Research (week 15)

Are there any advertising techniques which have failed in the past but may work much better in the context of modern society?

Are you better off making your product cheap in the hope that more people will buy it and you’ll make a similar amount to that which you would if you charged more? Do you risk making your product seem inferior as it is less expensive… links to Vines thing

My band must look at what possible outlets it can access for advertising and use them as fully as possible. This could include; Facebook – creating a group for the band and sending out regular messages to all members showing the band are active and ingraining the name; myspace – similar techniques to the facebook page.

The most elementary principles of advertising include the amount of exposure. Like a pop song the most successful adverts lead to recognition of the product with the fewest views. Another essential part of an advert is how positively it leaves the consumer feeling about the product. This is often done by associating the product which something which is related and seem in a good light as widely as possible, it acts to reinforce that the product is desirable and also to trigger a memory of the product every time the consumer sees it.

Advertising is often done in supermarkets through points cards. This tries to help to guarantee loyalty to the company and also means that the name of the company is in peoples wallet or purse and could be accessed at any time increasing exposure of the product. I there some way Manilla Crescent could get there name to be carried around and therefore be further exposed? One popular way is to give young people stickers and badges in hope that they may stick them on there school work folders and wear the badges on places like their school bags. A reward for listening or talking about Manilla Crescent may be harder then. Maybe a technique often used by car insurance companies and television service companies of offering a credit for each person that a customer gets to join in using the service could be used in some way to credit people who bring members to gigs or sell CD’s?

“We don't know how to sell products based on performance. Everything we sell, we sell on image.”

(Roberto Goizueta (1931 - 1997) U.S. business executive. The Wall Street Journal)

“What should I do? Show the underwear on a clothesline? I'm going to put it on the most beautiful body I can find.”

(Calvin Klein (1942 - ) U.S. fashion designer. Referring to the controversy over his revealing underwear advertisements. The New York Times)

“The most important element of success in ad writing is the product itself.”

(William Bernbach (1911 - 1982)U.S. advertising executive.)

“The business of the advertiser is to see that we go about our business with some magic spell or tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds.”

(Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 1980) Canadian sociologist. The Age of Advertising)

“The breakfast of champions.” (Advertising slogan for Wheaties breakfast cereal.)

“Advertising is the mother of commerce.” (Japanese proverb)

“It could be you!” (Advertising slogan for the British National Lottery.)

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

(Mark Twain  (1835 - 1910) U.S. writer and humorist.)

 “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”(William Bernbach (1911 - 1982) U.S. advertising executive.)

“If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.” (Leo Burnett (1891 - 1971) U.S. advertising executive.)

“History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that.” (Attributed to Malcolm Muggeridge (1903 - 1990) British journalist.)

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don't know which half.” (William Hesketh Lever Leverhulme (1851 - 1925) British industrialist and philanthropist.)

“A logo is like a man's name. When I mention a certain man you know well, everything about that man jumps into your mind...A logo does the same thing for a product.” (William Bernbach (1911 - 1982) U.S. advertising executive)

“Advertising isn't a science. It's persuasion. And persuasion is an art.”

(William Bernbach (1911 - 1982) U.S. advertising executive)

“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”

(Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944) British-born Canadian writer and economist.

Garden of Folly)

“An expensive ad represents the toil, attention, testing, wit, art, and skill of many people. Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials.”

(Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 1980) Canadian sociologist. Understanding Media)

Target Audience; this is often crucial in deciding what it is that is associated with the product. Teenage audience often have a need to rebel so can be a popular and clear target audience. “Blondes have more fun.” (Advertising slogan for Lady Clairol.)

“You've come a long way, baby.”(Advertising slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes. The first cigarette advertisement aimed specifically at women.) links to.. An old fashioned technique, which is now banned, was to place a single frame in a film that showed the product. This would place the image in the viewer’s subconscious which would lead to a seemingly rootless recognition of the product.

Radiohead’s latest album ‘In Rainbows’, counter culture against what The Artic Monkeys did. Not promoting through itunes so that the whole album gets listened rather than just a single off itunes. Sold more than the previous stuff through a conventional means of release?? Got on the new etc.

