Axe Detailer... for Women?

Several weeks ago we discussed how Axe created a manly shower tool for men in order to promote the sales of shower gel for men. I saw an ad for a shower gift set for women by Axe, which also featured the same shower tool, but in a more feminine design. What I find interesting is that though Axe tried to make the shower tool manly (to look like a car wheel with rougher edges on the outside and a softer inner scrub), they have decided to create a feminine version of it. Axe seems to have come up with a handy and efficient tool overall. 

Axe is using the same design for a shower tool for women, when they clearly could have included a loofah instead. Of course, the campaign of Axe Anarchy has two sides, one for males, and one for females, so perhaps the company was trying to match the two sides with the shower tools. However, I would think that including a loofah would be so much cheaper than including the detailer in the "Anarchy for Her" set, so perhaps it is because of the success of the detailer shower tool that they have decided to include it in this campaign for both sides. I just find this an interesting addition onto the success of the detailer shower tool, which was first and foremost born out of the goal of promoting shower gel for men. 

Which Came First, the Consumer or the Brand?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpassikoff/2014/03/18/which-came-first-the-consumer-or-the-brand/

The chicken and egg question of whether the consumer or product/service should come first has been a popular subject in recent years, as brands are shifting from the traditional product production then marketing to more consumer-focused product development. However, as we learned in class, consumers cannot be trusted completely because of social desirability bias, inaccurate memory, among other reasons.

I found this article interesting because it explores the question of which should come first: consumer or product. The author argues that really it's a little of both, and just like the chicken and egg question, there is no right answer. Companies need to depend on market studies to develop the next popular product, but consumers also depend on new products to expand their expectations. The article gives the example of the new organic and healthy foods trend; it's been really a combination of brands seizing the opportunity of marketing healthier options, educating the consumers on the importance of organic ingredient, and consumers demanding more healthy options that started this trend. Perhaps the best answer is that marketers need to follow consumers' voices, while keep their eyes open to innovate and create products that consumers don't even know they need.

When Skin Becomes an Advertising Opportunity

From Jenna Cantor:

When Skin Becomes an Advertising Opportunity

I thought this article was fascinating.  It relates to the concept of "free" that we talked about in class and read in Dan Ariely's book.  The article mentions how a girl from Michigan got a FREE permanent tattoo of the tanning salon "Electrik Beach," and since she got the tattoo, she now gets FREE tanning for a lifetime at this tanning salon.

The article also talked about brand loyalty, but I personally believe that this is an extreme case of brand loyalty!  What do you think?

The brand/company pays for the cost of the tattoo and the tattoo receiver gets something out of it that means something to them.  

Chocolate Milk for Grown-Ups? Application of Means-End Chain Method

Speaking of adults wanting to feel young, a couple weeks ago I made an interesting discovery. My godfather is a major coffee snob who grinds his own beans and makes espresso in a classic stove-top contraption. Therefore, I was pretty surprised to discover a couple weeks ago that he had bought Starbucks' boxed "Caffe Mocha." As someone who routinely bemoans Starbucks' existence, it was quite a shock to find that he had not only bought the product, but liked it! As a CB experiment, I decided to ask him a series of questions in an effort to apply the means-end chain method to this scenario and figure out what motivated him to buy boxed coffee.

At first we started looking at the packaging. Was it the sleek design? The shiny paper surface? The unique box shape? The stripe down the back of the carton? Or was it the name: Caffe Mocha? He said that the name made it seem fancy, and that he liked the box's sleep and shiny appeal. We delved deeper: what about the consistence? The taste? We all took a sip and discovered it was rather thick and very sweet. I asked if he normally drinks coffee this sweet enjoys mocha. He said that he doesn't. Then I asked him what he feels when he drinks the mocha, and realization hit. He said it reminded him of drinking chocolate milk as a child. In the end, although he didn't realize it, he purchased the product on a whim because of his desire re-experience chocolate milk even though he was an adult.

Evian Baby Commercial

I came across this commercial and found it very appropriate to share on this blog. I watched this entire commercial and had no idea what it could possibly be promoting until the very end when they showed the Evian logo. Though the lack of immediate recognition could be seen as a negative, I found the ad very effective in keeping my attention and ultimately making me smile. As I watched, I became more and more curious as to what product it was actually representing.

