It's the most cynical time of the year

Marketing is a cynical profession. It is your job to do whatever it takes to promote a product or service so that it stands out from the masses and people choose you. At this time of year, marketing often relies less on unique selling points and more on tugging heart strings. Decisions taken based on emotions are by definition less rational and people are therefore more likely to make a choice they otherwise wouldn’t. There is no time like Christmas time for manipulating people through marketing.

There's John Lewis's Monty the penguin advert for starters. Before we’d seen it the ground was already laid in the press. We were told it was going to be emotional. We were told a million pounds had been spent on it, so it was bound to be special. John Lewis went straight for the heart strings, and to be fair it’s a nicely made ad with a cute pay-off. That’s all it is artistically, but this is where the marketing genius kicks in. John Lewis have already sold out of cuddly Monty toys at £95 a time. And if you take a step back and realise that £95 for a soft toy that you neither wanted nor needed before seeing that advert is a bit steep, then you can salve your conscience in the knowledge that thousands of Montys have been donated to the WWF to help them raise funds. 

Of course the next phase has already kicked in. Cuddly Montys will be back in stock before long, and Monty cufflinks and other trinkets are also on offer. Marketeers are laughing at the British public right now, but the British public are complicit. They love getting swept up in such things. Penguin mania will hit the nation, and while we are in the store getting our Monty ties for Dad and socks for Grandad, we will probably convince ourselves to buy other things from John Lewis. It’s a classic bait and switch. 

While Lidl’s advertising campaign focuses on their products and their USP (‘we are cheaper than the others but still good quality’), Aldi has tried to tug more at the heart strings but comes up on the wrong side of cheesy. Sainsbury's, on the other hand, have produced an advert that is not about them at all, and is instead about the WW1 Christmas Day football truce. Many people are lauding it. They are finding it moving, and they are applauding Sainsbury's for paying tribute to the soldiers of WW1. But let’s not kid ourselves; this advert is every bit as cynical as the John Lewis advert. Let’s examine why:

1, Subject matter and timing. While the other major supermarkets launched their campaigns in the preceding week, Sainsbury's launched theirs on the 12^th of November. The day after Armistice Day. All those poppies at the Tower of London, all of the WW1 centenary tv programmes, the Remembrance Day services and media coverage built up an appetite for the Sainsbury's advert. Subconsciously Sainsbury's has become a part of all that. Right now, we are at our most vulnerable to this ad pulling at our heart strings, and it tugs at them with gusto. 

2, Low profile. By not being about Sainsbury's itself this advert actually draws more attention to Sainsbury's. By being so emotive it goes directly up against the John Lewis advert, and now people are talking about which advert is better. Don’t get me wrong, if the advert had ended with British and German veterans bumping into each other in the confectionery aisle and recognising each other it would have gone down as the most tasteless advert in history. But by leaving Sainsbury's out of the advert it has gained much more coverage than its Jamie Oliver led predecessors ever garnered.

3, The chocolate bar. Guess what you can buy in Sainsbury's? It’s the penguin all over again, and of course once you are in the store you are at the mercy of the in-store marketing.

4, The charity. If people have lingering doubts about the good taste of using the war dead to sell turkeys, nuts and crackers then have no fear: the Royal British Legion are supported by Sainsbury's through this campaign and the sale of the chocolate bars. Ok, so they weren’t supported by adverts and chocolate bars in advance of the 11^th November when just about every remembrance poppy was sold; their backing is just in the run up to Christmas. All the shareholders of Sainsbury's care about is what is best for the shareholders of Sainsbury's. The RBL endorsement lends legitimacy to the campaign, but if it wasn’t good for business Sainsbury's would be running a different campaign.

The marketeers knew what they were doing. They knew this advert would touch on people’s genuine sentiments. It has created a buzz. It has got people talking about Sainsbury's in a way that puts the store alongside the country's most prestigious store (John Lewis) in people’s minds. The marketeers eschewed the obvious family dinner table, Christmas sweaters, celebrities, special offers, tinsel and baubles and came up with something unique and memorable. It is a brilliant advert. Fantastically well made and utterly utterly cynical. And the fact that most people won’t even notice that they are being emotionally manipulated shows that it is a stroke of marketing genius. But the only reason it is on our screens is because Sainsbury's think it will make people spend more in their stores.They are using long dead soldiers to sell stuff.

It will be interesting to see whether Sainsbury's have supplementary advertising up their sleeves of a more traditional nature, to carry them through the Christmas period. But if nothing else they have ensured that Monty won’t get things all his own way this Christmas.