And that's a wrap folks!

Wow- I can't believe the semester is coming to an end. In these past four months, I have expanded my marketing knowledge and consider myself to be well-versed on the subject. With every marketing class I take, I am always a little surprised at how much more I learn about marketing. It really is a field that is constantly changing, so there's always something new to learn- hence why I love it!

This semester in Campaign Planning & Management has been a huge learning experience for me- and also a big test of how much I have really grasped and learned in previous marketing courses. It seems like junior year is where I learned the bulk of my marketing knowledge, and senior year is where a lot of the application has taken place. Our weekly blog posts, class discussions, group activities, and final campaign project are all examples of ways I have applied my knowledge of marketing theories and concepts. Learning and testing about these concepts is one thing, but the true test of knowledge comes from applying it to a project or activity.

This course has taught me to be a more independent learner. I have always been the kind of student who has a lot of questions to ask, but I have learned to try and "go with the flow" and stick with what I know. The structure of this course was much more laid back than most I have taken, so it took me some time to adjust. Sometimes it's okay to not have a plan or a lot of direction, because it enables you to think freely and creatively.

The final campaign plan project was a huge obstacle for me in this course- one that I wasn't sure I could overcome. Working in a group of three, our task was to create a promotional campaign for a client in the community. Each client was significantly different, creating unique challenges for each group to face. My group chose Gauthier & Sugermeyer CPA, an accounting firm located in Ludlow, MA. With limited information on the firm in an industry that does not thrive from marketing efforts, this project was a huge challenge. Fortunately, because of our group's determination and efforts to understand the ins and outs of this accounting firm, we were able to create a successful campaign. We had to really work backwards and understand the key points of difference about this firm and come up with a unique and clever way to position them in the industry, without being "too flashy" (apparently in the accounting firm, they fear having advertisements that are too flashy). This project had us working well outside of our comfort zones, another reason why it was such a great feeling to have finished it successfully. I consider this project to be another huge accomplishment from this semester.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my experience in Campaign Planning & Management, and I have enjoyed sharing my experience through this blog. Blogging has become extremely relevant in my life since last year. During my junior year, I had to blog weekly in my Social Media Marketing course, which gave me a brief idea about how to blog. Then, this course required me to blog twice a week- which really forced me to think creatively about different concepts and stories in the marketing field. In addition, I was able to put these two blogging experiences to good use at my internship, where I have been given the task of blogging for some of the agency's clients. Blogging is really useful and effective in the marketing industry, and it's also fun! I'm highly considering creating a personal blog so I can stay up to date with how to effectively blog.

It's been another great semester, and I can't believe it's already over! Seven down, ONE to go!

Who are the Founders?

I stumbled across an article on American Marketing Association's website about how MTV decided to rename the Post-Millennial Generation to "the founders". In marketing, it is important to understand different demographic groups, paying particular attention to their generation. My age group is characterized as millennials, and the name has stuck. There are certain marketing tactics that work effectively depending on which generation of consumers you are trying to reach. This new name and understanding of the post-millennial generation may have an influence on marketing strategies in the future.

How did they decide on this name? MTV decided to have different qualitative focus groups to better understand what the post-millennials thought about their name. They noticed a theme within the responses, all relating to the idea that this generation is about "founding". They are considered to be an extremely diverse generation "founding" a whole new lifestyle and way of living. I thought it was funny when the article mentioned that the people in this generation "were born with an iPad in their hand". This is so true- I have younger cousins that were born in the 2000's and they could probably use an iPad better than me. When I was that age, I was concerned with finding outfits for my Barbies and American Girl dolls. This generation is obsessed with technology, because it's all that they know. They did now know a life without it, because they were born into the digital world we live in now. I'm grateful to have been a kid when it was normal to play outside after school, not sit on the couch playing games on an iPad.

