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Marketing Ideology

2/27/2022

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by David Hagenbuch - professor of Marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 


Principles of marketing professors teach that “products” are more than tangible goods; they’re also services and ideas.  While it’s easy to identify organizations marketing goods and services, noticing idea marketing takes more discernment. Recently, the world witnessed one of the most blatant examples of idea marketing ever.  It worked but unfortunately not for good.
 
In the annals of persuasion, one of the hardest ‘sales’ must be convincing one’s country to start a war, given the likelihood of loss of life, property, political allies, and more.  In persuading Russia to invade Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, achieved such a seduction, while providing an example of idea marketing at its worst.
 
Of course, Russia’s largely autocratic regime doesn’t require the consensus-building demanded in a democratic state.  Still, Putin was undeniably successful in marketing a momentous idea by convincing other government officials, military leaders, and to some extent the Russian populace to embrace the notion that invading Ukraine served a national security interest while accomplishing historically based cultural and ethnic reunification.
 
Mindful Marketing rarely tackles politics.  I’m addressing this situation not just because it’s a poignant example of idea marketing but because of its significant human and economic impact, as well as its potential to become one of history’s biggest geopolitical events.
 
Russia’s incursion into Ukraine is also personal for me.  Both of my wife’s parents were born in Ukraine, where they endured extreme hardships during WWII.  Consequently, my wife and our children share Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage by birth, as I do by marriage.

The necklace in the picture above is my wife's tryzub, which her father brought back for her from one of his many return visits to his homeland.
 
Of course, millions of others also have personal connections.  In fact, as I was writing this article, I read a post by one of my LinkedIn connections, Cait Mack who wrote:
 
“This has been one of the worst days of my life.  The war in Ukraine feels like it’s pulling at the very fiber of my being.  For those who don’t know, I’m Ukrainian.  My grandparents came over during WW2, fleeing from Nazis.  I am sick with grief.  Everything feels so stupid and trivial in comparison to what’s going on over there.”
 
“I think of my grandparents.  Our extended family in Ukraine.  All the innocent people.  The parents with their children.  The harsh reminder that we can’t really keep our families safe.”
 
As Mack mentions, the secondhand angst that any of us feel can’t compare to the fear and horror that those in Ukraine are experiencing, which reminds me of the focus of this piece—Putin marketing the idea of invasion.
 
Rather than commending his cunning, the intent here is to extract something edifying from the unfolding tragedy—to identify how individuals and organizations should market ideas responsibly. 
 
Autocratic leaders have the advantage of superior political power.  Marketers enjoy information superiority, i.e., they naturally know more about their organization and its products than do consumers.
 
Because of their very intangible nature, the information imbalance involving ideas becomes even more skewed, which means marketers are under even greater moral compulsion to carefully steward their influence on the conceptions of others.  The following are five steps toward marketing ideas responsibly:
 
1. Seek Understanding
It’s hard to understand when uninformed, which is why the first act in understanding is gaining information by researching the issue at hand and, above all, listening to those closest to it.
 
Courtroom dramas sometimes culminate with an attorney introducing a new witness or piece of evidence, which unexpectedly changes the minds of jurors.  Such are likely violations of legal discovery, but the examples are helpful reminders that additional and possibly more accurate information can help change our minds for the better.
 
2. Explore Other Perspectives
As implied above, it’s helpful to lean on others, not just because they can provide additional facts but because they might offer their own experienced and informed interpretation of the information.  Whether at the boardroom level or shop floor level, the best leaders always avail themselves of others’ insights.
 
It sometimes seems that people avoid other perspectives, fearing they’ll change their opinions.  That may happen, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  However, seeking others’ perspectives is often like a fan who's loyal to a certain football team watching two other teams play.  Watching them will probably not change the fan’s team loyalty, but they may see in the other teams things that enhance their understanding of the game, as well as things their team does well or could do better.
 

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3. Present a Rational Argument
People can be persuaded in different ways, including by deception (painting an inaccurate picture of facts) and coercion (compelling an action from a position of power).  Neither of these alternatives allows people to exercise informed consent, or freely choose to adopt an idea based on its logical merits.
 
Although we occasionally act otherwise, people are rational beings who can understand and make sensible decisions based on logical arguments.  Even young children comprehend reason—‘If you eat your whole meal, you’ll get to have dessert.’  People of any age deserve clear, logical, communication.
 
4. Don’t Play on Emotion
However, humans aren’t simply rational beings.  Our complex psychology also includes emotion, which makes us even more interesting.  Yes, we should make most decisions by reasoning with objective information, but sometimes it’s appropriate for people to choose things that they enjoy or that make them happy, like playing a favorite game with a friend.
 
What’s unacceptable is to use others’ emotions against them, e.g., to persuade them to do something out of an irrational fear or a sense of guilt.  Although good in moderation, too much emotion can cloud people’s thinking and cause them to do things that they otherwise would not rationally choose.  The outcome is like a doctor tapping a patient’s knee with a reflex hammer:  Their leg will move involuntarily no matter how much the patient may reason that it shouldn’t.
 
