Just finishing up my review of OPMC’s for the week (Other People’s Marketing Campaigns).
Saw something crazy:
People are LOVING the new McDonald’s campaign.
People are HATING Whole Food’s “Values Matter” campaign.
WTF?
Me personally, I thought McDonald’s “Pay with Lovin'” commercial was brilliant; but it was advertising the wrong damn company.
The loving thing for McDonald’s to do would be to shut down its entire business and stop selling garbage food that makes people fat and sick. That would be true love. (But I digress.)
As for Whole Foods’ campaign, I agree intellectually with their content (promoting sustainable food and farming, humane treatment of animals, etc), but their DELIVERY was as disappointing as a lukewarm shower on a freezing cold day.
We want more, Whole Foods! Make us feel alive!
Stop apologizing and defending your prices, and inspire us to rise up to become your devoted customers!
For good companies like Whole Foods to succeed, I believe they need to take more creative risks in their marketing.
Like, 1000x more creative.
I never see WF taking any risks…they’re too polite and bland in their campaigns.
And that’s sad, because they’ve truly been a force for positive change in the world. They deserve more customers.
They fail to connect with an audience that would be fantastic for them: people who legitimately believe in organic values, but believe more that they can’t afford to live that way because of the “high cost.”
If I was WF, I would use contrast marketing to make the cost of their products irrelevant.
I’d show the differences between their food and competitors’ food in vivid detail:
Show the f#%king feces that conventionally raised chickens miserably roll around in. Then contrast that with clean, happy free-range chickens…followed by a package of Whole Food organic eggs.
Tagline: “Yes, the competitors are cheaper. Now you know why.”
But that’s just me.
Talk soon,
Michelle Lopez
P.S. Want to take more creative risks in your marketing? Get YouTube scripts, landing page copy, and postcards that push emotional hot buttons and drive sales. Email me to get started.
Michelle Lopez is a writer, editor, and copywriter with a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder.