Rich and Strange: How Marmite and Unilever re-kindled love for
it's brand through polarisation
4518145, Dara Bell, Page 29 2/11/12
Rich and Strange:
How Marmite and Unilever re-kindled love for its brand through
polarisation.
The Marmite brand was almost 80 years old at the time of
Unilevers revolutionary campaign. The middle classes, who had once
been in love with Marmite, were notbuying it. Marmite is in fact
gluten free, high in B vitamins and is vegetarian friendly. It's
quite unique or different but the 'Rich and Strange' weren't buying
it. Its also alow cost choice for mums to feedseveral children
cheaply but they weren't buying it either. The weird unique (almost
hippy)message wasn't cutting through in the messaging. This in what
Jack Trout and AlRiesreferred to as the 'Positioning era' by Ries
and Trout (1981). I'd label the audience they neededto reach
as'Rich and Strange'. These were middle class, ethical and almost
picky about what they eat. This is the story of how DDB re-framed a
tired brand using clever differentiation.
In order to be irreplaceable one must be different.
Coco Chanel
Marmite is owned by Unilever. The company saw the opportunity to
create a cult around the products weirdness through a polarisation
strategy. It's a unique product in a productcategoryall onits own.
It's what makes it unique as a brand. Well look at this more deeply
later. Marmite is made from brewers yeast. It'sblack and sticky and
can stain childrens clothes, actually quite easily. On itsown its
enough to polarise and can be regarded as strange!
Marmite when DDB took overthe brief had only minority appeal.
Polarisation wasnot radical it was a 'do or die' moment. It had no
Otaku. Otaku refers to the few brand advocates who are the key to
making a story move. In modern Japanese slang, the term Otaku means
'obsessive geek' but it refers to the overall effect too. They
cross over with a group sometimes called 'loyal sneezers' according
to Seth Godin, see 'Spreading The Idea Virus' (Godin, 2001). They
are the people who support a football team afterits winning streak
is over. Furthermore Marmite had no cult around its product. Cults
usually form for lifestyle reasons anda shared experience. They are
often collections of 'obsessive geeks' with very very very loud
members interspersed by the 'sneezers' as Seth Godin calls
them.They form for either LOVE or HATE reasons, which are
oftenemotional.
There are rituals too. If we look atHarley Davidson or Camel
Lights who have and have had many cult members. The loud members
are the Advocates ('Sneezers') for the brand of which Marmite's had
none. For both these brands these sneezersare exceptionally loud.
Advocates make noise according to Seth Godin in Unleashing The
Ideavirus (Godin, 2001). For Harley this meant accountants dressed
in leatherwho drove through their towns like Hells Angels.
Marmites' 'loyalsneezers' in 1996 weren't 'sneezing' anymorei.e.
spreading (sorry about that) The Marmite story around. At a certain
point there is 'tipping point' at whichpoint the messaging
isstickier but we must create these conditions. There were no
proponents of Marmite LOVE and no word of mouth or the market
penetration that creates sales. The louder the more, I feel, useful
for the processof information transfer and dispersal. It's a
win-win for the advertiser and the consumer cult.
DDB chose to highlight the positives and the negatives, which is
quite a strange strategy. Collins Dictionary describes a polarising
as this
"To cause to concentrate about two conflicting or contrasting
positions".
They had to look at the productfrom afresh and less hackneyed
way. This therefore became thebasis of DDB's creative brief. The
creative brief would have examined the following. The questions for
Marmite were these. Why were people not shouting/talking about
Marmite?Could we communicate and position differently? Are we
talking to the right people? We'll see how originality and creative
flair was priority number one, later on too.Unilevers' Marmite
troubles were set to a booming cable television market and ahealthy
commercial broadcastingsector, especially atITV and Channel 4.
Opportunity existedin other places too. For students and stay at
home mums, who are in the 'Rich and Strange'market there was
themushrooming Internet. The breadth of mediums in fact was
staggering, when you think of radio, television andambient. Full
media integration was then an imperative to deliver this
newmessage. Unilever wanted people taking about Marmite
everywhereand onmany platforms. The cult had to beformed around the
new technology too.
