Dawn of the Planet of Authenticity: Where consumers revolt against idea thieves

His famous quote: “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Sadly, we live in a world plagued by blatant plagiarism. Copycat strategies that marketers employ are seen as a way to make a quick buck, in the hope that consumers will not be able to distinguish between the original product and its imitated counterpart, but eventually falling prey to selecting the cheaper version.
A devil’s advocate might argue that this is good for competition. I’d like to think that as marketing professionals, there should be a standard of dignity that we uphold to give us a sense of pride every day we go to work.
A recent study on global and local millennials (people born between 1980 and 1996) found that the top five attributes these consumers would like to see in a brand are creativity, simplicity, trustworthiness, confidence, and authenticity, in no particular order.
So it wasn’t surprising when a well-known Thai retailer was on the receiving end of a public backlash for allegedly copying products that had already existed, even on shelves nationwide, with products ranging from Tokyo-inspired “banana-shaped” cakes to fizzy lactose-infused drinks, also inspired from Japan. This is a classic case of the big bad bully picking on the weaker child in class, figuratively speaking.
We are now entering an age where authenticity is held in high regard, whereby 63 per cent of millennials believe that brands have the potential to be a force for good, not the opposite. So when 70 per cent of these respondents revealed that they would like to set up a business within the next two years, their tolerance to product plagiarism naturally was less, simply because it erodes the overall entrepreneurial spirit and fair competition.
The field of communications suffered similar wrath recently, and here’s how the story goes.
IPG Mediabrands recently produced the Kingdom’s first ever four-dimensional interactive and outdoor experiential marketing with a Johnson’s baby bath product. As a doting father myself, this was a project that I held dearly in my heart.
As a starting point based on attitudinal research, we found that 85 per cent of mothers believe that bathing is simply just cleansing, not a time for child development. Moreover, 80 per cent also felt that bath time can be stressful when it’s potentially rewarding in the long run.
We wanted to enlighten mothers about the importance of visual stimulation as one of the key components of child development. So it only made sense to use outdoor media to induce sensorial experiences between mothers and their children, outside of the bathroom, where they, ironically, failed to see the true value of bathing.
Our idea was to turn Bangkok into the biggest bathtub outside the bathroom.
Every time our advert was shown on Siam Square One’s digital LED screen, thousands of bubbles were released into the air through a bubble dispenser, scented with Johnson’s signature Top-to-Toe liquid soap. It got passers-by excited. Everyone got into the act of chasing bubbles, especially children, who played with them along with their parents.
This campaign gained huge public relations value through press releases worth Bt15.9 million, and sales of Johnson’s Top-to-Toe liquid soap grew 11 per cent year on year. It also reached 5.4 million people onsite.
It was a communication strategy that sparked an attitudinal change among mothers. The idea was tangible, fun and simple. What made it successful was the amount of happiness it induced with engaged consumers.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where anything and everything can be duplicated, and that’s exactly what happened when the original idea was “conveniently emulated” by one of the world’s largest FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) conglomerates. One of its flagship brands executed exactly the same thing, at the exact same spot, only a couple of months after the Johnson’s campaign was originally launched in February.
The only “real beauty” (pun intended) that can be derived from a case study of this nature is that when you have an idea this disruptive, others will copy it, and you just have to keep moving forward and hope to strike gold on the next big thing.
As a marketer, I urge everyone in the industry to respect authenticity and creativity, as the realm of ideas is literally infinite and the amount of possibilities yet to be generated.
Only once you have respect for your own work, will others start to respect you.

Works from IPG Mediabrands can be found on facebook.com/IPGMBStrategyInnovation.

Pradon Sirakovit is associate director, strategy and innovation, IPG Mediabrands.