Experiential marketing

    Product Gestures

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    Guinness for strength
    Guinness for strength

    I once Tweeted: “The fastest way to brand loyalty: Don’t take customers for granted and provide them with unexpected, thoughtful product gestures.”

    The word in this statement that excites me is gestures. It’s easy to see what a service gesture is, that’s a manmade experience, but a product gesture? Hmm. At the time I’m sure what I meant by product gesture was “service gesture,” or “corporate gesture.” However, now I’m looking at product gesture a little differently. A little more organically.

    A rough definition of gesture is: A movement or action that is expressive of an idea, opinion or emotion. So let’s look at that for a second. When you pour a beer, is the head an expression? Of course it is. But of what? Freshness, glass cleanliness, taste? And don’t all beers have head? Indeed they do. Guinness Stout has a head, however that head is richer, fuller, made up of tinier bubbles due to carbonation from nitrogen not carbon dioxide. An organic product expression.  

    When brand planners look for differentiation they can start by asking product managers and consumers what gestures derive from the product. Product gestures are part of the consuming experience not the marketing experience.

    Tink about it as my Norwegian aunt might say. Peace.

    (More on experiences vs. gestures tomorrow.)

    Story or Proof?

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    “We have got to tell our story, said Mark Reuss, president of G.M., “The story hasn’t gotten out,” he added when talking about G.M.’s electronic vehicle business. Since December Tesla stock has doubled into the $700s. G.M. is down 25% since it’s 52-week high in July.

    Back in the 60s during the NY World’s Fair, the G.M. pavilion showed the future of the automobile. It was an experiential phenomenon the likes of which the world had never seen. And today Mr. Reuss rues the fact that G.M.’s problem is in storytelling; in public relations and Super Bowl ads.

    Where most marketers go wrong and they do so at the behest of their branding counsel is in storytelling. They rely too much on this pop-marketing practice. Ty Montague, of Co-Collective understands this and has morphed storytelling into story-doing. The fact is it’s not about telling a story to consumers, it’s about what consumer play back to you. It’s about what consumers think. Consumers are swimming in an ocean of storytelling, while they should be standing on the terra firma of reality. On experience.

    Elon Musk built an electric car. He didn’t proselytize about it. Ish.

    Proof is how one builds a brand. And proof is how one builds a brand strategy. Not the other way around.

    G.M. has been dormant for so long it has become a marketing company of storytellers. Mary Barra, may just have woken up and decided it’s time to “do.” It’s time to launch a fleet of electronic vehicles.

    Let’s hope so. Peace.