1) Understand that the marketing process starts and ends with customers and consumers.
Throughout this blog I have written about multiple examples of advertising campaigns. These campaigns ranged from things you see every day to advertisements that are so outrageous they cause a controversy. One thing I have learned from examining all types of ads are that the ads are meant to do one thing: sell their product. In order to sell the product, they have to appeal to the consumer. Calvin Klein's highly sexual advertising is there to remind the consumer that Calvin Klein is a brand that is highly relatable to sex. It's all about the consumer, because in the end, they are the ones to decide which products do well and which products don't.
2) Understand the impact of market research and finance in the marketing process.
The most relatable assignment of the semester in terms of market research and finance was the McGraw Hill Practice Marketing simulation. Our team had to create the backpack based on what we thought the consumers wanted (based on market research), and respond to their feedback accordingly. We also had to analyze our sales data in order to formulate a profitable formula for selling our backpacks through our selected channels.
3) Recognize the legal and ethical responsibilities of marketing management.
Some ads that come to mind when talking about ethical responsibilities would be the St. Ides Malt Liquor advertisements that I talked about in Blog Post 1. These ads were highly successful, yet also deemed to be highly unethical because their target market seemed to be underage drinkers. In the end, the ads got shut down because of the ethical dilemmas they presented. Ethics are a gray area in marketing, and don't have the same rules and regulations as some other things, but they still have an affect.
4) Analyze and evaluate basic financial statements and business formulas.
The financial statements were key to having a successful practice marketing strategy, which we learned quickly after we spent way too much money on turn one. Break-even points were important, as they let our team know how much profit we would need to make in order to cover our costs. We could also evaluate our return on sales on different turns and analyze the efficiency of our decisions.
5) Appreciate the integrated role of marketing in business decisions.
Examining marketing decisions was a big part of this class. Almost all of my blog posts were examining marketing decisions, from targeted advertisements to financial decisions. Some of these marketing decisions were make or break for some companies: Red Bull's decision to use viral advertising catapulted them into the mainstream and caused them to be the company that they are today. We had to make a lot of marketing decision for our simulation, some of which were good and some of which were bad.
In today's internet-driven world, advertising through social media is one of the most cost-effective and efficient methods of meeting a target market. Sites such as Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook making sharing content easier than ever, leading many companies to include a large amount of their promotional campaigns focused on social media. One of the tried-and-true ways of spreading brand awareness using social media is to create a viral marketing campaign. Viral marketing aims to create an advertisement that viewers want to share. In its essence, it is free advertising; an ad can be made with little to no cost, and spread for free by its viewers. Viral marketing campaigns are taking the internet by storm, and there are many examples of firms that have used viral marketing to make their brand what it is today.
If you ask any modern internet user which company they relate with viral marketing, there's a good chance that they will answer Red Bull. Red Bull has been using viral marketing for years, and they are one of the first companies that spread their name around using viral marketing videos, especially on Youtube.
This is one example of Red Bull's promotional strategy. Red Bull has made itself synonymous with extreme sports by sponsoring extreme sporting events and athletes. There was a market niche for extreme sports that were gaining popularity, and Red Bull filled the niche by using lots and lots of promotional campaigns. One of their earliest and most popular "niche sporting" promotions was the sponsorship of the Flugtag (air show), in which competitors make their own homemade flying devices and try to fly as long as they can.
These Red Bull-sponsored events began in 1991 and helped create a cool, adventurous image for the company. Ever since then, Red Bull has been spreading its promotion to all kinds of action sports. They are now the company most associated with extreme sports, and the position the customer associates the product to is one of adventure and daring.
Other companies are going in a different direction than Red Bull. While Red Bull, an energy drink, positioned itself with action sports, Home Depot, a hardware store, positions itself with do-it-yourselfers.
What better way to make people relate Home Depot with home repairs than to create do-it-yourself videos showing people how to do things? Just as the highly caffeinated adrenaline junkie finds solace in Red Bull, so will the middle aged home owner in the lumber aisle of the Home Depot. The quintessential American Dad loves home improvement almost as much as he loves his kids and family, if not more. One of the best ways to inspire a do-it-yourself dad to attempt to tile his bathroom floor over the weekend is to show him a video that lets him know that he can do it on his own. Home Depot really hit the mark with these viral videos, mainly because they hit their target market right on the head. A lot of people already associate Home Depot with general home repair, and now there are videos that give them credibility and spread their image.