The article said that this generation is "building a new society in the wake of disruption". This generation seems like it requires extremely different marketing tactics than other generations. It may be even more difficult to market to this cohort, because it is so diverse. I wonder if there are enough similarities within consumers to create effective marketing messages. The article mentioned that in order to effectively reach this generation, they need to use visual imagery. It also discussed how they live in a world offering extreme customization, more than ever before.The representative from MTV said that "they're going to expect a level of customization from marketers that I don't think we can imagine at this point.

It looks like marketers have a tough road ahead of them when trying to market to "the founders".

The Inside Scoop About Online Shopping

Online shopping is a college student's best friend and enemy. Having a busy class and work schedule leaves little to no time to get to the mall and shop. Unfortunately, this poses a big problem for an avid shopper like myself. So, online shopping is the answer to my problem- it allows me to buy all of my unnecessary purchases from the comfort of my own bed. But, online shopping is my enemy because it allows me to spend so much money with the click of my computer mouse. The worst part is, many of the online sites I shop on, like Amazon, already have all of my credit card information. They definitely do that so you'll purchase more items effortlessly!

I came across an interesting article about mind-blowing statistics regarding online shopping. Online shopping is considered to be a multibillion-dollar revenue stream that plays a huge role in a business' success. Online marketing strategies have to be extremely specific to your target audience, particularly their shopping patterns. Based on what we have learned in class, marketing messages need to be tailored differently to an online audience.

An interesting statistic I read in the article was that "72% of millennials research and shop their options online before going to a store or the mall". I find this statistic to be extremely accurate, because I always search online for options or ideas when I need to make a purchase decision. This can directly relate to the consumer decision journey, because this gives online marketers an opportunity to influence millennials during their pre-purchase stages, specifically their "Search for Information" and "Evaluation of Alternatives".

There was a very surprising statistic in the article that stated that "Adults 50 years and above represent the Web's largest constituency, comprising one-third of the total 195.3 million Internet users in the U.S". I think that it must be a stereotype that only "younger" consumers do shopping online. When you think about it, it makes sense that a lot of online shoppers are 50 years or older because it is all about convenience. When you reach a particular age, you don't want to spend hours at the mall walking around looking to buy things. This reinforces the fact that you need to have a full, accurate understanding of your target market when creating a marketing message. Their demographic information may not be as stereotypical as you would think!

A final interesting statistic from this article is when it stated that satisfaction with online shopping is extremely high at a number of 83%. I found it interesting that consumers are not satisfied with flexibility to choose delivery date and time. I wonder if this will inspire businesses to offer more particular delivery options, but would this increase the price? Maybe this is where the drone delivery concept came from.

But, all of this talk is tempting me to go on Amazon and continue to do my Christmas shopping! Like I said before, online shopping is just TOO convenient sometimes.

  

Content Marketing: A Way to Win Over Customers?

A term I hear often at my internship or during classes is content marketing. Some of my teachers have touched upon it briefly, but I don't think I've fully been able to grasp it. I came across an article on Forbes that explains how companies can use content marketing as an edge to stand out from their competition. In today's extremely cluttered world full of marketing and advertisements, companies are always looking to have a competitive edge.

I thought it was interesting when the article discussed that companies who think that they'll be the best just from having a great product or service are "naive to think that simply being good is enough to win in business". From this article, I'm getting the gist that a company's content marketing can be through blogs, social media posts, pay-per-click advertising, and websites. I'm sure there's more to it, but those are a few ways companies can incorporate content marketing into their IMC plan.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, "content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action". Storytelling seems like it could play a huge role in content marketing. As we've discussed in class, storytelling is the key to a strong, creative marketing message. 

This article focuses on analyzing the content marketing utilized by your competitors. By doing this, companies can see successes and failures. The article noted that content marketing is easily accessed because it is very public. Your company can avoid making the same mistakes that your competitors make by doing this. The article also recommends that companies subscribe to competitors' newsletters or blog watch. I was surprised by this, because wouldn't this be providing your competitor with another "fan"? Many marketers focus on engagement on social media and how big of a following a company has, and by doing this it seems like you're increasing their numbers, and in their eyes, maybe even their success. 

