.Nostolgic

Nostalgic advertising has been used many times before and they sometimes have favorable outcomes. The reason for this is because it elicits a response from the consumer other forms of advertisement does not. For example, have you ever saw, heard, or felt something that took you back into time? If you have, that reminiscent feeling gives you a moment in the past and you just have to be there. Well, that's what some advertisements successfully do. Jack Daniel's "Legend" campaign did a great job of this. They showed legendary artists and bands such as Frank Sinatra, Mudhoney, and Joey Ramone. Their goal was to capture rock 'n' roll legends and associate that with Jack Daniel's. They intended to capture the greatest times and aligned it with their product. A large group of direct Jack Daniels consumers would probably be attracted to this commercial. Not only that, it could spike interest in non-direct Jack Daniel's consumers. According to www.adweek.com, it increased their Brand Power Index score (it is measured by the amount of social media buzz and online searches a brand receives every quarter) by 27% (Adweek Source). Although nostalgic advertisement has an advantage, it could have a negative impact as well.

A way for nostalgic marketing to negatively effect consumers is through eliciting negative associations in consumers. Certainly, Frank Sinatra could remind people of World War II, or a time when their girlfriend dumped them. These associations come in numerous forms and can sometimes not be calculated. But for example, if studies suggest that showing a bicycle in advertisement can boost market sales because it reminds people of their good times in the past, then why not go with that. 

Honestly, there is not much to say about negative effects in my opinion. I feel that there will be people that do like a nostalgic feeling and that there will be people that don't. Sometimes it favors the company and sometimes it works against it. Although this is not a 50/50 case, there are cases where nostalgic advertising can be very effective. It can help bring back the good times and memories to consumers. In effect, encourage consumers to purchase these brands' products.

Let's Ride.

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Brand communities do develop greater involvement in a brand. For example (a brand other than Harley Davidson), Facebook and its ability to unite people on a website. It is the number 1 social networking site because it creates a community for people to congregate to. Cynically speaking, it's like how a country creates national pride through the use of flags, national anthems, etc. People find something they identify with, which helps unite other people together (even people who are not associated with the organization, but people who desire to). Sometimes people desire to be part of something and Harley Davidson used that to their advantage.

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The word "posse" in "Posse Ride" says it all. If you are participating in the "Posse Ride," then you are part of a "posse." Although this is a superficial analysis, it says a lot. A "posse" is defined as a group of men who may be armed. You can make the conjecture that people who take part in these events are people who believe they are tough, or people who want to be tough. Let's face it, how can you not be or appear tough with a large group of motorcycle riders. Moving forward, within these "Posse Rides" motorcyclists bond with each other. They do this in a sense of riding together and sharing their lives with each other in various ways. Moreover, promoting camaraderie, which enhances the
meaning of the brand.

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I don't believe Harley Davidson should get more involved with the rides. Any more involvement would make riders feel controlled, or policed. The idea of Harley Davidson is for riders to feel free on the open rode without any restrictions (yeah, and that sometimes gets out of hand). The riders have created the image for Harley Davidson and they continue to do that. Any interference by the company will dilute the meaning of Harley Davidson. Let's face it, Harley Davidson is known for their riders, not for themselves (if that makes sense). To elaborate, the Harley Davidson riders promote Harley Davidson, they no longer need to promote themselves.

There are no other ways Harley Davidson could promote it. They have a lot of motorcycle gang members ride those bikes. They are not only nationally known, but internationally known. They are known to have one of the loudest motorcycles ever. Again, if there were any interference by Harley Davidson, I feel like it would not seem organic. Organic in a sense that they are what they represent. Meaning that the riders and the way they are portrayed (the people who they desired to attract) are what makes a Harley Davidson motorcycle attractive.

Buy Nike. Just Do It.

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 Nike has been in the game for almost half of a century and have been growing ever since. Nike is not just a name to the consumer. It's a lifestyle. It's the life people choose when they exercise, play a sport, and walk around. Everywhere you go, you will see the word Nike and its notorious swoosh on pretty much anything.

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Nike has targeted its consumers who derive from all sorts of economic standing in society. They mainly target consumers ages 16-55 who possess high income standing or are part of the high income standing. The high income target market man cause medium to low income standing consumers to desire the product as well. And so far, this effect has occurred and has been occurring.

What makes Nike so attractive in comparison to its rival brands? For starters, they invest hugely into their Research and Development. Nike interviews customers to find what they can do to improve their products. As a result, they may put a logo somewhere noticeable, or have a commercial that includes specific scenes to attract more consumers. In addition, they also do testing on their products. This would include how the materials part of the product react to certain circumstances. For example, they would test the composite of a soccer cleat. This would include how it is affected with weight, in different temperatures, etc. Not only do they find ways to conform to the customer, they also are innovative risk takers. Nike has made products other brands would not dare to do.

