Marketing & Thematic Spaces- Pool Winter 2005

Editor's comment: Ever wondered how to handle declining sales? Maybe the answer is to shift the product or service to a different thematic space. Jerry Welsh examines the issue of thematic spaces and how they can be used to shift product perceptions.

Modern marketing in developed societies is all about the artful creation and communications management of thematic spaces. Thematic spaces are the definitional categories within which products and services are positioned, categorized and described, and within which they are therefore considered for purchase by consumers. These thematic spaces sometimes change due to consumers’ evolving purchasing and product-use habits, and they change as well because marketers, for all sorts of reasons, make creative decisions about new ways to urge consumers to think about, purchase and use companies’ products and services.

Simple examples of changing thematic spaces in modern American advertising can be seen in the cases of toothpaste, baking soda and aspirin. In earlier times, toothpaste was a necessary dentifrice simply used to clean one’s teeth; as such, it was firmly housed in the thematic space of hygienic toiletries. Today, many brands of toothpaste are marketed and advertised within the thematic space of cosmetics, with messages about toothpaste emphasizing its teeth-whitening and smile-enhancing features rather than its cleansing properties. Similarly, baking soda was once marketed in the thematic space of a cooking ingredient, whereas now in current marketing and advertising practice it is sold primarily as a household cleansing and air-freshening agent. As for aspirin, who could have anticipated decades ago that aspirin would now be marketed less in the thematic space of pain reliever than in the space of over-the-counter medicine for the heart?

There are clear dangers inherent in not properly attending to the appropriateness of one’s thematic spaces. Marketers less careful of the rightness of their thematic spaces may find, for example, that they have in the marketplace brilliantly created and produced advertising on the wrong subject, i.e. in the wrong thematic space.

There are countless other examples of shifting thematic spaces, ranging from numerous examples in consumer packaged goods to lifestyle-enhancement products. So thematic spaces rise, fall and change, and new ones are created and others disappear, as consumers and marketers in highly developed economies continue the ever more sophisticated process of buying, selling and consuming traditional and new products and services.

The best marketers are continually monitoring the robustness and consumer relevance of the thematic spaces in which their wares and ideas appear; and when, for example, the competitive situation requires it, they are able seamlessly to migrate from one thematic space to another, thereby increasing the appeal and topicality of their products and services.

The idea of thematic spaces and their relevance to, indeed their criticality to, the marketing of ideas and products, raises the question of the need marketers have to make an early priority the necessary work that must be done in the initial stages of marketing development to artfully define the thematic space in which the marketing communications are to work, and indeed to devise the pricing, packaging and method of distribution of products and services commensurate with the chosen thematic space.

I believe that it is often the case that commercial failures are the result of marketing practitioners having chosen ineffective thematic spaces for the products and services they market. No matter how effective the marketing communications are, they will ultimately fail if they appear in the marketplace in the context of the wrong thematic space. Such was the situation with much of professional sport in the United States several decades ago. Baseball, for example, had fallen on hard times, with attendance down and a significant number of the professional teams being shopped as distressed merchandise. The rebounding of baseball has been less attributable to some new popular interest in the game itself, but rather its having been creatively marketed as family entertainment rather than as pure sport.

The same is true of professional basketball, as anyone who attends the games can readily see. Young families go to these games as a form of exciting entertainment with the on-court basketball action frequently punctuated with outlandish contests, stunts and giveaways designed to distract, entertain and amaze those in attendance. Even if the sports purists among us object to this circus-like entertainment overlay to their beloved games, the carnival atmosphere around sports has undoubtedly helped rescue sports like professional basketball from falling patronage, that’s for sure.

The assumption by some marketing people that the thematic spaces in which their products are described are correct and stable and therefore require no periodic investigation and re-consideration is often the root cause, I believe, of tired, ineffective marketing and resulting declining consumer appeal. Every so often wise marketers would do well to re-visit the question of the thematic spaces their communications are mining, so that they are sure that no re-positioning within the same or alternative thematic spaces is necessary.

It would be an interesting exercise if all brand managers were asked to position their products in alternative, possible thematic spaces, then to go through the process of ranking these various thematic spaces in terms of potential appeal to traditional, and perhaps new, targeted and segmented consumers. Doing this, it seems to me, would be a proper first step sometimes in determining even what business one is in and, more often, precisely what consumer needs are being presumed and addressed.

So far as I know, few now think of marketing planning in this way, and I believe that all marketing would get better if marketing people approached their craft initially from the point of view of dealing with the intellectual discipline inherent in working with thematic spaces.