Let's look at the new technology. The Internet,if we look at it
in more detail anduse Geoffrey Moore's adoption lifecycle, had
entered a new phase of evolution. In Crossing the ChasmMoore
(Moore, 1999) identifies a 'technology adoption cycle'. Moore
identified early adopters, early majority, late majority and the
laggards. The Internet was between the majorityand laggard stage.
It had 'crossed the chasm' in the UK. The Internet, as a platform,
in the target markets of the UK and South Africa wasentering
majorityuse at 25% in the UK. It was more laggards inSouth
Africa.
The tipping point inMoores' 'law of diffusion'is between 15% and
18%.This represented ahuge opportunity in potential R.O.I (return
on investment) for DDB London. Consumers media habitswerechanging,
as were eyeballs. This had become a sizeable audience that was
untapped. If we did a SWOT analysis of Marmite as a business, right
over, we'd see they had a huge opportunity using a full range of
mediums. Unilever hadnot moved with these new technological habits
and mediums. SoDDB and Marmitewere the laggards, as Geoffrey Moore
would say.
Furthermore Unilever had no webcults around its strange product.
If we look at a book like The Cluetrain Manifesto (Levine et al,
1999) it says consumer cults form around new technology.The
bookfocuses on howconsumer cults use technology. On themessagesthat
movethrough our email, web pages and chat and bulletin boards about
ourproducts and services- it's collectivism.The consumer cults
messages can kill or make a brand.The new strategy then had to move
easilyand create a halo effect, especially with people who only
make a decision when their friends move, capped at 18% for Moore.
(Moore 1999)
However, mediums weren't the key issue for the new campaign.
Marmite was considered tired and dated by consumers. This we might
call a threat to the brand. It's also conversely opportunity, as
we'll see later. The messaging wasn't stickyenough (sorry!). It had
to stick and it had to move.
As a story, the Marmitestory wasn't unique enough to tell to
others. Polarising at its core essencewas about creating division
among consumers anddisrupting them. Unileverin the90's hadonly
apathy. There wasn't even HATE forMarmite. Marmite fostered brand
agnosticism. Tackling agnosticism thenwas far more important than
the changing mediums or embracing the breadth of media options.
There was no compelling hook, no story and nothing to divide and
conquer.By devide and conquer I mean focus on Discursive
repetition, over the disambiguation of the products meaning in the
mind of the consumer. Key I feel was a credible anchor to achieve
this reframed meaning.
Nothingabout 'My Mate Marmite', the existing campaign, wassticky
(sorry). Specifically ithadn't createdtop of mind awareness orthe
word of mouth we talked of earlier in the execution of the campaign
it featured soldiers marching at a barracks. DDB sought to change
this problemthrough re-framingproduct perceptions. The existing
focushighlighted the uniqueness of the packaging and it had the
tagline 'My Mate Marmite' and an overall Everyman voice. It frankly
wasn't unique anymore. The mis-en-scene was all wrong and the song
sounded almost like a jingle too. No emotion and no feeling equaled
no connection. DDB, the agency in charge, shifted emphasisto
theuniqueness ofthe product itself.
The re-brand started with a truthful flavour (sorry) to the
advertising.This honest-about-the -productisn't a new idea. David
Ogilvy said in Confessions of An Advertising Man (Ogilvy, 1967)
that advertisers must "Make the product the hero of your
advertising".DDB achieved these through dramatically re-framing
perceptions with just the facts. This re-brandbegan with focusing
squarely as DavidOgilvy had said on the product itself- on the
ingredients! (The concrete aspects in other words).
By building the cult around the brand's new image around acute
needs for time saving and lifestyle needs of vegetarians and the
gluten free D.D.B could cut througha wholenewmarket. Same product
different demo. The new target audience was pushed for time,health
conscious, they wereethical and they were picky (the strange) about
their ingredients. Targeting this new audience group wasthen
a'fitter' idea. 'Memes' or ideasevolve by natural selection in a
process similar to that of genes in evolutionary biology. (Lynch,
Aaron. 1998) What makes an idea a potent 'meme' is how effectively
it out-propagates other ideas. Thus playing on ego and lifestyle
and the acute needs of mums- they did this. It's a'fitter' idea and
appeals too moreneeds.
These needs come from theleft hand ofTaylors Model (Taylor
2001). These are often referred to as the transmission view of
communication. Combining multipleneeds creates an idea that out
pro-gates others. It makes it stickier and ittransmits more easily.