That being said, I think the effectiveness of the ad is shown through my retention of the brand and their slogan: Live Young. I wouldn't consider myself an Evian water fan; I had always stuck with Aquafina or Arrowhead. But, after seeing this commercial, I have a much stronger desire to try their water and support their brand. I especially feel that their commercial and slogan of "Live Young" will really connect and reach out to people. Evian promotes their water as being best for mothers to feed to their children, for the water has a pH-neutral mineral composition. Who doesn't want to recapture their youth and feel good? Additionally, the use of babies was cute and will definitely win over a lot of the female demographic they are trying to target.

Following Our Presentation on Framing

From our presentation from framing, I wanted to give an example of how experiential products from Expedia, hotel stays and flight trips, use framing to pressure consumers into buying their products.

If you visit http://www.expedia.com/ the first thing you notice is a bottom right corner box that tells you how many other people are looking at the website and this is social framing. When you start browsing room pages (the page before you book), the website uses both quantity and social pressure framing.

I think Expedia has done a great job in using framing to influence consumers to purchase more of their products. Personally, the combination of quantity and social pressure does influence how quickly I am likely to purchase the items.

Why Brands Need to Shut Their Mouths and Open Their Ears

I read an interesting article about how brands should change their old marketing strategies and adapt to this digital age where smartphones are ubiquitous. For a long time, successful brands have been trying to create their brand message and convey to consumers effectively. However, branding is NOT a one-way communication system. It is important that you hear your consumers' responses and keep improving your products accordingly.

I found a lot of useful information in the article giving marketing suggestions of making full use of social media and communicate "with" consumers, instead of just communicate "at" them. Successful examples show that not only does it do good to sales, but it is also beneficial in building a healthy and long-term relationship with consumers.

However, as far as I am concerned, you should always find a balance between "keeping it my own way" and "going with the flow. It is by no means wise either to stick to the very original idea of your brand or to just follow whatever your community tells you. Being flexible and selective is always the key here.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

The Boston Consulting Group recently published a study: “How Millennials are Changing Marketing Forever.” The report detailed what they coined “the reciprocity principle” as they wrote, “Millennials expect a two-way, mutual relationship with companies and their brands.” As individuals become brands in-and-of themselves, the tables have turned, so the smartphone generation expects these brands that they consume to not just communicate at them but also with them.

The article also talked about how to do do the two-way communication with consumers, mainly via social media. 

Here’s the best news for entrepreneurs: The two-way communication is far less expensive than traditional branding. The channels of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, are all entirely free to use, and it is on these channels that this two-way communication occurs. The reciprocity principle requires not cash but authentic communication. Having a conversation with your community is free and when done right (that is to say done authentically), it converts mere customers into true brand ambassadors. And these brand ambassadors are powerful multipliers of your brand.

Then it gave us an example of how Zady successfully applied the reciprocity principle in its promotions and advertising.

Our company Zady, which is working to transform the current environmentally ruinous apparel industry by creating a brand built on the principles of beauty and sustainability, infuses the reciprocity principle in everything that we do.Here is how we do it: 

1. Ask and you shall receive. We noticed that a customer posted a photo on Instagram of their latest Zady package with their dog, and requested that Zady carry sustainable products for their pets. We didn’t let this comment go unheard. But we wanted to test the waters, so we re-grammed the picture on our Instagram feed and posted it to Twitter, asking our audience what other products they were interested in seeing us carry.Your company can do the same simply by asking, preferably with some visuals, what people want to see either on your site or with your product. 

2. Open your ears. The re-gram garnered an overwhelming response that folks wanted sustainable dog products.Everyone wants to have his opinion heard, and you will get responses to the question, but just make sure that each person feels heard. You can do this simply by liking their comments or reposting their comments on your company’s social accounts. 

3. React. We followed up to this query by searching for a stylish, long-lasting, locally and sustainably produced dog product. By the time we had the product up on our site and sent an email out alerting our customers of its arrival, our audience was so engaged that our first run of the pieces sold out within days.Of course, the key to the two-way conversation is the response. You have to make your company flexible to following what your community tells you.