The article also discussed how you can find out who your competitor's strongest brand influencers are. We have talked about influencers a lot in class, as they are important assets to companies and their brand equity. The article suggested that companies find out who competitors' influencers are, follow them on social media, and let them know when you publish something that may interest them. In a sense- this is a way to steal customers from your competitors through the use of content marketing. 

Overall, reading through this article and analyzing the different concepts mentioned has given me a better understanding of content marketing and how it can be used to have an edge over the competition!

Adele: Marketing Expert?

I came across an interesting article on Ad Age about what brands can learn from the top artists in the music industry. I've never thought of music and marketing to be related, so this was a fun read.

The article discussed how musicians try to "leverage all the connection points they have with fans", and this relates directly to our course material. We always discuss how brands try to have as many touchpoints as possible with consumers through integrated marketing. It also mentioned how musicians try to generate buzz, which is something I'm not surprised about. The music industry is one that people are constantly talking about. But, this makes me wonder how there isn't a lot of waste coverage. How can musicians market solely to their target market? I can imagine that the music industry is difficult in terms of target market segmentation, because there are certain people that like all kinds of music. More importantly, there are a wide range of demographic groups that like artists. For instance, my mom is a huge One Direction fan, but you wouldn't consider her to be in their "typical" target market (granted, she's probably a little too old to be listening to it anyways HA!).

It was no surprise to me that Adele was at the top of the list. Her new single, Hello, has touched us all- I'd have to say it's one of my all time favorite songs of hers. Not only is her music phenomenal, her marketing is too. I never thought about what she did these past few months in terms of marketing, but this article made me think about her strategy. I learned that she threw a free concert in New York a few days before her album was released. This seems like the music industry's version of personal selling. It also mentioned that she collected email addresses of her fans, which is yet another touchpoint and a way of her to utilize direct marketing.

Another marketing strategy used by Adele was her impersonator contest that took place after her album was launched. Again, I saw this online but I never thought about it from a marketing standpoint. This is genius- and as the article stated, it generated a ton of buzz. Like we talk about in class, you need to get people talking about your brand. In this video, Adele pretended to be one of the people impersonating her in a contest. She struck everyone in the audience by surprise when she sang, because they all realized she was the real Adele! I thought this was a clever and funny marketing effort.

Overall, I found the rankings in this list to be very accurate- although I think Justin Bieber should be higher on the list (maybe that's just because I consider myself to be a Belieber). I think that it's really interesting to look at different industries, such as the music industry and see how marketing efforts work for them!

Ho Ho Holiday Marketing

Now that Christmas is just around the corner, marketing and advertising seem to be everywhere! These past few days, my email in box has been practically overflowing with sales promotions and the hottest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. It's a little aggravating to me, and almost stressful. It makes me feel rushed to get my holiday shopping done- and it isn't even December 1st yet. That "rushed" feeling must be some kind of marketing concept, and if it is, it's definitely working on me!

I found an article on the AMA website called "5 Tips for Attention-Grabbing Holiday Marketing Campaigns" that gives good insight on how marketers can successfully reach consumers during this busy holiday season. There is tons of clutter this time of year, so marketers need to find ways to be unique and effective in getting messages across.

The first tip featured in the article is: "'Season's Greetings' matters". It explained that it's okay to use a phrase such as "Merry Christmas" if it is appropriate for your audience. I think this is interesting and I'm not exactly sure that I agree with it. Even if your target audience might celebrate Christmas, they're not the only people seeing the ad. For instance, the Starbucks red cup scandal got people extremely offended. I don't think you can assume your target audience is all celebrating one specific holiday a certain way. I think it's best to stick with the generic "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy Holidays". The last thing your brand wants is negative PR during the holiday season, because it could cost you a lot of business!

