One of the core components of Marketing for Good is the notion of engagement which is predicated on an a fair of exchange of value between brand and consumer. Smart experiential marketers have been delivering a fair exchange of value for years, providing the consumer some form of engaging experience in exchange for the consumer’s time, information, loyalty and/or cash. HSBC offers New Yorkers a free taxi ride in their BankCab in exchange for customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. This is quite a bit different than street team kid who tried to shove a donut in my mouth to “entice” me into visiting a WAMU branch (needless to say he failed miserably).
Advertisers are just beginning to wake up to the idea that their communications could be more than “here’s our message, please pay attention.” Ben Richards and Faris Yakob of Naked Communications wrote a smart piece on this trend in Monday’s Adweek. The subhead “give consumers real value, and they’ll lend your their ears” pretty much sums it up as does this paragraph:
Today, in response to an aversion to advertising, some of the world’s leading brands have begun to craft an entirely new model for communications to help them earn the right to talk to consumers. They’re doing this by making their marketing valuable, developing brand communications that deliver a genuine service value to consumers, free and with no strings attached. This is Marketing 2.0.
Their article also provides some interesting examples of advertisers who are shifting their messaging from telling about the product/service to making the product/service more useful:
Amazon chose to address this by taking its media budget and investing it in free postage and packing; Evian has invested its media budget in free “Purity Spas,” which offer hot stone massages and detox treatments; Charmin invested in free public toilets in Times Square; Europe’s biggest health and beauty retailer, Alliance Boots, reallocated much of its ad budget to simply retraining its pharmacy staff.
By looking at marketing as a service rather than a message, marketers are sure to gain competitive advantage, enhancing their product offerings and engaging their customers and prospects in fresh and meaningful ways. Expect a lot more examples of this approach very soon.