In the latest issue of The Economist, I found this article very interesting. A challenge to the old adage, “Sex Sells,” Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham of University College London carried an experiment which explains sexually enticing commercials don’t help people remember it.
They carried their experiment on 60 young adults and exposed them to a series of telly episodes which had both titillating materials and no such eroticism. During the commercial break the respondents were exposed to series of advertisements which again had both sexual implicit content and the ones without. It was found that men were most likely to remember sexual advertisements whereas women were more likely to remember non-sexual advertisement.
Now I don’t know how much of it holds good for us Indians but one thing is for sure ‘Sexing Up’ ads won’t work in the long run. Though we created Kamasutra, we don’t like too much of explicit ‘
We Indians are evolving. We are in a period of realism. Building aspiration through fantasy is no more the rule of the game. We are moving from being a value seeker to an experience seeker. Selling erotic dreams might not be an effective route anymore, especially with product categories like body care/hair care, fashion etc. Smart lines like, “Are you game?” “Get naughty” may not do the trick anymore.
6 comments:
dude,
try telling that to brand custodians of AXE!!!
depends on the product in question. if you're going to try and sell cement using sex, then all the best (:
Lol, yes do agree with you Maninder, 'how else do I sell lingerie without selling seduction if that's what you are saying.' Yes, it is indeed category specific. But interesting is the fact that people are shunning away from eroticism.
Hey, can you name few Indian categories/products/brands which use sexual connotation for its communication?
Do you remember MR Cofee? It created a huge controversy. I think the controversy gave mileage to the brand more than the actual media spends. MR coffee was taking on Instant Coffees and it had the suggestive visual of a couple and a headline reading " Real Pleasure Does not come in an Instant" Oh boy what a storm it created.
The sexual overtones must be restricted to the product category . Ofcourse no point in selling condoms or lingerie without an element of naughtiness. But sometimes it becomes too boring and actually puts off people when trying to use Sex for every category. Soap, FM Radio, Fitness Centres, Fast Food Joints, etc
I think the temptation always is to simplify the debate to does sex sell or not, or is it relevant to the product category or not, etc.
The truth, in my opinion, is far more complex than that. Figuring it out and making it work is the 'creative' element of advertising.
Sex will sell in a market where people are more repressed. Period. I doubt sex will sell very well in Holland. What sells has much to do with what one wants more of. In India, everyone wants more sex. In some other countries, people want more of other things. Example: I think Yoga will sell in the West.
Now, if we were to read an article that researches Yoga and selling in India and arrives at the conclusion that Yoga is not a good tack to go with in the selling game, would we infer that Yoga doesn't sell? I think it depends on the people we're talking to.
Incidentally, Maninder, you can sell cement very well using sex. The key to creative thinking is coming up with lateral connections. Try hard enough, and a connection can be found.
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