JWT’s AnxietyIndex is designed as a place to discuss how brands and consumers are responding to the global recession. With daily content updates, AnxietyIndex.com includes contributions from around JWT’s network, offering a truly global perspective.
The downturn brought a wave of populist fury, stirred up by the good guys/bad guys notion of Wall Street vs. Main Street. But while that fury is now set at simmer, big business remains woefully unpopular—and so in a new commercial, Office Depot harnesses some populist zeal for itself and casts its lot with the little guy.
But Office Depot is a Wall Street-traded big box chain, right? Not so fast. A recent TV spot features Dan, a small-town barber, whose shop is threatened when a large chain moves in across the street offering $6 cuts. So Dan heads to Office Depot for a banner that reads “We fix $6 haircuts.” The banner really sticks it to “Nitro Cutz,” which papers its windows five months later, a satisfying reversal of fortune for Dan.
By casting itself as a Main Street ally, Office Depot slyly gets viewers to forget that it’s a large multinational chain whose low, low prices have put independent stores out of business. Now that’s a reversal.
A growing number of people are finally finding the time to “write that book” after losing their jobs during the recession—enter what has been coined “layoff lit.” The New York Times’ Motoko Rich recently wrote about current layoff lit titles such as Slow Love: How I Got Kicked Off the Fast Track, Put My Pajamas on for a Year & Found Happiness, from former House & Garden editor Dominique Browning, and The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All, by former Self magazine editor Alexandra Penney.
The theme here seems to be finding the silver lining of starting over. As Matt Buchanan points out in The Sydney Morning Herald, George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air follows a similar narrative, reminding a distraught man he’s laying off about his love of cooking—“his sacking is an opportunity to reset his priorities, to choose to do what he loves to do—to cook again.”
The idea that there’s an upside to the downturn is certainly appealing, and brands such as Allstate are doing well to tap into it.
The recession saw many consumers postpone big-ticket purchases, a challenge that electronics chain Best Buy is addressing with its novel Pitch In card. Think bridal registry meets microfinancing meets layaway. Best Buy terms it “easy group gifting.”
Customers looking for help financing a purchase create a Pitch In card along with a Best Buy wish list, which they share with friends and family. Gift-givers can contribute payments ranging from $5 to $9,999.99. “It’s the perfect way to get that big Wish List item you’ve been dreaming of,” says Best Buy on its Web site.
Recently we’ve seen a rise in collective action, with people increasingly understanding that every bit counts in addressing today’s big issues, from the economy to the environment—adopting a “we” rather than a “me” mentality. While we’ve seen similar efforts in the independent music scene, Best Buy is charting new territory by bringing this idea to the commercial realm, enabling consumers to tap into the collective conscious of their friends.
It’s a great example of how brands can help spur spending without relying on steep discounts while their customers are laying off the plastic.
Kia Motors envisions a new future for the American auto industry in a spot introducing the company’s West Point, Ga., plant, its first manufacturing facility in the U.S.
The commercial features a young boy in 1951 riding a bicycle through time straight into 2010 and the company’s brand new Georgia plant. As the boy rides, a voiceover describes how Kia has evolved over the past 60 years from a bike manufacturer to a leading international automaker. Kia attributes its success to the company’s progressive spirit. Since the 1950s, Kia has continually challenged itself to “come up with better ways to help people get around.” The voiceover goes on to say how the new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in West Point, Ga., is the company’s proudest achievement yet, not because it demonstrates how far Kia has come, but because it offers “a glimpse of where we’re headed tomorrow.” The commercial concludes with Kia’s past and present alongside each other as the boy and his bike watch Kia’s newest car, the Sorento, drive off into the future.
This spot provides an excellent example of how hope-filled rather than fear-filled messaging can help brands transition into recovery. Instead of focusing on the auto industry’s turbulent past, Kia is shining a light on the future promising better days ahead for the American auto industry and auto worker. In this spot, Kia offers a future in which consumers will be better off thanks to the ambition, innovation and optimism at the core of the company.
Though well-intentioned, a recent TV commercial from leading Singapore bank OCBC has put a spotlight on the promises that brands make to customers. The spot—which is intended to support the bank’s recently launched Sunday Banking service—tells the story of a customer who visits the bank on her birthday, which happens to fall on a Sunday. In a show of the bank’s commitment to delighting its customers even on Sundays, its staff brings out a birthday cake, much to the surprise of the customer. The story was told so convincingly that some people believed the bank gave out birthday cakes on customers’ birthdays. Two days later, a blogger posted an account of what happened when she went to a OCBC branch on her birthday and was not offered a cake. The scathing entry has generated over 500 comments and created a controversy over the ad that was picked up by The Straits Timesnewspaper.
While one can dismiss the blogger as being overly literal—and probably a bit of a smart ass—what’s interesting about this reaction to the ad is how consumers could expect a real payoff. In our 10 Trends for 2010, we said people are Reading the Fine Print to get the best value and determine whether a company’s claims are sincere. I suspect that in a less wary time, consumers would let OCBC simply slide. But after a reality check in the form of an economic slowdown where people have lost jobs, defaulted on financial obligations or sold their belongings to get by, empty promises such as this are not welcome. For brands, this means being more conscious about how their advertising is perceived. Is the company giving customers the impression they will receive a benefit from that company? If so, is the message something the company can make good on? If not, perhaps the message needs to be tweaked. After all, in these times when customer satisfaction is utmost, no one wants an angry customer, especially one with a blog.
