When times are hard you need great stories

Those of a certain age will recall the line from an old Monty Python sketch (a parody of events in Rhodesia at that time): “Things are pretty bad right now but there is hope of a constitutional settlement.” That kind of sums things up over here. The economy is not in great shape, unemployment and debt are rampant, the President has had to be forced to pay back public money spent on his house by the courts applying the constitution, and a struggling ruling party are increasingly resorting to race-driven anti-colonial rhetoric to deflect attention from corruption, incompetence and internal divisions.

That said, even stuck on the farthest tip of Africa, we are aware other emerging nations are also having a tough time and levels of fear and anxiety are high around the world generally. So how does marketing respond to the prevailing zeitgeist?

Do we respond to fear with continued aspiration, because, for the most part, that is what brands over here have tried to ride for the past couple of decades – optimism, aspiration, improved status, happy imagery of rainbow integration, “dream big and we’ll help you reach those dreams”.

Businesses such as Dimension Data are still clinging to that; its latest ad is a very clear message to hold on to your dreams. But in times of extreme difficulty, people tend to search for the things that have most meaning to them, the things that give them a feeling of safety and comfort.

So we are now seeing a lot of brands – from sliced bread to insurance – running creative work that tells powerful stories centred around the home and family relationships. Albany bread shows a little boy making a sandwich for his pregnant mum and cutting out a small piece (a nice visual of super-fresh bread) for his unborn sibling. Dialdirect Insurance tells another touching story of a little boy helping his single mum with her chores so she can find time to come to his school play (because we know time is precious, get it?).

They are beautifully made (production values are high over here) and nostalgic, because nostalgia works when times are tough and your dreams are on hold. And this would seem to be the most common marketing response to a nation that is feeling the highest levels of anxiety since the fall of apartheid more than 20 years ago.

It raises an interesting question for marketers in the UK and other markets: how do you respond to the national mood? Do you mirror it or pander to it; do you laugh it off or parody it (like we did in the 1980s); do you plough on regardless with whatever your brand personality is, irrespective of the zeitgeist; or do you take the opposite tack? You feel pessimistic. We are going to be uber-optimistic (the future is bright, the future is Orange). We can list the factors fuelling the anxiety over here – in the UK you have austerity, Europe and terrorism.

The stock answer would be to stay true to your brand personality and, where you have the chance to flex your personality, to do so ahead of the curve. Times may feel tough but we will look to a brighter future. Where you see danger in change, we see only opportunity. But timing is everything. Right now in South Africa it feels smarter to avoid the ‘turn lemons into lemonade’ philosophy and move away from the rather forced imagery of social harmony we have been using for some years, when they run in the face of such obvious economic and social challenges.

If nothing else, this is worth the debate. One may not choose to react to the national mood but one must at least be conscious of it and make a deliberate choice. In good times or bad, one thing has always been true about brand marketing in South Africa – they like to tell a story. It may have something to do with African storytelling culture or it may have rather more to do with the residual influence of some advertising giants that South Africa was blessed to have had. But there has always been – and still is – a basic reflex to want to tell a great brand story that evokes a visceral response, a story that cuts through and creates lasting fame or at the least social viral buzz.

Maybe that should be the takeout: when times are hard you need great marketing and that means powerful stories. We have more modern explanations for this. Behavioural economists will tell you it is because stories appeal to the much more powerful System 1 brain. Social media people will tell you it is because stories create engagement and drive social memes. The old school will say that advertising is just truth well told through a story to which you can relate.

The truth is you have to compete with the stories people hear 24/7 in the news and, if they are stirring up a lot of negative feeling, then you’d better make your story a good one.

Mark Sherrington is a partner at MTekventures.com [email protected] www.MTekvkentures.com Jonty Fisher is strategic director of OFYT [email protected] www.ofyt.co.za