These were just two examples of companies that used viral marketing to their advantage. Since the early beginnings of the internet, viral videos have been used for promotional purposes. With the way things are going now, they are more valuable than ever to build a customer base or position a brand to appeal to the perfect target market.
As of December, 2014, facebook.com had 1.39 billion active users. That means that almost 20% of everybody in the world has a Facebook account. Facebook was released in 2004 and bypassed Myspace in 2008 as the most popular social media site in the world. As a social media site, Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements. Every Facebook user will see multiple ads on the sidebar of their main page, along with advertisements within the news feed that users can share and comment on. The majority of revenue comes from the sponsored ads that firms pay for in order for them to appear on the sidebar.
These sponsored ads appeared on the sidebar of my Facebook profile. For those of you who don't have a Facebook account (approximately 29% of all internet users), Facebook is based off of data that you enter into it to. For example, I attend college, and have the name of the college I attend and the years I attend it entered into my Facebook account. Facebook connects me with other users who attend the college at the same time I do. You can choose what data you want entered on your account, to some degree. For example, if you don't want a picture of yourself appearing on your profile, Facebook won't magically have a photo of you displaying as your profile picture. If you are tagged in a photo, however, it will appear on your Facebook feed. You have the option of un-tagging yourself from a photo so the photo won't be linked to your account, but the photo will still be online. Naturally, there are privacy concerns with using Facebook, mainly that fact that whatever you put on there can be seen by a lot of people.
Facebook has a wealth of information on each of its users, varying from basic things like names and birthdays to more specific interests. Facebook users have the option of "liking" certain pages, and this information is stored and used to target certain ads to individuals.
For an interesting look into how ads are targeted to users, check out this blog that was written by someone who uses Facebook advertising. In order to target a Facebook ad towards someone, they must be a part of your audience. Audiences are created by separating potential targets by different demographics. Some demographics include the basics like age, gender and location, while others are targeted at users who liked certain Facebook pages. Facebook also tracks behaviors of individuals online, even when they aren't on Facebook. A user's search history and websites visited are stored using Facebook's third party firms. By using these multiple data sources, Facebook ads can be targeted very accurately.
Most people who have taken a history course know what Guerrilla Warfare is. It is a style of warfare usually employed by small groups of fighters, that use whatever tactics are necessary to gain an edge over their usually larger adversaries. Guerrilla fighters take advantage of their terrain and use their mobility to weaken opposing forces.
Che Guevara (top) and the American Minutemen (bottom) both employed guerrilla tactics when fighting their adversaries.
Guerrilla warfare and marketing share a few key concepts. They are both about winning people over. In both cases, taking your enemy (or customer) by surprise is a guaranteed way to win their attention; hence the birth of Guerrilla Marketing.
In its essence, guerrilla marketing is about surprising your customer, and having a memorable impact on them when they don't expect it. Guerrilla marketing takes many forms; almost any unconventional marketing ploy separate from traditional marketing mediums (TV, print, radio, billboards) could be considered a guerrilla marketing campaign.
Guerrilla marketing can be separated into five major categories: ambient marketing, ambush marketing, stealth marketing, viral marketing, and street marketing. There are also smaller subcategories, but most guerrilla marketing campaigns fall under one of these four.
Ambient marketing advertises products by placing itself where customers would not expect to see an advertisement. These advertisements usually have some connection to the environment they are in, giving them a deeper meaning.
This advertisement is for a boxing website, and it features a boxing bell on the wall of a public space. Since a customer doesn't expect it to be there, it immediately catches their attention.
An effective ambient marketing strategy is to feature over-sized or under-sized products; these out-of-the-ordinary products interest people and make them more attentive to the ad.
To the average passerby, something like this would catch their attention and create a memorable experience that they would relate to the product being advertised.
Ambush marketing is seen less than ambient marketing, but it is no less effective. Ambush marketing is the tactic of placing advertisement in events, where the event itself has no official connection with the company advertising there. Take this example of ambush marketing by Abercrombie and Fitch:
They placed their advertisements in one of President Obama's filmed speeches without having any official connection with the Obama Campaign.
Another famous example of this took place during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Although Reebok was the official sponsor of the games, Nike created a memorable and now-famous ambush marketing campaign. They lined the streets surrounding the Olympic Stadium with Nike Ads, and created a custom pair of gold Nike track shoes for Olympiad Michael Johnson.
