Have a break, have a ChillWhat…
Written on September 9, 2008 – 5:01 pm
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
Last week, a local Dutch political party proposed a small emendation to a policy plan “Youth and alcohol, 2008″. Nothing extraordinary, you probably think. However, this particular addition caused a tide of media attention uncommon for such a local plan. The party suggested to distribute chocolate bars to the nightlife in order to keep them patient and avoid violence. “This is another, complementary action besides all existing controlling measures. Chocolate bars possess a small ingredient which makes people relax…”, says Gerben Hoogterp - the councilor of the party. The effect on society? A twofold reaction. The first group takes a rather sober, neutral point of view and argue whether chocolate is able to chill people down. The second group embraces the idea and consider it as an new opportunity to raise awareness for the society issues with nightlife, alcohol and violence. I’ll describe how you can use the next web to engage these two groups.
Regardless of who is right or wrong, I think the initiative should be able to have a huge impact on the society as long as you engage the heart of the society and enable them to hijack it. Make the youth the ‘owner’ of the idea and do not enforce it as a political leader. A profound brand hijacking strategy, new communication means and innovative way of thinking will mobilize the youth shortly.
Let’s discuss some chemicals first
The sugar in chocolate bars sparks the release of several nerve chemicals (including Endorphin) which result in a sense of well-being. Furthermore, it contains phenylethylamine, or PEA, which gives you the feeling similar to when you’re in love. (Elizabeth Somer- Why do I crave chocolate?). Therefore, there might be some relation between feeling ‘relaxed’ and eating chocolate. However this effect is not yet scientifically proven for human beings. Regardless of this, people enjoy eating chocolate and whether or not it stimulates an easy feeling, the political party endorse it as a effective method in mitigating collateral damage (e.g. violence, vandalism and even sexual assaults) of the nightlife.
Shaping the idea, raise the potential, ENABLE A BRAND HIJACK
I already mentioned it, the new measure might be very effective on the condition that it is well-executed and in line with the youths and their social environment. (more…)
I hope you like that post!
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At present, more and more companies are trying to achieve an authentic customer experience. However, it seems that the term ‘customer experience’ is getting a rather consultancy and marketing selling point; only a few parties have a real understanding of what authentic customer experience means and succeed in building such experience. Customers are in contact via different channels and companies should therefore build an authentic cross-channel experience instead of merely focusing on the online WOW experience.
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