Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev are taking a trip by train. Suddenly, the
train stops in the middle of nowhere. The three leaders start debating what to
do in order to get moving. “Lets explain to the engine-driver that it is in the
interest of the proletariat to immediately fix the problem!” says Lenin. “Lets
shoot the son of a bitch!” shouts Stalin. “No,” says Brezhnev, “lets just hop
up and down on our seats and pretend that the train is still running.”
This is one of the old
jokes that delighted Eastern Europeans during the time of communism. The main
point of the joke is that in the 1970’s and 1980’ the virus of communism was
dead. On the surface, there was still a ideological war going on; it
seemed that the Marxist-Leninist meme was full of life, threatening to flow
over the Berlin war and compete with the ideology of capitalism – but the folk wisdom knew
better: communism was dead and we were hopping up and down, pretending that it
was still alive.
Interestingly, if you
had sneaked across the iron curtain at the time and conducted a tracking study
with the Eastern Europeans, exploring the image of the communist party you
would have probably learned that the communist meme was sound and well –
scoring high on attributes such as dynamic, vital or innovative. You would have
learned this because people would have lied to the interviewers – protecting
themselves from troubles, splitting their personas into a public and a private
one.
The meme of communism
seems dead today. The victor is the ideology of capitalism and its great
insignias – the global brands. The global brands that have laddered up far, far
up from functional benefits to the heights of human truths. The brands that
have, from their heights, pointed a way for their consumers – to success,
happiness…and greed and neuroses.
The Western (and
Eastern) European consumers are still dutifully answering in tracking studies,
assigning attributes such as “dynamic” or “fun” to global brands of lemonades.
They don’t lie but they answer mechanically – most of the tracking studies are
designed to support such mechanical attribution of statements to brands.
Idealogical memes are like stars: we see their reflections long time after they
are cold and dead.
The “brand ideals” and
ideology, full of optimism and endless possibilities begin to really contrast
with the real lives of their consumers who are worried about their jobs and the
roofs over their heads.
What smart brands might
want to do now is to join their consumers on the way down the snakes - from the
heights of Maslow pyramid and an obsession with self-expression, to the basics
and back to home. And, as many observers have pointed out already, it might be
a healthy home coming that will let people rediscover forgotten values of
togetherness and simple pleasures. Brands could help down there by adding real
value and by being humble, helpful, incremental and entertaining without
preaching. Lego is a great example of this, its sales are up double
digits in the UK- as if consumers have suddenly remembered an old friend - real, solid, simple
and also genuine and creative. I think that brands can also learn
from the retail giants that have tried (mainly succesfully) to hide
their real size behind humble facade: Tesco's "little
help" is a great promise in a time of recession. An then there
are the entertainers, the "Fred Astairs" of this depression which are
warming us up without preaching - the "Dancing Eyebrows" created by
Fallon for Cadbury is a shining example of this trend.
It will be tough home
coming for some other brands - the larger than life balloons of hot air with
missions aimed at changing the world. Brands are ideas and ideas (and ideology
in the sense of a system of representation) die when the gap between them and
reality become too wide, too wide for even the dummiest consumer, brand manager
or a party member to believe in them.
(written for the April issue of the Research World, Esomar)
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