Welcome to Business Ethics, the part of the blog that will discuss business. Kinda. It won’t be as serious as it sounds. It’ll basically just take on different topics in business, of past and present, in an honest and unique way. Just be thankful I didn’t call this section Funny Business.
Walk into any marketing meeting in the world, at any time of the day, and you’ll find the same thing: A group of adults pondering what technique they can deploy to capture the millennial consumer and make them brand loyal for the rest of their lives.
I’m not sure why this irks me but it does. Maybe it’s because people of these generations are constantly rolling their eyes at millennials while simultaneously begging for their money and approval.
This question, how do we get millennials to fall in love with our brand, that seems to be pervasive in every single advertisement, got me thinking a lot about marketing. Sometimes, and I mean this genuinely, marketing is incredible. Sometimes it’s clever. Sometimes it’s heartwarming. Sometimes it’s well thought out. And sometimes it’s even original.
But often it’s rather meaningless and ineffective. You don’t buy Colgate toothpaste because of a flashy commercial. You buy Colgate toothpaste because, well, you just do. One time when you were a young kid your parents bought Colgate toothpaste and you’ve just never looked back.
So that really got me thinking. I think it’s time we take some control back. As an experiment, I’m calling for a loss of brand loyalty. I’m calling for you to go through your daily routine and weekly chores with a reckless abandon for what brand you decide to purchase. I’m calling for anarchy.
If you always buy Colgate, buy Crest. If you’re a Nyquil guy, go generic. If you wear Old Spice deodorant, don’t wear any deodorant for a week. ANARCHY!
If we want these brands to stop treating us like numbers then we have to become unpredictable. You can’t put me in a cute little PowerPoint deck with stats about who I am and what i like. I’m unpredictable. I’m wild. I’m a loose cannon baby! Put that in your PowerPoint, ya animals!
Thanks for reading! In an effort to reach a younger demographic, this post has been brought to you by Crest Toothpaste. Crest, for a smile that’s lit!
