Repositioning around Value

Price is a bigger factor today than it was a few years ago. I hear a lot of consumers talking about downgrading from specialty stores to discount retailers or switching to less expensive brands. As a counter measure, I see premium brands discounting heavily. It’s as if brands and consumers are signaling to each other that this is temporary and as soon as things get better, prices and purchasing, will get back to “normal.”

I’m surprised that I don’t see more brands repositioning around value. I understand the hesitancy, to many people, “value” is synonymous with “cheap” and if you position on price, you run the risk of developing a discount legacy. But, what positioning around value actually should do is shine a different light on the product, one more relevant to what’s on people’s minds today.

I’m only beginning to see examples, like luxury car maker BMW, who mention fuel efficiency in their new commercial. This doesn’t diminish the smooth ride, performance, or the comfortable interior, but it does point out an attribute, already there, that wasn’t getting attention before.

I’m seeing other takes on branding during tough times. Allstate Insurance has done an excellent job of conveying the “we’re all in this together” message in a way that’s actually more inspiring than cheesy. Too bad for them I just saved thousands switching to Geico.

I’m getting together with some buddies after work and instead of picking up a six-pack of the usual mico-brew, I’m thinking about getting some of the stuff we drank in college. It’ll be a novel blast from the past, but it will also cost half as much. This got me thinking that the current economic climate is the perfect opportunity for less expensive brands to remind us that they are nothing fancy, just a solid and reliable standard. Today, ideas like “reliable” and “familiar” resonate brand value. Positioning around exclusivity is so 2006.

How would you like your ad experience today?

I’m one year into watching most of my television on-line. It’s always made sense to me for television and the home computer to merge. YouTube has been great at getting people used to the concept of consuming video on-line, but it’s not leading the shift in delivering broadcast TV via the internet. The business doing that is Hulu.com, a joint venture between several major traditional broadcast networks.

We’ve seen print media get caught with their proverbial pants down the last few years. It’s as though they didn’t see the internet and the blogosphere coming. Truth is, we all saw it coming; it’s just that those who had the most to lose, decided to try to protect their turf instead of adapting.

This whole internet-enabled idea that “information wants be free” has been a thorn in the side of capitalism for the better part of a decade. With Hulu, the traditional players finally figured out how to make lemonade, and, in the process, may have stumbled upon the holy grail of advertising… honest-to-goodness relevancy.

When I sit down to watch a football game on cable TV, I’m not presented with advertisements for household cleaners, hearing aids and skin care products. I’m presented with ads for beer, food, and trucks. This is common sense targeting based on the average football audience.

But, when you target the typical male between the ages of 25 and 50, you run into two problems; first, there is no such thing as a “typical” male and second, you’re leaving out everyone else. Next-generation targeting must allow advertisers to message to an individual, not a demographic.

Hulu’s advertising model is an evolution toward individual advertising. They give me the option to “choose my ad experience” which can mean two things: I have the option of watching a minute-long commercial at the beginning of the program, or one of three types of commercials based on the products I’m interested in.

Whatever I choose, there is only one commercial at a time and, as a result, they are more memorable. When I watch broadcast TV, I get 10 minutes of programming followed by five minutes of advertisements. That’s back-to-back 30 second spots for ten completely different products. My brain isn’t comfortable switching gears that many times, so I don’t retain most of it.

Hulu’s model moves in the opposite direction, fewer ads and the ability to choose my own experience. Now I have two reasons to watch Hulu: I can watch on my own schedule and I actually enjoy commercials again.

The television networks have a choice. They can protect their turf and milk the existing model as long as possible or try something bold. Either way, the decision over which model will prevail ultimately belongs to the consumer.