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Two of some of the most recent successful products are the Nike FuelBand and the Nike Flyknit Racer. The Nike FuelBand was priced at $150. It has an electronic screen filled with a variety of colors and can calculate the amount of calories burned, miles traveled, number of steps taken, and NikeFuel points earned. It was considered unorthodox because the Nike FuelBand was considered to be in a different market (the technology market). The other product was the Nike Flyknit Racer. It was also an unconventional product. It was a shoe that was created through "knit threading rather than multiple layers of fabric" (Austin Carr, Nike: The No.1 Most Innovative Company Of 2013, www.fastcompany.com). This unorthodox creation yielded extremely light shoes. The risk taking Nike took, hit the consumers fast and hard. Making innovative and useful products can cause shift the consumers behavior positively (As we see here).

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Nike is not old. They have been competing with other brands for half of a century, but they have found ways to flourish like new. Through the heavy investments in their Research and Development Department and risky product creations, they have become one of the best brands there are. A lesson from one of Nike's tactics is to take risks through innovation. But be innovative in a way that serves the consumers better than before. The better it can be done, the more people are going to desire it.

It Works.

(Picture provided by www.environmental-watch.com)

 Greenpeace, founded in 1971, is a foundation that aims to protect the environment through direct-action. They execute this through investigating environmental crime, confronting environmental abuse, and finding solutions to help save the environment. Greenpeace chooses not to affiliate itself with the government or corporations. They believe that it goes against their values. Instead, they market themselves to individuals or different organizations that do not harm the environment.

(Picture provided by www.greenpeace.org)

The market themselves to the public in many ways. You can visit the six social networking websites that they have. These include Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, and Twitter.  These sites contain: updates about environmental issues that are occurring throughout the world, pictures of animals, and news about Greenpeace. Another marketing strategy they use is standing outside stores with their trademark t-shirts. What happens is they ask people who walk in and out of stores for a minute. Then, they give an introduction of what Greenpeace is. Afterwards, they ask if the individual would like to donate money, sign up for an weekly email updates, and many other things related to Greenpeace. Their advertising tactics don't stop there. They also do public protests that make the news and do interviews with news people in order to get TV time.

(Picture Provided by www.adverbox.com)

Greenpeace is an organization that has grabbed the attention of many people. For instance, in today's news, Greenpeace activists are detained in Russia for attempting to aboard an Arctic oil platform. They have made headlines on BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, and other big media companies. They have not only made an impact on American news, but worldwide news as well.

Some of the things they do may seem radical. I don't know whether it's right or wrong. All I know is that it works.

Roles. Roles. Roles.

Perplexed is probably an understatement for me in terms of my previous post. It seems that I am again on the issue of stereotyping utilized in advertising. What I want to do is try to be a little more definitive, meaning that I do not end up with an underlying issue that leaves me confused (if that's possible).

Roles. We all have roles in society don't we? Men work and women stay at home. Men mow the lawn, fix the house, and do the dirty work. Women keep the house clean and take care of the kids. But is all of this true? Why do we think this? Well, let's face it, advertising could be part of the reason for why roles are played this way. Let's say it is. Because in advertising, we can see the conspicuous (or inconspicuous for those who do not notice it) gender stereotypes that are played for the public to see.

Let's begin with an Easy Bake commercial in 2011. Obviously, the company targets young girls. How do they though? Well for one, there are young girls in the commercial. The music is sang by girls. The dominant colors are pink, purple, and white. Not to mention that they are doing their "job" as a female would, which is hinted by their mother working in the kitchen (clearly this is a connotation, but come on, does it not look like that?). Now this may not be the intention of the advertiser's, but it can definitely be construed as so.

Here's another one that's presented by AXE, a men's deodorant brand. Here, women are being objectified. In this commercial, there's an average looking man (not the one with large muscles and a protruding chin) who gets in bed with a woman because he used AXE. Throughout the commercial, the woman doesn't let go and he ends up using something called a "morning after pillow" to escape her. This commercial definitely doesn't give women the respect they deserve. It's implications are very harmful even if the intent wasn't meant to be.

Although women are given gender roles, so are men. For example, the man in this commercial for KRAFT has a deep voice, is muscular and defined, wears a v-neck t shirt, and speaks with a soothing voice. Essentially this man represents men women wish they had. And with this, they objectify him the same way advertisement's objectify women portraying them in a "sexy" manner. Therefore, it is implying that women should think of all men this way (it's a stretch, but hey, that's all I can think of for now). Although I am not offended in the least, there may be men who do dislike this type of depiction of man.

