Nature Valley: Association and Transference in social media marketing

Nature Valley: Association and Transference in social media marketing

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  • This promotional messaging associates positives feelings about nature with their product.
  • They encourage sharing this with the specified hashtag.
  • This example also illustrates the use of social media propaganda posters in marketing campaigns and promotions.

Nature Valley is a brand name of General Mills. The goal is to associate positive feelings about nature with their Nature Valley-brand food products, most of which are “granola” type snack bars. Somewhere, somehow, granola became associated with “nature”, “outdoors”, “fitness”, “physical activity” – and the idea, as made clear by their poster (from http://www.naturevalley.com/) – complete with numerous social media hashtags – and if you go to the subpage (http://www.naturevalley.com/get-out-there/), Share if you agree! on your favorite social media.
The methods used here are Association (association with nature) and transference (transferring your positive feelings about nature) to Nature Valley products. This association can be powerful – next time you go hiking you may even think this would be a great time to enjoy a granola snack bar!
Association and Transference are commonly used in propaganda campaigns. Politicians surround themselves with flags and soldiers or disabled veterans. Businesses associate their product with images that bring positive feelings (like “Nature Valley”); think of car ads that show their vehicle on a high mountain road. The goal is to transfer your positive feelings about the surroundings to the person, product or service in the ad or campaign.
 

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