Does this seem like an odd question to you, or a strange way to mix& match?
Well, wake up and smell the coffee – nothing strange about it at all.
Consumers, and Millenials/youngsters in particular, associate brands and brand matches in a peculiar way. A young girl does wake up in the morning, puts up make up and changes the cover on there iphone to match the lipstick … BECAUSE THAT IS “HOW IT’S DONE” THESE DAYS! It’s here way of integrating in her peer group, of bonding, and of showing off. Wauw … didn’t think of that, as a manufacturer of lipsticks???
Now, how do you capture that is the question? How do you innovate against it?
DEEP CONSUMER INSIGHTS AND UNDERSTANDING OF HABITS AND TRENDS. Forget your regular U&A (marketing myopia; focused only on your categories), forget your sales numbers (they won’t teach you anything anyway), forget your off-the-shelf trend reports (so generic that anything is possible). You need to find a way to stay so close to your target audience that you know what makes them tick, in the broadest sense of the way. Looking at all brands that are important in their lives, not just your own.
CRAWL THE WEB. There are a lot of interesting facebook pages, blogs, twitter posts that show you the peculiar brand twists that consumers make. Most of us don’t have time to look at these things. Why? No one wants to put money/resources down to pick up these things …too intangible. I used to work in the telecom company where I had a person in my team doing nothing but trying to understand competition, reading all newspapers and surfing the net (yeah-what a job) … he was worth every dime! We were proactive and extremely fast-reactive.
JUMP! Be ready to step into the conversation, into the (strange) associations that consumer build, a.o. around your brand. Tailor your short-term promotions around them. If teenage girls want a lipstick that matches their iPhone cover … simple…give it to them!
Thoughts?