The new campaign, which well look at now, hadsurprising speedand
effectiveness because ofthese new uncovered needs (Taylor
2001).
DDB created two ads one HATE and one LOVE to emphasis the
weaknesses/differences.Youngme Moon said in her book Different
(Moon, 2001) that the creation of the hero and anti-hero idea was
the key to this brand's success. Youngme sights Marmite and Ikea as
reallycultivating their differences and having success from that
cultivation. The second Hate ad knocks the B vitamins, deliberately
highlights that strong flavour. We'll look at both ads in full
later in theexecution section. HATE cultivates the differences and
draws light to them. Both adverts together have an 'informational'
pull effect not a push effect. Youre pulled to know more about
Marmite. Polarising then creates conversation and encourages the
forming of cults around the brand.
"One thing these brands have in common is they have nothing at
allin common." YoungmeMoon (Moon, 2001)points out about Marmite and
Ikea. They are 'Outliers'.
Marmite and DDB make the product the hero in their execution.
Ikea does this through actively cultivating differences too. IKEA
have dozens of great products combining visual merchandising
excellence andthe 'Swedish experience' and strange products. They
strip back or skimp on taken for granted services like lots of
salespeople, customer service reps etc.The emphasise their point of
difference. Asbrands they are unique as theyare in a product
category of their own. Stores are difficult to find! Marmite and
IKEA- if we wrote a business plan for each- marketing them as new
businesses- would bein aproduct categoryby themselves.
There's nocompetitor for Marmite! It's in crowded spread
category but in terms of yeast spreads there are only two in the
world. I guess that doesn't mean much today but compares Marmite to
say Colgate and we see Colgate has 34 toothpastes and excluding the
3 for children. This then lowers brand equity.
If we look at what Colgate have to dofor people to take action
it's tantamount tocoercion or manipulation. The equity is then
raised in finding differences. Abandoning conventional
sellingcreates unbelievable loyalty. There wasn't then one key to
success but many. Uncovering the uniqueness, making the product the
hero and moving with the technology trends all worked for DDB.
Discovering the anti-hero was what made the new campaign really
sticky which we'll look at now. In Made To Stick (Chip and Dan
Heath, 2007) say 'simple ideas are the stickiest' and I'd say
returning to my evolutionary arguments they propagate fastest. The
anti-hero idea has to be one of the simplest but yet potent
strategies in our business and I'd like now to dig deep into the
DDB chest to tell you more.
There isn't anything new to this type of uniqueness positioning
but its distinctive emotional note is relevant as is the rhetorical
and visual devices. William Bernbach with his original Volkswagen
ad changed the game with its zagging. 'Think Small' washis tag line
forthistinycar. Again this is a car in a category of one.It's
againthe 'Rich and Strange' ideaagain for the 'Rich and Strange'
audience. It targetsreaders of theNew York Times, Boston Globe etc.
Rich for me is about the audience, creative execution and the
choice of mediums. This causedBernbach to target broadsheet
newspapers in largely urban areas. Really this was the only small
caryou could buy in America in the 1960's. Most Americans in the
1960'swanted big gas guzzling cars. To them - smallequaled
unpopular andfeminine but the Strange didn't care they wanted arty
and fuel-efficient.
Volkswagen was very very very different. William Bernbach
againfollowing the logic of my 'Rich and Strange'argument and made
thecar the anti-hero of his campaign. Look at the white space and
the tag line it creates a pull. (Art and Copy Film, New York 2009)
The anti-hero spin gives it just that littlebit ofuniquenessand
sheds light on the true essence ofwhat apolarization strategy is.
It's really a tone of voice and certain irreverence. It's also as
much about the excluded as theincluded. When it comes to the
effects on theWOM (Word of Mouth) detractors still 'sneeze'.
More recently, returning to IKEA, IKEA created its own HATE
experience. IKEA has no comparison with Habitat or any other
interiordesign shop. If we were to advertise IKEA we'd focus simply
on the meatballs, the cafe serving the 'Strange' Swedish food, the
Swedish shop. The Audiences need for choice and expression mater a
lot. Moreover they address acute and lifestyle needs through a huge
range of products, parking, and child friendly spaces for mums.
