Social Media Hot Tub

How do you spell relief?

Faced with the big D, consumers’ pain often translates into traffic for certain brands.

Ikea, for one, specializes in cheap, modular, expensive-looking furniture that’s a turnkey solution for a newly single fellow who has to set up house in a hurry. Haagen Dazs, famously, offers solace to many a rejected female (read: chocolate).

These companies’ identification with pain is so integral as to be almost cliche – except you’d be hard-pressed to find an admission from corporate that they actively woo the downtrodden – and they probably don’t. It’s just that their products are so uniquely suited in their appeal to those who suffer. They are comfort products by design. And who needs comfort more than someone recently shunned?

The moral is: pain sells. You can turn that into a positive for your brand. (more…)