“Boring” does not exist. Brand owners and businesses should leverage the endless opportunities to tell meaningful stories from brands that are integral parts of consumers’ lives, either personally or in business,”– EcommerceLift.com
Every product has a commercial destiny and enterprises should work to promote the sale of all items in the inventory. Exciting products such as drones, fast cars, video games, and toy helicopters require minimal marketing effort because the imagination of the customers and the capabilities of such products help to move these items of merchandise. However, boring products such as toothpaste, toilet paper, correction fluids, hair oil, office supplies, etc. require creative marketing strategies to boost their chances in commercial markets. We must bear in mind that these products are geared for everyday use, lack sophistication, and have been in the market for long decades. Most users treat these items as staple and therefore, marketers need to apply innovation and a fresh spin in order to spur sales of such products.
Chewing gum represents one of the boring products that registers sales across the civilised world. The product is essentially low profile, but needs to be marketed creatively to boost market traction. A new market entrant can choose to deploy creative content to enhance the commercial appeal of a chewing gum product. We must bear in mind that most boring products tend to belong to mass markets and this fact can be leveraged in selling chewing gum. For instance, a marketing video can be crafted to announce the arrival of the new product. Two types of contrasting human personalities can be depicted in said video: one chewing the gum, an active member of society, personable, relatable, and open to ideas and conversations. The other specimen of the human race is depicted as a dour personality, lost in his or her own thoughts, non-sociable, and even withdrawn. The marketing message is clear: the contrast between these characters is enabled by chewing gum, which emerges as an eminently desirable product in the eyes of viewers. This approach to marketing clearly taps into viewers’ psyches, creates radically different images, and positions chewing gum as an exciting product.
A marketing campaign that hinges on an appeal to the competitive spirit can work wonders even for the most boring products. For instance, car insurance is not something the average consumer associates with excitement or a steady attention span. However, car insurance represents a valid product in the financial services industry and needs marketing campaigns for promotion. Vendors and purveyors of car insurance products can collaborate to design a high-impact campaign that promotes said product. This campaign can be designed to gain visibility by appending it to major sports events because such events draw huge numbers of stadium spectators and large television audiences. The creative campaign can centre on an online contest, can be launched on social media platforms, and may offer large cash prize for the winner. We must note that the conjunction of a mass sporting spectacle and social media platforms can provide an explosive boost for boring products such as car insurance. The results of such a campaign can help insurance providers to achieve an unprecedented marketing impact. That said, we must note that such campaigns are typically expensive and therefore, participating brands should make provisions for large marketing expenditure.
Coffee mugs figure high on the list of boring products because everyone has one in their office or home. The coffee mug represents a low technology approach to making a statement in public spaces, is eminently redundant, a mass produced product, and often viewed as a relic from the Stone Age. However, coffee mugs can be marketed innovatively at various sites, such as coffee shops, as souvenirs, as business mementoes, in college canteens, etc. The high visibility offered by these locales can ensure significant uptake in modern markets. Alternatively, a coffee mug business can choose to shock the sensibilities of modern consumers through a video commercial designed for social media and television audiences. The video may depict an action scene wherein, a hard hammer comes down heavily on an upturned coffee mug – to no avail. The product being advertised stands its ground and therein, seems much scope for visual interpretation. A disclaimer at the end of the video may request viewers to desist from such acts and spotlight the creative license of the ad maker. Clearly, this video represents one instance of using creativity to boost the commercial prospects of boring products.
Humour and excitement can be harnessed to sell certain boring products. This approach hinges on using common human emotions to connect a product with a marketing message. For instance, a rubber band maker can use animation and video to create a definitive marketing campaign for said product. The video can depict a quiet scene where a lone rubber band lies forlorn (and abandoned) on a generic surface. The subsequent frames depict an after-hours office setting wherein, a group of workers start shooting rubber bands at random, thereby achieving some comic visual effects. The rubber band is central to the excitement and the merry makers have a field day decompressing after a hard day’s work. The visual element in the advertisement can be boosted using video and animation technologies to achieve spectacular outcomes. This marketing video can cause a storm on social media platforms, boost television ratings, and may even win a creative video award. In the final analysis, the humble rubber band emerges as a winner that helps to animate an environment dominated by human beings.
Accentuating boring products with certain attributes can help to move merchandise off the shelves. For instance, a deodoriser can be re-engineered with soothing scents to boost its market. The primary function of such a product is to negate household smells, but the plain vanilla version of said product may not find many takers. However, when the manufacturer loads the product with smooth scents, the fact must be advertised and this can lead to a significant sales uptick. We must note that multiple brands of domestic deodorisers populate common markets, but the value addition described above can help a certain brand to pull ahead of the competition. Differentiation can help to re-position products in markets and enable a boring product to gain high visibility. This instance clearly demonstrates the value of upgrading a product profile with desirable attributes in an attempt to boost commercial outcomes.
In the preceding paragraphs, we have endeavoured to chalk some strategies that help marketers to pique public interest in boring products and to boost sales of the same. Brands and businesses would be well advised to pay attention to the boring product per se, and to create engaging and stimulating marketing strategies to promote said products. Story telling can be considered an important approach in the fashioning of marketing messages, thereby drawing attention to an under-rated product or service. That said, various strategies could be devised to sell mundane products, as detailed above. These examples can be deployed to breathe fresh life into boring products and rejuvenate predictable campaign strategies. Marketing departments need to arouse human curiosity in order to achieve high sales figures, gain greater market traction for a product, and to devise creatively distinct marketing messages.