Catelogues talk in a Strange/ liberal way.
So what then is the HATE experience? Theassembling of the
furniture then represents the HATE experience. The anti-hero must
be found, as its the disguised opportunity. For IKEA the HATE
experience is the assembly of the furniture. If we look at
thecompany websiteit's packagedas an adventure. It's woven into
theoverall 'experience'. Specifically the assembly is part of
modern mans rite of passage. Overall to differentiate ina Creative
Brieffor an IKEA campaign, Idbe looking very closely at the overall
experience. We'd include the shadowaspect' seep. 284 in ProcessThe
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Jung, 1996).
In the weaving of the narrative we'd then make the product the
hero and define it all as an adventure including the negative
experience i.e assembly as part of that adventure. Advertisements
would have acharacter building emphasis and an irreverent tone not
unlike modernBBH ads.
Think of black denim a BBH product and one of BBHs first
accounts. It launched their agency and gave rise to the black sheep
which is now the BBH logo. John Hegarty says Ask the same people in
the same way. Youll get the same answers. Then tone of voice is
part of the art of differentiation (John Hegarty at Cannes Lions,
Sep 22, 2011). It might represent the basis of our creative brief
but for me flows from research. On the subject of Unilever, Hegarty
has said he faces difficulty convincing Unilever to change their
approaches to Lynx another Unilever product. Re-invention is not an
easy sell to a multi-national company. We are talking about turning
oil tankers around.
Ikea ads, returning again, might feature an unpopular figure to
the anchor a hate experience. They'd be ego driven but perhapscater
toconsumers' specific needs as I feel 'Rich and Strange' does. We
could create negative ads about the assembly of IKEA furniture that
highlighted a hated cultural moment or figure. Humour would be key.
The products would have to be still considered favorably by the
public (heroically). The execution would be very important. Compare
this to the new IKEA ads which I feel don't communicate
theirstrangeness/difference effectively to the public. This is in a
homogenized and politically agnostic world. We want to create then
contrast to this world.
How the 'Rich and Strange' were hooked by DDB?
http://www.marmite.co.uk/love/http://www.marmite.co.uk/hate/Click
Each website has an accompanying TV ad and overall execution is
paramount. Each has to be as compelling as the other. Routines are
influenced and broken, patterns re-arranged. DDB had to cut through
the other savory products intheir messaging by clever use of
mediums. After all Marmite might be quite unique but its still a
very cluttered spread category. The medium was then the massage in
the execution. That's a deliberate misquote like the book of the
same name.The mixture of mediums creates a distortion of the
publics perception and messes with the senses. Strange! In The
Medium Is The Massage (McLuhan, London 2008) felt each medium
distorted our senses and played with them. DDB chose several
mediumsandhaving many mediumsamplifies 'curiosity gaps' seeChip and
Dan Heath again.(Chip and Dan Heath, 2007)
How didDDB actually polarise in their messaging? The execution
involvestwo separate ad campaigns. With multiple media messages the
product came to life. The best ideas spread thefastest with the
least amount of resistance. The number of mediums created less
resistance and the consumer cult spread these (sorry). The
originality of this execution I feel creates a BIGGER 'fitter'
idea.
http://www.marmite.co.uk/love/http://www.marmite.co.uk/hate/Click
Each website in turnshows the polarisation strategy creates the
desired pull, the need for information and conversation. Its mild
(only mild) use of choice architecture (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008).
The basis of which for the writers of Nudge is about having a
simple proposition. A not so simple proposition might look
something like this and could create confusion not
conversation.
In the Marmite Campaign one must make a decision to become a
lover or a hater. There-framed message 'Love it or Hate It'
andrequires twoseparate campaigns to back this devision up. The
ensuing effect creates the Word Of Mouth to build and sustain the
cult indifferently. It was a new way of working with two separate
campaigns with both ads intended to polarise and cause chatter.
Each message is inseparable to the other. Simplicity as Ive said is
key.
It's aKadir, a Japanese word forto cut through.Why was a Kadir
needed? Well apathy and indifference and overcrowding in theoverall
savory snack market. DDB knew their polarisation strategy was the
only way to cut through this noise. This was an acute need for the
brand. They had a product with no other competitor, in a category
of its ownin its UK/South Africa markets but however no sales.