So I'm just providing a couple issues here. Is there a solution to at least balance the roles men and women play? I would like to think so. Most definitely for the first commercial that I showed (Easy Bake), there is a solution. What I would I do is add an even amount of boys and girls (1 boy and 1 girl). They would cooperatively bake together, dance together, and be in the kitchen baking with mother and father. Instead of a song sang by a girl, the song could have a male and female duet. The colors involved in the commercial could also be balanced. Such that there is an even amount of light and dark colors. I feel that this would be a proper solution to alter the gender role stereotype depicted in the original commercial. Now the AXE commercial is a hard issue to tackle. But maybe two brands can make a commercial together. For example, Dove and AXE could collaborate. Dove could make the exact same commercial as AXE, except the roles switch. That means that there would be a man stuck on a woman who uses Dove deodorant. They could also then use hash tags in their commercial in order to help increase social media popularity. For instance, "Dove Vs. AXE" (Battle of the Sexes). That would then even out the playing field. Yes, it may still be gender role stereotyping, but at least it's even. Now, the last commercial, I have no solution for. Take it out. Or leave it and make more commercials like that. For all I know, women are objectified so much in commercials. They are given this role to look extremely skinny and have massive sex appeal. It's unrealistic. Men depicted in the KRAFT commercial; that's also unrealistic. I really do not have a solution for it, except for take it down. What do you think?

Lost In Translation.

(Picture provided by www.bloggingthemaxey.files.wordpress.com)

It is 2013, does stereotyping have a place in marketing anymore? Throughout the past years, marketing agencies have integrated stereotyping in their advertisements in order to target a specific population of consumers. This includes portraying certain races in advertisements in a manner that seem offensive to different people. Whether the agencies' intent was meant to harm other races or not is beyond me. All I know is that as time progressed, more people began to show great disapproval towards these types of advertisements. As a person who believes that stereotyping is no longer necessary, I can still see why it is needed in the eyes of a marketing agency.

Obviously, the objective of a marketing agency is to help sell a product through the use of many advertising tools. Economically speaking, the purpose of a company is to maximize profit. Here is where the issue lies. How does a company maximize profit through marketing? Well, we have the different types of advertising tools (commercials, magazine ads, etc.) and its mass production (by this, meaning maximizing the amount of tools to send the message to the public). Next, we have the content. How can a marketing agency maximize profit through marketing in an ad itself? The best way I can think of is to target a large population. How? Through developing an ad that can make (or close to make anyways) that population relate to it. This is where stereotyping comes into play. This is how and why I can see marketing agencies still find stereotyping necessary. However, do marketing agencies take it too far sometimes?

The stereotypes marketing agencies depict are sometimes taken too far. What is meant by "taken too far" is that these advertisements have made an implicit and/or explicit offensive statement to a distinct group of people. The idea of being "taken too far" comes from the public that perceives and gives meaning to these advertisements. The issue is that we do not entirely know the true intent behind stereotypes that are presented in these advertisements. In addition, there is the problem of how the public perceives these presentations and how the public gives meaning to them. Therefore, we do not truly know if what we see and believe is what presenter actually intended. Also, we do not know if the one perceiving is misinterpreting the message given to them. Moving forward, although some people may say there's a problem, it doesn't entirely mean that there actually is one. In terms of the problem of racism found in advertisements with stereotypes, I feel that this is not the case.

 

(Picture provided by www.owni.eu)

There are advertisements that may seem innocuous, but may be harmful when examined closely. Innocuous meaning that it is not perceived as a group of people are being targeted in an offensive manner. Harmful as in the message is targeting a group of people in an offensive manner. It can be found in many advertisements. In a magazine ad by L'Oreal in 2009, the whitening of skin was implied to be better. This ad consisted of four photographs of Beyonce's (an African-American singer) face progressively whiten. In the first picture, her face is dark. By the fourth picture, her face is lighter and virtually white. Essentially, the message implied (whether it was intended or not) is use L'Oreal and your skin will get whiter, which is synonymous with better. Another example can be found in the Dr. Pepper Ten commercial. It explicitly states that Dr. Pepper Ten is for men only. Simultaneously, showing a muscular man in a tight shirt doing action scenes in a film. Then again, when I think about it, it is not saying men are better than women. It simply states that it's not a drink women would like. Coincidentally, some people were still offended by it. The effects of these ads have given the some people (if not many) a negative outlook on the commercial and company. In addition, does this even help a company help maximize profit? Would someone want to buy from a company that has advertisements that could be perceived as harmful? I would like to think not. Moreover, I feel that advertisements should no longer use stereotypes due to the backlash they receive afterwards.