This picture shows Michael Johnson toting his gold medals, along with his gold Nikes, in an ad that would become one of the most famous examples of ambush marketing.
Stealth Marketingis a tactic of guerrilla marketing that allows a company to promote its product in a market without the public knowing that they are promoting their product in a market.
Take for example Sony Ericsson's promotion of its T68i camera phone.
Looks complicated.
Sony Ericsson promoted its new camera feature for the T68i by hiring actors to pose as tourists. They visited public places, and asked passers-bye to take pictures of them. They used a T68i and showed the people how to use the camera. What they were attempting to do was promote their product by using word-of-mouth to enter the camera-phone market. The marketing campaign was a success, and a perfect example of stealth marketing: the people who were being shown the camera phones didn't even know they were part of an advertisement.
Viral marketing is the promotion of a product, place, or idea through the spread of an advertisement by the public. Most viral marketing takes place on social media, the most popular way of sharing things on the internet.
Red Bull is a great example of a company that employs viral marketing campaigns. They recently sponsored the world's tallest skydive, with the diver jumping from so high that he needed to wear a spacesuit.
Viral marketing is effective because it spreads without having to actually promote the product, and it can be very cheap while still being effective.
Street Marketingis also an example of guerrilla marketing that most people are very familiar with.
Free samples, anyone?
Street marketing is any marketing that takes place mainly in the street. Examples of this are free samples, flyers, or public events. An old type of street marketing, which is making a comeback due to its retro appeal, are advertisements on matchbooks.
Matchbook ads were very popular in the early 1920's, and many of them are vintage collectibles today. One type of street marketing which has become a phenomenon in Japan is Tissue-pack marketing. Tissue-pack marketing was created in the 1960's by a Japanese paper company looking to increase the demand for paper products. The creator, Hiroshi Mori, came upon disposable tissue-packs as a replacement for matchbooks that would appeal to a larger customer base. Tissue-packs are an effective advertising medium because they have functionality to the customer, as opposed to flyers, which are often thrown away.
These are the five main categories of guerrilla marketing: ambient, ambush, stealth, viral, and street. Each serves its own purpose and uses different mediums of promotion. What they all have in common is that they catch the customer's attention in an unconventional way. Guerrilla marketing is effective because it makes an impression on the customer in a way that other conventional advertisements can't. Like all marketing, its goal is to make the customer aware of the advertisement in order to promote its product, place, or idea. Guerrilla marketing campaigns are some of the most creative marketing campaigns out there, and like guerrilla warfare, it is necessary to think outside the box in order for them to be effective.
Here on the east coast, it's been a long winter, but it looks like it's finally coming to an end. Most of the snow has melted, the sun is shining, and the temperatures are above 0°F. It's officially been spring for a few days now, and most people are excited to finally spend some time outside. Every season emotionally affects people, and seasonal advertising is a strategy that marketers use to tap into people's emotions at a certain time of year.
If you happen to watch videos on Youtube, you know that 10-second, 15-second and 30-second ads are commonplace. At this time of the year, it is unlikely that you will see an ad that features snow, or any imagery of winter that isn't focused on the beginning of spring. It's the time of the year that people don't even want to think about winter. They would rather see green grass and sunshine, since spring is right around the corner.
I found these two ads on Youtube and Facebook, respectively. Both advertisements have similar color schemes, with a lot of green, light blue, and white. Spring is mostly associated with green, since all the plants are blooming, along with the blue skies and clouds. They both also have a lot of sunlight, something that people are looking forward to after winter.
Many people get sad when fall comes, and the greenery that was just blooming is starting to die off for winter.The end of summer is also the beginning of a new school year, and another year of studying is starting for a lot of people. Clothing ads are very common in the late summer and fall, which are associated with the beginning of a new working year.
This Best Buy commercial, aimed at college students (or their parents), shows a hardworking college kid who is going to take advantage of the new school year and take every opportunity that he can get. It plays on people's emotions, since a lot of people are really gung ho at the beginning of a school year, and then things tend to slow down when the weather changes.
For many people in the world, and definitely in the Northeast, winter is associated with "the grind". It's cold, and you just want it to be spring, but there is still a long way to go until the temperature goes up. Many winter advertisements focus on giving people something to look forward to during the most depressing months. Christmas is a huge holiday that has an emotional impact on people right at the beginning of winter.
