In our current wave of panel interviews we are asking business owners about the most appropriate ‘tone’ in advertising, given how they are feeling and the business conditions they are experiencing.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this issue of course – and in fact business owners often express quite contrasting views – but it is worth considering their opinions and comments to shed light on what is most likely to engage them. Accordingly, this update contains more SME comments than is usually the case so you can really understand where they are coming from.
Four key themes emerge …
Some want acknowledgement of how tough it’s been. This is very much the view of Victorian-SMEs.
Virtually all want some positivity. They want an uplifting message, so long as it isn’t over the top. They don’t want it gushy … but it HAS to contain a positive undercurrent.
It must be genuine/authentic. This is critical. Business owners can smell crap from 100 paces. The generic ‘we’re here for you’ simply won’t cut it.
They don’t want to be lectured to. A couple of brands have gone down this path and it is not what SMEs want to hear.
Notwithstanding the fact that some SMEs have never had it as good as they have in the past 18 months, all SMEs recognise that it has been a brutal period for others. They don’t think that this can be brushed under the carpet …
“I do think that overall, small business has been so belted in a lot of areas and I don’t think the Average Joe has any recognition of that. They’ve got all their banked money – because they haven’t been spending it – and they’re ‘all good thank you’ – and you’ve got people who are just hanging on for dear life. There has to be some recognition of that from businesses. So we can’t go back to what it was and we can’t go stiff-upper-lip everyone just get on with it – and I’m sick of this (hand-patting motion) ‘is everybody okay?’ – employees have got to get on with it too – but I feel that a lot of small businesses have just been smashed. And they talk about ‘we’re going to extend lending to small businesses’ – and it’s like ‘dude they’ve got to pay that bank – it’s not actually a lifeline!’” (HR Coach, Sole Trader)
“I think they’d do very well by saying ‘That was a crazy couple of years wasn’t it? That caught us all off guard’. So a bit of humility in there, a bit of ‘we didn’t even see that coming and we’re BIG! – and whatever you’ve suffered or felt as a result of it, we hope you’re okay’. So a little bit of empathy. But then lead to optimism … Show empathy, be optimistic and be relevant – relevant as in targeted – how and why … So show it in the ‘actuals’ – show it in the proof-points that are going to make my business perform better through using your business’s services.” (Fintech, 11 FTEs)
“I think supportive and understanding. ‘I really can see what you’ve been through and how that might feel and we’ve got your back. We’ll get you back up and running’. That’s the kind of feel that I think is needed right now.” (Restaurants/Functions Venue, 6 FTEs & Casuals)
“I want them to be positive. And I want them also to show respect for the small business and what we’ve actually been through. There are businesses that have kicked so many goals through Covid and done really well but there’s a whole bunch who are really struggling. And you’ve got that small business owner in the background who’s taken all that pressure and everything to get through, and it’s every minute of their day. The people that work in those big companies have no concept of what it’s like to live with ‘this is your life 24 hours a day’ – you don’t get to walk away from it, it’s with you all the time. They go home at night to their families but a small business owner doesn’t do that. And just to show that respect in some way. (Q : How can they show that respect?) I don’t know – actually having someone on the end of the line to talk to occasionally would be nice – not a recording or a bot telling you to message something.” (Cafe, 6 FTEs)
Despite the need for sensitivity that is self-evident from the above comments, business owners are insistent that any message has to be positive – not over the top, but nevertheless, positive …
“I think we’re past the point of apologising and the point of faux empathy. I feel like last year was all about, ‘Oh my God, thank you so much, you’re amazing, we’re all in this together’ and all that sort of stuff. I want to get back to having more fun – I want more smiles and I want something more upbeat ... I think we all want to see celebration ... I just think we want to see positivity because there’s been so much negativity.” (Gin Distillery, 50 FTEs)
“I think the vibe should be positive and upbeat. If you look back to post-war type scenarios if you want to relate Covid to a post-war situation, we see great booms in the economy and a great big re-set. I think it is upbeat and it should be upbeat. It’s created new opportunities if you look at the way the world’s pivoted. We’re actually looking now at better and different ways of working and to embrace that and move to the next level.” (Clinical Trials, 160 FTEs)
“I think people need to be confident. It’s extraordinary – if I speak to friends of ours in the US and UK, it appears as though the world’s opened and life is essentially back to normal. People are traveling, people are going to shows, people are basically living their lives. If I look locally, my sense is that people are fearful, they’re innumerate and they’re gullible, which means we’re going nowhere. So I think that large organisations need to be positive and bullish, otherwise we’ll end up staying in our cupboards forever and not getting anywhere.” (Training, Sole Trader)
