As the May 2017 marketing trends reveal, brands are increasingly resorting to more deceptive means in order to get their point across. Whether it is an obvious joke or something a little more sneaky, marketing is not as straightforward as it used to be.
One of the most clever marketing tactics brands are adopting is to challenge consumers on what they think they like. For instance, Tim Hortons recently opened a fake cafe called 'Perfectly Uncomplicated Lattes' to show consumers that great lattes don't need to come from an expensive coffee shop. Similarly, Suave Professionals created a minimalist label for its shampoo to fool millennials into thinking it was an up-and-coming brand. Both examples demonstrate how brands are resorting to more deceptive means to make consumers think more about why they buy certain products.
In contrast to some of the more deceptive tactics, the 2017 marketing trends also reveal brands using more obvious jokes to promote their products. Examples of this humorous approach include KFC Canada's voice-activated chicken buckets and Duolingo's fictional emoji language course.
- Gen Alpha
- Gen Z (primary audience)
- Millennial (primary audience)
- Gen X (primary audience)