This late 90's Coke ad has everything that many consider to be Christmas-y. Family bonding, inclusiveness, sharing, etc. Christmas ads are very popular until right after Christmas, when the Christmas spirit suddenly disappears and is replaced by New Years Resolutions and a focus on self-improvement and self-discipline. There is also a focus on working hard, probably to distract yourself until it is warm enough to do things again.
This Nike ad from 2014 is a great example; it clearly embodies self discipline and the fact that staying active will keep you from getting depressed over the winter. This is also shown in the ending, which contrasts the normal people on "the grind" vs the runner who is making the most out of his winter.
Many ads that use seasonal advertising appeal to the same basic emotions that people feel throughout the year. It is an effective way to appeal to a widespread amount of people, since the weather and seasons affect all of us similarly. The next time you're on Youtube or watching TV, watch the ads and see how many of them use seasonal advertising, even if they use it subtly.
For this blog post, I will be doing a summary and review of Dan Cobley's Ted Talk, What Physics Taught Me About Marketing. Dan Cobley is the marketing director for Google in northern and central Europe. Dan Cobley received his first degree in Physics from Oxford University, although he has worked in marketing his entire career. In his Ted Talk, he relates four theories of physics to four ideas in marketing. These four theories are,
1) Newton's Law of Acceleration
2) Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
3) The Scientific Method
4) The Law of Increasing Entropy
Here is a Youtube link to the talk, or you can view it on the Ted website here.
1) The first theory of physics he talks about is Newton's Law of Acceleration. Newton's law of acceleration states that force is equal to mass times acceleration (f=ma). Therefore, acceleration is equal to force divided by mass (a=f/m). Acceleration is a factor of how much force you put into an object that has a certain mass. The more powerful the force, the more powerful the acceleration. The bigger the mass, the less powerful the acceleration. Small things take less force to accelerate than big things. Dan Cobley relates this to marketing by putting companies in the place of the mass. If you are a large company, you already have an image out there that customers relate you with. However, the bigger the company, the harder it is to change the image of the company. In this case, changing the image of the company would be related to the acceleration of the object. He gives the example of Hoover company, which was well known for producing vacuum cleaners, attempting to create a line of washing machines. Since Hoover was already imaged as a vacuum cleaner company, customers were hesitant to purchase a Hoover washing machine. Since Hoover specializes in vacuums, they wouldn't be as competent with washing machines as a company that specialized in washing machines. This is the reason brands like Unilever use smaller sub-companies to market their wide array of products. Unilever owns Dove hair care products, as well as Hellman's mayonnaise. If you were going to buy shampoo, would you reach for the Hellmenn's, or would you go for a brand like Dove that is a staple name in hair care products? I would personally choose Dove. The smaller companies that each market a different type of product have less mass than using one name for all of a companies products, therefore making it easier to change the image of the company from the customer's perspective.
Unilever owns all of these brands. Customers would rather buy Breyers Ice Cream, Skippy PeanutButter and Suave shampoo than a bunch of different products that are all the same brand.
2) The second theory he talks about is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: it is impossible to view a particle in its natural position, because the act of observing the particle moves it from its natural position. If you shine a light on a particle in order to observe it, it's going to move. Anything you do in proximity to the particle will move it from it's natural position. It's like the question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? He relates this to the habits of customers. If a customer knows that they're being observed, then they are not going to act naturally. Just the knowledge that they are being observed will cause them to deviate from their natural habits in some way. In order to observe a customer's natural habits, they can't know that they are being observed.
People act differently when they think no one is watching. This is very relevant to Dan Cobley and his position in Google. Millions of people use Google everyday, and whether they are aware of it or not, Google observes and tracks internet habits for every one of its users. Those who are aware act differently because of it (that's why they invented incognito mode, another breakthrough invention by Google).
3) The next theory he talks about is the scientific method. The scientific method states that you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation, you can only disprove it. Take for example the theory of spontaneous generation, which was a passable theory for thousands of years. This theory stated that life was created from things like mud, dirt, and rotting meat being exposed to sunlight. There was a ton of evidence for this, like maggots coming out of nowhere on pieces of meat. It wasn't until later that scientists, using stricter tests, proved this hypothesis wrong. Rotting meat in a sealed container produced no maggots. Contrary to all the prior evidence, one fact disproved the whole hypothesis. Dan relates this to the image that a company has in its customer's minds. A company can do as much as possible to give itself an image in its customers minds, but it only takes one action to destroy that image. Think of BP, which marketed itself as a very Eco-friendly oil company. Now think about the BP oil spill and the way the company handled it; it was the opposite of eco-friendly. Ever since then, no one thinks of BP as "that eco-friendly oil company". They spent a lot of time and money creating this image, and screwed up once and toppled it. If you are in charge of a company, any action that you take (or don't take) can have a huge affect on the image of your company in customer's minds.
