Happy Ending’s Shock Advertising Teaches you to Think Different

Yesterday, Minh wrote about Happy Ending, an e-commerce flower shop in Vietnam that has captured a lot of attention on Facebook and Twitter. While some folks blast Happy Ending’s advertising or approach for being stupid and sexist, other folks have applauded it for its provocative communication style. I don’t claim to be a marketing expert (though I was a marketing major in college), but I can tell you that’s exactly why this kind of campaign is called provocative or shock advertising.

Whatever the strategy is called, the point is that it gets the message across to people that Happy Ending is selling flowers through its provocative and humorous messaging. Do people like it? I do think there are people who appreciate that kind of humor. But there will also be a group of people who think this is just low-class advertising.

But people that think the company is low class may not be a bad thing, because it helps Happy Ending to define and target its customers. Its customers are the folks who are laid back enough to take this as a joke, appreciate it, and maybe, perhaps, really think that flowers do give happy endings (come one guys, there’s some truth in this). That’s not going to be everyone, of course. Such provocative messaging works even better (or worse) in Asia, where the culture is generally more conservative.

Lessons Learned?

So what can we learn from Happy Ending’s controversial ad campaign?

1. Fuck it, be bold: If you admire their guts, remember that you can do the same thing. This kind of marketing pisses people off, but you’ll get the publicity you want for sure. Hopefully you’ll make money out of it too.

2. Cutting through the clutter: There are so many florist e-stores available on the web. If you can’t compete on ad spending or SEO then do it with some witty or eye-catching marketing and pitch it to the media. We picked up Happy Ending on our own end because we thought it was a fun story that would command clicks and generate discussion. It sure did, and all that gets translated to publicity and traffic for Happy Ending.

3. Culture and targeting: Through its marketing, the company’s culture attracts a certain group of people. The choice of name – Happy Ending – has already set the culture in stone. The people who follow them are their target audience and it naturally filters out those who are not with them. It’s very much like some of American Apparel’s marketing. Some think it’s cool, other’s think it’s vulgar. You can quote them, disagree, glorify, or vilify them but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.