Kiss Bad News on The Lips

We are drowning in a daily bouillabaisse of bad economic news. What’s a marketer to do? In crafting your PR message and strategy it comes down to three choices:

1. Ignore it:
What bad news? What’s that got to do with me? After all, I am promoting diamond rings and everyone needs one, so just stop whining and buy my shiny diamonds.

2. Circumvent it:
Let them know you know, then tell the world.
Why, it’s not really a problem. Hey, we’ve got diamond rings and maybe people are buying fewer diamond rings right now, but people always need diamond rings at some point, so buy our super diamond rings, ok?

When you ignore The Bad News you sidestep the bleeding 500 lb. gorilla in the room. Today’s Page One Story. What we marketers need to do is…

3. Embrace Bad News:
Look it square in the eye and yes, kiss it on the lips!

Kiss Bad News on the Lips: 2 Case Studies

Get amorous with Bad News to create compete in a tough environment. This could be your most powerful strategy of all when any other approach give you a cognitive dissonance headache in a market riddled with concern and imminent financial meltdown. Here are some smart brands showing how it’s done:

1. Hyundai: Embrace The Lost Job While other auto marketers were busy dropping prices or applying the Ignore it, Circumvent It approaches, Hyundai wrapped their arms around the bad news and grabbed onto a new promotional approach. The gorilla in the room. If I buy a car, what happens when I join the 4 million who’ve lost their jobs? Hyundai puckered up and embraced the bad news. They amazed the market with their Hyundai Assurance Offer.
2. Snuggie: Embrace The Unaffordable Bills A blanket with arms might be an embarrassment when the economy is chugging along, but Snuggie quite literally embraced the bad news! “You want to keep warm but you don’t want to raise your heating bill”

But what about that Diamond Rings I talked about last time? DeBeers, The King of Diamond Marketing, didn’t Ignore It or Circumvent It when they had to deal with Xmas 2008. Adam Hanft in The Daily Beast described their campaign: “They are acting more boldly and directly than Hank Paulson: They are making the case that even though Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers have disappeared—and the Big Three and Citigroup hover on the edge of vanishing—a diamond is forever.”

How did they do it? Doubled their ad budget and ran ads with the headline:
“Here’s to Less”

Now that’s Embracing Bad News! How about your marketing? How can you Embrace The Bad News? Add your comments and let me know.