5. Be Truthful
The fifth act encapsulates the preceding ones and should go without saying; however, even when people fulfill the first four steps, they still must ensure follow-through of this final one, particularly to avoid selective presentation of facts.
 
For example, I could support the morality of advertising by referencing Gallup’s annual poll about the honesty and ethics of various occupations and accurately report that advertising practitioners ranked in the top 20 of all occupations.  That may sound impressive, but the statement would be misleading because the survey only asked about 22 occupations and advertising practitioners ranked 18th.
 
What we don’t tell people is often as important as what we tell them.
 
Again, the point of this piece has not been to detail Putin’s tenuous argument for the invasion of Ukraine; however, this website, among others, provides a window into how his rationalization evolved.  In short, Putin appears to have violated more than one of the preceding five steps; for instance, he played on his own people’s emotion with a “rousing speech” in which he called Ukraine a U.S. colony ruled by a “puppet regime.”
 
From my own reading and experience, Putin’s biggest breach of the steps of responsible influence has been of #5, by being untruthful, particularly with respect to his denial of Ukraine’s historic statehood and his claim that Russians and Ukrainians ‘are one people.’

Soon after my wife and I started dating, I learned two important facts involving her family’s ethnic heritage.  First, the nation is not “the Ukraine;” it’s “Ukraine.”  Adding the definite article “the” diminishes the country’s stature to that of a territory or colony, (e.g., the Louisiana Territory, the Yukon), which Putin directly suggested in his “rousing speech” referenced above.
 
Second, my wife’s family and their friends frequently reinforced that ‘Ukrainians are not Russians.’  I experienced firsthand that Ukrainians have a unique language, history, food, customs, and other rich cultural distinctives that distinguish them from their homeland’s northern neighbor.
 
My evidence spans more than three decades, but it is personal and, therefore, anecdotal.  The most compelling proof of Putin’s misinformation is, regrettably, what’s happened during the invasion, as a 2/26 New York Times Breaking News headline read, “Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, has slowed Russia's advance on Kyiv and two other cities as its forces wage a ferocious resistance.”
 
If Ukraine were just a Russian territory, if the majority of Ukrainians wanted unification with Russia, and if Ukrainians and Russians were one people, why are so many Ukrainians valiantly fighting and giving their lives to stop the invasion and maintain their nation’s sovereignty?
 
The disconnect stems from a lack of truthfulness, which many of Putin’s own people have recognized, hence widespread protests by Russians against the “war without a cause.”
 
Tragically Putin was effective in selling the idea of invasion to some, at the cost of many lives and the freedom of a peaceful people.  That underlying deception and unimaginable destruction makes his strategy the worst example “Single-Minded Marketing.”


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Super BOLD Ads

2/12/2022

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by David Hagenbuch - professor of Marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 


A guy chows down on kitty litter, a celebrity bedazzles a convict’s ankle monitor with diamond studs, a groom marries a demon ghost bride.  These aren’t outtakes from B movies; they’re scenes from the year’s most highly anticipated commercial content—Super Bowl ads.
 
Despite the fact that 30 seconds during the 2022 sports spectacle reached an astounding $7 million per spot, NBC sold out its ad inventory, with a very high percentage of those spots leveraging humor, including some rather crude comedy.  If companies are willing to pay more for a half minute of airtime than most organizations’ entire annual marketing budgets, why wouldn’t they want to muster more ‘serious’ sponsorship efforts?  What’s with all the advertising irreverence?
 
Of course, Super Bowl ads have a long history of hilarity—traditionally, many ads made for the big game are funny, probably to align with the event’s party atmosphere, which often flows with the same sodas and snack foods seen in the spots.  Humor now is an annual expectation such that sponsors who make the contrarian choice to air more sober ads often reap the consequences of lackluster reviews.
 
Perhaps for these reasons, many advertisers have continued to push the envelope on humor, to the point that their MO is: ‘Go Irreverent or Go Home.’     
 
Underlying this observation is the notion that there’s a difference between ordinary humor and irreverent humor.  According to the Collins Dictionary, something is humorous if people find it amusing, clever, or witty.  Ephrat Livni, writing for Pocket, further unpacks the essence of wit:
 
“The wittiest among us are simply people who make unusual connections between words and ideas. There’s a refreshing element of surprise to these observations that prompts a smile or a wince from the listener who didn’t see the link until it was presented.”
 
Beyond just being witty, irreverent humor adds abrasion to the comedic equation in the form of disrespect “for people or things that are generally respected.”  In other words, irreverent humor not only makes a clever and surprising connection between concepts, it also throws some significant shade on a group of people.
 
This distinction between regular humor and irreverent humor makes some sense in the abstract, but it’s better explained through specific examples.  So, here are a couple of Super Bowl LVI ads aimed at painting a clearer picture of the difference.
 
Regular Humor:  Kia – Robo Dog
After watching a real dog playing happily with its owners, an electronic pooch on display in a department store longs for its own human companion, leading it to chase the driver of an electric Kia.  Aiming for the car’s open moon roof, the love-starved dog leaps from atop a tall building, only to have its battery die, just before entry into the vehicle.
 