The consumer often wants to feel they have a part in working out that the product is good, that they somehow have some inside knowledge that the product is good or that it is them that are making the product good. This was shown when the first make it yourself cake mix was released. To the surprise of the company promoting this product it was a widespread failure. In order to try to discover why the product failed they contacted a top physiatrist of the time to see what might be changed in how they advertised the product. He suggested that the product should allow the user to add an egg thus creating a feeling that they had still made the cake themselves. The cake mix was remarketed and was a mass success.

‘Organic Advertising’ where a member of a prominent group is impregnated with the idea and it grows from there. Humans naturally always want a great deal of contact with other people. The suggestion that the product can be a way to get you into a culture, which will inevitably mean more common ground and therefore more unforced contact with other people, is a good advertising point. A few months ago there a study probably in The Times newspaper about a computer game company that paid teenage gamers to advertise their product amongst there piers in chat rooms etc. example drugs, biggest industry only second to oil, look cool because they’re a sub culture and people see their role models doing drugs and think its worth doing despite legislation and health warnings. Example of organic advertising, and how well it works autonomously of any further input from the company. Ironically any further input from the company could ruin the whole thing. Does the giving away of products for free or greatly reduced prices have a large positive impact and can it be justified from a cost perspective? How should these CD’s be made?  The Artic Monkeys gave away there demos and people went away and put them on the internet and it grew form there, example of organic advertising, a brilliant idea from the record company. The Vines a few years ago sold there album for £4 which greatly improved the sales as when in a record store compared to other records it’s very cheap. The second album at a normal price didn’t really sell (Get static’s). Links with…

Advertising is so powerful that there are whole degree courses devoted to adverting psychology and governments have banned tobacco products from being advertised as well as adverts aimed at children – strangely advertising for alcoholic products is still accepted, largely without question. The Marlborough man etc meant that cigarettes were viewed as cool, now advertising has been banned it can no longer keep this image. With legislation and cultural context brands advertising can be over run in a way uncontrollable through advertising.

Is there an ideal amount of tracks? Which tracks should be selected? Should it be your most diverse range? This could do a number of things to the consumption of the CD from alienating most people to making you more accessible to a wide audience.

What are the needs of humans? Does this product fit in, in anyway? It will often fit in simply because humans need to be happy and the product will be promoted as somehow achieving this.

“Since researchers tried to measure these things, in the years after world war two, the amount of people who consider themselves “very happy” with their lives has remained steady even though the material standard has nearly tripled in the same period” (Barry Swartz, The psychology of choice)

So more possessions aren’t making us happier – yet we find it impossible to break out of the endless cycle that offers more possessions as our only real goal. Advertising plays on the point that more possessions make you happier; this study shows this not to be the case.

The pornification of advertising in contemporary society. Sex has always sold but as society changes the degree to which it is represented changes with it. Advertising always adapts with society. It is generally a reflection of what the people around you want. Linking to ‘sex sells’ and also the digitalisation of advertising with the invent of image editing through techniques like airbrushing, often creating an unattainable ideal that the consumer feels can only be reached with the product in question. Often a make-up product but could also be linked with access to a culture within society.

“All because the lady loves Milk Tray.” (Advertising slogan for Milk Tray chocolates.)

“Advertising...legitimizes the idealized, stereotyped roles of women as temptress, wife, mother, and sex object.” (Lucy Komisar (1942 - )U.S. writer. Women in Sexist Society)

Has advertising become standardised with notions like ‘sex sells’ does this fit in with Theodore Adorno’s ideas of standardisation?

Does the George Rizler social theory of Mcdonaldisation and globalisation lead to companies being in a position that is so powerful that they rule the market, effectively Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony as seen in the music industry with record companies. There are currently 4, soon to be only 3 major record companies left who rule the entire market and are the only companies that can distribute the amount of records needed to make a great deal of money and therefore have enough to spend on widespread and effective advertising. Often the point that they are large can be seen as bad and that they are just a corporate machine, independent labels often play on this in there advertising and image.