(Picture provided by www.katie-contemporaryitaly.blogspot.com)

Why advertise something could potentially harm how the public perceives a company? I feel that at
this day an age, this generation is moving towards coexistence. People are still racists and people are always stereotyped. Consequently, advertising should push for a more positive image. For example, an advertising piece from Oliviero Toscani's "United Colors of Benetton." Not all of his pieces of course, but one's that show people of all sorts coexisting (not sure about criminals and innocent people and other drastic ones). An example of this would be the ad where a Caucasian woman and African woman hold an Asian infant together. Then again, I realize that people will make claims of it being racist. Now that I take a step back and think about this issue. I find that anything can be considered racist, stereotypical, or harmful based on how people perceive things. I am truly lost and I cannot see a way for marketing agencies to not receive criticism for their ads. I truly do not know what to say or what to believe anymore.

(Picture provided by www.flickr.com)

What Do You See? And What Does It Mean?

=Formula 1.

 

What we see here in the NBC Sports Network commercial is an advertisement for Formula 1's "Rolex Australian Grand Prix." We see scenes from the events that are a part of Formula 1 as the commercial plays. The advertisement begins with Ferrari's famous signature, their emblem and color. Then a man with a tranquil voice smoothly comes in and says, "Formula 1." And as he says this, the word "Formula 1" with a semi colon in front of it appears on the screen. Next, as he begins to talk, certain adjectives he lists after the "Formula 1:" scene appears. These words are shown on the screen with an addition sign on the top left corner of them. These words are action, mystery, drama, and thriller (note that these words are all capitalized). Also, as these words are shown, shots from Formula 1 races appear. The word "+ACTION" appears on a track in front of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren F1 car. The word "+MYSTERY" is shown on a McLaren pit crew member's face mask. The word "+DRAMA" appears in front of a scene in 2003 when Kimi Raikkonen pushes a race marshal. And the word "+THRILLER" is shown behind Fernando Alonso's Scuderia Ferrari F1 car burning out. As the narrator progresses in his speech, the scenes that take place or are associated with Formula 1 are shown. In addition, the process (such as the one described earlier) repeats itself with other categories and listings. It then ends with the man saying, "Man plus machine plus the world shaken and stirred. Formula 1 begins on Saturday March 16th on the NBC Sports Network." The key focus is that there is an equal sign after the text"Man plus machine plus the world shaken and stirred" is shown. In the end, we can the message this commercial is conveying.

Although there is a lot going on in the commercial, I feel that "a lot going on" was a message it was also trying to portray about Formula 1. I feel that it was trying to state that Formula 1 is not just a bunch of fast cars and skilled race car drivers racing. It seems as if the objective of this advertisement was to convey that Formula 1 is racing, but a lot more than that. This includes the adjectives he listed (action, mystery, drama, and thriller), the things associated with glamor (thrill seekers, the rock stars, and super models [shown in the video and not mentioned above due to boring repetition]), and the countries and continents these Formula 1 events take place in. In conclusion, the message is saying that all of the things they included in this commercial is Formula 1.

Doux, Super Doux.

(Picture provided www.wix.com)

This billboard is an advertisement for Ariel. It stands out by not being the standard rectangle billboard. The top of this billboard is folded or gives the illusion that it is. It is pink with patterns and has text spells out "Super doux" on the bottom left of the billboard. Doux is translated as soft in French. On the very bottom left of the billboard is the laundry detergent box by the company Ariel.

The message in this billboard is exactly what the text says; it's "Super doux." The billboard makes it so that I think that I can feel it (that it's super soft). The folds at the top of the billboard emphasizes the message. The billboard is supposed to look like a blanket or some sort of cloth with folds. This company is saying that if you use their product, your laundry won't just be soft; it will be super soft. I think that Ariel wants the consumer to think that they give soft a new definition.

We Go Where You Go.

(Picture provided by Men's Health Magazine Oct. 2013 issue)

This is magazine advertisement is for the University of Utah Health Care. It consists of a long paved straight road that diminishes the farther you look up the page. There is grass that lies next to the pavement and patches of dirt found around the grass. You can also see the water that lies beside the grass and mountains in the background. The light that shines in the picture looks as if it is trying to depict sunlight. Aside from the setting, there are two males that look below 50 years old that are on recumbent bikes. The effects on this image make it seem like these men are traveling fast on their bikes. Also, there is text on the back ground and at the bottom of the page. The first text that is black and is found above the man in red says, "We Go Where You Go." The text that is found below the man in white says, "Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation." On the bottom of the ad is a white strip. This white strip has an NFC bar code. It reads, "28 Sports in 28 Minutes." In addition to that, is more font that describes what is meant by the title. To the right of this text, is the text that reads "University of Utah Health Care" and under it reads the website. This part of the ad also includes the University of Utah Health Care's emblem.

I find this message very inspiring and comforting at the same time. Their message is that what you, the customer, want to do, they'll be there. No matter how extreme your sport, the University of Utah Health Care will be there to take care of you.