Consumer Behavior: Knowledge and Memory

Let's get nostalgic: as brands get older, many of them make daring attempts to go back in time to bring back their old logos or slogans, even for a short while.  Although some fail to succeed, others do very well.

What are some advantages and disadvantages to nostalgia marketing?

I'd say that some advantages include a wider audience who might have consumed the product when they were younger, but they are now much much older.  Products such as Coca-Cola, as discussed in class provide an annual nostalgic campaign featuring Santa Claus and the polar bears drinking Coca-Cola out of a bottle to bring back the old, good feeling about drinking this particular brand of soda.

Coca-Cola Polar Bear Family Ad (c. 1997)

Another brand that has run successful nostalgia marketing in the past is Pepsi Co., Coca-Cola's rival.

Pepsi Co.'s "Throwback" Can design was a big hit back in 2010 for the brand.  During that year, the brand brought back the classic can design from the 1970s.

2010

1970

Pepsi Co.'s "Throwback" Commercial featuring another nostalgic can design.

Are there some products or brands for which this strategy may not be successful?

While trying to find an answer for this question, I ran into these vintage looking advertisements for popular social networking sites and applications:

For these three brands to successfully run a nostalgic marketing campaign, they would have to stay running with the millions of users they currently have for another decade or two.  For each of the above "faux-ads," each brand simply would not be able to pull off the nostalgia/vintage look like Pepsi or Coca-Cola.

Harley Davidson Case Study

Question 1: Do you believe brand communities like Harley Davidson result in greater involvement with the brand?

Yes! It give the consumers a better chance to better understand the company and get to know others who purchase the brand's products.  The communities allow for fellow purchasers to exchange stories and possibly recruit more people through positive free advertising.  With a brand that's positively reflected through its customers, the higher the possibility of a consumer bringing a friend or two to the communities set up.

Question 2: What elements of the Posse Ride do you believe enhance the meaning of the brand for the riders?

Certain elements like the "passport" that is stamped with each part of the ride completed and other tour activities definitely enhance the meaning of the brand for its riders.  It brings more of a meaning rather than just riding around solo from one side of town to the other, the participants gather together to have fun and travel great distances.  Not just to get from point A to point B, but to bond during the distance.

Question 3: Should Harley Davidson get more involvement in the ride of would that dilute the ride's meaning to the participants?


If Harley Davidson got more involved in the ride, it could possibly dilute the ride's meaning.  It should remain as a means for riders to communicate with one another freely.  If the brand gets too involved, the meaning just doesn't hold up as much potential.


Question 4: In addition to experience such as the Posse Ride, what other ways could Harley increase involvement with the brand?

For those not as involved with Harley as those in the Posse Ride, the brand could possibly set up a meeting area before the ride for lesser known travelers.  This "pre-get-together" could help those who are fairly new get used to Harley Davidson and boost productivity among their consumers.

Kellogg's Breakfast Mates

While doing a little bit of searching for failed products I stumbled upon this little beauty:

Kellogg's Breakfast Mates.  This product was launched in 1998 to help "revolutionize" breakfast "on-the-go."  However, this seemingly good idea didn't last very long on the market (approximately one year from the summer of 1998 to August of 1999).

The product came in single-serve portions of Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Fruit Loops or Corn Flakes, with a 4 oz. serving of reduced fat milk in a carton (which did not need to be refrigerated) and a spoon.  Though the product was sold in the refrigerated section of most supermarkets, most consumers found it easier to buy the products separately considering it was a refrigerated product being sold alongside a room-temperature one.  Another consumer annoyance was the taste and the quantity for the purchase price.  The milk (which came in a 4 oz. container) and cereal (1 serving per) cost a total of $1.29, which considering it was 1998, would be considered fairly pricey, especially since each Breakfast Mate grouping was sold separately.  One small box of cereal, milk and a spoon for $1.29,  by today's standards can still be considered pricey (even though the idea could be considered good if it was sold now for a college-aged audience).  Even with the failure of this product, I find it fairly ironic that sales nowadays for single-serve cereal bowls have done fairly well (possibly due to the removal of the 4 oz. milk box?)

Breakfast Mates commercial from 1998.

National Wildlife Federation

For this entry I chose the National Wildlife Federation to study because I am already fairly aware of their campaigns to help the wildlife which surrounds us.  The photo above comes directly from an article titled "The Wildlife Benefits of Acorns and Oaks" that I saw on the NWF's Facebook page.  I also decided on the National Wildlife Federation's campaign because I am a huge animal lover and thoroughly enjoy the beauties of nature.