Look at Gaustalt Theory – “Everything is the sum of its parts” – meaning that everything is a product of its context and without its context could almost be a different thing.

Research has shown that the mind struggles to deal with more than 3 to 4 things at once.

A lot of products now ‘latch on’ to the latest ideas to morally corner people into buying the product. A good example of this so called ‘carbon neutral’ car insurance, which is said to offset your carbon emissions and therefore reduce your carbon foot print. This isn’t a reality and ruins biodiversity by planting the same type of tree etc.

An advert must be clear about what it’s promoting and therefore be careful when using things like colloquialism. This has been played on example ‘the worlds local bank’ HSBC which seeks to juxtapose universal and colloquial appeal.

What is Advertising?

(Introduction)

Advertising, a form of commercial mass communication designed to promote the sale of a product or service, or a message on behalf of an institution, organization, or candidate for political office.

Evidence of advertising can be found in cultures that existed thousands of years ago, but advertising only became a major industry in the 20th century.

Advertising spending worldwide now exceeds $350 billion per year (convert to pounds).

Some advertisements are intended to promote an idea or influence behavior, such as encouraging people not to use illegal drugs or smoke cigarettes. These ads are often called public service ads (PSAs).

Some ads promote an institution, such as the Red Cross or the United States Army, and are known as institutional advertising

(Advertising types)

Advertising can be divided into two broad categories—consumer advertising and trade advertising. Consumer advertising is directed at the public. Trade advertising is directed at wholesalers or distributors who resell to the public.

Consumer advertising can be further divided into national advertising and local advertising. National advertising is aimed at consumers throughout the entire country. National advertising usually attempts to create awareness among the public of a product or service, or it tries to build loyalty to a product or service. Local advertising is aimed at informing people in a particular area where they can purchase a product or service. Advertising to the public may also take the form of institutional advertising, image advertising, informational advertising, or cooperative advertising.

Institutional advertising seeks to create a favorable impression of a business or institution without trying to sell a specific product. This type of advertising is designed solely to build prestige and public respect. My band would be trying to do both.

In some cases a large company may sell a diversity of products. As a result, there is more value and greater efficiency in building a brand image for the company itself.

Many advertisers prefer a strategy known as image advertising. These advertisers seek to give a product a personality that is unique, appealing, and appropriate so that the consumer will want to choose it over similar products that might fulfill the same need. The personality is created partly by the product's design and packaging but, more importantly, by the words and pictures the advertisements associate with the product. This personality is known as a brand image. Advertisers believe brand image often leads consumers to select one brand over another or instead of a less expensive generic product. Brand image is especially important for commodities such as detergents, jeans, hamburgers, and soft drinks, because within these product categories there are few, if any, major differences.

The Role of the advertising agency or department

Advertising companies have different departments which work like a production line, each part completing a task and then passing it on to the next part of the advertising company until it is complete. These different departments are;

The research departement

The research department who will evaluate the market. They will look into how the product is use and how it is regarded currently by the consumer. It will also decide what the market are most likely to buy or the ‘Target Audience’. Knowing the target audience makes advertising more efficient and when working to either time restraints or to a budget this is critical. Evaluative research is used after the advertising has run and seeks to determine how well consumers remember the advertising message and how persuasive it was. Evaluative research is expensive, and as a result, many advertisers do not employ it. Instead, they try to measure the advertising's effectiveness by analyzing sales results.

Agencies use both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Agencies employ qualitative research to gain an initial understanding of the marketing situation (see Marketing). This research method uses open-ended questions that allow consumers to explain their values, beliefs, and behaviors at length. One of the most common qualitative research techniques is the focus group in which a moderator leads a small group of consumers in a candid discussion of a particular product category, service, or marketing situation.

