By Robert Wheatley

Working with the collective jitters

People are more media aware than at any other time in history. Our exposure to news and information, immediately, on platforms we sit in front of or use on a minute-to-minute basis means nothing escapes us. And as media have a habit of following the lead of other media, well, you can see that stories and messages get repeated in all corners. And what’s the news of the moment? It’s hell out there…

The collective din of reporting on the fix we’re in economically is pervasive and unrelenting. So it’s no surprise if the consumer community holds back and digs in. We are together, as a whole, uneasy. Just one look at the IRA or 401k-account statement and you understand personally the scope of the problem. Compounded also by our inability to control these events or stop what appears to be unstoppable. Thus the consumer jitters spreads like a viral epidemic.

Worry about jobs, the future, business results, et al sits on top of the more everyday versions of nervousness around minor relationship struggles, disobedient children, or the housepainter who botched the job and suddenly won’t return your call. It’s a consistent low hum of stress that is always there, prompting us to reign in our more free-spending behaviors. So people trade down, channel shift to discount outlets, cut out the indulgences and watch the pennies. It feels good, or at least better, to do this.

We buy emotionally not rationally. We can’t possibly examine all products and services available to us in a rationale manner anyway. So emotions become the shortcut to decision by operating just below the more taxing cognitive level. Knowing this and that fear is a destabilizing emotion, what can marketers do to better align themselves in the frozen state of consumer queasiness?

Here comes Hyundai with a moment of brilliance. You can return the car if you lose your job. That says, we know how you’re feeling, we understand the jitters and how the news around us gives everyone pause. So, we want to help you with an offer that heads right to the heart of the matter – your ability to deal with a car payment should misfortune hand you a pink slip. Wow. Unusual. Unexpected. Friendly.

Where is our center, our happy place where control, stability and meaning reside in steadfast manner? It is perceptibly within our personal relationships (family) as well as the home and hearth (place). How can your brand align itself effectively and tangibly with ways to help us exercise our need for frugal? How can the emotions of worry be alleviated in some fashion through a unique offering and subsequent communications of same? How can we bring the feeling of family, home and hearth and the sense of comfort it represents to our conversations with consumers?

What is your marketing “thaw” strategy to take the “q” out of queasy and replace it with “you get me, understand me”? There are creative, innovative ways to do this.

Does this storm presage the return of the family meal? (Yes!!) Can brands play a role in family activities and burrowing that may take place when the world outside seems uncertain? (Yes, again). If consumers are eating and gathering more often at home rather than going out, what can you do to help make this time fun, interesting and satisfying? What do you think?

Or if not, you can just keep doing what you’re doing and let the chips fall. Now that’s heartburn material…