- March 21, 2025
MnM: How memes make a difference in our lives
8 minutes to read
8 minutes to read
Memes. Do they need an introduction?
One click on any social media app and you’re flooded with an endless barrage of them.
Movies, TV shows, politicians, cricketers, movie stars – everyone is meme-worthy. And on days when the workload becomes hefty, a couple of minutes spent scrolling (that soon turn into hours) provide you with a breeze of relief.
We consume memes as a source of fun. But what if we tell you that memes have become an instrument for marketing?
Oh wait, we don’t need to tell you that. Do we? You’re already laughing on Zomato’s and Flipkart’s viral memes.
Interested? Let’s take a deep dive into the topic!
MnM, or Meme and Marketing, refers to an integrated approach wherein brands use memes to market their services/products.
Memes may range from movie dialogues to personal statements/opinions – everything under the sun is memeable. Be it Big B from KBC, Radhe (Salman Khan) from Tere Naam, Chiku (Virat Kohli) from cricket or the ‘so beautiful, so elegant, just looking like a wow’ aunty – it’s all memeable.
Infuse that with marketing and you get a consumer equation like no other – that of humour! Let’s break it down in the next section.
Answering the how is simple.
Connect a meme with your business offering. Want something better? Connect a meme with how a customer feels about your product/feels after using your product.
Memes are just like billboards. They need to connect well, and what you get is space for an image and a one-liner – that’s it. If you look at them that way, they’re quite simple in nature. Find a one-liner funny enough, throw in a trending meme and you have your meme ready!
Memes can be on billboards, on the sides of buses, on the back of rickshaws, on a standee outside an event – they’re everywhere.
But most importantly, they rule social media. And they do it quite naturally. After all, social media is one of the fastest ways to go viral and capitalize on trendy topics. Memes nowadays come and go in the blink of an eye. At least most of the new ones.
Meme (one-liner memes) have even made it to the notifications that we see every day, getting you in the element no matter what time of day it is.
Well, why not?
We live in a world that is surrounded by social media. And social media is surrounded by memes. And memes are something that people love to scroll on for hours at a time.
Other than that, memes connect well with the younger generation. We’ll know more about this topic in the next section. Memes are also very, very simple in nature.
A one-liner and a meme – that’s all that you need for a killer post! Think of them as marketing shots – small, power-packed and absolute dynamites!
Going viral in today’s age is thought of as a milestone.
A touch of the algorithm’s magic wand and your content gets to audiences super-quick. Brands are now realizing how effective these pocket pieces of marketing are.
And then come the shares. Memes don’t only become a marketing piece, but also become shared endlessly if they’re catchy/quirky enough. This makes all the difference.
Your memes spread like wildfire, and you get a unique value and brand image!
While we may have stated that everything is memeable, there are still some exceptions.
Sensitive topics shouldn’t be included as a meme (with reference to brands). That being said, there are 2 primary classes of memes in today’s day and age:
1. Normie memes
Normie memes are ones that people can consume without controversy. These represent the ones that we’ve used in this blog. They’re simple, connect easily with audiences and can invoke laughter instantly.
Think Golmaal memes, KBC memes, cricket memes, Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah etc. The target audience is more generalized, and the memes are also general in nature. They lack a lot of depth and are more superficial rather than cryptic.
2. Dark memes
These are the ones that you can get banned over. Lawsuits, legal issues and more follow this genre of memes. Not only that, but there’s also a side of social media that showcases only dark memes.
Rarely does any brand hop on the dark meme bandwagon. Why? Because they’re offensive in nature. Making fun of traumatic historical events, making fun of disabilities, humor on dead political/social figures and more – separate meme pages exist for dark memes.
They represent risky territory, and one mess-up could mean your brand getting all the negative publicity out there.
GenZ and memes have a special bond.
It’s like they use social media more or less for scrolling itself. What’s second to oxygen for them? You guessed it – memes!
For a brand to excel it must evolve. This means getting in tune with the new generation. And GenZ is all about fun and memes. They’re usually surfing their phone, scrolling on either Instagram, YouTube or X.
To get into their heads isn’t a major task. Funny, quirky, witty – that’s what they love. And with them devoting an average of 6.6 hours daily to media consumption (according to Statista), they’re a huge target audience for brands.
Enough talk let’s move on to the ‘who’s who?’ of MnM.
All big brands are pursuing meme marketing nowadays. Maybe it’s because of the golden marketing formula ‘keep it simple, but meaningful.’
And to be honest, memes are simple marketing instruments (as discussed earlier). Light on the pocket, heavy on impact. These memes can even be created by interns (often also ideated by them too).
Let’s take a look at the top players that hJometo and their IPOave been using memes to their fullest:
Zomato can undoubtedly be crowned the ‘king of memes and one-liners.’
It rules everything from our notifications to our Instagram feeds to our X feeds. One-liner this, meme that and a whole lot of witty, comedic and catchy one-liners – Zomato takes the cake.
The following meme is a funny take on how Zomato perceived its initial IPO offering. It shows that the company is nervous about its IPO coming out (highlighted by mereko aisa dhak dhak horela hai) and then followed by ‘paisa hi paisa hoga’ which denotes that the firm will receive the money as well.
Way to go Zomato, way to go!
Netflix is another one of the top-guns that uses MnM.
And it does so very, very smartly. One watches Netflix for its series and movies, right? So, they used their own dialogues for this meme.
The meme plays on how this character’s famous dialogue is used in accordance with a trendy meme one-liner that says ‘gonna tell my kids that…’
Netflix blends its product with memes and its memes with connecting humour! This causes a massive uproar of likes, shares and comments leading to its memes going viral! The mix of target audience, humour and memes always works!
Amul always amazes with its witty one-liners regarding trending topics.
It crafts a custom design showcasing its mascot, the Amul girl, and fuses it with the said topic. When the infamous ‘so beautiful, so elegant, just looking like a wow’ meme was trending, it designed a simple yet engaging pictorial meme with a clever one-liner: just cooking like a wow!
This post can be taken as the perfect example of how writing pairs with design that pairs with exceptional marketing prowess and above all – memes!
Memes have become an inseparable part of our lives.
They’ve made their way into our hearts and also into our dms. With that, they represent a cheap, effective tool of marketing.
Both memes and times change rapidly. Some memes are OG memes that can be used countless times, they simply never fade away or die. Some are based on trends and can last from a single day to a couple of weeks.
MnM has now emerged as a promising way to uniquely showcase your products while also connecting with consumers. Want meme marketing services catered to your brand?
Granth hai na! Let’s chat over a cup of coffee and scroll some memes together!