Agencies use quantitative research to determine a final course of action. Agencies use quantitative research to determine a final course of action. This type of research uses close-ended questions in which answers are selected from a set list. This enables the researcher to determine the exact percentage of people who answered yes or no to a question or the exact percentage choosing answer a, b, or c. One of the most common quantitative research techniques is the survey in which researchers use a questionnaire to gain information from a large group of people, called a sample. Statistical studies show that if the sample is large enough, about 1,000 people, and is representative of a particular group (for example, working mothers who buy disposable diapers), then the findings from the sample are considered true, or statistically valid, and can be extended to the entire group of consumers in that category. The findings provided by quantitative research are therefore conclusive in a way that qualitative research cannot be.

The Media Department

Once the target audience has been identified, an agency's media department determines the most effective way of delivering the message to that target.

The media planner is the person who decides which media will be used. The media planner must consider three factors: (1) the number of people to be exposed to the message, known as the reach, (2) the number of times each person needs to be exposed to the message in order to remember it, known as the frequency, and (3) the costs.

The media planner wants to reach the largest possible percentage of the target audience. To accomplish that goal, the media planner must employ the media that have audiences closely resembling the target audience. Relate to my case..

The media planner must also determine how frequently the advertising should run in each medium. Frequency is important because repetition helps the consumer remember both the product and the advertising message.

Finally, because no advertiser has an unlimited amount of money to spend, cost is also a factor. The media planner must choose those media that will enable the advertiser to reach the largest percentage of the target with enough frequency for the message to be remembered without exceeding the advertiser’s budget. Once this media plan has been put together, the agency's media buyer contacts the media on behalf of the client in order to purchase advertising space or time at the best possible rate.

Often an advertising campaign will employ many types of media.

Creative department

Once the types of media have been determined, the agency's creative department develops the presentation of the ads. The principal figures in the creative department are the copywriter and the art director. The copywriter is the person who writes the advertising message. The art director is the person who oversees the design of the ad. The copywriter and the art director work together to find creative ways to deliver the message that research found would have the greatest appeal to the target audience.

Once brainstorming and free thinking has produced a wide range of ideas, the team then evaluates the various proposals and selects the best to present to the client.

*Important section*

Print ads and television commercials use a variety of techniques to deliver their messages. Testimonials and endorsements can lend both prestige and credibility to a product. Seeing an athletic superstar, for example, endorse a particular brand of athletic shoe makes the brand seem more prestigious and suggests that it must be good because a professional uses it. Superiority is also often demonstrated through product comparisons–for example, by showing that one brand of paper towels absorbs more spilled liquid than another or that in consumer taste tests one beverage is preferred over another. But because more and more competing products are virtually identical to one another, advertisers frequently use image advertising to distinguish their products. Image advertising surrounds the product with a 'halo of positive associations' by using the same character or theme year after year.

*Important section*

Most advertising appeals to people’s emotions, particularly the emotional needs for love and belonging, prestige and self-esteem. Manufacturers of luxury and fashion products, for example, frequently appeal to the desire for esteem and prestige. Advertising for a line of clothing, such as Ralph Lauren’s Polo clothes, may associate the product with the lifestyle of wealthy landowners. Those who buy the clothing purchase it, in part, because they want to be identified with that prestigious lifestyle. Makers of personal care products, on the other hand, often suggest that buying their products will enable consumers to experience love and acceptance. Advertising for perfume or cologne conveys the message that the product makes users more sexually attractive. Personal care products such as breath mints and dandruff shampoos, on the other hand, usually play upon consumers’ fears and dramatize the rejection that results from failing to use the product. The implication is that product usage brings love and acceptance.

Production department

Finally once the product has been designed and decided on the production company produce a product that is of the best quality achievable with the budget given. This process will most likely be overseen by the creative department who will often organise any photographers or illustrators. If it is for a televison advert the creative department will work with the broadcast producer. The creative team also work with the editor of the film of the advert and helps to decide which parts best match

Methods of advertising

In the United States, the most popular media, as measured by the amount of ad spending, are television, newspapers, direct mail, radio, Yellow Pages, magazines, the Internet, outdoor advertising, and a variety of other media, including transit ads, novelties, and point-of-purchase displays. (These rankings are measured each year by Advertising Age, an advertising trade magazine, and seldom vary, although Internet advertising continues to grow significantly. In the first half of 2005, ad spending on the Internet increased 26 percent, far greater than the 4.5 percent growth for the entire advertising market.)

