Weekly Column: 2017-02-17

Among the American soldiers deployed overseas watching the Super Bowl, three were called out and ushered into a separate booth. Suddenly, the bright lights flooded the booth the Super Bowl Stadium and their families in America were projected via 360 degrees virtual reality technology. Because of virtual reality, the soldiers were able to watch the Super Bowl with their families, and the video ended with the happy scene of the soldiers. Viewers were able to watch this heartfelt surprise reunion between family members.

This was an advertisement made by Hyundai Motor for the 2017 Super Bowl, the largest sporting even in America, featuring deployed soldier. The interesting thing about this commercial is that not one Hyundai car appears in it. Rather than advertising their company directly by displaying their products, Hyundai drew out the empathy of American consumers with family love and patriotism, making the viewer think about the true meaning of family, and is regarded as an experience everyone could relate to.

“Family”

I think that the key word that everyone in the world can relate to is “family.” It cannot be denied that content containing the importance of family and family values will be loved no matter what the subject matter is. I think it is the most powerful material of value that should never be forgotten when marketing to move and stimulate the consumer’s emotions. Because of this, it is now the trend for many companies to use family-targeted marketing, making advertisements for their products with a family focus, which has an amazing result of changing a brand’s image at some point. Despite the fact that the family is quite a common focus because it gets more love and attention from consumers and has a viral marketing effect means that consumers really relate to the material.

However, family-oriented marketing is not always positive. A company’s attempt to strategically target consumers by promoting emotional family material may cause the consumer to feel displeased and manipulated if the brand is stressed too much. Instead of creating trust and feeling moved, it can have the adverse effect of making the consumer feel mocked. On the other hand, if it is too emotional instead of informing the consumer about the brand, they will only remember the emotional story of the family, so it will not have its intended effect as an advertisement.

In any case, if you can integrate family marketing in a good way, you will be able to develop a more emotional-based marketing strategy than you would expect. There is a growing trend in this competitive era where people are depending more on their family’s support, so why not take advantage of this? The more difficult a situation is, the more we rely on the people that are closest to us, and I think that family marketing is the most optimal marketing for these times. There is no better marketing than reminding people of the importance of family along with the bond that only a family can feel.  This allows the consumer to reflect on their family while also enjoying the effects of the brand.

Family Day is just around the corner. As you spend time together with your family on this day, remember the importance of family that is too often forgotten. I hope that you will be able to keep this in mind as you develop plans for emotional marketing that will move the consumer’s heart.