The Future of Betterment

We have partnered with our longtime global resource, Trendwatching, to explore the practical application of trends from the perspective of communications agencies. Each month, one of our Taan Worldwide members will offer up their opinion on a current trend.

Our second installment is from Taan member Stephen Moegling is a partner at Franklin Street, a health care and digital branding consultancy based in Richmond, Virginia. 

Here he unpacks our recent Global Trend Briefing on THE FUTURE OF BETTERMENT – providing his take on some of the key issues facing health and wellness in 2016 and beyond: where are consumer expectations heading? And how can brands help customers fulfil their dreams of self-improvement?

 

My first ad agency job out of college was writing copy to sell paper towels. I was taught to sell benefits, not features. Who cared if the paper towels were triple-ply? I made sure people knew these paper towels could soak up a kid’s most disastrous grape juice spill.

I also sold facial tissue, frozen dinners and tires. I made sure to tout how soft the tissue felt on a nose, how easy and convenient the frozen dinner was to warm up, and how you could feel safe having your family roll down the highway when you drove with my client’s tires. My first ad agency job out of college was writing copy to sell paper towels. I was taught to sell benefits, not features. Who cared if the paper towels were triple-ply? I made sure people knew these paper towels could soak up a kid’s most disastrous grape juice spill.

I sold a lot of paper towels, tissue, salisbury steak and tires. But until I read Trend Watching’s April Trend Briefing on The Future of BETTERMENT I had no idea that I wasn’t emphasizing the benefits that people really wanted—what people really buy when they buy anything…..