Another tip in the article suggests "Rethinking Black Friday and Cyber Monday". Based on my previous comment about the overload of email marketing I received in the past few days, it doesn't look like many companies are following this tip! Outdoor retailer REI gained good PR by encouraging consumers to be outside enjoying themselves after Thanksgiving and not opening stores on Black Friday. I wonder how their overall holiday sales will be affected by not opening stores that day.

Tip #5, "Storytelling still works" relates directly to our course material. The article suggests that companies try to grab consumers' attention by telling a good story. It also put a different spin on the storytelling we have discussed in class, as it suggests to educate consumers about the "good work" your company has been doing or about "giving employees the gift of downtime". This is interesting to me, because it focuses less on the consumer's inner layer, and more on the brand's inner layer. This seems to rely more on the consumer agreeing with what the brand's inner layer believes in, and in this case it could be about philanthropic efforts during the holidays. I wonder how successful a storytelling marketing campaign would be among all of the campaigns that seem to be strictly focused on sales promotions and the best holiday deals. I think it would depend on how hedonic or utilitarian the product is. For instance, jewelry could be a product that can be marketed by using a story to appeal to consumers. However, would a storytelling ad connecting laundry detergent to the holiday season be effective? I wonder.

On that note.. 25 days until Christmas!

Marketing to Millennials

I came across another interesting article at my internship, this time from Marketing Dive. This article is a short, easy read, and it focuses on the marketing tactics necessary to appeal to millennials. I found this article interesting not only because I am interested in marketing, but because I am a millennial myself. I was curious to see if the content of the article was something I agree with.

The article referred to millennials as an "audience segmented by their passion". I think that this is extremely true, and it can directly relate to marketing. Our age group has been bombarded with advertisements since we were little kids, so there is a wide range of clutter. With that said, advertisements need to spark our attention in order for us to get anything from them, or even notice them at all. This relates to our core course concept of emotional involvement, something we keep going back to all semester. Emotional involvement is the key to marketing success in many instances. Because millennials are driven by passion, generating emotional involvement and engagement is a key to successfully marketing to them.

In addition, the article mentions that the millennial generation is extremely diverse, making it more of a challenge to market to. Because of this, marketers have to focus in on individual passions and emotions in order to effectively reach this audience. I think for most market segments this has to be a huge struggle- because not all members of the segment are the same. They may fall under the same demographic or psychographic criteria, but their passions and emotions are most likely extremely diverse. I've discussed this in previous blog posts, but I know for a fact that I am unique among other college students who purchase brands.

Another aspect of the article that relates to our course concepts is toward the end, when it discusses how marketers need to be "educational, entertaining, and visual" when trying to reach millennials. Like our the famous empirical generalization #7 that states that "brand advertising often has a short-term sales impact. This impact decays over time. The most dramatic influence on short-term sales effect is creative copy". The educational, entertaining, and visual marketing tactics need to contain creative copy that will reach millennials. I was surprised that this did not mention emotional as one of the criteria for marketing messages to millennials. Because the article referred to this cohort as full of passion, it is clear that they need emotional messages. For instance, I would definitely describe myself as a passionate person, and I am greatly influenced by advertisements that trigger my emotions.

This article got me thinking a lot about different demographics and generations and how marketing to each one needs to be significantly different. Do companies with a large target market (say, of a range of age groups) come up with multiple marketing messages, depending on the particular age group? Marketing is a lot more work than I thought it was when I first began college, and articles like this make me realize how much thought and planning needs to go into sending a marketing message out to try and reach a target audience!

Marketing & the Wedding Industry

At my internship yesterday, I was browsing the latest marketing news. I came across an article from the American Marketing Association website that I found really interesting. Being a stereotypical 21 year old, I love weddings. I love talking about them, attending them, and even dreaming about one of my own. This article focuses on how the wedding industry calls for a lot of marketing opportunities, and for a wedding-lover like myself, it's a good read.