In Canada, newspapers are the most popular advertising medium, followed by television, magazines, radio, and outdoor advertising. Canada is the ninth largest advertising market in the world.

Because television commercials combine sight, sound, and motion, they are more dramatic than any other form of advertising and lend excitement and appeal to ordinary products. Advertisers consider television an excellent medium to build a product's brand image or to create excitement around a particular event such as a year-end auto sale. But TV spots are too brief to provide much product information. As a result, television works best for products such as automobiles, fashion, food, beverages, and credit cards that viewers are familiar with and easily understand.

Newspapers enable advertisers to reach readers of all age groups, ethnic backgrounds, and income levels. Two types of advertising appear in newspapers: classified advertising, such as the want ads, and display advertising. Display ads range in size from as large as a full page to as small as one column in width and less than one centimeter (less than one inch) in length. Display ads often contain illustrations or photographs and usually provide information about where the product or service being advertised can be purchased. Typically, advertising makes up about 65 percent of a newspaper's content and generates about 65 percent of a newspaper's revenue. About 88 percent of this revenue comes from local businesses.

Newspaper sales have had a recent decline though as the internet now provides news updated by the minute for free; e.g the BBC news website.

Most advertisers believe that newspaper ads fail to convey the kind of emotional images that build brand image. As a result, most newspaper advertising is done by retailers who use newspaper ads to provide timely information that can lead to immediate sales. Newspapers are particularly well suited to this role because most are published daily. Readers can clip coupons from the newspaper and cash them in quickly at local stores. People also turn to newspapers for immediately useful information about product discounts, bank interest rates, restaurant specials, and entertainment.

Direct mail is the third largest advertising medium, attracting about 20 percent of all U.S. advertising dollars. Direct mail advertising, as the name implies, is advertising that is sent directly to people by mail, usually through the postal system. Increasingly, however, electronic mail (e-mail) is being used as a direct mail device. Direct mail can be as simple as a single letter or as involved as a catalog or an elaborate e-mail known as HTML mail that offers graphics and links to more information.

From the advertiser's point of view, the key to a successful direct mail program is the mailing list. The mailing list contains the names and addresses of people who share certain common characteristics that suggest they will be likely to buy a particular product or service. Because advertisers are speaking directly to those who are most likely to buy their product or service, many advertisers consider direct mail the most effective of all advertising media for generating immediate results. Direct mail through the U.S. postal system, however, is the most expensive form of advertising, costing about 14 times as much per exposure as most magazine and newspaper ads. But because of the results it produces, many advertisers believe the expense is justified.

Unlike television which reaches a broad audience, the specialized programming of radio stations enables advertisers to reach a narrow, highly specific audience such as people who like sports or urban teenagers who listen to the latest styles of popular music. Because many people listen to radio while in their cars, radio also enables advertisers to reach prospects just before they go shopping. But because people listen to the radio while doing something else such as driving or working, radio commercials can be easily misunderstood. As a result, radio ads work best when the messages are relatively simple ones for familiar, easily understood products.

Although newspapers reach all different kinds of readers, a magazine’s specialized editorial content generally reaches readers who have similar interests. The relatively specialized, narrow audience of a magazine enables an advertiser to speak to those most likely to buy a particular product. For example, a manufacturer of mascara who advertises to teenage girls could use a magazine with editorial content aimed especially at teenage girls to reach that audience exclusively.

A magazine's editorial environment can also lend a product credibility and prestige, and the magazine’s ability to reproduce beautiful color photographs can enhance a product's appearance. As a result, magazine advertising is an effective way to build a product's brand image. Because such advertising is expensive and because most magazines are distributed regionally or nationally, they generally feature national advertising rather than local advertising. Magazines generate 63 percent of their revenue from advertising.

About 96 percent of ad spending on the Internet goes to 50 Web companies, mostly to four sites maintained by Yahoo, Google, America Online, and the Microsoft Network.

