Ever since the cultural zeitgeist decided focus its attention on conglomerates monopolizing the market and strangling out smaller, mom and pop companies, consumers have shifted towards the big=bad mentality. What Walmarts of the world offers are cost-savings with brand labels so big they became as generic as the product category. You're not buying orange juice, you're buying Tropicana, but it's the same meaning to you, really.
It harkens back to the most base form of products, buying for a needs and function basis, no emotional strings attached. These are the original and oldest form of consumers, the value-conscious, the ones that are closer to the bottom rung of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The coupon clippers, the ones whose immediate focus is the price tag versus the brand promise because honestly, that's all they can afford. Thing is about these consumers, they don't need much advertising. It'd be great if you can give them a lovely story about the product and where it came from, but what they really care about is that it's a dollar fifty cheaper than the rest of the competitors.
Hence why any brand or marketer who want to compete outside of the price ring, which is pretty much most brands (otherwise, just be generic and spend your marketing budget on coupons/sampling), need to focus on other brand offerings. People look for themselves in brands - besides the actual need for the product, they want a brand to reflect who they are, something they would use, something that screams 'them'. Brand stories emerge, happy - like-minded people using the product show up in ads, portraying how this brand is just like you and agrees with all your values and mindsets and lifestyles. Lots of brands are focusing on storytelling - the origins of their products, how they came to be, very much similar to what artisanal small mom-and-pop products naturally do. It personalizes these products - I'd much more likely buy say, a carton of eggs from the farmer's market because I know that these come from a farm upstate and the friendly people that sold those eggs were the same ones that actually took care of the chickens. I like that, it gives me a sense of community and contribution, like I'm actually helping these specific people and this was a true human transaction. Rather than say, picking up eggs mass produced at a supermarket, there's no human emotion, my money is just a drop in the well going into the pockets of shareholders that don't know I exist. People want to feel that their purchase matters. It's not just about knowing where the product came from, but where their money is going.
I just saw a commercial for Beats Music, that had an evocative narrative on the appreciation of music and how they weren't just technology, but integrating humanity into their technology so that the service you receive isn't an algorithm, but from people that respect and appreciate your need for music to act as the soundtrack for your life. It was great, because I had no clue what they were actually selling, but I wanted it. That's proof of how you sell a brand, not a product. I understood their ethos, it was exactly what I (and millions) feel about music. That's what I want to buy, and if I needed whatever product they were selling, headphones, music subscription service, etc. , I'd probably go with them. They got me to trust them as entities, and therefore, if I ever needed a music-specific product, I'd think of them first.
What was unnerving to me is that I am aware that Beats isn't an mom-and-pop and rather a huge conglomerate like most of the these ads popping up on prime time air lately. Target, P&G, Unilever - the one with the Swiffer ad and the old couple, they're all multi-conglomerates but speaking like real people. If these huge companies can paint themselves just as authentically and realistic as the real corner store upstate farm egg sellers, then what hope does the small-batch artisan have left? Their only competitive edge was that they had a personal story to peddle with their goods - these large corporations have started to peddle the same story (with cost savings, mass awareness and convenience). The new successful brands seem to be these artisanal conglomerates, huge companies with small beginnings and stories - creating personal relationships with you while in the mass grocery aisle.
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