Article Link http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232464

Advertising Clutter

Advertising Clutter

We talked about advertising clutter in class and how it’s being implemented all over the world in every possible space we can think off. This is making more difficult for advertisers to be made their point across. A recent BurstMedia survey revealed that 75% of users pay less attention to ads on cluttered sites. Therefore as shown in class, creativity steps into making the ads stand out of the clutter. The picture below is a good example of this.

But what about when creativity is implemented in every ad out there, the efficacy of them diminish and eventually leads to customers ignoring them completely.

It also leads consumers to abandon sites that appear to be cluttered with ads. This effect increases when we segment by age, showing older people being more susceptible to cluttered ads placers, as shown by the graph below.

What we can get from this is that we as marketers want to look focus on using advertising in places where ad clusters are at a minimum, especially if our target market is over 45 years of age.

Sebastian Martinez

Influencing Problem Recognition: Thai Life Insurance Commerical

In class last week, we discussed how marketers can influence problem recognition in consumers. Marketers do this by creating a dissatisfaction with how things currently are in the life of the consumer, and then motivating the consumer to do something to change it.

In class, we saw a video about the innovative Tesco/Homeplus subway shopping. I thought the video was very interesting in that the idea was extremely innovative and it really seemed efficient (and was efficient). We also discussed in class advertisements such as Fit Fruit & Vegetable Wash, "washing away what water alone can't". Both these advertisements address a need that we don't recognize that we have.

Here, I have a commercial that addresses a need that we DO have, but perhaps don't put as much importance on it. I actually saw this commercial along time ago, but I remember it because it had such a high impact on me. I think the ad is very effective in what it tries to do.

This Thai Life Insurance commercial emphasizes the need for time to spend with your loved ones, and the need for life insurance, which can really save the people you love in case of emergencies. The ad really plays on the emotions of the consumer and targets the fear within the consumer regarding "what-if" scenarios. The example is a bit different from what we've seen in class, but I think the marketers are definitely trying to create a dissatisfaction in the life of the consumer and influencing the problem recognition in consumers.

Product Placement

During class, we saw a part of the Britney Spears music video which featured many different brands and products in a more or less obvious way. In class we discussed that even if we don't remember exactly which product was shown in the video, it creates a lasting image in our implicit memory which causes us to identify the product and more likely select the product even though we don't really remember it.

In this post, I have included 2 examples of product placement, one of which is extremely obvious, and the other not so much.

The first one is this BudLight commercial, which makes it blatantly obvious that it is using product placement by even mentioning it in the very beginning. However, even though it is outrageous and almost annoyingly repeating the idea of product placement, I think it was still a very effective commercial. I think that viewers will recall a positive experience from watching this commercial and in turn have positive feelings towards BudLight the brand.

This second video is actually a Korean music video. The video is slightly explicit and I would only watch the first minute or so to understand the point.

What I thought was interesting about this was that there were two brands of beers featured in this MV: Budweiser and Heineken. I am kind of confused as to how both brands can be featured in the same music video. However, in the first minute or so, the images of the beers are visible in almost every scene. Most young adults who watch this MV are probably at KTV/noraebang and singing and dancing (in Asia) and when they see the beers, they will likely order the same drinks. Also, being a MV, it is meant to be watched more than once. I posted this video because the first time I saw this, I didn't really notice the brands of the beers, but the second time, I could not stop thinking about how much product placement the MV makers tried to include in the video.

Another product placement I noticed in this video was at 0:45. If you pause the video you will clearly see a box of Nature Valley's crunchy granola bar. This only appears in the MV once and it is very subtle, but I noticed it right away when I saw the video and I'm sure many other views did well. It was a very clever placement, which although subtle, seems to also be very effective in creating the implicit memeory.

Ultra Reality Commercial

Although this is not related to a particular topic we have discussed in class, I think this is a very interesting commercial. The commercial is very effective in getting its point across about the clarity and high level of quality that this new LG flatscreen TV is. The idea is honestly very simple and something that seems very obvious, but could not really done before.

