#DotsFired 7: Meme Marketing Takes Away Professionalism
When was the last time you looked down at your crotch (staring at your phone obviously) and ROFL’d out loud in a meeting? Well, if that doesn’t answer the question of why memes are becoming way too casual, then here’s yet another #DotsFired to tell you why Meme Marketing is killing professionalism slowly.
Our Thoughts:
Of course! Memes are fun to look at during leisure times. Social media is all about staying relevant and following the trend, sometimes even create one. But, is that really necessary? We agree that Meme Marketing doesn’t cost anything. It’s free, but at what cost? If Durex does it, we can understand that the brand persona itself is such that it has to be playful. Similarly, there are many brands that need to stay connected with today’s generation. They need to be approachable and friendly. But, imagine a bank doing Meme Marketing. Nobody is questioning the legitimacy or purpose. It just doesn’t match their brand voice. It is very important for a brand to understand its audience.
Surrogate advertising of liquor brands has been happening for ages now. We very well know that nobody in the world would look at a TV commercial and buy cassettes and CDs of 100 Pipers. Meme Marketing is somewhat similar to surrogate advertising, but with professionalism toned down notches below. Not every brand needs to follow everything that’s trending. Let’s take this step by step and evaluate every trend in the past few months that are breaking the internet and why.
#PawriHoRahiHai
Action speaks louder than words, they said. But, this proved that accent speaks louder than words. A video posted by a Pakistani influencer, Dananeer Mobeen, went viral for all the wrong reasons. It’s not her fault that the video went viral. If you closely look at the nature of memes itself, they do not have any award-winning performances. It’s about real people doing what they do on a daily basis. Why are brands riding this tide? According to the Mobeen, “Pawri” simply means “Party” and that’s a universal word applicable to every brand. So, #PawriHoRahiHai perfectly fits their brand persona.
Out of all the brands that joined the meme fest, SBI seemed out of place for desperately trying too hard to fit in. #PawriHoRahiHai was still catching up with the brands when there was yet another explosion on social media in the name of #Shweta.
#Shweta
It all started when a student began sharing steamy gossip with her friend on a phone call and forgot to mute her mic while on a zoom call along with 111 other students. If you have heard the recording, you would definitely know why gossip is still the top trending thing in this country. It’s just that the medium and the way in which we propagate gossip has evolved through the ages. Now, how would brands react to such gossip? Here’s how.
One section that brands try to avoid is obviously “Politics” and nobody would want to use #FarmersProtest or #IndiaAgainstPropaganda to leverage on social media for business. This needs no specific explanation as to why brands steer clear from the storm that awaits when they hook on to those hashtags. Nevertheless, it is quite evident that Meme Marketing underplays the significance of professionalism of a brand.
At 3 Dots Design, we believe that there should be a clear differentiation between serious brand communication and friendly engagement. Meme Marketing should be used as a tool to enhance the brand personality and not to get carried away in the tsunami of trending hashtags. They are not a necessary evil. Brands can choose to ignore them and still be friendly and relevant in the industry. Toggle panel: Yoast SEO
