Value 2010

It seems that the moment I stopped updating this blog the economy took a nosedive with no apparent respite in sight. I have, therefore, taken the difficult decision to revive it for the good of the country, if not the world.  

Yes, Planbot is back for the greater good. It's revival has nothing to do at all with the meteoric rise of my better half's blog - Copybot - (she came up with both the name Copybot and Planbot - credit where it's due, but then she is the creative one). No sir, I have absolutely not re-started blogging because I'm jealous of all her traffic. Shut up! 

Anyway, as I was saying, the economy has clearly gone to shit and I'm sure we're all painfully aware of it. As a planner I feel that I am doubly aware of it, because not only do I hear about it non-stop as a person, but at work I am bombarded by it. It seems every brief I write these days has to have a value "insight" crowbarred in, otherwise the client will panic that we're going to talk about something other than value in (and I hate this phrase more than you can imagine) "the current climate". 

What particularly bothers me about having to write strategies to speak to consumers in "the current climate" is that middle word - current. Me and my fellow planners are writing briefs for products that won't hit the market until 2010 and beyond - arguably "the future climate". Yet our insights and our strategies are being garnered, written and tested now in what is undoubtedly a very different situation.

 It is generally agreed that we are likely to still be deep in recession come 2010, so one could argue that value messaging will still be relevant, and to a certain extent it probably will be. However, I think it's fairly safe to say that with every brand panicking and desperately trying to ram their value down the public's throats, that by 2010 we are all going to be utterly sick of this type of message.  

And so work is being tested with consumers of 2009 who are still quite happy to see a value message and will happily tick all the right boxes and say that they feel it's entirely relevant to them and they're now more likely to buy Brand A. But surely, if we've learned anything from Britain’s Biggest Discounter, it's that you should stick to what you know, talk about what you're good at and why you're ACTUALLY relevant to your customers, not bend over backwards to be all things to all people regardless of their financial situation. Come 2010 when this work actually goes live, I think it's going to be a very different story: value messaging will have reached saturation and the public will be crying out for something more creative, more relevant to them and for more genuinely altruistic action from brands. 

Only time will tell, but of course now that Planbot is back we can safely assume that the economy will be back on track by the end of the week. You're welcome.