Summary
Every brand wants attention, to be seen as a must-have, but how do some manage stratospheric levels of popularity? It might happen organically, perhaps even by accident, but it’s also true that many brands engineer it.
Evan Davis and guest discuss the tricks of the trade, from social media influencers to artificial scarcity, and the potential pitfalls when a product is so popular that it's almost impossible to get hold of.
Plus, what is it that compels people to queue several hours for a sandwich, or pay ten times the usual price for a bottle of energy drink - we explore the consumer psychology behind the hype.
Evan is joined by:
Ellis Gilbert, founder of Soho Yacht Club and Talk Nice Studios; Rory Sutherland, vice chair of Ogilvy UK; Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, reader in psychology at Anglia Ruskin University; and Sian Evans, founder of Chatsworth Bakehouse.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Neil Churchill and Donald MacDonald Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
(Picture: A customer jumps in the air as he leaves an iPhone store in London, after being the first person to buy the brand's latest phone. Credit: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. This is the podcast version of the programme. It has some |
| 0:07.6 | extra content in it that we didn't have room for in the radio broadcast. I hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:13.0 | Hello, welcome to the programme. Now, as we record this, we're in the middle of an election campaign |
| 0:17.8 | in which several political parties are trying desperately hard to be |
| 0:21.7 | noticed and to win over our support. In pursuit of these goals, they may exaggerate a bit from |
| 0:28.0 | time to time, perhaps overstate their case even. But we're not here to talk about politics. It just |
| 0:34.1 | gives us an excuse to focus on marketing and in particular our subject today. |
| 0:39.4 | Hype. |
| 0:39.9 | The word, sometimes connected with hyperbole, |
| 0:43.6 | and sometimes a 20th century American slang word for a con man, a hyper. |
| 0:49.5 | Today, I think it's more used to mean excitement, pumped up excitement about a product, whether that |
| 0:55.1 | product is a film or a car, a fashion product, or maybe even a share that you can buy in a company. |
| 1:02.7 | Now, I have wanted to talk about this for some time since someone on social media posted a long |
| 1:08.9 | thread about something which I had noticed the confusing way |
| 1:12.5 | that dishwasher tablets are branded on supermarket shelves by Finnish the company. So to name |
| 1:19.4 | but three versions of their tablets that I have seen next to each other on a supermarket shelf, |
| 1:23.5 | you have quantum all in one, ultimate all in one, and ultimate plus all in one. |
| 1:30.9 | Now, I guess that ultimate plus comes above ultimate, but I really have no idea whether ultimate |
| 1:36.3 | is meant to come above or below quantum. Well, hype can come in many forms, overstatement, |
| 1:42.0 | exaggeration, attention seekingseeking, manufactured scarcity. |
| 1:45.9 | And we're going to look at how these are made organically, perhaps even by accident, and when things |
| 1:50.9 | can go wrong. And I have three guests to help me. Let's meet them. And first up, Ellis Gilbert |
... |
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