Brands for the Bored

Have just found a little entry on the brandtarot blog which touches on something I've been thinking about...ie marketing and the 'less involved'. Whilst there is of course absolute validity in the marketing move towards trying to ENGAGE consumers with your brand - and the Web offers all sort of opportunities here it's just worth remembering that this approach will simply not work for everyone. It really does concern me (partially admittedly for selfish/business reasons) that this neglects large amounts of people who simply don't care all that much! (And let's face it, there's quite a lot of low involvement sectors where most consumers' attitudes would be one of indifference!) And as John Grant and his correspondents point out, it is the less involved who may actually be the ones who really look to brands to 'guide them through the maze'. 'Expert' consumers who are happy to spend time helping brand 'owners' are much likely to be into product detail and - to some extent - miss the point of marketing/branding. At the same time it would be hard work to engage those in a natural dialogue who don't normally give your sector much of a thought without the help of your friendly qual researcher. (Phew, existence justified for another day!) Anyway, this has some implications on the role of blogs as research tools - more on this soon!