4) The last theory he talks about is the theory of increasing entropy. Entropy is things moving towards chaos, so the theory of increasing entropy is the theory that things will always move towards chaos. Over time, things will become more and more chaotic. This is related to the marketing of product in the public sphere. Once you market something, you put it out into the public to get a reaction from it. Hopefully, people will react to it how you want them to; but you can never be certain where exactly this marketing campaign will go in the minds of the customers. When you put something out there, it will move towards chaos as more and more people react to it differently. Take Coke as an example. In the 1980's, they switched their Classic Coke product out for New Coke. Based on taste tests, New Coke would be far more popular than Classic Coke. When they finally made the switch, however, people reacted in the exact opposite way they had planned. They stockpiled Classic Coke, and demanded that Classic Coke be put back on the market. Coke could do two things: either bring back Classic Coke due to popular demand, or remain on their warpath of selling New Coke. Obviously, they brought back Classic Coke, because people would probably have boycotted them if they got rid of it. Once something is released to the market, it is highly beneficial for the company to pay attention to customer feedback, even if the product released has the opposite affect from what you intended. By being aware of customer's reactions, it will put you at a marketing advantage as opposed to if you ignore customer reactions and continue with your original plan. By being aware of how you're customers react and reacting to them, it brings you closer to your customers in the end.
Dan Cobley uses his background in physics to view marketing principles in a different light. These principles are relevant to anything marketing related, and pretty relevant when dealing with people in general. This talk is really a marketing talk; the only hard science he talks about is Newton's law of acceleration. Even though it is a marketing talk, bringing physics into it bridges the relationship between the two sciences. After all, marketing is a science; the science of having an affect on the people you are trying to influence. There are examples of these theories everywhere, and they aren't limited to the world of advertising.
Nothing too racy, unless you consider that Brooke was 15 when these ads brought her to stardom.
Nowadays, these ads probably would cause something of stir, since they feature an underage girl and undeniable sexual undertones. Think about the impact they had in the 1980's.
If you want racy, check out some of Calvin Klein's ads for their "Obsession" fragrance line from the mid-1980's.
Yes, this advertisement, targeted towards men, features a bunch of naked women that almost shows too much for it to not be porn. Over time, the sexuality of the ads differed based on the product being sold; some had mild sexual undertones, while other were pretty much just sex with a Calvin Klein logo on it.
You might not want to look at that at work. As these ads persisted, the company was always looking for new ways to push the envelope even more. After hiring Kate Moss for an advertising campaign, Calvin Klein ushered in a whole new style that went hand-in-hand with the grunge scene of the early 90's.
This was Kate Moss' "waif" look, which highly contrasted the tall, curvy models that were popular in the late 80's (see Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, etc). Also known as "heroin chic" (like the drug), the style emphasized angular features, pale skin, and a certain level of androgyny. Of course, the ads sparked controversy, including damnation of Calvin Klein's ads by Bill Clinton. Around this time Marky Mark came on the scene as another CK model that would be catapulted to movie stardom thanks to the publicity of his ads.
This commercial is just as sexually suggestive as any other Calvin Klein ad that came before it, but Mark Wahlberg also mentions Calvins as being protection from AIDS. AIDS was a very controversial topic when these ads came out, and the whole purpose of Marky Mark mentioning it was to stir the pot, making Calvin Klein seem that much more edgy.
So, these are all examples of Calvin Klein being historically promiscuous. What happens when that promiscuity goes over the line, and is interpreted differently by the public? For firsthand evidence of this, take a look at CK's controversial, highly sexual, and honestly pretty creepy advertising campaign in the 90's.
You don't have to watch the whole video to get the idea of the commercials. They are in a 90's looking basement, with a ladder, and these young looking teens are being interviewed by an old-sounding man who is filming their responses with a handheld camera. Most of the models are scantily clad, and a lot of the questions the guy is asking them are downright weird. These commercials were released along with the promotional posters, which were featured on billboards and city buses.
