The image above is a marketing campaign created for Dr Pepper Ten. The marketing department at Dr Pepper put together a campaign in an attempt to make their diet drink seem "more manly". As you can imagine, the campaign was a flop. Not only did the campaign get attacked as being sexist, but it upset the base customer of diet drinks- women.
Dr Pepper Ten is the prime example of losing customers and alienating yourself. Other companies have been much more successful at extreme segmentation without over alienating to the point of the product tanking.
When IKEA first started in 1953 their goal was to target the "young at heart" consumer. Many of their commercials would make fun of old "tacky" items that would be seen in your grandma's house.
Unlike Dr Pepper Ten, IKEA was successfull in correctly segementing their target market without alienating other potential customers. In a class I am taking we are having the same struggle so many marketers have had; how do you reach your target market without having other potential customers be repulsed?
Here's some background information on the project: Glidden has an exclusivity deal with Walmart i.e Glidden is the only paint brand Walmart can sell, but no one is aware Walmart sells paint and those who are aware doubt Walmart's ability to carry high quality paint. As a class, it is our job to produce a marketing campaign that will increase paint sales at Walmart within female Millennials, young renters, and baby boomers. Within the given budget in the spread of the demographic we decided to focus on the Millennials and young renters. Thus far we have struggled to find an idea that doesn't alienate the baby boomers, without coming off too boring/done before.
We do all agree on the headline- "Paint Fearlessly", but the class is generally torn over two headline ideas. We have a "Face Your Fears" campaign and an "It's Okay to Make Mistakes" campaign. While the "Face Your Fears" campaign has broad mass appeal, it is quite boring. Then we have a riskier "fail" campaign (can you see what side I'm leaning towards). The idea behind the "fail" campaign is the word after fail will change in every advertisement i.e Fail Beautifully, Fail Gracefully, Fail Smarter etc, and a picture will go with the headline that shows the painter even if some kind of mistake is made while the project can still came out beautifully.
Because the class is exactly 50/50 on the two campaigns I pose the question to you, what do you think about the word fail? Do you think the use of the word fail will alienate the baby boomers? Do you have any suggestions on how we could make the idea more market friendly?
Thanks for reading and an advanced thanks for giving me insight
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ReplyDeleteHmm... First, love the article. Well written and captivating. :) As for your dilemma between the two slogans... I personally would lean towards the "face your fears" aspect, as it compliments the main slogan of "Paint Fearlessly."
ReplyDeleteAlso, as you said, it's obviously a much safer approach. I like your ideas of future campaigns with the ideas of things like "Fail Beautifully", "Fail Gracefully", etc. but the word fail... I just don't think it's appropriate for a product, at least not in this case. I like the idea, but the word fail just has too strong a connotation in my (and probably others') mind.
There are many ways to make a mistake at painting, don't let the brand you choose be one of them--- Paint Fearlessly with Glidden.
This guy could be in the class! literally the same exact problem we have come across... the word fail. Good work Dustin. I like your thinking.
ReplyDeleteLol. I know right? I think I said that was a dilemma: is there a better word to use than fail? Someone said mishap, but mishap beautifully doesn't sound right.
ReplyDeletemistakes happen, live colorfully!
ReplyDeleteI understand how using the word "fail" is supposed to appeal to the younger generations because of internet fail memes. Anytime I see something plastered with all caps, bold, blocky letters reading "FAIL", I expect to be amused and I am let down if the image or video isn't really a major fail- that part is key to making it work.
ReplyDelete"fail proof ...almost" instead of simply "fail (insert word here)" might be a better approach. Instead of a different word each time, you would have a different situation. This would work especially well in a video ad where you show the paint and how wonderful it is while stating that it's fail proof and then widening the angle to show the paint covered cat, for example, and then adding "almost". You could use this in situations relevant to any demographic because the setting is changing.
I suppose it does loose some of the essence of a classic "FAIL" meme, but I think for a marketing campaign that might be for the best because of the negative connotation.
Overall, I like the face your fears because it's safer, but I also think you could make the fail campaign work if you tweak it a bit.