Are You In Touch with Your “Inner Consumer”?

Posted on | May 14, 2009 |

By Kate Newlin

If we can believe even a bit of the emerging consensus about the emotional/familial/ecological benefits of the economic downturn, then we must come to believe that brands will grow as they reconnect to consumers who have developed a profoundly altered relationship to getting and spending.

There’s a rich vein to be mined here for savvy marketers who are in touch with their inner consumer:

• Position on the post-recessionary benefits of sanity and sustainability.

• Promote behavior that opts for quality that’s not expendable.

• Push the organization to refuse to mourn the demise of built-in-obsolescence — and inspire the creation of products that appreciate in value over time.

In short, market to values that go beyond value (which is ‘marketingese’ for promote on price, of course). Coupons, FSIs, major campaigns devoted to ‘cheapspeak’ are so very tempting right now and effective enough pretty much whenever we default to them to make their siren call extremely seductive in a risk-adverse climate. But when the recovery begins, the economy will bounce back long before those brands that have trashed themselves.

Who gets it?
The new MasterCard advertising “Lessons” which shows a young boy educating his father about the “right” way to shop - “water glass, $5; energy saving bulb, $4; reusable bag, $2; helping your dad become a better man, priceless” - is a terrific example of marketing this mindset.

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