Let Yourself Go
Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley urged marketers to “let go” of their brands and bow to consumer wants and needs in his speech at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) conference on Oct. 6. Mr. Lafley reprised the themes that
1) the consumer is boss,
2) we now live in a “let-go world,” where media fragmentation and the rise of consumer-generated content has made life more difficult for marketers,
3) we’ve moved from a push- to a pull-driven marketplace,
4) all of this is accelerating, and
5) that the brands most likely to succeed would be the ones “in touch” with consumers.
Well, I can’t say that we disagree entirely with Mr. Lafley, In fact, many of the points in his speech appear in our book, “Predicting Market Success,” although I couldn’t swear that he’d read the copy we sent him last month. The main points of his address seemed to be more of a rearticulation of the marketing realities that companies and brands have been faced with since 1985 and that have been accelerating to the point of light-speed since then. One can only suppose that things have finally picked up the pace to a point where marketers – including P&G – just can’t ignore the situation anymore.
Consumers are in control, and have been since the 21st century began in 1985, the actual calendar date notwithstanding. Media are more fragmented than ever. Neil Postman’s prediction that one day we’d wake up and find that we were living in a “media ecology” came true a lot sooner than anyone expected or was prepared for. All of this is true. But surrendering to consumer-generated content. . . not so fast! I know that ad agencies have been ducking the accountability bullet forever, but to hand over the content to consumers. . .!?
In light of Mr. Lafley’s rallying cry, we thought it prudent to point out that P&G is not the only company that seems to regard consumer-generated “content” as the engagement insurance policy companies have been searching for.
JetBlue Airways, which has been one of the better airlines in terms of actually understanding and leveraging category and consumer values in its brand marketing and messaging, has recently migrated to consumer-generated content, or at the very least story lines, for its advertising.
Their web site has a “Hear stories. Share stories” link. The copy on the page reads, “Dear Friends, Since day one we’ve loved hearing from our customers. Everyday [sic] we hear new and amazing stories. . . We’d love to hear from you as well.” Gimme that ole consumer-generated content! Well, here’s a true story I’d like to share about a JetBlue consumer-generated commercial:
Recently I was sitting in an airport bar/pub/restaurant staring at the wall-size flat-screen TV waiting for my flight and what just had to be a consumer-generated commercial that had been contributed through the JetBlue site came on. It was some guy whining about how he didn’t like to fly or hadn’t flown before or didn’t want to fly and how nice everybody was and how surprised he was that the flight attendant gave him a blanket and hadn’t tried to stop his whining by strangling him with his free headset. Something like that.
Another businessman sitting at the next table who had been watching the same commercial turned toward his companions and said, “Wow! What a moron!” which I believe is pretty much a cross-category-needs-no-translation way of immediately comprehending how engaged he was with that particular sample of consumer-generated content!
I have to admit I felt pretty much the same way. And I thought, “If the brand comes across as being a product or service used primarily by–well, to borrow the observation of the objective viewer at the next table–‘morons,’ do I necessarily want to associate myself with a company that morons like?” Given that decision-making in the marketplace is far more emotional than it is rational, you just know that the low levels of rational and articulated turn-off are only the tip of the iceberg made up of enormous levels of unarticulated, emotional disengagement.
We are all in favor of including consumers in the planning process. Our methodology at Brand Keys is entirely consumer-driven. It has to be, and no matter how long or hard you drag your feet, you can’t avoid being consumer-driven anymore.
Pundits of consumer-generated content have declared that there is no standard between paid and nonpaid consumption and that there is no norm when it comes to the extent to which the content is wholly created by consumers or assisted by marketers (such as the case of JetBlue). But that is not entirely true. Just because content is “consumer generated” provides no guarantee that strategy or creativity or engagement will be represented or engendered or that the content will address trends, values, and expectations that are the actual drivers of real engagement, loyalty, sales, and profits in the real-world marketplace.
Even back in the old days (1975), when advertisers controlled the advertising and persuasion that went out to consumers, there was an acknowledged difference between “creativity” and “disciplined creativity.”
In light of Mr. Lafley’s speech, a slightly altered version of Irving Berlin’s song “Let Yourself Go” came to mind:
As you listen to consumers don’t you get a bubble?
As you listen to consumers play don’t you get a glow?
Unfortunately, and more often than not, when it comes to “consumer generated” content, the answer is going to be “no!” Just because it’s “consumer generated” doesn’t mean it’s good, doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective, and doesn’t mean anyone is going to pay attention to it! Déjà vu all over again!
Robert Passikoff, Ph.D., is founder/president of New York-based marketing firm Brand Keys and writes a monthly column for CHIEF MARKETER.