Execution needed then to remind people of the ingredients as we've
mentionedbutmoreover the wayMarmite could be used (see the LOVE
Website below).
Packaging too mirrored the new message with explicit vegetarian
friendly and B vitamins references. Its new Unilever packaging. To
me this added up the projects overall coherence and
effectiveness.
http://www.marmite.co.uk/love/Click
The polarisationreminded the sceptical public of the products
uniqueness. Emphasising the 'Strange' after all the intended
demographic DDB would have looked at -are vegetarian and gluten
free loving. Many of the recipe ideas on the LOVE website are
vegetarian. They are speaking to the 'Strange'. The LOVE Campaign,
looking closely at execution, looks at the B vitamins with an
Ogilvyinformational style execution. B vitamins were the emphasis
of both ads. So we are reminded of the health reasons for eating
it. LOVE mentions the B Vitamins. But HATEalso mentions B vitamins
too- in jest. It's the same effect- we are pulled in for a desire
to know more.
DDB in the print ad below identify polarizing characters like
G.W Bush and compare Marmite to these figures.
We'll see later that the public copies this 'Marmite is
like'thought in its 'sneezing'. Insert your horrible person here.
By building the cult around the brand's new image they could cut
through to this new market liberal and picky. By pickythey
areethical and vegetarian gluten free etc. Thus DDB played on
theirlifestyle needs and the acute needs of mums on tight budget.
Overall in the execution there was more Ogilvy-esque honesty about
the strong flavour in the hate ads. Pepperami, which, like Marmite,
is another Unilever brand, echoed it with an unapologetically
carnivorous "it's a bit of an animal". We'd sumup Unilevers
approach to both products at the time as truthful positioning.
Product as anti-hero and use of an unpopular cultural figure to
anchor that feeling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQqgfE1YaM(Click)
The comedians really describing the Word Of Mouth Marketing that
Unilever had hoped for. The conversation is nowaround the aspects
of the message that DDB hoped would go viral and would spread. It's
moving and people are 'sneezing'. The ensuing dialogue made people
look at their own psyches- it makes people describe Posh Spice as
like Marmite.For an ethnographer like Geertz see The Interpretation
Of Cultures (Geertz 1973), there is "a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men
communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and
attitudes toward life" (1973:89). I feel this discourse has a
currency for the Advertiser. When I speak creating noise this
encapusulates playing with societies beliefs. Marmites is now a
product that people want to talk about and wrap their conversation
around and express deeper notions like their identity.
Next see how one big chocolate company has taken this strategy
and made it digital. It'sagain a kadir, Japanese for 'to cut
through'. Smarties have a marketing strategy not aimed atchildren
but adults. This digital strategy saw Smarties market outside of
their intended demographic, which is polarising in itself. They
created a viral videos and websites to polarize, create noise and
play with meduims. (Breakenridge and Solis 2009). Their similar
strategy involves hated public figures who were labeled stupid.
Stupid.com was the campaigns name and departs from a required
demographic. Infact, we should question what is a required
demographic in our reframing. Stupid proved Students were as open
to Smarties as children.
This I feel plays on ego needs. You don't persuadewith the
intellect' Aristotle said. Sometimes the creation of the noise is
all that matters- creating it and maintaining it. (April 1997) In
an article named Cutting through the noise (by Winston
Fletcher)Fletcher argued we mustcut through the noise with
advertising that embraces creative excellence. Angus Jenkinson
formally gave a name to the idea of ascribing persona to products
taken from the values of a segment itself. Customer Prints were a
"day-in-the-life archetype descriptions" that came from the cult
themselves. They are ethnographic in nature (Chapman 2008) and
means we must read the values of a demographic/segment and implies
something unspoken.
Unileverto date has published more than three books on wait for
it 'Cooking with Marmite'. That is creative excellence and playing
with the consumer cult that they've built. Importantly it creates a
ritual between mother and child that can be shared. It might not
involve motorcycles and petrol but it features Horrid Henry as the
protagonist whos equally as zeitgeist and enthralling for them.
Importantly it's right into the right hand side of Taylors' model
combining ritual with transmission on the left hand side and right
hand side of the wheel. The brand is touching on almost all buyer
needs and has profitable noise. The effects are outside of the
school WOM with free 'sneezers' thrown in, some are the
detractors.
