In one of our lectures we were looking at controversial advertising, PR stunts as well as trying to market difficult products to prepare us for industry life. We began by looking at Edward Bernays who is also known as the "Father of Public Relations". Bernays hypothesised that by understanding the group mind, it would be possible to manipulate people's behaviour without them even realising it. Bernays had to market a variety of things during his career including bacon, hairnets, soap, books and even cigarettes.
That got us talking. Bernays list of random items he had to market proved just how good he was at his job and how he could tap into demographics to get them to buy. This was when we was given a task to market less desirable products.
My group was given rain.
Now, rain isn't a physical object or item so to market it would prove very difficult. Despite this, we dove into different categories which would help us promote rain. We began by looking at the target market as well as the current market: the target being British people in general, as self-proclaimed weather-obsessors; and the current market as UK farmers, who after the long, hot summer have faced hardships when it comes to agricultural growth due to the lack of rain.
"There's no such thing as bad publicity" - PT Barnum
We decided to go against using an influencer for our "product". As rain is a type of weather we decided that it was the ultimate influencer - it influences what we wear, what we do and how we behave. Therefore no person would be able to do that job.
In addition to this, we had an idea for a flash dance in Trafalgar Square (on a rainy day, of course), where everyone would be gifted yellow rain coats as part of a promotion package to embrace the rain more. The hashtag #NoRainNoGain would help generate social media hype as well as encourage people to post pictures in their new yellow raincoats.
This challenge wasn't exactly anyones idea of fun, but I felt like I took a lot away from this lecture. It taught me to think outside of the fashion box when it came to marketing and how to make a less desirable product more desirable.
Image Reference: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/712905815986955726/