What happens in this commercial is that an LG flatscreen is set up behind a window and displays a clear view of the outside. Then, suddenly, an outrageous disaster happens, and the effects of it are so realistic that the individual in the room reacts in horror.

Creative Packaging

http://www.demilked.com/creative-interesting-packaging-designs/

I found this article about really clever packaging that really grab consumer's attention. I know that if I saw some of these I would definitely take a minute to look at them more closely. The packaging doesn't actually affect the product at all, but for some of these (like matches), it makes an ordinary product that a consumer might not even want seem appealing. Also, products like the paint brushes and matches are the exact same product no matter what brand you buy, so the interesting packaging is a way to stand out from the competition. My favorites were the juice boxes and the tea bags!

Heinz Ketchup Commercial

I originally saw this commercial while at home watching TV during Spring Break, and I instantly thought of some of the topics we covered in this course. The most predominant one would be dual encoding; Heinz is using the "If You're Happy and You Know It" song in the form of a hum and hoping that consumers will associate it with their ketchup. I thought it was a great idea on their behalf, for not only is it extremely catchy, but also a song that many people are familiar with.

5 Fun experiments: Paid for sex, Paid to sleep, Free $100,000, Free Drugs, and Paid to eat.

Since all the CB groups are currently conducting their studies, I thought this article was quite relevant & very funny.

Link:  goo.gl/02e1kX

NASA* Bed Rest Study: If you could design your perfect job, what would it be? If you said, "Staying in bed all day, surfing the web and playing video games on a laptop," well, you're most people in our target demographic. You're also a couple of years too late.  In 2008, NASA was recruiting regular people using radio and TV ads for a 90-day study that involved earning $17,000 for doing little more than being confined to a bed (yes, you could play WoW if you wanted to). 

Harsh Reality: They wanted to see the effects of prolonged zero gravity on the body.  They found that after just a few weeks of constant bed rest, muscle atrophy set in, and bone density went down.  It then took weeks of physical therapy for people to get back in shape so they could perform their daily tasks.

Paid to Eat Study:  Back in the 1970s, researchers combined two cornerstones of American society, obesity and overcrowded prisons, into one fat-tastic study. A select group of prison inmates, hopefully the non-rapey kind, were offered early release on the grounds that they agreed to gain 25 percent of their body weight.  It doesn't get much better than that! Pack on a few extra pounds and before you know it you'll be home just in time to catch your best friend raising your kids and nailing your girlfriend!  

Harsh Reality:  Researchers were actually looking to see if there were genes that keep people from getting fat?  Well, they found out that some individuals were genetically disposed to make weight gain really really hard.  1/3 of the individuals studied could not gain weight even if they consumed 10,000 calories a day.

Sudden Wealth: what if some guys handed you $100,000, on the condition that they get to film what happens to you next? And what if you were living under a bridge at the time?

The crew of the documentary Reversal of Fortune planted a suitcase filled with 100 grand for homeless man Ted Rodrigue to find, and followed him around with a camera to document the results. Initially, Ted did exactly what the rest of us would do if someone gave us $100,000. He bought a new bicycle, picked up Mike from down at the local recycling plant and hit the fucking amusement park.

Harsh Reality: He couldn't manage his money and was back on the streets in 6 months.

World's Toughest Job

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/24-people-who-applied-worlds-toughest-job-were-quite-surprise-157028

I thought this commercial was very interesting and sent a very powerful message. Viewers don't see the message until the very end and involves high level central route processing.

Problem recognition example

Note: please watch the video before reading the paragraph below
This ad is a great example how marketers influence problem recognition by reminding consumers about the problem: mom has been working hard all her life so you will become who you are today. At the end of the ad, they become the solution with just one simple reminder: "This mother's day, you might want to make her a card." "visit cardstore.com"

Changing Gender Roles

Over spring break I drove to Boston. On the way, I stopped for gas at a gas station that was connected to a McDonald's. I went into the men's bathroom in the McDonald's and the first thing I saw was this baby changing station on the wall. It reminded me of our lecture on differences between consumers and seemed to represent what we spoke about regarding changing gender roles. The baby changing station was a prominent feature in the men's bathroom which is a change in gender roles that we are seeing more and more lately. Seeing this also reminded me of the commercial we watched in class where a father is getting drive-through McDonald's for his family but doesn't want to stop the car because his baby is sleeping in the back seat. McDonald's seems to be both adopting to and pushing the idea of changing gender roles in their commercials and in their real life facilities.

