Are You Ms. Or Miss Informed? | Mrketing is a Joke Part II

This is The Economist, a British newspaper magazine advertising for themselves.

But why advertising like this? No benefits, No USPs, No product featured here, not even a fooking BO'OH'O'WA'ER. Bloody hell… (I just wanned to sound British)

Are these weird adds drive any product sales? Are they wasting their money like Netflix did for Harry and Meghan drama? or what's really going on here?

Let's fck arou.. Sorry, find out.

If we look into the core of branding, a big part of brand advertising has to do with painting. painting pictures. Painting pictures in people's minds.

Lemme explain it. But we need to do it together.

It’s Roleplay time …

Now, Think of Mercedes, a person who owns a Mercedes. What kind of picture comes to your mind?

Then, Think of someone with a Ferrari, what kind of image comes to your mind?

Last one, Imagine a person who owns an Aston Martin, what kind of picture comes to your mind?

First Mercedes.

This is not someone who drives their own car, this is someone who sits in the back seat, someone in a suit, has a busy schedule, CEO/ business executive type, someone who doesn't speak to their kids.

Then Ferrari.

This is not someone who sits in the back seat like in Mercedes, this is someone who drives their own car, who loves and values the performance of it, and enjoys the driving experience. This is the cool millennial like Joe Biden.

Then Aston Martin,

'This is the end. Hold your breath and count to ten.' This is James Bond type. Mr. Bond needs no introduction.

Bonus one: Toyota, this is someone who's never ever dreamt of servicing their car and someone who's probably endup losing his lifetime savings for a pyramid scheme.

Now, these are brands that sell a single commodity. Cars.

But what differentiates the brand position of these companies here?

The kind of person who uses 'em, the picture of that person you have in your mind.

If you say you love cars, you don't say you like every brand out there selling cars.

Because a big part of what you're saying is you wanna become and show up as a certain kind of person, a certain kind of human being.

Like if you're into smoking, It's less about the cigars and weeds, and more about looking like Snoop Dogg.

It's less about the commodity, but more about self-expression.

And that's why painting that mental image is crucial for a brand. It's as important as getting your first name wrong for a barista.

Let's dive deepuh …

In the world of marketing, there are 2 golden questions. Just two. No more.

1. Who's it for?

2. What's it for?

If you can answer these two questions well, you win the game of marketing for absolute certainty. And this is all about answering the first golden question.

This is about communicating a message to the broader culture,

'People like us, do things like this.'

'Strong athletes like us, wear Nike.'

'Powerful people like us, wear Rolex'

'People who love extreme feelings like us drink Redbull'

'Super intelligent people like us believe the earth is a fcking pizza'

Like that, throughout the years, The Economist kept and nurtured a clear picture in readers' minds. If you're familiar with the brand, you can easily imagine who the product is for,

Someone who's intelligent, wealthy, has higher social and financial status, having a prestigious job position. Or in Gen Z terms, a man in finance, trust fund, 6'5'', blue eyes.

Take a look at these advertisements for further understanding.

… …

So as a brand, you have two responsibilities when it comes to brand advertising.

1. Commit to paint a consistent mental picture without misalignments

2. Make the picture as vivid as possible.

No.1, Think about most of the brands out there. 99.9% of them haven't created a picture vivid enough for people to imagine.

Most mental images are blurry as porn videos in the 2000s.

One reason is because they simply don't choose to do it. They don't do brand advertising.

The other reason is they don't do it consistently because of a lack of enough resources to do so.

No.2, While some brands don't have the resources to do it, some brands are just stupid enough to waste their resources painting misaligned pictures.

For example, if you're a luxury brand, you can't advertise an everyday person using the product.

Or if you're Redbull, you don't wanna partner with a fcking Indian guru who looks like an enlightened guy but actually a pedophile.

Leave em for the self-help industry, an industry polluted with motivational morons who don't know what they talk about.

It's self suicide, ask Supreme and Budlight, two brands that once stayed true to themselves, but got punched in the face by their fans one stupid decision later.

Just one decision can mess everything up. Like Jake Paul's decision to fight with Mike Tyson.

'Everybody got a plan until they get punched in the face' - Mike Tyson

But brands like The Economist stayed true to their brand. With each advertising campaign, they made that critical mental image more and more vivid keeping their brand power for decades upon decades.

One more thing. Advertising isn't everything when it comes to branding.

This can be messed up in a way that you can't really control. A famous example, when accountants started to ride Harley Davidson to show the part of them that loves extremes, the attraction Harley fans had for the brand got hurt.

They didn't wanna see some nerds and bozos showing up the same as them.

(I am a nerd too btw)

This is a rare case. But things like that can happen too. However, the good news is if you're clever enough, you can take action to nurture the mental picture people have and ultimately save your brand.

So instead of focusing too much on the short-term measurements like ROI and CPC numbers of your campaigns, focus on creating a vivid mental image that lasts for centuries.

Thank You for reading,

No matter what you do, take care of yourself and the ones you love.

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