Sad culture is popular, so is heartfelt marketing far behind?

Looking at the popular advertising cases today, it is not so much that the culture of mourning has become popular, but rather that marketers understand the hearts of consumers better; it is not that they know what we want, but that they are more willing to listen to us and know how to express what we want to express.

My colleagues often complain to me recently: The work is so tiring that they feel like a dog.

If you feel tired like a dog all day,

Then you have a big misunderstanding. Dogs are not as tired as you!

Sad or not?

funeral.

I was eating noodles downstairs yesterday and saw this sentence framed on the wall of the noodle shop.

What a depressing restaurant!

Okay, today we are going to talk about sadness and sadness culture.

1. What is the culture of mourning?

There is actually no accurate definition of mourning culture. Let’s first look at a few popular cases.

1. Rainbow Band’s hit song “Feeling Hollowed Out”

In August 2016, a song called "Feeling My Body Being Hollowed Out" became popular overnight across the country. The serious and elegant music choir sang "nonsense" in a serious and proper manner, creating a Weibo topic reading volume of nearly 400 million and Weibo Miaopai video playback volume of more than 30 million times.

From the perspective of music being pleasant and relaxing, I wouldn’t play it on repeat. But I am willing to forward the message because the lyrics are so wonderful, "Baby, work overtime/I feel my body is drained/I'm tired like a dog/I'm not tired at all/I haven't removed my makeup for 18 days/I've been wearing monthly contact lenses for two and a half years/I have a disordered schedule but I'm getting fatter/I'm here to conquer the North Fifth Ring Road/I live in Longhuiguan/The sofa is my harbor" directly points out the pain of young people working overtime.

2. H5 with "This is intentionally left blank"

On the eve of the Qingming Festival in 2017, an H5 message with the words “This field is intentionally left blank” swept the advertising circle, the Internet circle, the media circle, and spread to the entire white-collar working class.

The protagonist of the story is a human with a dog's head, who is always working and busy. I fall into bed drowsy in the morning, squeeze into the subway dejectedly, then type desperately and reply to emails, revising countless emails over and over again. When I get home, I continue to work overtime. I only sleep 3 or 4 hours a day. It's all work, and I work overtime every day. I go crazy!

Many people’s first feeling after watching it is: Ah, this is my day, it hurts my heart!

3. " Sangcha " pop-up store opens on May 1

During the May Day holiday in 2017, a tea shop that "makes tea with tears" opened "depressedly". It attracted a lot of attention after only four days of operation, and attracted widespread attention and discussion from the media and netizens.

The poster copy before Sangcha opened did not directly introduce what was special about the tea, but simply used a few common jokes.

“Problems that can be solved with money are not problems, but how to get money is your biggest problem.

"A salted fish will eventually turn over, but after turning over, it will still be a salted fish."

"Once we're done with this one, we can move on to the next one."

In addition, the six types of milk tea launched by Sangcha all have very "sad" names. "Your life is an oolong macchiato. Come on, you are the fattest black tea latte. Your ex-boyfriend is living a better life than me. Black tea. Working overtime but not getting a pay raise is green tea..."

4. "No Hope" Yogurt

In 2017, another yogurt that became popular was a yogurt that felt depressed and "hopeless".

My girlfriend said,

You are the most skilled among your friends.

It hurts...

The shopping guide said,

Sorry, this is the maximum size.

It hurts...

My blind date asked me:

Have you bought a house?

It hurts...

To sum up these cases, these sad sentences are common online jokes that we are familiar with, and sad culture is a self-deprecating joke made by young people who are experiencing stressful situations such as overtime work, lack of sleep, no time for love, and inability to buy a house. Use mourning to comfort yourself. Even if your dreams don't come true, you will have a way out and it will alleviate the pain in your heart. Sad culture is a way for young people to vent their negative emotions through the Internet.

2. Why is the culture of mourning popular?

After Ge Youpan appeared out of nowhere in the summer of 2016, BoJack Horseman, Sad Frog and other characters with "sorrowful" characteristics became popular. Although marketing copy is emerging in an endless stream, the explosion of this kind of content with an obvious sense of "sadness" has concentrated in the past one or two years.

