One of the products on the Popular Science website that stood out to me was the pill that was supposed to cement long term memories into your brain, and perhaps unlock the technology that would be able to destroy harmful memories. If the scientists working on this pill are able to perfect it and make sure it is safe for public consumption, I believe there would be a large market for it. I immediately thought of the many possibilities for a product such as that, and the many marketing tools that could be used to sell this to the public.
One approach to selling this so-called memory pill would be the emotional branding technique. This would be a great choice because the benefit of the product is tied in with the emotions of people already. Memories have been romanticized in our culture for many years; the concept of the ‘good old days’ and media portraying the best qualities of past eras has built up in us a love for nostalgia. Creating an emotional appeal to advertisements and marketing campaigns would benefit the company making the pill greatly. Focusing on how great it would feel to remember things from your past vividly, a TV ad wouldn’t have to delve into the scientific workings of the pill. Just a feel good story and an implied promise that you will be happy would be a very strong catalyst to make people buy. Building a culture around opening up the past for people would be a beneficial idea for a company. Everyone has a hazy, mostly positive experience in their mind when trying to remember their ‘heyday’. The thought that one may be able to lock in the fun and meaningful events that they have been through would certainly entice the average person. And an emotional appeal in advertising would speak to their inner reptile (to steal a concept from Clotaire Rapaille) and most likely make them purchase the pill.
Emotional branding could also work if the pill was used for erasing memories. A company could be portrayed as very thoughtful and caring through a campaign, and in this way appeal to people who may have been through something bad in their life. Painting a picture of a sympathetic and compassionate corporate structure, along with advertising showing people being helped and becoming happy could be used to sell this product. A rhetorical approach could also be used to market the memory pill. Maybe even the term memory pill would be too direct and cause apprehension in some people. Something like Glory Days or Memory Miracle would put it into a more positive light and make it seem more appealing. Although used mostly in politics and areas like that, rhetorical choices play a large part in advertising and marketing. Saying a medication’s side affect is moderate nausea is much different from saying it will make your stomach hurt a good deal. Careful word choices and clever terminology would certainly help any product, but I think in the case of a pill like this, it could help a lot. Saying it is a gateway into your past, and a way to remember all of your good times, even into old age. This plays on people’s fear of getting older and their bodies breaking down, but advertising often exploits people’s fears and insecurities. That Is why most people in this country are in debt.
Product placement has been gaining steam for many years, and has sometimes taken a front seat to a TV show or movie’s actually story line (As seen in The Persuaders). If I were trying to market this pill product, I would certainly look into a product placement angle to try to gain exposure. With the amount of crime dramas on TV, there would certainly be a situation where someone would want to take a pill and block out a scaring memory. This would not only expose the product, but actually show it in action. That would be a tremendous tool for marketing. The mind is still a very difficult thing to understand. Men like Freud and other psychologists have been trying to unlock it’s secrets for years. Memories being a very abstract thing, there would be great curiosity garnered from a product like a memory pill. Movies like “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Momento” have already been written about the issues of memory or the lack thereof. Could a movie be written in which the pill is a major plot point? That is certainly an idea marketers would want to ask.
The concept of cool hunting in the case of the pill, wouldn’t really work. Trying to convince people that the pill is cool would only do so much. I think the real cool hunting would have to be inside of each person thinking of buying the pill. Convincing the public that the pill will help them remember forever the ‘cool’ things that they’ve done and remember vividly back when they were ‘cool’, would have to be the cool hunting approach.
There are many ways a team of marketers and advertisers could persuade and lure people to buy this product. I think I have gone over some of the best ways to do so. Not to mention that by the time this product is ready for market, there will be new mediums and techniques for selling. That is what’s great about the advertising and media world; it is always evolving and so is the human mind. It is a battle or wits that will last a very long time.
