Kohl’s is Selling Happiness & Kindness This Holiday Season?

So, you’ve got a big idea, huh? Is it brand new? A reinvention of something that sparked your creativity? Aren’t all big ideas just reimagined stories from our own perspective?

In thinking about how advertisers work with a “big idea,” it sparks the conversation of whether the big idea needs to be new or just a reinvention of something used in the past. As seasonal advertising around product marketing and holiday sales will be ramping up in the next week, many companies will be thinking of how they can spark interest in this crazy time.

One company that recently shared their advertisement for this holiday season was Kohl’s. Kohl’s emotional advertisement shows a girl making a new friendship with her neighbor through writing messages on signs and communicating through the window. The young girl and older woman develop excitement around looking for each other’s notes. However, several weeks pass where the young girl is waiting for a response from the older woman. At the end of the clip, we see the older woman return to the window with a new message, and on her wrist appears to be a hospital bracelet. The woman’s message asks the little girl if she got what she wished for, and the video shows the little girl nodding yes. As a viewer, several different emotions occur – the connection between various generations, the feeling of sympathy for not knowing what other people are going through, and overall kindness for other people. We see friendship in unlikely places and with unlikely people.

Whether intentional or not, the advertisement shares a resemblance of a decade-old Taylor Swift music video, where she holds up a note to her crush through a window asking if he’s alright. While the plotline for this video is different, it does beg the question of how often advertising is just a “plagiarism” of another advertisement, a reinvention of something that has already occurred. As trends are cyclical with fashion styles from the 80s and 90s coming back around (please don’t ever bring back the thin eyebrows!), do advertisements work the same way?

This advertisement also does nothing for the promotion of products for Kohl’s. Kohl’s focuses on wishing for happiness and time with family instead of material items for Christmas. However, how does Kohl’s profit off promoting non-material things, as they don’t make sales by not selling anything? Even with other holiday videos such as jewelers who try to sell happiness during the holidays, the bottom line is always that happiness comes from gifting jewelry to your loved ones. But Kohl’s never mentions anything they are promoting for the holidays. As advertisers, we too often try to figure out ways to bring in more revenue by directly tying campaign ideas to revenue; however, this video shows just how important branding is. With this video being less than a week old, we’ve already seen people comment on the video thanking Kohl’s for their inventiveness and kind narrative, resulting in an incremental brand lift. With this advertisement, Kohl’s has created a positive association with their brand. Next time I walk into a Kohl’s store, I will instantly feel warmth during my shopping experience and feel better about purchasing from a brand that shares the same values I do.

With Kohl’s starting the initiative of spending time with loved ones, spreading happiness, and being kind, other businesses are sure to follow suit. Drop a comment below on how you will spread happiness this holiday season!

References

Vivinetto, G. (2020, November 06). Kohl’s holiday commercial beautifully captures the power of connection. Retrieved from https://www.today.com/popculture/kohl-s-holiday-commercial-captures-power-connection-t197988