How Would I Market the Mundane? A Creative Brainstorm

I’m picturing a woman running through the woods. Her hair, which is tied behind her head, is secured with a hair elastic that blends into her natural coloring. The ponytail swings erratically as she jogs through the trail, dodging rocks, fallen branches—at one point, she hops over a stream, and her hair follows with a swoop.

Finally having reached the top of the trail run, she breathes in a few heavy pants. With one hand, she checks on the status of her hair—it’s securely in place. Across the screen, copy fades in that reads: 

You’ve got bigger things to worry about than your hair. 

So-called “boring” products (in this case, a hair elastic), are an excellent creative challenge. Not every single product that needs to be marketed is something that practically “sells itself”, like a sports car. Sometimes the things that need advertisements are kind of…mundane. 

To market mundane things, I think I need to start with what makes the thing boring in the first place. In my opinion, what makes hair elastics hard to market is that they all kind of feel the same. When I need to replenish my stock (where do they all go?) I just reach for the first one I see on the shelf. Hair elastics, especially once serving their purpose, don’t have much emotional pull or brand recognition. No one can see or care what kind of hair elastic I use, so why would I get a specific kind?

My first thought to combat this problem is that I’m not trying to create a new branding initiative that sparks a trend with hair elastics. I just want to put it in the consumer’s mind so that when they go to the store, they pick my brand, simply off recognition alone. 

Another avenue to take would be utilizing problems with competitor products in the same industry. There’s no equal substitute for the classic hair elastic. Claw-clips always break and don’t feel comfortable against the skull or when driving. Scrunchies are doubly challenged in that they look dated and also slide slowly out of hair. I would use this in an advertisement, depending on the branding and what kind of ads I was tasked with making.

For example, if I was doing sponsorships or collaborations with content creators, I would choose influencers with brands aligned with business, activity, and constant movement. I would have them literally ditching the claw clips and scrunchies of the past so that they could get done what they needed to in a given day without their hair getting in the way. I also think this would be a way to involve male creators with longer hair for a gender-inclusive approach.

I thought of the woman running in the woods because she’s not thinking about her hair elastic—and that’s the point, because that’s what she needs in the product. That’s the kind of storytelling I want to bring to the most overlooked products. While this was just a creative exercise to showcase potential ideas, I think that there are valuable lessons in trying to market the things taken for granted. I think that good marketing isn’t always about making something flashy—it means understanding what’s needed.