As businesses fight to keep their registers ringing in a troubled economy, advertisers increasingly, are targeting a new stripe of shopper.
The latest darling of the advertising world is the chequebook frugalista, the consumer still eager to spend but always with value in mind.
Vancouver's Carats Investments is promoting diamonds as the "perfect holiday gift" because the stones "historically hold their value during recessions." Vacation site Travelzoo.ca is pitching Caribbean getaways with the sale hook: "Take advantage of a travel deal and use the money saved to pay off debt."
Marketers are reframing spending to make consumers feel they're making responsible choices, and television is already working these shoppers into its story lines. On a recent episode of Ugly Betty, for example, a young woman with half a dozen shopping bags in tow bragged to her roommate: "You will not believe how much money I saved today!"
"People have to keep buying things in order to keep the economy going," says Darren Dahl, professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia. "This is one way of making them feel OK about doing that."
You might call it econowashing: giving products not usually associated with frugality the patina of value.
Luxury car manufacturer BMW is moving away from an emphasis on prestige to a message of safety and savings, reminding consumers of what brand spokesman Shawn Ticehurst calls the "value-for-money equation."
Other brands are being pitted against pricier rivals as being more attuned to an era in which excess is seen as gauche. For instance, the tagline for a new Kia ad reads: "Since when is overpaying a status symbol?"
In the December issue of Vogue, budget buys in the magazine's "reality chic" section include $450 dog collars, a $375 umbrella and $22 tea.
"The consumers who tend to buy these products are often quite insulated from living paycheque to paycheque," says Dahl. "But they read the newspaper every day and feel like they should be concerned, so this (ad messaging) can go a long way to make them feel like good shoppers."
A new publicity campaign for the air freshener Febreze positions the product as a cost-effective home decor tool, with spokeswoman Laura Dellutri praising its capacity to "invoke a warm and fresh seasonal atmosphere at home without breaking the bank."
Kraft more than doubled its third-quarter net income with help from campaigns that emphasized its products' capacity to stretch a dollar.
Although it may feel like just yesterday products were being hawked from an aspirational angle, Brandweek's Elaine Wong says the current focus on economy has been a slow build.
"Value messaging doesn't just happen overnight," says Wong. "For the most part . . . it's tied to a larger strategy that is rolled out in subsequent steps. That way, it's not so much of a culture shock to the consumer."
According to Jonah Berger, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, this type of advertising is ideally suited to frugal consumers who love to spend but feel guilty for not participating in recessionary behaviour.
"Consumers do like these functional alibis. They like having an excuse to choose their wants and their vices," says Berger. "But whether these campaigns are going to be successful depends on them at least being believable. I mean, $22 tea?"
Source: canada.com
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