Creative Corner - Oct 07

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

What will it take for the consumer take a step forward and embrace the brand?

"The world is getting smaller" is a common phrase these days, but this ole world is also becoming more and more cluttered. Opportunities for breathing space are few and far between as consumers have rapidly decreasing attention spans. Brands are everywhere and rarely embrace our consciousness, needs and desires as real, living breathing human beings. We don't like being talked at either. Aspirational messages have taken a wicked twist and become hypnotic and materialistic.

With the conundrum of developing unique and memorable communication strategies for brands and products that talk directly to consumers - the question is, is the message getting through? Are we really engaging with consumers? We spend too much time pushing products to those who may not even want them, or even be in the mood for them, and conversely, not enough time pulling consumers and actually engaging them in memorable experiences.

My thoughts are such - we have to get people to like our brands or products before we can start to sell them. It is about embracing consumers or those like us out there and literally - moving them. And by that I mean physically and emotionally. How we communicate and in what format very much depends on the type of audience - their likes and dislikes, and sometimes- a key component which is often overlooked - what mood they are in.

Online is integral as consumers progressively spend more time in front of the monitors than TVs. Events and road shows are important channels, as is communicating at street level. Ultimately the messaging in-store is often the most important of all. It's the last stand, the final frontier, the retail bastion between converting shoppers into what we want - buyers.

It is crucial to ensure customers feel at the least recognised, at best valued and not be interpreted as simply bombarding them with a gauntlet of promotions, point-of-sale materials or events. I see it as a flourishing orchard bearing many fruits if harvested correctly. The retail environment and beyond is our Oz. We can set touch points that aim to trigger a response or action by our Dorothy as she walks along the Yellow Brick Road.

Lining the road, we have a haven of messages. If one doesn't work, we have another. They are broken down into bite-sized chunks and made digestible for our Dorothy so she can firstly understand it, has the three seconds to read it and then act. And if a message doesn't work for Dorothy, it may work for Tin Man or Lion because our consumers are all different.

Triggering the right buttons to "move" people is imperative and to do that, there needs to be a great understanding or who our Dorothy, Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man are.

Draw consumers into an experience and involving them beyond simple promotional offers to generate great rewards and awareness. Embrace them and respect them. Imagine putting a smile on your next consumer, or even a tear in their eye? Make them gasp for air, or think, "Wow, that was pretty cool." And then maybe, just maybe they will not merely buy the products but think of the brand in a much more positive light as if it was one of their own.

Steve Llewellyn

Executive Creative Director

141 Worldwide, Singapore