The DDB's own Marmite polarization strategy has been re-used in
conjunction with cultural events too. It's a phase of marketing,
which I feel is really brand management. The desired effect again
is of course to continue the strong Word Of Mouth. The two cultural
eventsDDB used were theBritish election campaigns and the Queens
Jubilee Anniversary. Thus a reinforcement of the original message
'Love it or Hate it' is achieved. There is a consistency of
messaging consistent with strong branding. - congruence with the
original 15 years old campaign.
See the Marmite'The Hate Party' video. Just Click!
http://bit.ly/ContinuingTheStrategy
In the Web 2.0 world it's even easier to create strong brands
and to brand. We canbreak routines. More mediums further disrupt
routine and disrupt the senses as McLuhan (New York 2008) had
suggested. How? If we know people jump on Facebook G+ or Twitter,
after work, we can engage with them there too. Thus we meet
consumers where they are. It's all about the engagement! President
Obama used social media to win his election by mobilising millions
of apathetic Americans to vote and donate via MyBo.
'We Are Social' hold the Marmite (Digital) account. Now that the
brand has been re-framed in the mind of the consumer it's time to
furtherdisrupt habit. They stoke the campfire of conversation. A
recent launch of asocial media campaign devised by the strictly
social media agency We Are Social identifies a mobilised group of
'superfans', termed The Marmarati'. This proves the power of the
original polarisation strategy and maybe the validity of the
beginning of this essay. There's now a web cult around Marmite.
It's now a cult that quite powerfully can be engaged with. XO
Marmite used qualative market researched with real-time online
dialougue. Unilever made changes to XO because of this data.
We Are Social have already looked at all theMarmite blogs (see
above) and now they arecapitalising on the LOVE for Marmite. As we
see the uptake of social media continue this will intensify
hopefully with more direct conversation. Expect We Are Socialto
monitor social media chatter in each network. Marketing Week says
the agency will directly target with direct Facebook ads.
How do Facebook Ads work? They monitor your posts, timeline of
media and serve you up (Sorry about that!) Ads catered to you. In
this case they knowthey have a responsive audience and a cult to
address but could well work against them, as social media is
perhaps more a customer service discipline (Hsieh, 2010). Voice or
tone canbe now used to get large amounts of information over
quickly. To further increase Otaku and brand advocates we can
listen to theword on theweb andengage with the re-framed messages.
The chatter is there to be formed, moulded etc.
To continue the reinforcement of the polarization strategy
Unilever must address the cult directly. The cult formed around the
Marmite brandis now a commodity. Unilever has already published
three books on Marmite. The quality of the conversation and the
brands ability to create conversation is vital.
(Just click)http://www.ilovemarmite.com/default.asp
Seamus Waldron, the Marmite blogger, is a loud paid up member of
theMarmarati andthe cults we looked at. The cult is an online and
offline cult. It's 'crossed the chasm' with its web use and is well
beyond majority usenow. Seamus is in the web-cult that D.D.B had
hoped for- he is loud and perhaps influential too. In the Web 2.0
world- engagement is the new creativity and the noise really
counts. 'We Are Social' can play withthe'Rich and Strange'
ideaMarmite online and cater to their needs. 'Love and Hatecan be
manipulated and moulded and be used as a social lubricant for the
Web 2.0 conversation. Crucially it's a conversation starter for
Unilever's Customer Service.
For a brand heading into maturity the Facebook Ads that 'We Are
Social' proposes might start the logjam right over again. Social
media is not a place to speak to- it's a place to speak with.
Sometimes just person to personsee One To One Future. Peppers and
Rogers. I see 'Return On Customer' as Marmite's extreme
differentiation, which has been the basis of my argument. One can
handle the PR nightmares that haunt modern companies when factories
contaminate our food. Ads don't start social media conversations.
Remember mums, studentsare ahuge part of this cult and their online
frequently and they are web literate. The Cluetrain Manifesto
(Levine et al 2001)says it's an opportunity to "talk and offer
service". Time will tellifWeAre Socialare making a massive mistake
with Facebook Ads. Syringe transmission could destroy the potent
branding strategy we've looked at today.