The popularity of mourning culture stems from the fact that more and more young people are bidding farewell to campus and entering the workplace. We want and think a lot, but there is a huge gap between reality and ideals. In the fierce competition environment and under social opinion, we want a better life but find ourselves powerless. We are not as awesome as we imagined in the ivory tower. Life is not only about the present, but also about the distant future. The culture of mourning is our young people’s gentle complaint against this world.

3. Marketing enlightenment brought by mourning culture

Sad culture is the way young people communicate with the world. When we see the words we often say appear in product advertisements, we feel friendly and down-to-earth.

The popularity of mourning culture confirms a direction for marketing upgrade: marketing is not just about random YY, it requires heartfelt effort.

One of the major directions of this round of marketing upgrade is to be sincere, which has three core points:

1. Marketing upgrades have evolved from product functional demands to insights into individual spiritual pursuits

In the past, we have always emphasized in marketing how good a product is, how practical it is, and how it can solve a real pain point problem. In this round of marketing upgrades, users' pursuit of spiritual level exceeds their pursuit of practicality. In other words, after more than ten years of great material enrichment and improvement, the practicality of products has gradually become consistent.

For example, a can of herbal tea, no matter how you try to change it, is ultimately a thirst-quenching drink. You say it is authentic, has a traditional recipe, and is designed to prevent people from getting a sore throat, but for every 10 cans of herbal tea sold, 7 are of this kind. If I am the first person to say this, then to a certain extent, advertising bombardment can stimulate users' nerves and induce behavioral attempts. However, if this brand marketing strategy does not adjust and change with the changes in consumer consumption trends over time, it will eventually be abandoned by consumers.

Why?

Because I don't care.

Because if you use your body for a long time, you will get tired and feel nothing.

It is becoming increasingly important for brands to learn to be sincere, which means respecting and understanding users with empathy. This brings us to the second core of marketing upgrade.

2. Marketing upgrade from single product (brand) value output to two-way communication between users and products​​

After gaining insight into consumers’ spiritual pursuits, products must achieve two-way communication with users. The consumption logic here is that when we see a product, that is, we see it with our own eyes and stay for a few seconds, "I know what you are thinking - I understand how you feel - let me express my understanding - come on, try this, I am suitable for it."

The practice of this logic requires standing in the user's perspective, relying on scenario-based, concrete, and emotional elements to touch the user's true thoughts.

The author once gave an example that brands should avoid being self-satisfied when communicating with users.

Do you think that as long as the product communicates with the user, you have touched the user's emotions?

Actually not.

"Let me occupy your heart."

"OK."

When did humans start chatting like this???

(Picture from the Internet)

• Nice to meet you
• Because you are beautiful
• Support you for life

I don’t know if it’s because I’m really tired like a dog, but these anthropomorphic expressions in the copy didn’t touch me much. Of course, different people have different opinions. Maybe when I get home from get off work at 6 o’clock in the evening and see this bottle of drink, I’ll feel very happy. To verify the final effect of this product, let’s see if we can still see it in convenience stores in a week or two.

3. Choose the right person to be with

If you ask me whether Sangcha’s marketing is good or not, I would say it is good. I think it is basically useful for most young people because they are under various pressures and it is easy for them to be touched by these sentences. The target group of Sangcha is young people. But for older people who are accustomed to brands with a tone that is completely opposite to the sad culture, this may not be the case. They have basically left the army of "hopeless" people who have no money, no partner, no house or car, and most of them are in a relatively stable living condition, and have a low level of acceptance of the culture of mourning. If you try using the Sangcha method on Melatonin, you’ll probably be finished.

Likewise, is chicken soup good? I also think it is good. There is nothing wrong with it. Its existence is reasonable and there must be consumers.

Sad culture is actually the same as chicken soup, it’s just another bowl of toxic chicken soup in a different can.

Where the voice of the user group you choose lies will determine the direction of your marketing. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all product.

Looking at the popular advertising cases today, it is not so much that the culture of mourning has become popular, but rather that marketers understand the hearts of consumers better; it is not that they know what we want, but that they are more willing to listen to us and know how to express what we want to express.

Moreover, there are so many things among young people that are "worth complaining about", "worth touching" and "worth moving" that need to be explored.

So, after the craze of the sad culture, is the heartfelt marketing far behind?

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @ Mr. StarYan compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map