Fabulous article here by Joseph Carrabis, called Men and Women in General. He's talking about how to sell to couples. But it is also a lovely illustration of how you take an insight and translate it into compelling communication.
This is often a challenge for clients, because enormous subtlety is involved. You can't just take the insight and translate literally.
Couples and jewelry
In this article, Mr. Carrabis give us some insights about couples: couples are comfortable and relaxed when they are touching.
"All humans -- regardless of language, culture, education, vocation and avocation -- carry with them a sense of personal space.
"People touch when they're comfortable with each other, and the degree of comfort is shown in shared body postures, shared eye focus, shared facial expressions and so on."
He gives us a second bit of insight, related to the jewelry category; a gift of expensive jewelry signifies possession more than our modern concept of love. It relates to the ability to provide abundance for another person.
Then he suggests how to translate these insights into compelling creative.
You visually show the touching, the circle of closeness between two people, their emotional connection. And you show the jewelry right beside those touching hands. The jewelry is part of the emotional closeness. He has three images that illustrate the idea.
Couples and travel
I wanted to see how this insight might translate to another category. So I looked for other products that target couples. Sandals, the couples resort, seemed a likely candidate. And just look at these clips. The circle of intimacy is very clear. Even in the group shot, the couples are closer together.
I loved the way the ads suggest physical intimacy without saying a word, and without crossing the line of good taste.
Couples and homebuilding
A building supplies site gives us this uninspiring photo on their 'build your own home' page. If ever there were a project that would make you nervous about your relationship, building your own home together would surely take the prize. But we don't have a couple lovingly planning their home, we have a harsh image of a sledge hammer slamming into foundation molds.
I wasn't able to find a better example in this category, actually. The home-building industry seems to be all about 'the stuff', not the people. Except I bet that's not totally true.
The difference in emotional impact between these two images is quite striking.
