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It was “Lord Coldemort & You’re a Blizzard Harry” that really did us in.
As far as Scottish snowplow names go, that’s a damn good one. Of course, not many people would name snowplows (though Traffic Scotland’s Trunk Road Gritter Tracker does), so the competition, admittedly, isn’t all that fierce. And that’s exactly the point.
We reflected on this for a minute, realizing that, often, the most unexpected experiences are often the most memorable. (Example: How likely are you to forget, now, that Scotland names its snowplows?)
While brand recall is built on consistency and repetition, the prompts here are generally thought of as components of big advertising. And yet there’s something to be said for little things and their ability to prompt unexpected reactions:
A thank you note with your Mid Day Squares order
The founder of ChipMonk Baking responding to your customer service questions
A brand that refunds your order before you return it
Byron Sharp, one of the most impactful and polarizing marketing figures there is, would tell you that how we react to advertising doesn’t matter insomuch as the fact that we react. From his blog:
“Some advertising creates a purchase intention, gaining a reaction like “I should buy that” or “that’s interesting, I must check that out”. It’s commonly assumed that such advertising must be more sales effective, but this does not follow. Memory structures, even if they don’t result in intentions, still cause sales – decades of research shows that most sales typically come from people who had not formed an intention (Juster, 1960). One reason is that intentions are memories too, and subject to faulty recall, so even firm intentions are weakly motivational.
A similar point can be made about brand preference or attitude. Some advertising, much of it being quite similar or identical in style to intention forming advertising, generates a reaction like “that’s good” or “that’s the brand for me”. Again, it is commonly assumed that such advertising must be more sales effective. But again such attitudes are usually weakly motivational, because they are often not recalled in buying situations.”
Sharp’s use of two spaces after a period notwithstanding, this is a pretty controversial take. We could debate this—and people do—but that’s beside the point we’re aiming to make here.
Inside Sharp’s position is the simple message that having a reaction is good for brand recall. And DTC has an incredible advantage here.
While retail-only brands have in-person advantages, they also have to spend heavily in other areas to increase brand recall through repetition. In fact, almost everything they do to increase recall requires money. In DTC, though, there are simply more opportunities to increase recall—and the cost of those opportunities is often far cheaper than the premium a retail-only brand needs to pay.
If we’re to take Sharp at his word and agree that simply having memories is more important than driving purchase intent and creating emotional reactions, why then don’t more brands start with the little things?
It’s worth questioning, because little things today are the most unexpected (and, therefore, the most memorable). Like learning Scotland has a snowplow named “Credence Clear-Road Revival.”