Humor in Marketing, Making Your People Buy More Stuff, and That Book We Keep Talking About
First, let’s all take a moment to stand in awe of the ridiculously fantastic picture to your left. Karen, the STUPIDLY talented animator who does storyboard templates and other cool stuff, made this for Jack’s birthday. The tragic lack of ninjas means it cannot be the new cover of the book, but it can be the cover of this blog post. Note the drool. Fan socks, you have met your match.
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OK, I’m not really a perfume person, but I was tooling around on the web the other day and I saw a reference to Jo Malone’s White Jasmine and Mint. That’s a fairly awesome sounding combination, so I clicked through and checked it out. Here’s a snippet of what I found:
“Take your first choice of Jo Malone fragrance from the list of originals and you’ll discover ways to combine with a different fragrance to create your bespoke signature scent.”
“Discover the Jo Malone philosophy of Fragrance Combining and become the fragrance artist. With the latest introduction to the Jo Malone fragrance portfolio, the enchanting White Jasmine & Mint, you’ll find the perfect base from which to create your very own signature scent for the season.”
There is a (relatively) new demographic in marketing — well, the demographic ain’t new, it’s just the hugeness of it that’s new — called “Mass Affluent”. People who have a lot more money than the average bear, but they’re not chartering jets and shit.
Marketing theory says that if you can find a way to hit this rapidly growing demographic, you’ll make a bunch of coin really fast. This move by Jo Malone is a perfect example of catering to this market.
Completely custom perfume costs upwards of $500 — a whole lot upwards in many cases. Department store perfume costs about $80. There is a big ass group of women — and more importantly, their husbands — who want something better than department store but not so pricey as custom.
In comes Jo Malone, telling a women to buy two or three $100 bottles of perfume, and making her feel like they’re doing her a favor! Find a way to emulate this.
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If you’re one of the people who has emailed me to tell me how in love with Havi you are and you haven’t bought her stuff yet, the Procrastination Dissolve-o-matic price goes up pronto. Because now she’s all famous and shit. So if you want to buy it, or any of her other cool stuff, go do so. You might want to read her most recent blog post while you’re there. Apparently Miss I’m So Fucking Wholesome is getting caught in people’s workplace internet filters for sexual content. Dirty bitch.
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To all those who say humor doesn’t work in marketing, I give you Roger That! Cards. The cards themselves are funny, yes — I personally like the one that says “Let’s Get Blind, Stinking Drunk!” on the front — but lots of cards are funny. What really makes the difference is the sales copy.
When you click on the card to see what it says inside, here’s what it tells you:
“The inside of this laboriously handmade greeting card is BLANK. You’ll have to think up your own crap to say.”
Well, they had me at hello. Humor definitely works in marketing, as long as it meets two criteria:
1. It has to actually be funny.
2. Your target demographic is composed of people who have a sense of humor.
If you want to be funny, be funny. Don’t let the haters get you down.
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Last and very likely least, don’t max out your Visas on perfume and greeting cards this weekend because Ninja SEO School is back on the shelves on Monday. I can’t tell you how funny I find this. Part of me wants you all to buy it so I’ll have enough money to take bubble baths in Mint perfume. The other part of me wants nobody to buy it so I can email my sales reports to the fit pitchers. Because I’m stubborn and vengeful like that.