Lidl goes bold, they have managed to defy the boundaries of this year’s festive competition with their latest OOH campaign. In an impressive stunt, the discounter has mimicked a sabotage on M&S’ and Waitrose’s Christmas billboards with their own value-led comms.
Although an outspoken approach is nothing new for Lidl, the context of their comms ‘taped’ over competitor copy is playful and adds a crucial element of bizarreness.
So, what are the implications of being bizarre? Behavioural economics proves that distinct messages stick. Knowing customers are inundated daily with marketing messages is old news, but breaking-through the ‘clutter’ remains one of our key behavioural priorities. Given how important the festive period is for retail, we believe Lidl deserves top marks.
The message itself is also in keeping with previous campaigns, using the strapline ‘ours is cheaper’. Here, Lidl is employing mental accounting, a cognitive heuristic (mental short-cut) that simplifies value-for-money comparisons with clear-cut descriptives. This method averts the more effortful processing and weighting of actual price differences.
Distinct and effortless, Lidl have showcased a stellar combination of behavioural science and we cannot wait to see what’s next.
As a behavioural marketing company, influencing behaviours is core to what we do and applying Behavioural Economics to marketing communications is a natural progression. If you are interested in understanding more about how we do this get in touch now.
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