Founded in 1936, National Wildlife Federation has come a long way from designing nature scenery on stamps to a successful social media campaign to bring about awareness of humanity's natural surroundings.  Each post on their Facebook page features an article from their blog about how we can help preserve the environment as well as interesting information about several different creatures from Swallowtail Butterflies to Mountain Lions.

In addition to their blog articles, there are several "albums" with hundreds of photographs of wildlife scenery and the creatures which live in the scenery.  They also have a few "albums" showing dozens of their volunteers helping out in the battle to preserve the environment.

"Digging for earthworms." -NWF 

One of my personal favorite albums is their recent "Gorgeous Fall Colors" which, as the title suggests, features the colors of Autumn and the different scenes that happen during the fall months of August through November.  It truly shows the beauty and strikes admiration to anyone browsing their page.

"Black Media slighted as spending power exceeds $1 trillion"

A couple days after our lecture about Racial Stereotyping in advertisements, I discovered this article from the Milwaukee Courier (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).  The entire article discusses how much individually and in total advertisers spend on advertisements focused on the Black community as well as how effective the ads are in recent years.

The following are the names of the companies who spend the most money on advertising with Black media:

Procter & Gamble ($75.32 million)
L’Oreal ($52.34 million)
McDonald’s ($38.24 million)
Unilever ($31.48 million)
U.S. Government ($28.36)
Berkshire/Hathaway ($27.81 million)
Comcast ($27.69) million)
Hershey ($27.01 million)
PepsiCo ($25.07 million)
Walmart ($24.40 million)
Fiat ($23.60 million)
AT&T ($22.49 million)
Verizon Communications ($22.08 million)
Toyota ($21.43 million)
General Motors ($20.81 million)
Sony ($19.88 million)
Johnson & Johnson ($19.59 million)
Ford ($19.11 million)
Allstate ($19.06 million)
National Amusements, Inc. ($18.92 million)

The article specifically talked about how many advertisers clump Black media into a "one-size-fits-all strategy" which simply does not work.  The opposite mindset is how the advertisers should go about the Black media, according to the Nielsen study and the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

This is an interesting article because ever since the dawn of advertising there has always been the lingering question of whether or not to spend time and money to focus on a specific socioeconomic group or a specific racial group.  Though this article itself focuses on the increasing amount of money that is spent on the African-American demographic within the United States, I went and looked for an article that related a little bit more personally to me: an article relating to the amount of money spent on advertising that focused on the Asian demographic in the U.S. Unfortunately, I was unable to come up with such an article.

Racial Stereotyping

Is it ever right to racially stereotype for advertising purposes?
By society's standards it is not right to racially stereotype for any purpose, however, for advertising sometimes it is "necessary".  The only times it would be "necessary" if the advertisement was showing any and all racial groups in a positive light.  If the groups are shown poorly, the company which owned the advertisement would suffer in the profit department.

Is racism in advertising a thing of the past?
Definitely not.  Even within the past decade, there have been quite a few of advertisements that include or revolve around racial stereotypes. Ad campaigns such as Burger King's fried chicken advertisement starring Mary J. Blige are prime examples.

Mary J. Blige in the commercial

Burger King used the stereotype of the African-American population paired up with fried chicken in an attempt to increase sales of their chicken wraps.  Unfortunately for the BK brand, their commercial only insulted the African-American community and made customers as a whole question whether or not to purchase from the fast food chain.

Burger King's commercial for their chicken wrap ft. Mary J. Blige

This is not the first time Burger King has offended a racial group, and it probably won't be its last.

Do advertisers have ethical responsibilities?
Yes, advertisers have ethical responsibilities.  When they insult a certain group (intentionally or unintentionally) their sales take a sharp decline.  Advertisers have the ethical responsibility to respect each group equally or they lose profits as a result.  For example, over the years, Burger King has insulted several groups, Mexicans, African-Americans, Hindus, and several others.

"The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"

It's hard to believe that it's already been three years since Isaiah Mustafa swooned the ladies with "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign.

In the television advertisement above, it is obvious how Isaiah is in a bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist and his well-formed muscles out in the open for all to see.  Approximately 10 seconds into the commercial, The setting drastically changes into a boat and a shirt is flung onto Isaiah's shoulders with the towel being ripped off to reveal chic white shorts while he's holding a bottle of Old Spice Body Wash.  Suddenly he is no longer holding the bottle, but in its place is an oyster shell with "two tickets to that thing you love" then the shell drops revealing a handful of diamonds that pour out of Mustafa's palm.  Slowly, the bottle of body wash emerges from his palm. The camera pans out just in time to show Mustafa on white stallion and the iconic line, "I'm on a horse" with the Old Spice jingle.