According to the article, consumers want to be overloaded with marketing messages during their wedding planning stages. I find this to be extremely true. This summer, I spent a lot of time with one of my cousins who was planning her wedding. At her bachelorette party, it seemed like all we talked about was wedding plans. Many of the girls who attended the party had recently gotten married, or were planning weddings of their own. With that said, they had A LOT to say. From details as little as stamps for invitations, to big details like venues, these girls did not run out of things to talk about it. And that just goes to show that this is a huge industry for marketers to jump into.

Why are weddings a good opportunity for marketers? For starters, I'd say a wedding involves some of the most high-involvement purchases a consumer will make in their lifetime. This plays a big role into why consumers are willing to listen and open their eyes to marketing. As the article stated, there are over 2 million weddings every year in the United States.

I found it interesting when the article said that brides/grooms are receptive to hyper-target messaging (highly selective messages to specific groups of people) and that they are more open to behavior tracking that supports it. Because people are so excited and highly involved in planning their wedding day, they find all the information presented to them about weddings to be interesting and useful. I think this shows a positive side of behavioral targeting that some consumers fail to see- because I think it often has an "annoying" reputation. I know many people who find it annoying and inconvenient to have random ads pop up on their Facebook page- but what if those ads were for things that could help consumers? In this case, marketers are sending helpful ideas to consumers that want to soak up that information.

The article also related to our course material when it mentioned the wide range of touchpoints there are in a wedding. It is said that engagements typically last 9-12 months, leaving a huge amount of time for planning. These 9-12 months can have nearly an endless amount of touchpoints- from wedding food to photography to dresses. Marketers can jump in at nearly any of these areas and reach their targeted consumers. The article also mentioned that re-targeted ads with all of the data on wedding consumers are very relevant/personalized, resulting in a high level of consumer engagement. In addition to touchpoints, this topic can connect back to our course discussion of emotional involvement. This is an industry that involves high-involvement purchases for a very sentimental event. So, marketers can take advantage of that sentimental value by sending messages that consumers will feel an emotional connection to and engage.

Overall, I found this article to be extremely interesting and also relevant to our course material!

The Road Ahead

Wow, I can't believe it's already the middle of November. This semester has flown by- and I can't believe that I only have one more to go. It's been a challenging few months, but I've learned so much about marketing in this short amount of time. It amazes me how much there is to learn about the topic of marketing- especially because it is a field that's constantly changing. What's so different about this semester? I feel like I'm much more passionate about the material I'm learning in my classes. Now that my courses focus on an in-depth look into the marketing field, I'm highly interested in them. I had to get the "boring" courses out of the way (Accounting..Finance..you know, the ones that us "marketing people" just don't seem to understand). But now that I've done so, I can focus on these topics I'm interesting in learning about.

Campaign Planning & Management has challenged me a lot this semester- but in a good way. The course material has caused me to question a lot of what I know about marketing. I've learned that the best way to fully understand something, is to ask questions about it. Through posting preparation questions before class, and engagement questions after class, I have been able to keep thinking about our in-class discussions, and carry them over to form new questions and ideas. Now, we have reached a different phase in our semester. We are no longer holding traditional class meetings, as we have begun our consulting project. Although this project seems overwhelming to me right now, I think it's going to be a really great learning experience. My client is a local accounting firm seeking to sell their business in the next couple years. Our main goal is to help them with reputation management. We will also be creating ideas for promotional materials, including website design, email blasts, blog posts, etc.

This project will be a good way to put our marketing knowledge "to the test". All semester, we have discussed theories and ideas that make up our "Marketing Concept Toolbox". Now, we will be testing our knowledge of that toolbox and using it to assist a client. A big challenge of this project will be helping a client in an industry that I do not know much about. It will take a lot of research and "collecting the backstory" to fully create a campaign plan that will be of assistance to both our client and the 421 team we are working with. As I mentioned above, accounting has never been one of my strengths, but I am confident that my group members and I will be able to succeed in this next phase of the course.

Starbucks Holiday Cups: Latest Scandal?

