How did Verbatim's marketing team approach a tech-savvy audience with their functional and boringly inanimate digital storage offerings? By bringing them to life in a gladiatorial fight to the death, of course!
The best marketers have always known that strong cut-through isn't just about meeting a consumers need but also creating an emotional connection as well. Especially in markets where brands and products are closely competitive in pricing and benefits, an emotional edge can be immensely powerful in converting more sales.
Yet, many marketing campaigns, especially in B2B or tech, rely on providing logical information in the hope customers will be driven by a rational decision process. Gord Hotchkiss writes in the current issue of Search Marketing Standard about how the traditional marketing idea of plotting the customer journey along a linear funnel of rational decisions (ie; need, awareness, consideration, purchase) is wrong.
Why doesn't the model work? Because it's built on the assumption of rationality - decisions based on facts and not emotions. And humans just aren't built this way. Emotions drive all decisions, and our decision process includes balancing two opposing emotional forces - risk and reward.
Hotchkiss focuses on B2B marketing in his article, but we are all prone to buying with our heart instead of our head. If we're honest with ourselves, we know this to be true from our own buying behaviour. I know, for example, that the iPod isn't necessarily the best - or even the best value - mp3 player on the market. But Apple pours a huge amount of money and marketing into creating an emotional connection to the brand. If I look at an iPod and another equivalent device on the shelf, even though the tech specs and/or price may tell me to get the other device, my emotions want the iPod. The risk / reward in this is based around switching to an unknown model (risk) with the possible compatibility issues that brings, while the reward is the sense of pleasure and belonging in joining the white earphone 'crowd'. Being one of the in-crowd brings it's own emotional rewards - products and brands conveying status. That may sound incredibly shallow but check the labels on your clothes or the make of your car. There's an emotional investment in going for Ford over Holden (if you are of that ilk) or Levi's over Target-brand jeans beyond any rational assessment of the product. Those decisions are almost always entirely emotionally led and we are quite often willing to pay a premium for that emotional security.
Injecting life into your products
Some of the best marketing strategies are those that involve a sense of playing with the brand or use humour and entertainment to create positive brand experiences - particularly if these elements are interactive. This is also at the heart of viral marketing, as it is usually the most entertaining or clever campaigns that people will want to share with friends.The marketing spreads because of the sense of fun, taking with it the brand awareness, product information and other marketing goals along for the ride almost as secondary side-effects, even if these are the prime goals for the marketer.
Verbatim's Senshuken website allows users to create up to four of their own monsters constructed out of Verbatim products - hard drives, USB sticks, etc. You are then encouraged to pit your monsters against others in mortal combat, rising through rankings. The site has been live for a few months so some monsters already have impressive scores built over thousands of duels, so my team (three are below) have a long way to go. (Piq is my little champion! Love that little guy!)
Of course, the site allows anyone to embed video of their favourite victories on other websites, extending the fun further. See how Piq enjoys a good smackdown!
This incredible website was built by Masayuki Kido of Roxik. Beyond the marketing genius (and I'd love to see final figures on ROI, cut through, etc), the website is a technical marvel of Flash.
The result of all this is I can't look at a Verbatim USB stick now without thinking "Aww, cute little guy". I can't look at a desk top hard drive without considering what kind of a wallop it would give the competition. They have personality now. Verbatim has breathed life into inanimate objects that can't help but make me view them differently next time I'm buying storage media.
Will it influence my purchases? If there is a substantial difference in price and quality, maybe not. But if two products are close on price and on size or features, I'm willing to bet I go for the one with that little bit of fight in it. Sometimes, that's all the edge a brand needs.
