Frugalista Appeal
*This article first published in the January issue of my quarterly newsletter.
Ad Age recently conducted one of their mini-polls on the question of whether positive ad messages were especially important for reaching consumers in a recession. While I am admittedly a glass half full type, when I take off my rose colored glasses and put on my more skeptical professional hat, I still see a positive marketing spin as the right choice, right now.
Could you blame consumers for not wanting to join a tribe of woeful and anxious peers, but instead choosing to see themselves as enduring the current hardships with a smile? Enter the Frugalista!
[Editorial note: For the many male consumers who also now fit this description, the term would be Frugalisto. All that follows also applies to him.]
Now, she may not sound like a marketers dream. After all, her MO is to scrimp and save, cut back on her gym membership and forget about name brand products for the duration. But, the fact is that our Frugalista represents the women you are all now trying to serve. Her more determined, super savvy approach to consuming truly does represent your toughest customer (women, in general), but on steroids (as it were)!
As a brand, you can run the other way and hope to find the few remaining consumers who aren’t cutting back (is there a one?), or you can face this newly even more extreme shopper with bells on. Serve THIS woman and you’ll be miles ahead of any of your competitors when the economy gets back to normal.
If you don’t yet know Ms. F., never fear. Just as the general women’s market was not a whole new, previously unknown alien organism when you put your mind to reaching it, so, too, do you likely already have the knowledge and advisory board foundation to understand this new gal. Whoops! You haven’t yet built even an informal panel of women to be your marketing partners? Now is the time.
There are incredible subtleties in how the Frugalista tribe weighs price, sustainability, cause sponsorship and snappy, minimal packaging, among so many other variables. Pre-recession women’s market purchase decision-making qualities that are even more apparent now include:
- Investment versus short term, quick fix: the longer term gains priority.
- Local economy implications: might a purchase benefit neighboring businesses (that need business) while serving her needs?
- Less packaging, and less hoopla: unassuming natural brands have long presented in this way, and right now this practice is looking mighty fine to a broader consumer base.
- More information/education: The “new info shopper” is one who seeks the extra background (via web sites, mainly) on the products he/she buys.
Since we may all resemble her now, it is surely a positive/hopeful approach to call such spendthrift-ing ways “frugalista” of “frugalisto” rather than take the fear angle and bemoan how awful our lives have become. Pretty much every consumer, right now, is taking a good hard look and scaling back their purchases.
It is our job as marketers to keep up the good work in serving who that person really is today (and not who we so wish they still were, because it would be a lot easier…). So, let’s take a cue from Facebook and “Friend” the Frugalista!
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