Facebook Enlarges Advertisements on its Desktop Website

Facebook's stock has soared in response to advertisements hitting the social media site. Facebook desired more advertisers in order to increase their stock, thus their revenue. In order to profit, Facebook conducted experiments where the advertisement on the right side of the page was enlarged. The results - it worked! The study showed that larger ads have three times the usual number of clicks, likes, and shares. As a result, larger ads will appear across screens in the world in a month or so. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/04/09/facebook-enlarges-advertisements-on-its-desktop-website/

Pantene's Labels Against Women commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjNcZvwjxI

I first saw this commercial not too long after it came out. The video came to me again after learning about Attitude in class. The video is a great example of influencing affectively based attitudes under high effort processing. This high affective processing encourages the consumer to process the message holistically rather than analytically.  Specifically, in this ad, the consumers don’t analyze how good the quality of Pantene shampoo is, but the sense of confidence and the positive feelings associated with the shampoo that the viewers get from the ad. The message shows the issue of double standard and inequality in the society.  The positive message that Pantene gives the female audience makes the brand becomes more likable. The message is effective by forming strong attitudes because the argument is personally relevant, and about important attributes.

Gillette BODY Razor TV Commercial

While watching TV today I saw this commercial for a men's razor. The commercial used a hilly terrain as a metaphor for a man's body, something rugged and uneven as opposed to a paved road which is flat and without contours. To "tame" such a body requires a masculine tool like Gillette's BODY Razor which implies that this razor is a more masculine version than other razors. The commercial is below.

This ad was reminiscent of the Axe Detailer article and video in class. These campaigns aim to make "men's health and grooming" a more masculine chore/activity. Axe was able to make their product more masculine by relating it to a tire - something aggressive, masculine, functional, and cool. The inspiration came from the theme of car culture.

Gillette BODY Razor leaches off this idea by relating the body to the rugged terrain which should appeal to men and make personal grooming seem like a more manly activity.

Voluntary Attention via E-mail Exposure

In session 5 we learned about Exposure Attention and how to promote either Voluntary or Involuntary attention. In this post I will focus on Voluntary Attention, which involves a consumer paying attention to something selective. This action is more likely if the consumer intends to purchase something.

My example is an e-mail I received from Bodybuilding.com where I purchase health and fitness supplements. A few days ago they sent me an e-mail as pictured below.

An e-mail from Bodybuilding.com

The subject line of this e-mail is "Nathan, Are You Running Low On Cellucor - C4 Extreme?" This is effective because it asks a rhetorical question (one step to making a message personally relevant).

The question also connects with the consumer's needs and goals by increasing perceptual vigilance. Following this question is a heading that says "Muscles Can't Run on Empty" and a smaller subheading that says "Don't Let Your Supply Run Dry!". This reminded me of a habit we learned about earlier in the course where as we run out of an item or perishable good we consume it in smaller quantities.

Following the product advertisement are multiple pictures featuring the "ideal" body. Subscribers aspire to identify with the "characters" and situation.

United Airlines Campaign: Flyer Friendly

This year McDonald's launched a new campaign: Flyer Friendly.

I noticed this campaign while traveling home for spring break. There were numerous ads in the Newark Liberty (EWR) airport with the phrase "____ Friendly". Among these were "kick back and relax friendly", "Flyer Friendly", and my favorite, "Faraway Friendly".

More information about their campaign can be found here: https://hub.united.com/en-us/flyerfriendly/pages/default.aspx



The reason I liked this ad the most was because it features a man taking a "selfie". I saw this one while grabbing Ben & Jerry's in the food court.

I think that this ad shows that United understands consumers and the new fad for taking pictures of oneself in unique places. This lends itself to the concept of Motivation and how a brand can increase consumer motivation. United is doing this by making the ad personally relevant by projecting how consumers would actually react to this situation: a person would capture a scenic view with a picture, but more recently taking a selfie would be the "normal" behavior.

