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Marketing is hard.<\/p>\n
Consumers are bombarded with so many marketing messages that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a brand to stand out.<\/p>\n
Yet, every company wants their marketing messages to be memorable, effective, and impressionable.<\/p>\n
This is easier for big, multinational corporations that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing, but not so easy for startups and small businesses with limited budgets and reach.<\/p>\n
What can entrepreneurs and small business owners do to amplify their marketing messages and what can they learn from big Brands?<\/p>\n
Studies show that emotion is the best way to get attention. As we previously wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n When we understand that emotions inform our decisions through their linked associations, it becomes easier to see how you can use this information when planning your marketing strategy. While every consumer is unique and each has a unique set of emotional associations, we can nonetheless make certain generalizations.<\/p>\n For example, most people like to feel positive emotions like happiness, connection, and pride. Most people dislike sadness, loss, fear or regret. So, linking your product with positive feelings or showing how it can eliminate negative emotions is a compelling sales tool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Normally, marketers focus on positive emotions when promoting products and brands.<\/p>\n Today, however, the most successful brands are experimenting with something different.<\/p>\n They’re combining positive and negative emotions in a trend known as troll marketing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Troll marketing<\/strong> is when companies put something controversial on their digital channels.<\/p>\n Usually, it takes the form of a tweet, though as you’ll see in the examples below, the tactic isn’t limited to Twitter.<\/p>\n The idea is that the controversial content will quickly strike-up conflict and draw\u00a0attention to the post.<\/p>\n The goal is for something to become viral and attract attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n Troll marketing can sometimes cut through the noise more easily.<\/p>\n Also, the rising popularity of memes allows troll marketing to easily translate to younger audiences (like millennials).<\/p>\n In an article about social media marketing<\/a>, we talked about the many different ways brands are competing for millennials’ attention:<\/p>\n The social media generation is the most media-saturated group of consumers the world has ever seen. From childhood, they\u2019ve been exposed to tv commercials, pop-up ads, banner ads, radio ads, and billboards. It should come as no surprise that amidst the constant barrage of advertisements, millennials have learned to see through the hype.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Christopher Mims, the author of the tech blog “Keywords” for the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, calls trolling<\/a> the covert media message:<\/p>\n Trolling is so ingrained in the internet that, without even noticing, we’ve let it shape our most important communication systems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And he’s right!<\/p>\n When brands troll their younger audiences, people view the brand as a funny friend or the voice they just\u00a0have<\/em> to correct. And since these messages tend to go viral, it’s a good chance that new audiences can be reached.<\/p>\n In some cases, these troll messages are intense roasts.<\/p>\n These types of messages are usually responses to consumers trying to troll brands.<\/p>\n For example, Wendy’s, the fast-food chain, is known for their sassy Twitter responses:<\/p>\n <\/p>\nHow Troll Marketing Works<\/h2>\n
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