Controversy in marketing

PBL 7 - Problem: The role of controversy in marketing

Learning objectives:

                                 1. What causes controversy and how to deal with it?

                                 2. Intentional and unintentional controversy

                                 3. Cultural norms in marketing

 

What causes controversy and how to deal with it?

Among a thousand of ads everyday one way to make their ads remain in consumers’ brand is to be different, interesting and controversial. A shock advertisement will provoke discussion on its products or services as it gets everyone talking on social and; therefore, increases the chance they will be repeated and discussed in public. The controversial topics are generally more interesting than other conventional issues. People love to talk about interesting or recent topics as it makes them look good and trendy to others.

However, it could be a downside when a company is trying to court their products publicity in controversial ways. A controversial topic is somehow uncomfortable to talk about and; therefore, decreases the likelihood of discussion.

The controversial topics are mostly related to politics, religion, discrimination, gender equality/inequality, etc.

In order to deal with a controversial advertising:

 + Advertising must reach on an emotional level

+ The content must tie to the core message of the campaign, only be shocking is not enough

+ Recognise the different forms of controversy (Lehr, 2016)

• Shocking or unexpected campaign: the content focuses only on delivering surprising results.
• Taboo campaign: the content focuses on issues which are not often discussed publicly ( Sexually suggestive emojis campaign  -  https://www.dred.com/uk/sexually-suggestive-emojis/ )
• Debatable campaign: the content shows the data or facts from different both sides of arguments and gives readers a chance to drive a conversation or discussion.

+ Rather present the facts than present an opinion. Experience has shown that most of the successful controversial advertising campaign let the data speak for itself. They just give the facts and let the public drives a discussion automatically

+ Conduct research to make sure that you know your content very well

Intentional and unintentional controversy

According to Rogue Creative (2015),

 

Intentional controversial marketing is when a company is aware of the impact of the controversial ads on publicity. For instance, Paddy Power is a king of making controversial advertising campaign, and they are aware of the reaction from the audiences towards their ads, and they create these controversial with a clear purpose to get everyone talking on social about their brand, to get noticed and gain more publicity from the audiences.

With the same goal as the Irish bookmaker – Paddy Power, the Protein World has tried to create a controversial marketing by portraying a topic “Beach body ready”. At that time they were unaware that many other brands are fighting against the image that they are creating. Their unintentional controversial marketing strategy failed completely at that time.

Cultural norms in marketing

Cultural norms are the standard that people live by and they keep people in one particular region or community moving in a similar direction. When talking about the cultural norms in marketing which influence buying decisions of consumers, we take the two aspects of cultures into consideration. They are the dominant culture and the subcultures of the society ("The Impact of Cultural Values on Marketing Ethics", 2014)

 Dominant culture

The dominant culture of a society comprises language, religion, values, rituals and social customs of a country or community

Cultural values of the society generally refer the social acceptance and social rejection towards individual’s behaviour. Different cultures result in different values and expectations. For example, in some European countries, they are more individualistic than in some Asian countries. Therefore, the European will consider their own personal preferences when making any buying decisions. On the other hand, the buying decisions of the Asian consumers are likely based on “group preferences”, in other words, they might consider whether or not a product also meets their family’s needs.

Language is a symbol of cultural pride and a centrepiece when making an international marketing campaign. While some countries are quite open (-minded) and easy to adapt other cultures, others might stay on their own cultural heritage and barely adapt different cultures. Hence, when a company decides to make the message global, they should consider the cultural contents and the translation of their message in different languages which are also critical.

Subcultures

Many marketers often think that studying the dominant culture is enough and overlook the subcultures of the society. Subcultures refer to groups of people within a culture which differentiate themselves from the culture of society. It could be material cultures, belief systems, religious and political differences.