Now, that was the bare bones observations of that commercial. Pretty extensive, but there was a lot of basic visual detail to see in the 33 second clip.

Above is a print advertisement from Old Spice for the same campaign.  It's essentially a screenshot from their 33 second commercial that was printed for a magazine.  In the print ad, the model/actor Isaiah Mustafa is again shirtless with white cropped pants and a blue striped shirt hanging over his shoulders.  He is also holding a bottle of Old Spice body wash with diamonds pouring from his palm. The background scenery is a beach on a tropical island while Isaiah is riding a white horse.

The above advertisements are targeted clearly targeted toward women to buy for their husbands and boyfriends to make them smell better.  Giving the illusion that their "man" will smell like Isaiah Mustafa, an attractive muscular man. Each is strictly fantastical and not likely to happen, but during this campaign, the sales for Old Spice doubled and then some.

This billboard advertisement is a rebuttal ad for Axe body spray to battle Old Spice's campaign.  This billboard was shown in Canada with a simple can of Axe and a sentence stating "For men who'd rather be with a woman than on a horse."  Underneath the sentence states, "Canada's #1 Men's Deodorant,"
Easily an insulting jab to Old Spice and their famous advertising campaign.  However, unlike the Old Spice ads, this billboard targets men like most of Axe's advertising campaigns.

HiveMind Marketing

I found HiveMind Marketing through AdForum.com after searching for advertising agencies around San Jose, California.  This agency is particularly interesting to me because of what they focus on and their HQ location: Downtown San Jose.  HiveMind focuses on strengthening the brand name of their customers and increasing the traffic of their customers' websites with the target audience.  They also provide services to increase activity from their customers' target audience and increase sales of their customers. (More on "What they do" can be found here.)

HiveMind holds quite a few digital marketing services from strategic planning to social media. They also include a service to redesign their customers' website to increase productivity.  A few of the companies they have worked with include Motorola, GuavaTech and SATO America. This agency has worked with several others and has their work portfolio here.  HiveMind also has several partners which they claim aid in providing the highest quality in media and technology solutions.  Some of their partners are: C3PR, HubSpot and Red Rocket.

I chose HiveMind as the advertising agency to research because they are located not too far from the San Jose State campus (N. Market Street) and I am currently interested on their main focuses, primarily web design.  Web designing has been a topic I've been interested in for while, since one of my good friends runs her own very small web designing business.  I dabble a little bit in website design with my own blogs on occasion, as well.  I am going to keep up with what HiveMind and its partners are up to by following them on Twitter and Facebook.  HiveMind's website is very aesthetic and easy to navigate, so I'll keep tabs on this agency via their site.

Brands & Labels & Logos, Oh my!

When thinking about brands and labels, the first companies I think of are Pepsi, Verizon, Apple, McDonalds and Listerine.  Each has a very recognizable logo/label, at least to me.
Verizon with its red checkmark, Apple with its apple and bitemark, McDonalds golden arches and Pepsi's red, white and blue circle.
Though Listerine doesn't really have a specific picture for a logo, but it's as easily recognizable. Whenever there's an advertisement for mouthwash, no matter how ridiculous, it is probably for Listerine. Like this one, for example. Strange, but identifiable as the Listerine brand.

The photo below is an example of the Pepsi logo, taken Spring 2013.

 

versus back in 1973

  

Despite slight alterations to its logo over the past forty years, people can very easily recognize the Pepsi brand.  Whether they drink a lot of soda, or none at all.

Advertisements Everywhere: A Test Entry

Ranging from the terribly ridiculous to the utterly aesthetic, advertisements are everywhere.  And before I turn this blog entry into an essay (by pure accident, of course), let me show a couple of examples of ridiculous and "pretty rad" ads.  Just from browsing around the Internet, I discovered this one "old school" cell phone ad created by Samsung. Compared to the very bland magazine ads for cell phones, I found this one aesthetically pleasing purely for the fact that I am very much a music lover.

Meanwhile, in this commercial for AT&T that has aired quite frequently on TV.  Children are saying what children at that age typically say.  However, being one who works with that age group during the summer, I get quite irritated with commercials such as the one displayed below. Primarily since I know that most of the children I work with do not have conversations at all like the ones AT&T displays.  On another note, the conversations within the commercials do not often make sense with what is supposedly being advertised.  I more often than not turn off any and all commercials where the objective is not clearly stated.