Incorporating Pop Culture into Marketing
Ever since internet took over, it opened doors to a plethora of opportunities in terms of marketing. The humongous platform fostering every possible mode of entertainment provided the much needed polishing for the branding team’s creative hats. How? Pop Culture, “the craze is real”- if I have to subsume some millennial lingo right in here. From web series to memes to comic stand-ups and more, the vast expanse of the internet literally catered to what most of us believe are ingredients to the ultimate recipe of being at par with the world. Pop culture under its mammoth umbrella encompasses topics that range from music, art, fashion, film, television, cyber culture to just name a few from top of the list.
Marketing wizards scaled the scope of the popularity of various entertainment mixes and gave life to it as a part of their marketing campaign. More often than not we see catchphrases, quotes and references from viral content assimilated into various campaigns. Big brands such as H&M and Nike amongst others are known to curate merchandise and release content revolving around popular fandom culture, such as series from the popular OTT platform Netflix.
A lot of sports teams resorted to dropping videos themed around TV shows that garnered much public affection such as Major League Baseball Teams creating a buzz around the much celebrated show “Game of Thrones”. A lot of apps such as Swiggy (food delivery app) alongside its rival app Zomato have levelled up off late and are often seen contriving notifications and making announcements using humour derived from viral memes and other well received internet content. New era entrepreneurs have ventured into creative hospitality by erecting cafes and spaces drawing heavy inspiration from the very intriguing pop culture. The places are a common sight in many cities harbouring young crowd in large numbers. The interiors are adorned with funky posters, musings and wordings engraved or stuck as well as symbolic artefacts.
The intention behind devising such strategies is to try and serve what the target section is looking for. A lot of brands tasted much desired success after they believed in the significance of pop culture. It’s a well conceived fact that people as consumers have higher chances of being captivated by grabbing hold of their ultimate “fan-girl/boy elements” and exploiting the same to the fullest. Today we see the widespread influence of similar tastes owing to the inordinate internet backing, and it’s the best time than ever to cling onto it and escalate.
Something growing progressively popular is the obsession of people, particularly the young blood, towards owning merchandise which depicts traces of something they are a fan of. The giveaway tactics took front seat off recent as people would love to own wares- more so when given for free. This encouraged a lot of brands to collaborate with pop culture faces and announce pompous giveaways as well as a chance to meet the on screen heroes. The faces associated with these gimmicks need not necessarily be the brand ambassadors for the brand but widely voguish. This is probably one of those techniques that can be easily dubbed as immortal. Unless the world goes to live under a rock there is quite an inferior chance of not keeping up with the globe. As long as the entertainment industry will burgeon, the influx of creative ideas will sustain. More and more brands join in the wagon and success rates speak for the prodigious response. It just goes on to show that this method is well received and holds the power to allure a large audience.
Although, there is a fair chance of an entire structure going deplorably wrong. A lot of brands found themselves in evident soup for not complying with cross cultural sensitization ethics especially when venturing across the seven seas. Humour is of course subjective and something which may be received as fun and games by a section of people might be termed atrocious by few others.
Supermodel Kendall Jenner saw herself amidst widespread outrage after she featured in an ad campaign for Pepsi which drew inspiration from the much talked about social issue –racism. An issue which has been a much heated topic and has seen a frequent mention in various arenas of the pop culture. Though the brand maintained that their intentions were far from malice, they had to take the ad off air and publicly apologise. This is one of the many incidents wherein a miscalculation led to image of both, the brand and the corresponding individual or a theme getting hurt. The damage done can hold great volumes as there are dual players subjected to derogation.
The public can be so infuriated that they can potentially move and boycott brands regardless of their multilevel presence. The same internet which endorses the pop culture also presents a platform to throw it under the bus. In today’s day and age when any piece of information travels like wildfire within fraction of seconds, every move by those in marketing must be a well calculated one.
As much as companies are engulfed by this juggernaut harbouring the many facets of pop culture, it only makes sense for them to be really sure of the content that they put out for consumption. Having said that, they can usually not entirely anticipate how well their matter will go with the potential consumer base. A lot of brands have managed to successfully please people at large if not all. There is always going to be a disparity in the acceptance of marketing campaigns owing to the 7 billion tastes dangling across the globe. So when we adopt the task of marketer it is probably a tough deal to mould an idea into a strategy to uphold success and as consumers it is a tougher deal to make a decision to either retaliate or make peace with an idea that doesn’t align with our thoughts.
Written by Aayushi Naik
I consider myself to be an observer, I look deeper into things that at times seem to interest nobody else. Which is why as a writer, I tend to pick up topics that may appear slightly quirky. This oddity helps me in keeping my sanity when the entire world appears way too normal for me. I solemnly deicide to pen down stuff that I might rarely find elsewhere. With every new piece that I write, I nestle myself into it. They say an actor has many lives; I wonder if they have ever met a writer.