Marketing Experts in Disguise…

Amidst my 30 day cable fast (read my previous rant on the trials and tribulations of an online only lifestyle) I stumbled upon a movie on Netflix streaming, titled “The Joneses.”  It peaked my interest since it starred Demi Moore and David Duchovny.  I wondered how I had never heard of a movie with such big name stars.

Fifteen minutes in and I was hooked (warning – spoilers ahead).  The movie starts out with the perfect couple, Moore and Duchovny as husband and wife, moving into a gorgeous house in a high income suburb along with their attractive teenage daughter and son.  They are appropriately named the Joneses, and as the movie unfolds, you soon learn that appearances can be deceiving.  They are far from the perfect family, rather, a team of highly trained professional salespeople who disguise product placement as a daily routine.  Everything in their lives – clothing, furniture, electronics, cars, even their food are planned and supplied by various companies.  Each fake “family” member has daily sales goals they have to meet.  Companies use the Joneses as a stealth way to advertise their products, relying on the “family’s” popularity in the community to draw attention to their merchandise, and this, in turn, creates a want, need, and desire for their products.  The goal:  to get people to spend as much money as they can, inevitably resulting in the entire neighborhood doing whatever they have to do to “keep up with the Joneses.”  Moore’s character looks hot power walking in a velvet tracksuit, so all the other neighborhood housewives race to the mall to buy the exact same one.  Duchovny attributes his scratch golf game to the clubs he uses, and all the golfers in town buy the same set.

As far fetched as the concept seemed, I asked myself, “could a guerilla style marketing strategy like this really work?”  It was a pretty creative way for companies to get their products directly in the face of the consumers, without the cheesy sales pitches.  But, according to ScentTrail Marketing, this could never happen.  Why?  One, the ROI would be too hard to gauge, and tabulating daily sales in a timely manner would be near impossible.  Second, the amount of money the companies would need to spend to outfit the “fake families” with their products would lead to an upside down campaign. It would be difficult to sustain a profit.  Third, the cost/benefit ratio is not worth the risk.  This point was actually displayed in the movie.  People overspending themselves into bankruptcy and families breaking apart because of financial stress are lawsuits waiting to happen if the truth ever got out. And the biggest risk:  the salespeople who portray the “fake families” are only human.  Problems are guaranteed to arise once a team member gets emotionally involved with someone in the community, or they can’t take the secrets anymore and their cover is blown.  The moment the truth gets out, every company associated with the marketing plan loses credibility.  Once credibility is lost, it takes years to get it back, if ever.  Most companies can’t afford to take that risk.

Top Gun Brought Back Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses, and a 40% Increase in Sales

Although I agreed that the guerilla marketing plan invented for the movie was drastic and way too risky – I wondered just how much product placement and endorsement influenced our purchasing decisions.  In July, CNBC.com created a slideshow of “10 Big Successes in Product Placement.”  The numbers showed that product placement DOES work. Not surprisingly, Top Gun was high up on the list.  After Tom Cruise (aka Maverick) sported Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses throughout the movie, the sales of Aviator sunglasses increased 40%.  And probably one of the biggest stories in product placement history:  E.T. and Reese’s Pieces.  According to CNBC.com, their profits rose 65% as a result of a mention in one of the highest grossing films of all time.

Click here for the CNBC.com’s complete list of product placement success stories: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43266198/10_Big_Successes_in_Product_Placement?slide=1

As for endorsements, social media has changed everything.  Whether it’s a paid endorsement, or an honest declaration of love (or hate) for a particular product, it’s now easier than ever for celebrities to voice their opinions. Mediums such as Twitter and blogging give followers the feeling that they CAN interact with their favorite celebrities, and they CAN live just like them, as more than just fans but as equals.  Celebrities know this and never hesitate to tweet or blog about what they’re doing, where they’re going, and what they can’t live without.

 Nicole Richie shows her support for Pressed Juicery via Twitter…

Nicole Richie seen holding her Pressed Juicery Bottle – advertising in disguise

An example – those oh-so-popular juice cleanses you’ve been hearing so much about. BluePrint, Pressed Juicery, and Organic Avenue may sound familiar to you, but you probably don’t remember seeing any ads for them.  Yet, according to Marketdata Enterprises, boutique cleanses take up an increasing corner of the diet industry, recently valued at $60 Billion.   So how can an industry that runs such minimal traditional advertising be so successful?  When you have stars like Olivia Wilde, Megan Fox, Gwyneth Paltrow and Nichole Richie (all known for being gorgeous, and thin) running around 24-7 with juice in their hands (the internet has made celebrity photos accessible to anyone), or tweeting about how great they feel after a cleanse, it’s easy to see how.  Which takes us back to the “The Joneses.”  The consumer is being sold a product without even knowing it.  And, FYI – BluePrint cleanses run about $85 day for six juices (they recommend a 3 day cleanse of course), and people are willing to pay THAT much just for a chance to look and feel like their favorite celebrity.

And Olivia Wilde uses Twitter to show her love for the BluePrint Cleanse. Just one tweet from her could mean millions.

I’m sure we’d all like to think that what we buy is based on the integrity of the brand, and I’m sure it does play a part in our final decisions.  But there are many other factors involved as well.  At times, it seems the consumers care more about who’s advertising the product than the product itself.  We want to see results, and we want proof that the product actually works (ie – juice cleanses). Another factor is pure human nature.  Starting from grade school – kids are put into groups, whether they’re one of the populars, the jocks, the nerds, the goths, there are always groups.  Most kids will do whatever they can to have a part of the in crowd.  Whether it’s begging their parents to buy them the hottest shoes (when I was a kid it was the Reebok Pumps), or going to the salon to get the most popular haircut (Jennifer Aniston comes to mind).  Society is easily influenced by the latest trends (when Justin Bieber’s haircut, also known as ‘The Bieb’ is the most requested style of the year, you know society is easily swayed).  Most people will do almost anything to feel cool, even if it means getting a goofy haircut.

Now, we don’t all have a direct line into Michael Bay’s newest action flick (who’s notorious for overuse of product placement), and we don’t have the $35 Million for David Beckham’s endorsement, but that’s where traditional advertising like TV and Radio can make up the difference.  It can help carry our voice to audiences that would normally never hear it.  And there’s nothing wrong with non-traditional advertising support.  In retrospect, the Joneses in the movie weren’t celebrities, they were just normal people sharing their suggestions with friends.  When you think about it, we do that everyday.  We get together with friends and family and comment on each others newest outfits, just dying to know where they were bought.  Kids invite their friends over to play the hottest new video games.  Couples have date nights at restaurants based on their friends’ recommendations.  In reality, we are all salespeople in our own right, indirectly sending business to our favorite brands without even thinking about it. Via Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Yelp, or any other social media medium, and through personal interaction, we have the ability to market anything.  We just have to be creative about it.  Having your friends wear your line of jewelry in hopes that people will ask about it.  Fashionably wearing your company’s t-shirt in the hopes that people will ask what your company does. Having happy customers tweet about how much they love you, or Yelp about why your restaurant is the best.  We may live in a world where face to face contact is decreasing, but we are actually interacting on a bigger and broader scope.  Which may lend some truth to the phrase “The best form of advertising is by word of mouth.”