	*Number 29: Winter 2005*
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About Jerry Welsh Marketing Communications Index	*Marketing & Thematic Spaces* *By Jerry Welsh* Editor's comment: Ever wondered how to handle declining sales? Maybe the answer is to shift the product or service to a different thematic space. Jerry Welsh examines the issue of thematic spaces and how they can be used to shift product perceptions. Modern marketing in developed societies is all about the artful creation and communications management of thematic spaces. Thematic spaces are the definitional categories within which products and services are positioned, categorized and described, and within which they are therefore considered for purchase by consumers. These thematic spaces sometimes change due to consumers’ evolving purchasing and product-use habits, and they change as well because marketers, for all sorts of reasons, make creative decisions about new ways to urge consumers to think about, purchase and use companies’ products and services. Simple examples of changing thematic spaces in modern American advertising can be seen in the cases of toothpaste, baking soda and aspirin. In earlier times, toothpaste was a necessary dentifrice simply used to clean one’s teeth; as such, it was firmly housed in the thematic space of hygienic toiletries. Today, many brands of toothpaste are marketed and advertised within the thematic space of cosmetics, with messages about toothpaste emphasizing its teeth-whitening and smile-enhancing features rather than its cleansing properties. Similarly, baking soda was once marketed in the thematic space of a cooking ingredient, whereas now in current marketing and advertising practice it is sold primarily as a household cleansing and air-freshening agent. As for aspirin, who could have anticipated decades ago that aspirin would now be marketed less in the thematic space of pain reliever than in the space of over-the-counter medicine for the heart? There are clear dangers inherent in not properly attending to the appropriateness of one’s thematic spaces. Marketers less careful of the rightness of their thematic spaces may find, for example, that they have in the marketplace brilliantly created and produced advertising on the wrong subject, i.e. in the wrong thematic space. There are countless other examples of shifting thematic spaces, ranging from numerous examples in consumer packaged goods to lifestyle-enhancement products. So thematic spaces rise, fall and change, and new ones are created and others disappear, as consumers and marketers in highly developed economies continue the ever more sophisticated process of buying, selling and consuming traditional and new products and services. The best marketers are continually monitoring the robustness and consumer relevance of the thematic spaces in which their wares and ideas appear; and when, for example, the competitive situation requires it, they are able seamlessly to migrate from one thematic space to another, thereby increasing the appeal and topicality of their products and services. The idea of thematic spaces and their relevance to, indeed their criticality to, the marketing of ideas and products, raises the question of the need marketers have to make an early priority the necessary work that must be done in the initial stages of marketing development to artfully define the thematic space in which the marketing communications are to work, and indeed to devise the pricing, packaging and method of distribution of products and services commensurate with the chosen thematic space. I believe that it is often the case that commercial failures are the result of marketing practitioners having chosen ineffective thematic spaces for the products and services they market. No matter how effective the marketing communications are, they will ultimately fail if they appear in the marketplace in the context of the wrong thematic space. Such was the situation with much of professional sport in the United States several decades ago. Baseball, for example, had fallen on hard times, with attendance down and a significant number of the professional teams being shopped as distressed merchandise. The rebounding of baseball has been less attributable to some new popular interest in the game itself, but rather its having been creatively marketed as family entertainment rather than as pure sport. The same is true of professional basketball, as anyone who attends the games can readily see. Young families go to these games as a form of exciting entertainment with the on-court basketball action frequently punctuated with outlandish contests, stunts and giveaways designed to distract, entertain and amaze those in attendance. Even if the sports purists among us object to this circus-like entertainment overlay to their beloved games, the carnival atmosphere around sports has undoubtedly helped rescue sports like professional basketball from falling patronage, that’s for sure. The assumption by some marketing people that the thematic spaces in which their products are described are correct and stable and therefore require no periodic investigation and re-consideration is often the root cause, I believe, of tired, ineffective marketing and resulting declining consumer appeal. Every so often wise marketers would do well to re-visit the question of the thematic spaces their communications are mining, so that they are sure that no re-positioning within the same or alternative thematic spaces is necessary. It would be an interesting exercise if all brand managers were asked to position their products in alternative, possible thematic spaces, then to go through the process of ranking these various thematic spaces in terms of potential appeal to traditional, and perhaps new, targeted and segmented consumers. Doing this, it seems to me, would be a proper first step sometimes in determining even what business one is in and, more often, precisely what consumer needs are being presumed and addressed. So far as I know, few now think of marketing planning in this way, and I believe that all marketing would get better if marketing people approached their craft initially from the point of view of dealing with the intellectual discipline inherent in working with thematic spaces.
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