Women are looking for common ground….
Their relational brains need a starting point from which to launch a possible long term connection with your brand. So, the question becomes: are you laying the groundwork for this to happen?
Do the stories told and images used in your marketing materials result in a familiar connection with your prospective customers? Do customers experience your ad campaign or web site and think to themselves: “That woman in the ad reminds me of my best friend.” or “I can relate to that couple’s struggle to save for their child’s college fund.”
If not, how can you help people pictures themselves with your brand?
Stuart Elliott’s recent New York Times piece (reg. required) covers one company that is doing just that with a new ad campaign (created by Luckie & Company) – Region’s Bank in Alabama. The people in the ads are holding snapshots and envisioning their life goals – not bags o’ money, but a second house on the water, for example. As Elliott puts it:
“The photographs are intended to bring the ‘big picture’ idea to life, demonstrating that Regions bankers can help customers achieve goals that may be only somewhat tangible today.”
I’ve always been a big fan of the creative use of human-scale snapshot-style photos (as evidenced by one of my earliest-ever posts about the long gone “Love Mercedes” campaign, and another post about an outdoor clothing company’s web site), and Region’s looks to be cleverly using them to tap the emotion of big dreams while inspiring the rational end of things – saving and investing. Elliott, again:
“The campaign is indicative of efforts by marketers to engage consumers with advertising by seeking to make emotional connections as well as rational appeals. To differentiate themselves from each other in a crowded market place, more banks and other financial institutions are augmenting their left-brain messages …. interest rates, loan terms, lists of services like free checking and no-fee A.T.M.’s …. with right-brain pitches like the ‘What’s your big picture?’ campaign from Regions Bank.”
Successful marketing campaigns manage this balance of the left and right brain, the linear and the relational, or the line item facts with their lifestyle relevance. The Region’s effort delivers common ground that women, as well as men, can build on.
Shared dreams and images draw consumers in, and the bank gets the chance to tell us more about how their products and services can put us in that picture.
Smile for the camera.
Funny how effective your advertising can be when you approach it from the POV of your audience, isn’t it?
As a new president,I have recently been focusing upon bringing a long established educational organization out of the past and into the future. For several years, membership has been declining, as has been the pattern for many organizations. Why? Members have new and different needs. My goal, of course, is to renew and revitalize while asking members to consider that most of us are choosing what we do with our time and asking,”WIFFM?” (What’s in it for me?) Next year’s goals focus upon providing all educators with latest research, opportunities for meaningful conversations, and encouraging high school graduates to enter the education profession. Your first response might be:”You can’t be serious; there’s no money in that.” But there are those of us who believe that providing real quality education to students K-20 and engaging in public service are keys to success living. We are, therefore, applying marketing approaches gleaned from survey responses and frankly, what we see that seems to work in businesses. Our future depends upon marketing a number of participatory options in order to attract educators in various strata in the field and university students. In order to determine perceptions of future members, I surveyed 500 current school district administrators regarding stress in their learning environments. It was interesting to learn that women were aware of the stressors affecting their work lives and men either denied the existence of them or related that stress was of no consequence in their personal or professional lives. Now just what does that tell us? I’ll be interested in responses here and in my blog, Change has Changed.
In reading Michael J. Silverstein’s book, Treasure Hunt, recently – he talks about how brands have to take big leaps and learn to listen empathically and while in the customers environment.. and then , brands have to take another huge leap to take action based on that consumer interaction. Your ideas seem so obvious to, likely, many of us MP readers, Judie (of course! educators should engage in meaningful conversation and figure out how to encourage H.S. graduates to enter the education profession!) Why that is such a scary leap for people in your industry and others to make is a major human behavioral topic I find fascinating. Biz is so much more psychological than we treat it. What amazing things you learn by encouraging and using feedback from conversation!