Advertisements on the Internet often take the form of banners, buttons, pop-ups, and sponsorships. But the most important aspect of Internet marketing is that the World Wide Web allows advertisers to personalize their messages for individual customers. For example, when a customer visits a commercial Web site that person is often welcomed by name and is offered information about new products based on the type of products the person has purchased in the past. Moreover, the customer can then order the product immediately without venturing out to a store. By allowing advertisers to customize their advertising, the Internet enables them to build customer loyalty and generate stronger sales results. Google pioneered the technique of providing customized ads when someone enters a search term. Advertisers take part in an auction to have their ads placed next to relevant search results and pay only when someone clicks on the ad.

Outdoor advertising amounts to less than 1 percent of total ad spending in the United States. Outdoor advertising is an effective way to reach a highly mobile audience that spends a lot of time on the road—for example, in commuting to and from work or as part of their job. It offers the lowest cost per exposure of any major advertising medium, and it produces a major impact, because it is big, colorful, and hard to ignore. The messages on outdoor boards have to be very brief. So outdoor advertising primarily serves as a reminder medium and one that can trigger an impulse buy.

A wide variety of other advertising media make up the remainder of total ad spending. Transit advertising is mainly an urban advertising form that uses buses and taxi tops as well as posters placed in bus shelters, airports, and subway stations. Like outdoor boards, transit is a form of reminder advertising that helps advertisers place their name before a local audience. Finally, point-of-purchase advertising places attention-getting displays, streamers, banners, and price cards in the store near where the product is sold to explain product benefits and promote impulse buys.

Junk food ad limits 'not enough'

Restrictions on television junk food adverts do not properly protect children, say researchers.

“The only way to shield children from TV ads for unhealthy foods is a 9pm watershed”
Miranda Watson
Which?

A report by Which? magazine concludes children are still exposed to adverts promoting foods with high sugar, salt and fat content.

It found 12 of the 20 programmes most popular with under-10s were not covered by the current restrictions.

However, the advertising industry rejected a call for a total ban before 9pm as too simplistic.

Restrictions on television junk food adverts do not properly protect children, say researchers.

A report by Which? magazine concludes children are still exposed to adverts promoting foods with high sugar, salt and fat content.

It found 12 of the 20 programmes most popular with under-10s were not covered by the current restrictions.

However, the advertising industry rejected a call for a total ban before 9pm as too simplistic.

Which? argues that such a hard line approach on any product loaded with fat, salt or sugar is the only effective way to protect children.

A recent report warned that without sustained action 26% of children and young people will be obese by 2050.

Popular shows

The Which? analysis of TV viewing figures showed commercials for Mars Planets, Kinder Bueno, Milky Way, Smarties and Twix were being broadcast during shows popular with youngsters.

The new rules, introduced earlier this year, impose curbs on adverts during shows where child viewers make up a high percentage of the total audience.

But Which? found high profile shows watched by thousands of younger people fell outside the restrictions because they were also popular with many adults.

These included: The X Factor, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and New You've Been Framed.

Miranda Watson, from Which?, said: "The only way to shield children from TV ads for unhealthy foods is a 9pm watershed."

Richard Watts, of the pressure group Sustain, said: "We are in the middle of a children's health crisis.

"Parents have a role to play in improving their children's diet, but they need some support in exercising that responsibility, and part of that is not subjecting their kids to wall-to-wall junk food advertising before 9pm."

Behaviour change

Julian Hunt, of the Food and Drink Federation which represents manufacturers, said the research on which the new restrictions was based showed the effect of advertising was tiny.

He said: "The UK is now one of the most heavily regulated markets in Europe, and the new rules should be given time to take effect.

"Calls for bans on advertising around programmes popular with families are completely premature."

Ian Twinn, from the Incorporated Society of British Advertising, said: "if you ban advertising no-one gets thinner or fitter as a result.

"In Sweden there is no advertising to children, and the children there are as fat as in the UK."

The Which? findings are based on TV viewing figures for ITV1, Channel 4 and Five for the first two weeks of September.

Radio 4

The art of percuasion

In a study waiters a tip of 70% more by making sure they simply repeated back what the customer ordered.