After someone asks you “What do you think?”, have you ever caught yourself saying, “Yes, um, it’s interesting.” It’s one of those nonsense statements, especially without any qualification. Like when you are in a museum and you see a piece of modern art that makes no sense. People scratch their chins and nod their head in subtle, if vague, approbation, mumbling, “hum, interesting.” Most likely, in that person’s head, ‘interesting’ is the most polite version of “I don’t like it.” 

Marketing that’s interesting?

As marketing teams and their agencies try to conjure up new content, I tend to relate the “interesting” comment to a lot of the posts I see out there. So much of the content is bland, un-engaging and irrelevant (or worse, illegitimate). The kindest thing one can say is “it’s interesting,” but generally we don’t mean it.

Stimulating content

What stimulates us? As much as I have read a lot of literature and well-written posts about the power of emotionally charged communications, many brands continue to believe that flaunting, with seeming vanity, the prowess of their product performance as the key to conversion. Other brands resort to discounts.

stimulating content

Ingredients for stimulating content

Making it stimulating

Marketers must find ways to move from “interesting” to “stimulating.” Stimulus is about creating movement and provoking action.{Tweet this!} Content cannot be disassociated from style. And the content must be relevant to the audience, as well as being legitimate from the brand source. Importantly, the stimulation should not be focused solely on the buy button, though that needs to be appropriately integrated as part of the consumer journey.

Services as a product

What encourages me is when I see brands such as Barclays that promotes and advertises its digital eagles (see below). Or even L’Oreal, who have developed the Color Genius app and, more recently, MakeUp Genius app (although I have yet to see TV ads on that app). 

Barclays Digital_Eagles_Features

And yet, many other opportunities are out there, to promote the surround-sound services that are making the product and customer experience fuller and more satisfying. For example, when will FMCG brands and banks start to advertise about their excellent customer service? {Tweet this!} When will luxury (shoe) companies allow people to return in store items bought online or to promote unlimited free returns from their eCommerce site? {Tweet this!}

Pin It on Pinterest