The posters aren't anything preposterous (as far as CK goes), but the commercials are stretching it a little. Calvin Klein was apparently going for an amateur-porn-actor type commercial, which would surely shock and awe anyone who saw them. What they got, however, were a bunch of people thinking the ads were a play on child pornography and an FBI investigation into child porn charges. The actors were all above legal age, so there were no charges, but CK dropped the ad campaign after three weeks due to the controversy that surrounded it. In my professional opinion as a marketing student, I think that CK was trying to be a little too controversial. Amateur porn is one thing, but underage porn is a whole other thing; not many companies would choose to associate themselves with that kind of subject matter. For more examples of CK overstepping their bounds, check out their ad that got pulled due its rape-like imagery.
So, all in all, one thing that you should take away from this critical analysis of Calvin Klein's controversial advertising is that controversy sells. And so does sex. Whatever the medium for an advertisement to reach the customer, anything that can separate your ad from the competition's will increase its popularity and make your product more popular. CK is an example of the phrase, "any publicity is good publicity." Sure, some of their ads featured teens in basements that seemed like they were filmed by a serial killer, but in the end, it related two things into the customers minds: Calvin Klein, and sex. The controversy surrounding them got them even more publicity. It should also be known that the fashion industry can get away with a lot more than many other industries, mainly because the fashion industry is all about sex appeal in the first place. If you are interested in Calvin Klein's ads throughout history, you can check out the historical timeline of their advertisements. The next time you see an ad that you think is a little racy or a little offensive, remember that it's a marketing technique aimed at doing one thing: putting the product in the customer's mind.
Subliminal messages are stimuli that are below an individual's threshold for conscious perception. To put it simply, they are things that we don't consciously notice that our brain does. There are subliminal messages in all kinds of advertisements; since we see and hear advertisements, we can see and hear subliminal stimuli. Subliminal messages are different than conscious messages, although it is easy to confuse the two. For example, check out this Wendy's commercial.
Now, there are subliminal messages in this ad, and there are non-subliminal messages in this ad. A non-subliminal stimuli would be the food. A lot of fast food commercials end with a close of up shot of the delicious-looking food. This isn't a subliminal message. You're meant to be conscious of the images of food that are making you hungry. Wendy's wants you to see their delicious food, realize you're hungry, and go to Wendy's. An example of subliminal stimuli may or may not be the attractive, thin people that are in this ad for fast food. If you're paying attention, it's not hard to realize that there really aren't any overweight people. Actually, everyone in the ad looks like they could be athletes. According to one source, attractive people in advertisements appeal to our emotional desires and cause us to make irrational decisions. I'll be honest, I don't know if that's a reliable source, but would you be more likely to go to Wendy's if the commercial features fat people instead of thin people? Even if the commercial was exactly the same except for one overweight person, that image of the overweight person brings the thought to your consciousness. It would negatively affect the image that the ad is trying to portray: young, thin business professionals eat Wendy's for lunch, and they have a great time while doing it.
This ad, for example, is not really subliminal. Although it is hard to pick up on, it's meant for you notice it. An image like this would be subliminal.
See how the skittle at the beginning of explosion spells out SEX? This one might have been a slip up, except for the fact that the E and X at the beginning are capitalized and the rest of the word isn't. If you search on the internet for subliminal messages in advertisements, some of the most common either spell out the word sex or are a sexual reference.
This is from The Lion King, a Disney movie. The word sex is spelled out in the sky. Apparently Disney movies are famous for subliminally hinting at sex to kids.
This one, again, seems like it was on purpose. As does this phallic symbol on the poster for the Little Mermaid.
You can think whatever you want about these images, and its hard to tell exactly what effect they are having on kids that see them. Who knows, maybe subtly hinting at sex sells more Disney movies. Whether or not you think these were on purpose, one thing you should be aware of is that they do exist and they're being used by marketers today. From ads like the Viagra commercial that I wrote about for the last blog post to Disney movies, they are everywhere, and a lot of them seem to be about sex. As a student of marketing, one thing you should always do is be aware of the things you see and hear every day.
In the last blog post I talked about marketing campaigns targeted towards specific demographics. In this blog post, I will be addressing something a little different: marketing campaigns targeting specific age groups. Targeting a certain age is a key part of defining a target market.
There are a few defined "generations" in America today. They are the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, the Millenials, as well as the pre-Baby Boomers, which aren't defined in any specific terms.