In conclusion, as marketers, we must concentrate on the product
itself. We must'Make the product the hero' focusing on uniqueness,
on the ingredients and create recipes or applications. We must
create selling propositions that clearly make messages different
and distort our senses. We can exploit product categories and
differences the way new businesses do.
We should uncover lifestyle needs and acute needs anddisrupt
patterns with mixed media.DDB chose a target market of the 'Rich
and Strange' -vegetarian and liberal. They spoke in their language
with their technology. They indentified their vegetarian gluten
free habits, and with their sense of humour, and the things that
were pissing them off -example G.W Bush. They delivered truth not
happiness and created a product persona. The breadth ofplatforms
availableto DDB had changed-so that called for full Media
integration to distort the senses as McLuhan had said
(McLuhan2008). They also had to blow the budget.
The proposition You either LOVE it HATE it embodies the
polarisation strategy, which I feel was more important than, the
new platform, the Internet. This was do or die!Marmite was a unique
product in a category of its own with no sales We Are Not For
Everyone(Huffington Post 08/31/2012) is a recent ad campaign for
the U.Sbrand Miracle Whip. When you're being referenced in your ads
that's good. You created a potent hero/anti-hero symbol. The ad was
ultimately a huge success. The product was different and DDB London
communicated these differences with their irreverentvoice and tone.
This idea,I feel, out-propagated other 'memes' (ideas)by being
simpler and more concrete and by speaking to new a audience in a
new way.
References(Harvard System)
Aristotle. 2001 edition Aristotle's Rhetoric, 2001, LAP Lambert
Academic Publishing, BostonChapman, C.N., Love, E., Milham, R.P.,
ElRif, P. and Alford, J.L. Quantitative evaluation of personas as
information. Paper presented at Human Factors and Ergonomics
Society 52nd Annual Meeting, New York, NY, September 2008.Arwa,
Mahdawi. 30 November 2011, 'Love it or Hate It's Strong Stuff'
Guardian, ManchesterGertz, Cl,.1973, The Interpretation of
Cultures: Selected Essays. Basic Books New YorkGodin, Seth. 2001,
Unleashing The Ideavirus, Seth Godin,New York, Hyperion, New
YorkHeath, Dan and Chip. 2007'Made To Stick: Why Huffington Post.
08/31/2012, The Great Miracle Whip Debate, HuffPost Food GroupSome
Ideas Survive and Others Die, Random House,New York
Lynch, Aaron. 1998,The New Science of Memes: How Ideas Act Like
Viruses (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering &
Computer Science),Basic Books, and New YorkPeppers, Don and Martha
Rogers Ph.D. (1993), The One to One Future: Building Relationships
One Customer at a Time. Doubleday Business. New YorkPray, Doug.
2009 Art and Copy Film, 2009. Sony Pictures, Culver City,Moore,
Geoffrey Crossing. 1991, Crossing The Chasm, Harper Business
Essentials, New YorkOgilvy, David. 1967 Confessions Of Advertising
Man, Atheneum, New YorkHsieh, Tony. 6/7/2010, Delivering Happiness:
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose Grand Central Publishing,
New YorkTaylors Wheel. Vol 39, 1999 Journal Of Advertising
Research, New YorkThaler and Sunstein, 2008, Nudge: Improving
Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, Yale University
Press, LondonTurning into digital goldfish, BBC Sci/Tech,
www.bbc.uk,Friday, 22 February, 2002, 09:40 GMTRies and Trout.
1981, Positioning Battle For The Mind, Warner Books, New York
McLuhan, Marshal. 2008 reprint,The Medium is the Massage: An
Inventory of Effects, Penguin Classics, LondonPeppers, Don and
Martha Rogers, Ph.D. (1993). The One to One Future: Building
Relationships One Customer at a Time. Doubleday Business. New
YorkMoon, Youngme. 2001, Different, Crown Business, New
York,Breakenridge and Solis, 2009, PR 2.0 Smarties story from page
2 PR 2.0 1st edition, Prentice Hall, New JerseyC. G, Jung. 1996, p.
284 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Princeton
University Press, Princeton
Fletcher, Winston. 1997,Cutting Through The Haze, Admap (WARC)
LondonThe Cluetrain Manifesto, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc
Searls and David Weinberger. 1999,The Cluetrain Manifesto, Perseus
Books, New York
