Tough times. What is a marketer to do?

Times are tough for every person with a product to sell and a profit to make. Times are tough for every consumer out there making hard choices about their dollars. How do you, the marketer, win the consumer over and get their hard earned dollar? This is the new alchemy, the traditional search for remedies to create gold. The million dollar question. Marketers wrestle with this daily. Agencies are trying to figure out how to profit from this. The consumer is trying to scrimp and survive. Where is the middle ground?  In this immediate moment, I believe the answer is in relevance or what my marketing professor called salience.  I like the term relevance because it is easier to understand for the everyday person. Essentially, I define relevance as "Why is this important to me?" it helps differentiate items for the consumer. Items meaning brands. When consumers have locked down their spending, relevance will help them spend just a little where it is important to them. 

An example of a relevant campaign right now, is Boarshead "Take back lunch" campaign which promotes brown bagging lunch and making sure your families are eating well at lunch. Simple idea. Contrary to their past campaigns which featured exploding turkey deli meats and other gross items in a comical fashion. This brings them to the same wholesome food place but with the soccer mom as the focus. The matriach revisited. The mom is in charge and trying to make sure her family is eating well and on budget. Times are tough. Lunch is an easy place to save money. This campaign is a natural fit for Boarshead. I think it does a great job of bringing the brand into the modern era of lunch. Why is lunch important to me the consumer? Well, I need to eat everyday. And now there is a smarter way for me to have a good lunch.  Eureka! 

I would say this is a great simple strategy. I googled it. Yikes, the hate that bored bloggers had for it surprised me. Who do you believe? I think the backlash means that the campaign is on target. Angry bloggers who think they are going to have to start eating better, obviously their wifes are setting their sights on it.

What advice can one glean from this blog entry or lesson on relevance? Well, captain obvious, relevance is important. Find out what is relevant to your target audience. Use the modern times as a backdrop. Think about how your product can be important or take your consumer to the next level. Finally, turn down the haters that are outside your target audience.  Yes, bloggers, I called us haters. We rant and write. Maybe we are right. But your target audience life experience holds the true answer.