You talking to me?
I was just minding my own business at dinner the other night, and in between family chit-chat, I checked the A-1 bottle to see if it needed to go in the fridge. Yes, indeed, it said in bold red letters: For best results, refrigerate after opening. But in small type underneath, A-1 continued the conversation: For even better results, hide the bottle in the salad crisper behind a rutabaga so you can hog it all. Yeah, it’s that important.
When barraged with constant messaging, direct talk like this smacks you between the eyes. Oh, you’re actually talking to me! It’s like a little gift, breaking through the pea-soup fog of marketing speak, legalese and packaging mumbo-jumbo that dulls our senses. And it does more than just bring a fleeting smile. Even if I forget the line or I don’t consciously think about the brand, I’ve connected to that bottle of A-1.
What a concept – actually talking to the customer/user/consumer as if they’re a person. Of course, that requires looking at the world through their eyes. Too often, brands push out what they want consumers to know: Gluten-free! This is not a bill. Shampoo then rinse. Repeat. Refrigerate after opening.
Important information for sure. We’re looking for that kind of info all the time, and expect to find it. But most of the time, it makes us glaze over. If brands want to build a relationship with customers, they’d better find a way to strike a personal chord. Not just on direct mail or packaging, but at every opportunity with every communications medium. It's such an obvious rule of branding – remember your audience – but ignored all the time.
Frontier, my new phone service provider, just took over for Verizon in my area. I was nervous – I’d never heard of them. Then we got our first bill. The envelope said: Open this envelope. There’s really no better way to say, “Please don’t throw this bill away.” Inside speech bubbles, no less. I already feel like they get me.
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