Infusing Magic into Marketing
Last week, our team went on an interesting journey of branding and marketing by delving into the cultural aesthetics of the “Cosmic Core Girlies”—a sub-culture tribe we defined as having a fondness for witchy vibes, tarot cards, and the magic of the universe. We started by picturing the “cultural tote bag” of a Cosmic Core Girly. We recognized crystals, tarot cards, and Nyx lip gloss as potential items in such a bag.
This led us to examine Nyx’s market positioning using a basic competitor analysis chart, demonstrating how it corresponds with the Cosmic Core aesthetic through price and quality compared to other lip gloss companies.
Building on this momentum, we began with the task of creating an offline/online marketing campaign for a new toilet cleaner aimed particularly at this tribe.
The brainstorming process began with imagining the Cosmic Core Girly’s relationship to magic and mysticism. A group member suggested naming the brand “Abracadabra,” I added an interesting twist: “What if we position this as a mystical product, like a magical potion designed to purify the toilet?”. This reimagining and repositioning of a mundane utility commodity as something enchanting unleashed a new level of creativity.
When someone in the group suggested that they could even personalize and create their potion, I realized that even with potions, there are different ingredients to get a specific concoction for a specific purpose – they would love to be able to choose what they think will work for them rather than us dictating what they might like. This tribe is incredibly free-spirited, and this would be an excellent opportunity for them to transition, as Murphy (2017) describes, from passive dupes purchasing generic toilet cleaners to active agents, creatively leveraging their freedom of choice to build their toilet cleaner mix to express their lifestyle.
So the brand name is “Abracadabra”, and the tagline is “Ta-da! Clean Like Magic”. Furthermore, the brand’s packaging would be its unique selling point. The marketing campaign’s goal was to promote this brand that offers personalisation in a segment that is typically linked with functionality rather than beauty or customisation. This would pique people’s interest and possibly trigger a shift in perception from a utility product that is only meaningful because of its usefulness to a product that communicates its owner’s distinctiveness and becomes a symbolic product in its category.
Further reflecting on this, I also recall coming across this work – by @girinbluestudios – which takes a sarcastic attitude by presenting meal prep as a metaphor for haircare, with haircare supplies packaged in pantry-style tin packages.
As a designer, I was excited to see something fresh in haircare packaging and would like to explore this type of cross-category branding, which is something similar to what we explored by using a magical potion as a metaphor. Which begs the question: how can we employ cross-category branding to pique interest while avoiding confusion?