s spot with geriatrics acting like teens is a tired idea with an off-putting execution. It’s the Betty White idea that’s been milked for decades. Should have been titled ‘No Mas.'”
(I’d add a title of “Asqueroso!” for the music, an awful Spanish-language cover of Fun.’s very good song “We Are Young.”)
Read Green’s thoughts on ageism, power and old age seen through the eyes of disrespectful Los Angeles agency youths: http://bit.ly/11ksZSG
Please watch the ad (below) and share your thoughts in the comments. What emotional reactions did this ad trigger for you? Is it ageist?