“Everyone’s different and everyone’s affected in a different way. There’s definitely a Pheonix-rising-from-the-ashes story of ‘we’re on the other side, there’s light at the end of the tunnel’ but then there’s riots and crazy shit happening. So from an advertising perspective, I don’t think you can be TOO positive without being rude to those who have suffered and lost. But the negative-Nancy days are over, the complaining days are over.” (Hospitality, 70 FTEs + Casuals)
“You’ve still got to err on the side of cautious optimism, most definitely. And if you can house that by being sympathetic to the journey up to this point, then great. Only the most professional and most committed have survived. Why would you stay in a hospitality business if you weren’t passionate about it? Our guiding light comes back to relationships and it’s those relationships that we have with our suppliers, our staff, our guests that will always shine a light forward … So if someone can come and align themselves with that philosophy then there’s a really good chance that we’ll do business together.” (Restaurants, 30 FTEs & Casuals)
As we have noted countless times, business owners are ‘earthy pragmatists’ … and this comes across in their desire for authentic/real communications … “We need real. There’s so much bullshit out there at the moment and so much fake-ness about everything, the social media can now manipulate things so you don’t know what’s real and what’s untrue. I think for a brand to be really authentic is really important. I found a great example this week – there’s a society in the UK for stammerers! And their brand ad is incredible. It’s current, topical, on the money and it walks the line between political correctness and political incorrectness – just being authentic, and I thought it was amazing.” (Branding Consultancy, 11 FTEs)
“They need to be real. Like the Dominos CEO did this really well. I felt like I was connecting with him through social media and I was seeing him talking directly to me … But I think ‘real’, and being a ‘real’ person is what I think brands should be doing more of. Think of it from a politics point of view. When Scott Morrison puts something up about some policy – well that’s great and you need to get that across – but when you see him cooking his curry in the lodge – I like that. And Dan Andrews – I liked it when he shared his vaccination certificates of his family all being vaccinated – that says ‘hey we need to all get together and get our vaccinations done’ better than ‘Hey Victoria, man up, roll up your sleeves’ – that’s not personal. I think brands need to be more personal and need to have more real humans.” (Real Estate Agent, 40 FTEs)
Business owners simply don’t respond to lectures – in fact they find being lectured to quite insulting …
“One thing I do hate is when you’re getting preached at to do something. Like one brand have got ‘jab’ (in the logo) – well I just don’t like being lectured to. I’ve already got the vaccination and all that stuff, I’ve got nothing against it, but just don’t lecture me about it. And don’t lecture others. Sure there’s 10 or 15% that don’t want to do it and they have their reasons, but we’re focusing on such a small minority that we’ve got 80% anyway – so why make a big noise about it? Stay out of it.” (AI Consultancy, 65 FTEs)
“The hairs on the back of my head stand up with the lecturing coming out. You can see Sydney-centric advertising coming into Victoria and it’s lacking any understanding or empathy for what any of us have been through. It’s hard to explain, they’ve had their lockdowns but it’s nothing compared to the rounds of psychological coping that have gone on in a Victorian context – and you can sense that it the ads. Don’t whitewash the advertising … Businesses say ‘we’re there for you’, but in reality their processes are so broken that they’re incapable of it – or ‘we’re right behind you’ and you look behind and there’s nobody there to be seen … Get your internals sorted out and support your own customer-base first and foremost, but don’t make promises or try the PR bit that you’re there for businesses.” (Business Services, 250 FTEs)
“A lot of people have been through a lot of hard stuff and you don’t know what other people have been through. The big companies that come across as confident – well that’s part of being in business I suppose – but anyone smaller I’d expect to touch base and feel their way a bit. We’ve had contact from one of our suppliers who rang out of the blue and said ‘look we’re just ringing to see how everybody’s going – lots of people haven’t ordered, we’re not singling you out – but everybody’s going through this, lots of people haven’t ordered, how did you get through it, what can we do for you?’. Not ‘this is what we think you should do’, it’s more ‘what can we do for you’, so that was really good.” (Photocopying/Print Shop, Partnership)
“I like more of a caring tone ... the campaign that springs to mind that I really warm to is the NRMA one with the koala ... Having been through a crisis and general community care and caring for each other – that tone definitely speaks to me.” (Communications Consultancy, 20 FTEs)
Conclusion
Developing a clear, tight messaging targeting SMEs is never easy but right now it is particularly difficult. They have encountered such a range of experiences that one size simply cannot fit all. But there ARE clear themes as to what they want – namely, a positive but genuine message that isn’t excessive or gushy. They don’t want to be lectured to, and some acknowledgement of what they have been through is of value. Easier said than done maybe …