Breakfast Battle: McDonald's vs. Taco Bell

Recently, Taco Bell has attempted to break into the fast-food breakfast market. To do so, Taco Bell has to battle against fast-food breakfast giant, McDonald's. McDonald's has not stayed quiet about this new competitor and released this picture with the caption "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

McDonald's makes an initial attack on Taco Bell and its breakfast menu.

Taco Bell soon followed suit with an advertisement featuring 25 real men named Ronald McDonald who introduced themselves and expressed their love for Taco Bell's new breakfast options. You can watch the video below.



McDonald's followed up with a tweet "'Breaking!' Mayor McCheese confirms: 'Ronald, in fact, still prefers McDonald's.'"

This battle between two fast-food behemoths is similar to that of the rivalry between Pepsi and Coca Cola. In Strategic Management (HA 4410) we learned that the rivalry between the two beverage producers is actually not a harmful one. In fact, the friendly competition between Pepsi and Cola generates media attention and more consumers to both brands.

In summary, it seems that Taco Bell is benefiting from its competition with McDonald's. Although taking jabs at each other, the two brands are increasing exposure which contributes to the Mere Exposure effect. People will begin to develop a preference for these two brands because of their familiarity with them.

Positioning Away from Prototype

This 1997 Snapple commercial positions the product away from Cola, similar to the 7-Up commercial we saw in class today. The ad uses Cola as the frame of reference to show that this product is different and that it is not competing but creating a new brand category. The commercial acknowledges that the two leading soft drink brands are cola and that it is not competing for those spots. This idea is similar to the Avis "we try harder" campaign in which the rent-a-car company admits to being #2 and uses that as a way to gain customer loyalty. Although this approach was not continued for Snapple's advertisements, it shows that positioning away from the prototype is not always a fit for a brand's position, personality and culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf0AcRUXPbQ

Superbowl Ad Central Route Persuasion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlSn8Isv-3M

This ad shows a high involvement, central route persuasion where the consumer will have a lot of emotional attachment to both the message and imagery of the commercial. By convincing the consumers that Chrysler is truly an American brand that's original and high quality, the ad uses a strong message to let the consumers decide whether or not the brand does embodies America. Also, one of the most obvious giveaways of central route persuasion is Bob Dylan in the commercial speaking to the consumer, trying to convince them of what he's saying.

Categorization with online shopping

One online store for a variety of home-goods, furniture, jewelry, functional or random home decor items is catering their website to a different form of marketing. They advertise their product using a different form of categorization by refraining from typical websites that sell items by major titles of the type of product and rather, they sell an experience and offer multiple lines each with various products that are used to create a cohesive space. Their website allows for creating a unified space and easily offers a range of items within one category that can be purchased to design and decorate your personal space with a specific feel and ambiance (such as industrial modern or shabby chic); they create chains of themes, leading to purchases that might have otherwise been avoided by consumers. On regular websites (classic online retail, such as westelm.com) a consumer is more likely to limit their search and they have a direct reason or item in mind, they search less and do not necessarily look outside of the type of item they wish to purchase. At Joss and Main, by grouping an array of items under one title, from lamps to couches and beds, to vases or knic-knacs or paintings, a consumer is forced to shop through additional items, potentially increasing their purchases to outside of their original need. Also in this way of categorization they are taking a taxonomic approach where there are similar objects in the same category but they are similar in colors and creation of physical space or perception and feel of experience.

