Have you ever gone to the store to buy a Father’s Day card during this time of year and also walked away with a graduation card for someone who you might have otherwise forgotten to get one for because you saw a “Dads and Grads” display? If you’re answering yes, you likely bought the graduation card because you were “triggered” …and it happens to be a great tactic for branding and content marketing.
Triggers are associations we make on a regular basis because they relate to something that we do regularly in our lives (like celebrating Father’s Day). For example, we take breaks each day, at least a few times a day. Kit Kat did a brilliant job using triggers when they told us to take a break with Kit Kats. If you are currently singing the “Give Me A Break” Kit Kat jingle in your head right now, you’re doing exactly what their marketing team wants you to do.
Anytime you can find something routine in someone’s life (a trigger) and tie it to your product, you stand to win because triggers are relatable, routine, and memorable.
There’s a reason why Cheerios has more social mentions than Disney… you eat breakfast, feed children breakfast, or both, every day. As such, you’re bound to talk about breakfast a lot more than a trip to Disney. It’s simply an odds game.
How can you pair your business or product with something that touches the lives of your consumers on a regular basis so that you trigger then to think about you more often?