The Baby Boomersare the part of the population that was born between 1946 and 1964. America after World War II was a busy time for baby makers. This is evident when you look at the 76 million Baby Boomers in America, which account for about 25% of the population. The boomers were knows for working, and working hard, and today they account for 50% of all consumer spending.
Generation X were those born between 1965 and 1976. This generation was also known as the baby bust, since birth rates were declining. They make up about 15% of the US population. This generation is more educated than the previous generation, but they also have less net worth than the previous generation. Generation Xers are self-reliant and more supportive of racial and ethnic diversity than the baby boomers.
Generation Y were those born between 1977 and 1994. Generation Y are the children of the Baby Boom, which is why their population is around 72 million, or 22 or 23% of the US population. Generation Y maintain a work-life balance, as opposed to their Baby Boomer parents who worked all the time. Generation Y is also on the cusp of the computer age, with many growing up as the computer became a household object.
The Millennials are the generation born after 1994. The Millennials are unique in the fact that they grew up using modern technology their entire lives. Therefore, this generation is particularly computer savvy, especially compared to the Baby Boomers or later generation. Late Generation Yers and the Millennials get blended together, as there is no specific definition for the millennial generation. The Millennials are said to be focused on work-life balance and are self-entitled.
Obviously, these different generations each have their own values and beliefs. Marketing seeks to discover the needs and wants of prospective customers and to satisfy them. Each generation also has unique needs and wants that need to be filled. What are some things that marketers have done to fill the needs and wants of different generations?
The generations before the Baby Boomers all have one thing in common: they are getting old. With old age comes health problems, and pharmaceutical companies are now doing more business than ever.
Commercials like this one play all the time, and usually involve an older individual doing an activity they used to do when they were younger. This appeals to their desire to feel like they did when they were young. A good place to see commercials like this one is by watching Jeopardy, a game show that old people love.
The Baby Boomer generation's targeted ads are a little different. Take for example this recent Viagra commercial:
This ad is clearly targeted towards the Baby Boomer generation. For one thing, not many generations younger than the boomers have a significant need for Viagra. For the Baby Boomer generation, sex is still an important part of their lives. This commercial in particular narrows their target market directly to men. Unlike other Viagra or Cialis commercials, there aren't any women in this ad. The ad shows a good looking and independent man solving his own problems. It is encapsulated with the slogan, "This is the age of knowing what needs to be done." The Baby Boomer generation doesn't like being reminded of their age, or the fact that pharmaceutical companies are targeting them in their ads. Viagra's slogan comes across as a Viagra user taking his problem into his own hands and solving it independently. At the end of the day, he goes home to his house, the bedroom light turns on, and the rest is history. I'm not even going into the amount of sexual innuendos that are in this ad and ads like it, but if you watch it I'm sure you'll be able to figure some out for yourself.
Generation X are now coming to be what the Baby Boomers were: the generation at their peak earning potential that are starting families. Certain industries, such as car companies, have started targeting Generation Xers as the up-and-comers in terms of family life.
This 2011 Volkswagen commercial is strongly targeted towards Generation X. First of all, the kid dressed as Darth Vader is a throwback to the eighties when the original Star Wars were released. That is a reference that not many Gen Xers are likely to miss. The parents in the commercial are 30 or 40 somethings with a young kid. There is an emphasis on family; they own a dog, and it can be assumed that the kid either has a sister or is a girl. Finally, the convenience and luxury of the Volkswagen car, complete with a self-starter, appeals to the Gen Xers who value material goods.
An example of an ad targeted towards Gen Yers or Millennials would be this Verizon ad.
The commercial features a Millennial-aged girl who is interested in Science. The Millennials believe in doing work that is meaningful to themselves. They are also independent and more tolerant of social deviation than previous generations. This Verizon ad makes it a point to question these norms of society and let kids pursue what they want to pursue. The message this ad portrays is a common theme among Gen Yers / Millennials.
As a marketer, it is important to understand the differences that arise from ages and generations. Age is one of the key factors that alters a consumer's buying habits. Whether it is because of the amount of money they have or the different experiences they've had that have altered their values, generational differences in a society are important for a marketer to understand.
Marketing is "the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, & exchanging offerings that benefit its customers, the organization, its stakeholders, & society at large."
In our day and age, products reign supreme. If you need something, chances are you can walk into a store and buy it. If it's not in a store, you can go on Amazon and buy it. If it's not on Amazon, then it probably doesn't exist. We live in a world of products. According to the definition, there is more to marketing than just products. Products are one of the four "P's" of marketing, along with price, promotion, and place. Since marketing is so commonplace it is easy to become desensitized to it. For this blog post, I give a few examples of the four P's that might be relevant.