Thankfully, the dog awakens from its untimely slumber to find that the Kia driver has resuscitated it, courtesy of a cable plugged into the EV’s charging port.
 
This commercial is humorous for a variety of reasons, including its clever connection between an electronic dog and an electronic vehicle, as well as the surprising idea of a dog desiring an owner so badly that it chases one across a city.  The spot doesn’t arouse bellyache laughter, but the unique feel-good mini story does encourage at least a hearty chuckle.
 

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Irreverent Humor:  ClickUp – Declaration
While many consider the authors of America’s Declaration of Independence heroes, ClickUp’s commercial depicts many of them as bumbling fools, particularly the nation’s second president, John Adams, who somehow misplaces the newest version of the foundational document.
 
The situation worsens as the flustered Adams stumbles into an artist who’s trying to capture the historic moment on canvas, causing him to spread white paint across the famous scene.  The commercial concludes with Ben Franklin commending “Tommy” (Thomas Jefferson) for smartly creating a ClickUp task, as well as for “always saving John’s derriere.”
 
The ad is witty for several ‘regular’ reasons, including that it cleverly compares the centuries-old methods used to draft the Declaration of Independence to today’s digital technology.  It’s also amusing to see men wearing neck cloths and knickers gush over a laptop app.
 
However, the humor is irreverent because of its disrespect for America’s founding fathers, especially Adams.  These men risked their reputations and their lives to stand against colonialism and create one of the most impactful documents the world has known.  Of course, the ad is meant in jest, yet it seems impertinent to lampoon these patriots for a courageous and momentous act that has meant unprecedented freedom for so many.
 

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So, why would Super Bowl advertisers like ClickUp and those mentioned above (Uber Eats, Plant Fitness, and Lays) want to risk alienating tens of millions of consumers with irreverent advertising?  It’s because one specific and highly sought-after target market appears to love the impertinence—Generation Z.
 
For this cohort of 10–to-25-year-olds, the rule of thumb is often ‘the more brash the better.’  However, the reason “Gen Z demands absurdity from their ads” seems counterintuitive at first.
 
What Gen Z actually craves is authenticity.  Its members can smell a fake a mile away, and they detest phoniness, including in traditional advertising.  Gen Zers deduce, “I know you’re trying to sell me something, so stop pretending that you’re not.”
 
The advertising that this savvy young cohort finds most appealing is the kind that makes no pretense of selflessness; rather, it admits it’s pushing product through unconventional creative approaches that are often so over-the-top they’re laughable:
 
“Gen Z’s take on authenticity is pushing brands to break all previously established rules of brand communication.”
 
A good example of Gen Z’s affinity for absurdity is the off-beat soap brand Dr. Squatch.  While coming of age, those of us in older generations had little concern about the suds we used to shower.  However, thanks to Dr. Squatch’s crazy ads, such as one with a bearded guy in a shower cap, bathing in the woods with a rubber ducky, many in Gen Z are taking their soap choice more seriously.
 
The humor in the Dr. Squatch ad is certainly absurd, but is it also irreverent?  Although it’s outlandish by traditional advertising standards, most of the commercial’s content is pretty mild in terms of immorality.  For instance, one actor playfully douses another with what are purportedly chemicals found in typical, unnatural soaps.
 
One could argue that such antics disrespect the guy getting doused, but the action is clearly hyperbole, and it’s hard to claim there’s contempt for any specific people group.
 
The same logic probably also applies to Pringles 2022 Super Bowl spot “Stuck,” which tells the story of a young man who gets his hand wedged into one of the iconic canisters and ends up living his entire life with the snack food package appendage.
 

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In this instance, Pringles is really laughing at itself for manufacturing such an awkward piece of packaging.  Its self-deprecating humor may seem like a risky move; however, when people or in this case a company pokes fun at itself, it often stops others from doing the same, perhaps out of pity, or maybe out of respect—‘It takes a strong person to admit they were wrong.’
 
In his book, The Power of Regret, Daniel Pink reinforces this principle, maintaining that when individuals openly express their regrets to others, people surprisingly hold the soul bearers in higher regard, not lower.
 
On the other end of the humor/respectability continuum is a company like Liquid Death Mountain Water, which placed a bet, picking the underdog to win the Super Bowl LVI, then hired a witch to try to influence the game’s outcome.
 
One of the company’s commercials from a couple of years ago contained so many offensive elements that it’s challenging just to list them, e.g., profanity, vulgarity, stereotyping, allusions to the occult, and insensitivity to those who have lost loved ones to drowning and to overdosing on energy drinks.  To top it all off, the commercial even demonstrates torture by waterboarding.
 
Advertising humor, like much human behavior, involves a range of action from the simply benign to the very bad, from innocently amoral to dangerously immoral.
 
In a classic article published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, “Advertising: Looking Glass or Molder of the Masses?” Geoffrey Lantos posed an important question: Does advertising simply reflect what people are already doing or does it preemptively shape society’s behavior?
 
While it’s certainly worth asking that question of irreverent humor, the answer doesn’t necessarily matter.  Whether it molds or mirrors, advertising that’s effective but disrespects others isn’t edifying in either sense.  Instead, it amounts to “Single-Minded Marketing.”


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