Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Quest For A Down-to-Earth, Simplistic Lifestyle

Last night I caught the latest of the 2X TIDE detergent commercials.

It’s part of a new series of TIDE commercials that are kind of campy. You can check it out at www.tide.com/en_US/funspot/funspot_tv.jsp.

It features the Generation X talk-show host Kelly Ripa.

The spot aired on a special series of HGTV’s House Hunters show featuring GenXers and their next “move-up” home purchases.

That airing of the TIDE spot is a fabulous demonstration of “the media is the message and the message is the media” where the brand and its message marry with the content and perspective of the media and programming.

P&G has a great set of brands that are selling through the current “gloom and doom” economic times that the media portrays in their headlines and editorials.

Despite all the dismal newscasts and forecasts of the American middle class, I really think that we are seeing the impact of a bigger trend right now than simple economics.

GenXers are truly in the depths of family cultural cocooning in which maintaining the home and saving dollars to send the kids to college are both top priority.

Boomers are re-cocooning too, and true to their culture, many are placing far more value on the sustainability of the green-scape and their local hamlets than cashing in on retirement and moving off-stage.

That BIG GLOBAL group headquartered up in New York called the United Nations dedicated a lot of time in defining what they call “Sustainable Development” – development that is driven by the “three pillars” of social, environmental and economic change.

Of course with most anything that takes place at the United Nations, a couple of groups have been challenging the consensus reached claiming that there are actually four pillars of “Sustainable Development” with the fourth being cultural development.

I actually agree.

If any of you have Gen X friends and you hang in their house for a few hours, you will quickly see how TIDE has been able to tap right into the culture of the Gen X household.

As a Baby Boomer with Millennium friends, we all concur that GenXers are kind of campy in how they live behind that front door.

Whether it’s clustering in the home or the local community, the cultural icons of a more “down-to-earth, simplistic lifestyle” are quickly coming back in vogue.

Do-It-Yourself is more culturally cool that hiring others or spending the extra bucks to purchase the product already assembled. Cooking at home is back and the kitchen table is a place where neighbors are connecting more than at Starbucks.

There are some great cultural Icons headquartered right here in our own backyard that can tap right into the times!
• Holiday Inns – The Icon of the budget-conscious family weekend trip
• Coca-Cola – How more Americana can you get?
• Home Depot – Hey Wal*Mart capitalized on Target’s brand line… be the “Helpful Hardware Man” in an orange apron and you can be an Icon too!
• Little Debbie Snack Cakes – Kind of retro, campy cool… and if you play off “Little” you can own lo-cal too!
• Six Flags, The Choo Choo, Callaway Gardens, Ruby Falls and Stone Mountain – Also kind of campy cool and accessible on just one tank of gas!
• Krystal – The “real TV / YouTube” tailgating spots are great!
• Bush Beans – Southern = Sustainability and beans are great budget side dish alternatives…maybe even the new “hamburger helper”?
• Shaw and Mohawk flooring – Recycled carpet squares are a Ready-Made Magazine showcase project!
• Popeyes, Mrs. Winners, Zaxby’s and Arby’s – The Icons of Fried Chicken and Roast Beef are back in and high-priced Sushi is out!

If you listen to the media and the survey numbers they report, you’d think we were in the 21st century version of the Great Depression.

Seeing the glass as always half full is what drives business success. At BrandVenture, what we see is called OPPORTUNITY!

Hey… in that TIDE spot, Kelly Ripa brings everyone around the washing machine to see just how clean, clean can be.

BrandVenture is going to head out in a couple of weeks with our Video camera and talk to folks about this new “down-to-earth, simplistic lifestyle” and we invite you all to be part of it and see just how opportune, opportunity can be!

Call us… and come journey!

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