Many of the most successful brands use subtle marketing techniques – including product placements, exclusive offers, and celebrity endorsements – to grow their customer base and establish a loyal following. These companies understand that exposure to a brand, no matter how subtle, plants seeds that have an influence over one’s purchasing habits. Subtle marketing is a pervasive tactic because it has been proven to be effective.
Companies use subtle marketing techniques because they understand that making a consumer aware of a brand is often as effective as pitching that brand. Product placements, for example, do not explicitly advertise a given product, but they make potential consumers aware of the product in a positive way. If you enjoyed the show or movie in which the product appeared, by association you are more likely to carry a positive view of that product away from the experience. Despite a minimal awareness of this phenomenon, when you are later faced with a purchasing decision, the latent positive experience of the brand in question may make the difference that leads to a sale.
If these techniques had not been proven effective, they would cease to be pursued. The advertising market invests billions of dollars each year in market research. Advertisers want and need to know what techniques are effective and which ones fall short. As a general rule, any technique which you observe is being employed over a course of years works. With the amount of research behind these decisions, and the dollars at stake, unsuccessful methods are quickly replaced.
Another technique which falls into both the direct and the subtle category is celebrity endorsements. On the one hand, the idea of a celebrity spokesperson who comes out in favor of a brand is very familiar. The celebrity works to directly deliver the message that he or she is a user and supporter of the brand. The message that is meant to be sent is that the fans of that celebrity should be a user of the product as well. The reasoning on this point is twofold: first, fans wish to be like those they admire and may therefore use the same products; the second, somewhat more subtle message is that the celebrity who can afford to choose any product has selected this particular one.
The other side of the celebrity endorsement is the subtle one. This is another version of product placement and is often more explicit that direct advertising. This method is particular useful with athletes. If a professional athlete wears a specific brand of clothing or uses a specific piece of equipment as a part of his or her career, the message sent is far more powerful. Consumers are sophisticated to know that while a company can pay a celebrity a sufficiently high some to appear in an advertisement for a product they only moderately support, if that product is a part of that person’s professional career, that is a real endorsement. The same criteria apply to musicians and other celebrities – if an individual is regularly on a social networking site or seen frequenting a particular clothing store, or even eating at a national chain of restaurants, it is a more powerful endorsement than the explicit pitch.
A company that wishes to successfully grow its brand awareness must use this type of approach. While it can be costly in the immediate-term (these types of marketing can be very expensive as competition for quality product placements is fierce), the long-run effect is undeniable. Planting seeds through subtle marketing is the single best way to grow a brand, and the rewards can be vast because once the brand is established and loyalty is formed, sales are automatic and recurring.
Overall, the use of subtle marketing techniques to quietly work a brand into the subconscious of potential consumers is a time-tested and effective way to build a brand’s dominance and establish a core customer base. From careful product placements to the explicit and implicit celebrity endorsement, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. Companies that are not already taking advantage of this type of marketing should recognize that the benefits far outweigh the costs.
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