Marketing to cynical consumers

Americans have generally been a trusting lot, but things are changing, accelerated by the revelations over the past year of government corruption (more than usual), Ponzi schemes and shenanigans in the most solid of financial institutions and banks. (Remember the expression, “you can bank on it” inspired confidence?)  And not to mention the steady erosion of the trustworthiness index of an “unbiased “media as reflected in numerous polls.  The bottom line is that consumer behavior has changed. Consumers are more cynical today and that cynicism is likely to grow as the recession continues.

So faced with this reality, what’s a marketer to do? For starters, consumers are going to place less credence in emotional appeals. Now, it’s more about reverting to middle class values verbiage – quality, substance, content, value – and the use of real images (as in “let me see what you’re talking about”), which has been made easier with the advent of sites such as You Tube, Flickr, etc. We used to say in marketing that advertising was about emotion and PR was about description. Not so much anymore. Images themselves should be narratives that tell a story, taking their cues from journalistic style. And it comes as no surprise that messages need real time, unbiased, transparent and validated by third-party peers, because testimonials can become quickly outdated and could be perceived as a paid endorsement. It’s a whole new world.