(above is a small clip of the heading for shopping categories according to the classical categorization: westelm.com)

(above is a clip of their homepage from https://www.jossandmain.com)

This razor ad reminded me strongly of our conversation about different methods of stimulate involuntary attention. This ad used the method of "surprise the consumer" by showing a novelty and unexpected image that encouraged elaboration and involvement. I wasn't looking for a razor ad when I saw it, but the ad grabbed my attention because the image looked so strange to me at first that I couldn't help but pause what I was doing and look more at it. The ad's novelty relies on a giant 3-D razor apparently having shaved the grass on a field to demonstrate the razor's ability. It depends on the rest of the grass outside of the one shaven strip to be unkempt and unshaven compared to the strip that the large razor is left on, for contrast. The ad also uses the idea of "making it bigger" to promote involuntary consumer attention in the sense that it's not normal to see such a large 3-D razor. I thought these two methods of encouraging involuntary attention were very effective for the ad, and thought it was interesting that they relied entirely on these methods rather than any writing (more traditional advertisement that they could have combined with their efforts to make the ad large and novel). On reflection, I feel as though writing on the billboard itself may have taken away from the surprise of the ad, or may have added too much of another element to the ad and created confusion. The white background seems to go with the shaven patch of grass; both say the razor will give you cleanliness and order.

Changing Roles

Honey Maid's new "This is wholesome" campaign reminded me of our class discussion on changing gender roles.  This ad features homosexual parents, single fathers, interracial families, military families, and a nontraditional "rocker" family.  While the product remains the same, the advertisement portrays the changing gender and familial roles, making a bold corporate statement that these new roles are just as wholesome.  The topic of changing roles is increasingly appearing in advertisements.  Companies such as Cheerios and Honey Maid are taking the first steps to reveal society's new reality.

 

On the subject of involuntary attention, this London bus stop got really creative with alien invasions and augmented reality.

Superb!

No New Ideas

After discussing how marketers use similar materials I came across this picture comparison. I thought that it was very interesting because the advertisement on the left came out much earlier than the Avengers movie had. When I looked further into it I saw that the creator of the picture on the left was inspired by Marvel's comics. This is just another example of how the same material is simply reused during promotion. The Avengers was a very succesful box office hit even with its copied movie poster.

In my free time I was surfing the web and I came across this example of the figure ground principle in an African Children Initiative advertising campaign. I'm not very good at geography and it took me awhile to realize that there was anything in the picture besides the child staring up at the adult. This made me realize that certain uses of figure ground are dependent on the audience of the advertisement having a background knowledge of certain things to be able to see that there is a second way of looking at the picture if they shift their focus. If I'd shown this ad to someone who wasn't familiar with geography, or a third grader who had not yet studied a map of the world in school, their mind would likely not allow them to shift their focus at all and the effect of the technique would be lost. This is true for some ads where one of the two images depends on prior knowledge as opposed to ads like this:

which anyone, regardless of background or education, could perceive the double image in if they shift their focus. The figure ground principal therefore is limited in its power to draw attention and create involvement when it relies on the audience to have prior knowledge of one of the images because if your brain doesn't recognize one of the two images at all from memory or association, it's unlikely that you will be able to perceive a) that a second image is there, and b) what it is.

Starbucks Evenings

I recently came across an article about "Starbucks Evenings." In select locations, Starbucks will start to offer wine and beer and an extended food menu (including truffle macaroni and cheese and chocolate fondue)  after 4:00pm. According to their site, after 4pm customers will "experience a more mellow, less hurried atmosphere for winding down and having casual conversations." The selection will vary to meet "local test preferences." In recent years, Starbucks has expanded its offerings to include breakfast and lunch options, as well as Starbucks Ice Cream--that way, more customers would come in during lunch hours, and buy more Starbucks products in general. They have also made large deals with other big companies, including Evolution Fresh (juices), Whole Foods, La Boulange, and Teavana. Now, with the addition of gourmet food and alcohol for Starbucks Evenings, Starbucks has expanded its brand even more to draw people in at later hours--thus creating in billions of dollars in potential revenue. Starbucks' brand extension has been successful because it has been able to leverage its existing customer base and brand loyalty to create new products.  Through extension, Starbucks has successfully skewed its image to be more of a lifestyle/food and drink brand than just a simple coffee shop. Starbucks' chief operating officer noted that the addition of alcohol to Starbucks cafes won't work everywhere--based on test runs, he said they've seen success in urban areas, near other restaurants and theaters, where people are out at night. Location and the characteristics of consumers in certain areas is important to consider as Starbucks expands in this new direction.


http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/starbucks-stores/starbucks-evenings

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-20/what-to-expect-from-starbucks-new-booze-menu