We all know that consumers hate advertising, unless of course it’s a funny beer commercial and/or something that has chimpanzees acting like humans. We develop the messages, and everyone else does their best to avoid them. And they’re getting better at it, too. Well, Bridge (a division of WPP Group’s Wunderman in Cincinnati) has come up with its own solution to this dilemma. They call it “Marketing with Meaning.” Not to be confused with cause marketing, which uses a charitable cause to create positive recognition for a brand, the idea is to create value for consumers in the actual marketing strategy. So the marketing does its job to promote the brand or product while providing some worth to those that would actually be in the market for it.
For example, they’ve created a program for Kimberly-Clark Corp. that teaches nurses to combat hospital-associated infections. It saves lives (an estimated 100,000 people die annually in the U.S. from these infections), saves the money used to treat these infections ($4.5 billion annually) and helps sell Kimberly-Clark’s infection-preventing products. Everyone wins!
Bridge also developed a contest for Kroger where customers can design a reusable bag to be sold in stores. Over 35,000 customers have participated, each receiving a free reusable bag and a chance to win $500 plus coupons for loyalty program members. They’re promoting green living and likely getting new customers to spend some green in their stores.
I think these ideas and some of the others Bridge has developed are great. They reach out to customers and provide them with ways to actually improve their lives, and they do it in a genuine way. It doesn’t seem like they’re just out to sell products. It’s more like they’re out to do something good and that’s the end result. Your thoughts?
Sara Wojdacki
Account Executive
Showing that our clients add real, worthwhile value sould be a no-brainer. However we often lose site of that when we just want to shout at customers how wonderful the product is. This takes the concept of showing benefits and really kicks it up a notch.
It only makes sense. More and more, we need to engage customers who are finding ways to skip the commercial messages. What better way to engage them than to give them ways to improve their lives or do something they really care about?