How to use humor in marketing to make your customers LOL

By Judy Mottl
Contributing writer

Making customers happy is the goal of every retailer. After all, a happy customer typically evolves into a loyal customer and a loyal customer is the nirvana for any retailer, but making a customer happy and making them laugh are two very different scenarios.

In fact, any attempt to create humor or foster a funny interaction via in-store marketing should not only be approached carefully but with a big dollop of thought, planning and strategy.

One reason, as an expert explains, is that making a customer laugh doesn’t equate to making a sale.

“Store humor is essentially surprise, so there are valuable opportunities to catch shoppers off guard,” said Craig Mewbourne, creative director at Ignite Partnership in Dallas, a product experience and launch agency. In his role, Mewbourne guides retail brands including Mission Foods, Rex Goliath Wines and ZAGG mobile accessories. The 7-year-old agency has helped brand and market over 400 products for clients including Samsung, NEC, Pizza Hut, FlexJet and Qualcomm.

“A thoughtful bit of humor can make a customer’s day, but laughter doesn’t lead to purchase unless it gets the customer to think about the product in a new way,” Mewbourne said.

Customers are expecting price and benefit information when shopping, Mewbourne pointed out, and aren’t expecting to be delighted or presented with a belly laugh marketing effort.

Humor should be part of a product and its brand and will lead to a natural "humor" marketing opportunity.

“The store is where a product should dress and act accurately for the product experience, not the brand it carries,” Mewbourne  said.

Even if a brand considers itself playful, a shopper may not want that quality in a product. This is especially true if a product relies on reliability in its blueprint, noted Mewbourne. In that scenario it’s best to leave the joke potential untapped.

“The wine aisle, for example, may be more tolerant of tongue-in-cheek, but any hint of irresponsibility will earn your slapstick a slap on the wrist. Maintaining the integrity of the product promise is key,” Mewbourne said.

For as much opportunity there may be to connect with a shopper by making them laugh, chuckle or chortle, there is also as big a potential to make a customer grimace. Instead of a warm laughing experience the shopper can be turned off and a retailer can be viewed as coldhearted, tone-deaf or just plain ignorant.

Today’s social media savvy shopper will be inclined to share that negative experience as fast as they are inclined to share a funny experience.

Mewbourne offered up a typical ‘safe’ humor engagement strategy that rarely fails to evoke a chuckle and doesn’t present a potential negative outcome.

“We produced a simple standee with a face hole cut out for photo ops. Making the shopper the center of attention is a big win,” he said.

If a product truly lends itself to something funny or over-the-top it’s a good idea to talk to a brand rep before embarking on any ‘humor’ marketing, said Mewbourne.

“We captured lightning in a bottle with a humorous viral spot for Samsung, and one channel partner agreed to allow it to run in stores,” he said, adding the humor was effective even out of context as the video didn’t require following a narrative. “I can’t imagine a set-up and payoff would have worked nearly as well."

Betsy Sigman, Ph.D. and a professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, said retailers need to know two things when striving to use humor in store marketing: They need to identify the specific shopper and determine if it will be viewed as funny by that shopper.

Such assessment, said Sigman, may require some marketing research, data analysis and even focus group efforts.

“Data analysis should be used to determine which customers you are trying to target with the humor. What is their age, gender, and ethnicity? Focus groups should be used to test, test, and test the humorous ad or video. If an ad or video is not perceived as funny, it could hurt your store,” she warned.

In Sigman’s view, humor is a limited marketing strategy.

“For example, no one looking for a diamond ring is looking for humor, and humor would probably hurt a jeweler's brand image,” she said.

But in the retail fast-food segment, humor works well, she added, using the humorous Chick-fil-A “Eat Mor Chickin" campaign, which featured a cow with a paintbrush in its mouth.

Sigman offered up a best practice to employ before embarking on a humor marketing effort. If a focus group is not possible, run the idea by managers, staff and even business colleagues:

• Do they like the idea?
• Does it seem funny to them?
• Do they think it will help the retailer’s bottom line?
• Do they think it will help the retailer’s image?

“If the answer to any of these is, 'No,' throw the idea out and create a new one, or at least try to modify it. Then test again until you get favorable feedback,” she said.