Louis Vuitton ads have long been synonymous with flash, featuring bold colors, images and celebrities like Madonna and Keith Richards. In what appears to be a step away from this tack, the luxury brand launched a campaign that is bold in its understated approach. At first glance, the print ad looks like a delicate Vermeer painting. It features a demure, angelic young woman in a darkened room, her hands and face lit in halos of light, hand-sewing a red leather wallet. Opposite the elegant image is copy that draws on the impeccable finesse that is executed by Louis Vuitton’s “craftsmen.” It goes on to say that details, like “five tiny folds,” make its products timeless and long-lasting.
In our trendletter last May on “The Recession and Its Impact on Luxury,” we wrote that, as consumers shy away from conspicuous consumption and ostentation, luxury marketers would play up “craftsmanship, heirloom appeal and the best materials.” This ad is an attempt to do just that, with its message of classic quality, attention to detail and long-lasting value.
However, luxury brands also need to take care in what they claim. As we talked about in Reading the Fine Print, one of our 10 Trends for 2010, consumers are now more than ever doing their homework before purchasing products, calling for transparency. In fact, according to BusinessWeek.com, Louis Vuitton does not make most products by hand, dismissing the aforementioned craftsmen. It may not suffice for consumers to read the concluding copy: “Let’s allow these mysteries to hang in the air. Time will provide the answers.”
In late 2008, we wrote in our “10 Trends for 2009” report that “The reality or the risk of money running short is a real incentive for consumers to find new ways of enjoying what they have and what they can afford. Rather than splurging on extravagant treats and ‘retail therapy,’ consumers will be cultivating simple pleasures as a more suitable and satisfying way to feel good.”
Allstate has been leveraging the theme of small pleasures for a year now (we wrote about a back-to-basics-themed spot last February). In a recent commercial, the insurer addresses this silver lining of the recession—a reassessing of priorities—in a poetic way. “In the last year we’ve learned a lot of lessons,” actor Dennis Haysbert intones. “We learned that meat loaf and Jenga can be more fun than reservations and box seats. And we learned that who’s around your TV is more important than how big it is. That cars aren’t for showing us how far we’ve come, but for taking us where we want to go.”
Getting to insurance, he goes on to say: “We learned that the best things in life don’t cost much. And at Allstate they don’t cost much to protect. So protect them, put them in good hands.”
Allstate continues to make its subtle “Good Hands” pitch (protecting these small things) seem genuine.
During this economic downturn, a number of brands have employed a strategy of producing content that uses simple language and graphics to help consumers understand a situation they may not previously have faced. For example, I’ve written about UBank’s series of smart Webisodes on topics such as “Credit Crunch Explained” and “Recession Explained.”
By contrast, Westpac, Australia’s second largest bank, recently stumbled with an animated video that tries to explain why it has pushed up interest rates. The bank’s retail chief, Peter Hanlo, e-mailed the roughly three-minute video to hundreds of thousands of customers. The response was outrage over the video’s condescending tone and its misplaced analogy centered around banana smoothies (which have become more expensive since severe storms destroyed banana plantations in Australia). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suggested Westpac take “a long, hard look at itself.”
One of our 10 Trends for 2010 is Visual Fluency—the acceleration of the shift from words to images, and increasingly innovative ways to explain and illuminate complex topics. There are many ways for brands to leverage this trend—and likewise many ways to get it wrong. In this case, the medium was right, while the message was all wrong.
In a recession year, what a surprise it was last month to see a modest Filipino family hauling a big box containing their new widescreen TV. Before they rushed off to do more shopping, in answer to my query they said the purchase was “thanks to the credit cards—their offers are better this month!”
Off I went to the appliance store to investigate. What I found is that banks were offering extended payment like never before. Credit cards from Citibank and BDO (Banco de Oro) touted “Buy now, pay in 2010” and “Pay much later” schemes. Surely a big help to the Filipino family with a primary breadwinner still working abroad and perhaps a little late coming home for Christmas. Or families still feeling unstable because a member lost a well-paying job in 2009. And banks know that in December, along with splurging on food for their family, the typical Filipino family loves TV Christmas specials and soap operas, now amplified for some in wide-screen splendor.
In our spring AnxietyIndex Quarterly report “The Genericizing of Brands” (downloadable from our Trends and Research section), we argue that tactics must be approached in a branded way—that brands must find a unique value voice. A recent Wendy’s commercial for the Deluxe Value Meal is a good example of that.
The commercial, a part of the fast food chain’s “You Know When It’s Real” campaign, shows two guys eating a burger combo meal. But while one has only a tiny plastic burger, fries and soda, the other is eating a real and satisfying lunch from Wendy’s. The man with the miniature version notes that his meal cost just $2.99, only to hear that the other guy paid the same low price.
In a downturn, consumers tend to search for smaller, cheaper options, and in response, most brands target price-driven consumers with basic offers, usually inferior alternatives to the “real thing.” Using an absurdist comparative approach, Wendy’s assures consumers that it’s not among those promising “less for less” and that customers need not make sacrifices in order to save.
Louis Vuitton
