“Marketing doesn’t work on me.”
Said everyone.
But it does. It works on everyone.
I remember thinking this was true of myself. Sure, I thought, it works on dolts who see a BMW commercial and think “wow, I could be that sophisticated too if I drove that car,”‘ but, in fact, it’s not true only for dolts.
I’m just not BMW’s primary target audience.
Their target audience is “people who get validation from a belief that others will perceive them as rich, sophisticated, or important because of the brand of auto they drive.”
And, secondarily, it is also, “people who think these are handsome cars.”
And there’s nothing wrong with either of these…at least, in principle.
Do I find that to be a particularly healthy attitude towards validation? No.
But the reality is that people who do have that attitude exist in very large numbers, and this ad is appealing to their desires in a powerful way. And not a single one of them is concerned that I don’t find this to be a healthy attitude.
There are a couple of things everyone should remember about brand advertising generally.
First, there are different objectives for different segments of the audience. The goal of the marketer is to find broad audiences where the target audience is a large enough percentage of the total audience to generate some interest, but more directly it is to imprint another chapter of their desired brand story into the minds of the total audience.
Second, what you are seeing is almost never a direct call to purchase.
Not a penny goes to waste. It’s true only a tiny fraction might ever purchase, but what the marketers are actually paying for is perception control.
If you don’t care about the ad, you weren’t the direct target.
But that doesn’t mean you aren’t being affected (more on that in a moment).
Take the BMW ad, for example. Almost everyone has heard of the brand. But, from a psychological perspective, awareness isn’t enough.
Repeated exposure, positive associations, and social influence all play very important roles in building interest over time that might eventually result in someone purchasing one car over any other.
The marketers know this isn’t the first time the audience has heard of them. They recognize that most people aren’t dolts and that they won’t automatically think, “hey, that’ll make me sophisticated and rich.” And that’s not the goal of the ad. The ad is there to continue adding to the “generic story” about their brand.
So, when someone thinks of BMW, they associate it with all the pieces of this story that they have been exposed to over a long period of time.
Simple.
But it’s true that this ad didn’t work on me, right?
Not at all.
As I said, I’m not their direct target. I don’t care about cars. I’ll continue to drive my 2008 Impreza until the wheels fall off, then I’ll upgrade to a used minivan. I think of cars as nothing more than a means of transportation.
I have a Dave Ramsey mentality. When I see someone driving a BMW, I usually think “there’s someone living under a mountain of debt so they can be perceived as valuable.” I find it a little depressing.
I’m an empathetic soul.
But I’m rational too.
I know that’s not the case for everyone. Some people just really like cars. That’s their thing. They have the disposable income, and this is how they wanted to use it. Nothing wrong with that.
So, yes, they aren’t going to “sell me” on a BMW.
But have the marketers altered my perception of the brand?
Undoubtedly.
On balance, even the broadest audiences would associate words like “luxury” and “premium” with that brand based on the development of their brand story through these types of advertisements. This is a beautifully synergistic byproduct, as it means even uninterested non-target audiences are perceiving the brand in exactly the way both the brand and the target audience wants it to be perceived.
This is where the Venn diagram overlaps across all perceptions. This is the “generic brand perception.” Whether I like the car personally or not is irrelevant. Regardless, I perceive it as a “luxury” car, for whatever that might mean.
It worked on me.
And, more importantly, it worked on everyone else too.
Whatever else we might feel, we recognize that the generic perception of this vehicle and this brand is “luxury.”
The campaign is a success.
The slow and steady tortoise has won the race. Chalk up another victory for brand advertising.