This LA Times article was extremely interesting since it explores how different advertisers are tailoring their advertising messages to pitch value and savings during this harsh economic environment. Advertisers who have pitched themselves on platforms of luxury or convenience are now changing their tune since those qualities are valued less when money is tight. What is especially interesting is how luxury goods companies like BMW are changing their tune to promote value and savings while competitors like Mercedes are not. (Bad move, Mercedes.)

Even luxury brands are promoting value. The current ads for BMW’s dealer group, for example, focus less on performance and prestige and more on safety and savings. The campaign reminds potential buyers that BMW offers a four-year no-cost maintenance plan.

“The message we feel is most in line with the times is reminding people about our value-for-money equation,” said Shawn Ticehurt, BMW North America’s marketing and events communications manager.

The team at NETexponent brainstormed this very topic a few weeks ago during one of our townhall meetings. We discussed how our clients could tailor their marketing messages so they appeal to the current consumer mindset. The team came up with some great ideas and here are just a few:

• iChapters.com offers students textbooks at a fraction of the cost- a key marketing message to be highlighted. They also offer immediate gratification since they are downloadable textbooks. Focusing more on the savings compared to print and less on the immediate gratification should prove helpful.
• audible.com allows people to purchase downloadable audio books one at a time or through their subscription plans. The subscription plans allow consumers to purchase books at a significant savings off the cover price. This could prove to be a much greater value proposition than the convenience of the download or their vast selection of 50,000+ books.
• The Financial Times newspaper provides great world news coverage, not just financial news as the name may lead you to believe. In this market more and more people are looking for news about the world abroad for financial and political reasons. It’s also great to get a world view on the US to see how others view us. FT’s messaging could benefit from a focus on this value proposition perhaps even more than a focus on price. Timely news with a world perspective is very important in this crazy environment.
• Even The Wine Enthusiast can pitch themselves on value if they promote their clearance section more as well as selling their own brand of products which can be much cheaper than pricier alternatives.

I am sure that some of our affiliates can also find interesting ways to pitch our clients and I encourage everyone to think about how products and services can offer consumers value and/or savings.