Transforming into a copywriter and joke teller, how does RT-Mart stir up your emotions?

Under the impact of online grocery shopping, young people are more likely to use their mobile phones to place orders and are less likely to go to the market in person. How to activate the offline appeal to the new generation of consumers is an urgent issue facing all traditional supermarkets. RT-Mart has made a fuss about copywriting, relying on marketing to differentiate itself from the increasingly homogeneous old-brand supermarkets, and seeking the favor of young people with personalization. The author of the following article has compiled RT-Mart's copywriting that has gone viral. Let's take a look.

"My heart is not big enough to hold 800 hearts."

"Go to work, go to work where you are worth 1.5 yuan per pound."

"On the way to work, I have used up all my energy in my life."

“After going through the four seasons, I realized that the sweetness of life is given by myself.”

…

Anyone who reads these heart-wrenching copywriting will feel like crying, as if they are the ones who work at a price of 1.5 yuan per pound! But in fact, the protagonists of these copywriting are the vegetables, aquatic products and other agricultural products in RT-Mart supermarkets. The above copywriting is about lotus root, special vegetables, deep-sea yellow croaker, old pumpkin and other products.

Similarly, there are many other "market jargon" copywriting that hurts working people, such as:

Two months ago, RT-Mart’s barbecue copy also went viral, such as:

Chocolate's confession, "It's too hot, I want to go to escape the heat."

Fish's Confession "You choose the sea, I choose to lie flat."

Popsicle's confession, "My habitual life is actually your paradise on earth."

Corn's confession, "The world outside is wonderful, but it's a little bit hot outside."

These copywritings created by RT-Mart take products as the angle, present product features through an anthropomorphic tone, and form a connection with social insights under various aspects of life, which better arouses consumers' emotions and thus resonates with them.

For example, the first group of copywriting focuses on workers going to work, expressing the helplessness of having to go to work even if one does not like it; the second group of copywriting focuses on barbecue, truly showing the various states of life in this year's 40-degree hot weather.

In early June of this year, when the epidemic in Shanghai was under control and normal life order was being fully restored, a group of inner monologue copywriting by Shanghai RT-Mart for "cold palace vegetables" such as "carrots, cabbage, potatoes, Shanghai greens, zucchini, and onions" became a hot topic because of its humorous content, triggering empathy and heated discussions among citizens.

The success and popularity of these copywritings of RT-Mart are not accidental. Due to the busy working environment, huge life pressure, and uncertain global epidemic, consumers have indeed accumulated a lot of emotions, but these emotions cannot be expressed publicly due to certain factors. At this time, if the brand stands up and expresses these emotions of the target consumers through copywriting or products, it will easily resonate with them, thus triggering a phenomenal spread.

There are many similar cases. For example, Coca-Cola launched a lyrics bottle in combination with "lyrics", using lyrics to help consumers express "emotions". The same principle applies :

"Sad people should not listen to slow songs"

"Me and My Last Stubbornness"

“Fulfilling my wishes step by step”

"Remember to find me my good friend"

…

Music is the most emotional language. Familiar lyrics often remind people of a whole song. It can represent a mood, a person, and evoke a memory. In reality, influenced by traditional Chinese culture, people often tend to be more restrained or even silent when expressing their emotions; but the "lyrics bottle" can help people express their friendship and "sing" their thoughts to their friends and family through bottles of Coca-Cola.

Therefore, these lyrics bottles resonated with a large number of consumers as soon as they were launched, causing a sharp increase in Coca-Cola sales. According to statistics, in 2014, these "lyric bottles" were launched for only one month, bringing Coca-Cola's entire soda beverage sales to increase by as much as 10%.

The underlying reason why these emotional marketing campaigns can impress consumers is that humans are inherently more inclined to be "emotional people" rather than "rational people" who insist on logic in everything. Therefore, in reality, it is always easier to "move people with emotions" than to "convince people with reason."

In economics, every consumer was once assumed to be an extremely rational "economic man" whose thinking and behavior were goal-rational and the only economic benefit he tried to obtain was to maximize material compensation.

But in real life, people are often extremely irrational when making decisions, otherwise there would be no such thing as regret medicine in the world. Therefore, Simon, the 1978 Nobel Prize winner in economics, revised this assumption and proposed the concept of "bounded rationality", believing that people are in a "bounded rationality" state between complete rationality and irrationality.

"Bounded rationality" means that emotions have a huge impact on most human decisions beyond rationality, especially consumption. The core reason is that humans are emotional animals first and foremost. Emotions can be transmitted to people instantly and form a group effect. Reason and ordinary information cannot do that.

Most human behaviors are natural reactions that do not require the participation of rational thinking. This determines that most of the time, emotional marketing is far more effective than reasoning with consumers. Some even say that 80% of purchases are based on "emotional feelings" rather than "rational logic."

Since people’s decisions are more often dominated by “emotional factors”, meeting consumers’ emotional needs will inevitably become a compulsory task for brands after the economy develops to a certain stage.

The "Meituan New Catering Report 2022" shows that the emotional value of catering consumption has risen, and the parts of consumer demand that are strongly influenced by emotions, such as socialization, respect, and self-realization, have become the most urgent parts to be met. Whether or not the catering industry can provide consumers with unique "emotional value" will become the key to whether it can win in the competition in the future.

In other words, with the great enrichment of material life, consumers' needs have changed significantly, and cost-effectiveness is being abandoned, replaced by emotional cost-effectiveness. Whoever can continue to meet consumers' emotional needs will be the final winner.

Young people are the most emotional group in the human race, and their emotions are most likely to explode. Therefore, emotional marketing has become a powerful tool for brands to attract young consumers.

According to the "China National Mental Health Development Report (2019-2020)", young people aged 18 to 34 are the most anxious group among adults. On the social platform Soul, which has nearly 34 million monthly active users and more than 70% of the youth group, users are also paying more and more attention to relaxing and relieving stress in various ways.

This is especially true for traditional industries such as RT-Mart. Under the impact of online grocery shopping, young people are more likely to use their mobile phones to place orders and are less likely to go to the market in person. How to activate the offline appeal to the new generation of consumers is an urgent issue facing all traditional supermarkets. The reason why RT-Mart is working on copywriting is that it hopes to differentiate itself from the increasingly homogeneous old supermarkets through marketing and seek the favor of young people with personalization.

For RT-Mart, using emotional marketing that focuses on feelings and experiences to impress consumers is just the beginning of change. After all, the situation where supermarkets once dominated the offline market is long gone. RT-Mart now has to face the embarrassing situation of competing with new formats such as live streaming and social e-commerce, and the competition in the future will be even more intense.

Author: Jun Huaiye

WeChat public account: DoMarketing-Marketing Think Tank (ID: Domarketing-001)