Ritualistic behaviour - 14 Jul 2008

For all those with kids following the broader government school holiday timetable, this cold morning would have signalled another start to a ritual: the winter school run. Groan. A recent presentation by BBDO/Net#work highlights the importance of the daily rituals in our lives and the opportunities for brands to capitalise on those rituals. I don't know if there is anything a brand could do to get a grumpy 6-year-old out of bed on a dark, cold winter morning and into her school clothes on time, while trying to find books that were there last term and have now mysteriously disappeared, and wondering why cats that can locate a packet of biltong, and rip it to shreds in three seconds, can't open their own darn packets of ‘seafood delight deluxe sachets... Anyway, I'm still shell-shocked from the early start this morning and there is a point. The idea is that rituals are important in the lives of your consumers and agencies and marketers need to find out how to work their client's brands into them. It's an “extra lens”, “a defined series of actions that move people emotionally from one place to another”. See below.