If you've ever been to college (which is a product), you'll know that it is a time for experimenting. "Experimenting with what?", you might ask. Well, for one, mind-altering substances like alcohol. College students love altering their mind states, and they aren't the only ones. Alcoholic drinks date back to 8,000 BC and have been used ever since.
Even though modern day studies have shed light on some of the health risks of drinking, people still do it, and it doesn't seem like a thing that people are going to stop doing. Alcohol is a product. There is a consumer need for it, and, lucky enough for alcohol companies, there will always be consumer demand.
1) Products
An example I will give for an alcohol product is the infamous 40 oz of
Malt Liquor. You may have drank one in your heyday, or they might be
your drink of choice to this day. You'd be hard pressed to find a
college student who hasn't heard of an Old English, a Colt 45, or simply
a "40". If you're above the age of 80 then I will describe them for you. a "40" is
40 fluid ounces of "malt liquor". A forty of Malt Liquor is similar to beer and brewed with malted barley, and it usually has a higher alcohol content and comes in a big bottle.
They are notoriously cheap, and get you notoriously drunk.
2) Price
You know how I said 40's are notoriously cheap? When they began heavily promoting them in the 1980's, in some places they were as cheap as $1.50. Now a days, they cost anywhere from $2.50 to $5, depending on where you buy them and what brand you buy. Talk about bang for your buck. The price goes hand-in-hand with the promotional strategy, which I will go over next.
3) Promotion
The promotional strategy of the 40oz has been controversial since it began in the 1980's. The product is alcohol, something that is popular with all income-levels. The 40, however, is cheap and strong. Naturally, this appeals to those who like to get more alcohol for less money; lower-income individuals. This is evidently clear with their marketing campaign. This is an early Schlitz Malt Liquor ad that clearly targets the black demographic. This is one of the many malt liquor ads at the time that were defining their target demographic as inner-city African-Americans. Article: Marketing of Malt Liquor Fuels Debate
Throughout the eighties and nineties malt liquor companies began narrowing their target market, specifically to the hip-hop culture. If you weren't aware of hip-hop culture in the US, hip-hop started as early as the 1970's in inner-cities, but exploded into the mainstream in the 1980's. Hip-hop is rooted in the culture of black (and Latino) urban youth, expressing themselves in a way that defied the American mainstream of the time. Today, it is the mainstream. In the eighties and nineties, however, it was more exclusively black than it is today.
Check out some of the TV commercials for the malt liquor brand St. Ides, also known as the "Crooked I". Notorious B.I.G. Snoop Dogg Wu-Tang Clan
These ads ran through the 90's and gained St. Ides a lot of attention. They even released a tape of all the songs that played in their commercials. Talk about defining a target market. But, by setting their target market so strictly, St. Ides and other malt liquor companies were isolating themselves from the market segment that doesn't like hip-hop culture. They gave their product a reputation, and that reputation appealed to urban youth. They chose to target a segment that wasn't the mainstream at the time. This was a bold advertising move, along with the fact that many people complained that the ads were promoting underage drinking. In the end, however, they made the right choice. Malt liquor was wildly successful, especially within the inner-city. It's not hard to hear evidence of this; there are hundreds of 90's "gangster rap" songs that mention malt-liquor. Whether it's the Dainey (St. Ides, according to Mobb Deep), or the Beastie Boy's Brass Monkey (a 40 mixed with Orange Juice), the 40 has been engrained in our culture as a "ghetto" drink.
4) Place
Place goes along with price and promotion with the fact that it's usually sold wherever liquor is sold, although there used to be promotional deals in inner-cities. I don't know where you would find 2Pac's promotional "Thug Passion" flavored Crooked I, but I know its not in the Simon's in Colchester (shucks).
The promotional campaigns for malt liquor in the 80's and 90's were definitely controversial, and they were definitely successful. The marketing campaign did exactly what is was supposed to do; turn inner-city youth onto drinking cheap malt-liquor. It achieved it's goal by ingraining itself into hip-hop culture. Since then, the 40 has been associated with urban culture, a reputation that's destined to stick with it for a long time. So the next time you're looking for some cheap beer, remember that the 40 became one of the most popular drink choices by using an effective marketing campaign.