There has been a great deal of controversy on social media about Starbucks. Every holiday season, Starbucks switches over to holiday themed cups, which I thought was a great way to get customers in the spirit. The design has always been winter-themed. Whether you celebrate, Hanukkah, Christmas, or some other holiday during December, I think the cups are a great way to get people excited. However, people were extremely offended by the transition to a plain red cup, saying things like "Starbucks is blowing off Christmas", or "Starbucks removed Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus". After discussing reputation management in my group/professor meeting this morning, I felt this topic was appropriate and related to marketing.

To be honest, I think this is all a bit ridiculous. Starbucks is now dealing with a huge crisis management situation, and their PR team must be struggling to figure this all out. It seems like they tried to avoid controversy by having a more neutral cup. Without any images on it, you would think that there would not be any room for people to find the cups controversial. But, there are certain people out there who find anything and everything offensive! This has become a huge topic of conversation. Yesterday, I overheard my roommates talking about it. My professor also brought it up this morning in class, and one of my friends asked me today if I heard about it! When I began to search "Starbucks" on Google just now, "Starbucks cup" and "Starbucks red cup" were two recommended searches, because I assume there is so much conversation about it right now!

As I mentioned before, this can relate to the marketing concept of reputation management. Your brand's image and reputation play a huge role in whether or not people decide to purchase your products. Starbucks is already a well-established brand with millions of loyal customers- so will this "scandal" have an effect on their sales? Will this negative W.O.M. and publicity hurt their brand image?

I think that scandals like these often help brands in the end. My thoughts on W.O.M. are that whether it be positive or negative conversation, people are talking/thinking about your brand. This can generate awareness that the brand exists (in this case, that doesn't play a huge role because Starbucks is a huge company), and that people care enough about the brand to be talking about it. I think that this may encourage people to go to Starbucks and see what the new cups look like for themselves! I'm tempted to take a trip to Starbucks myself and see if this whole thing is even worth all the controversy!

To view original article, click here.

 

Cups from 2014:

Cups from 2015:

Twitter Mixes Things Up

At my internship, I do a lot of work on social media. One of my tasks this past week was to compose tweets for the Envision Marketing Group's twitter account. They prefer to tweet about the latest marketing trends and news stories. I found a lot of interesting articles on AdWeek, and I really enjoyed reading some of them. I went on the site this evening, and came across this article about Twitter: Read Article Here

The article discusses how many agencies do not "heart" the new changes that have been made to Twitter. There are mixed opinions from marketers about the new heart button. Noah Mallin, who works at MEC North America, said that "I look at this as a move for Twitter to add more meaningful and emotional actions for marketers to measure content performance and to base targeting and optimization of paid media on..."  This is really interesting, because it relates to what we talk about all the time in class. Brands make themselves successful through emotions. Consumers having emotional involvement can generate a purchase decision, as well as brand loyalty.

Another marketer expressed that because the heart symbol is more similar to a "human emotion" rather than a star, people will be more likely to press it. I disagree with this. I think that consumers do not have much an emotional connection at all with what kind of button they are responding to a tweet with. People quickly scroll through their Twitter feed, and because the tweets are 140 characters or less, it is a fairly quick process to just look at it and "like it". To be honest, I think that Twitter is becoming too similar to Instagram now. I think that before, they had a unique star button, which differentiated the platform from Instagram. I'm curious as to what their logic was behind this, and if it was really for the emotional involvement.

I have my iPhone set up so that updates run automatically for each of my apps. Sometimes, I get confused when I open up an app (after it's had an update), and it looks different. I think that it hurts platforms like Twitter and Instagram to be continuously updating and changing. Users get extremely comfortable with the way the site is, and it can be an adjustment to get used to changes. However- I do think that this can generate W.O.M., because people will say things like, "have you seen the new Twitter update?". In fact, I didn't hear about the Twitter update until my roommate was talking about it last night!

Storybranding 3.0?

Since we began reading Storybranding 2.0, we have learned the importance of following each step of the storybranding process. To refresh your (and my) memory, these are the six C's/steps that occur during the storybranding process: 1. Collect the Backstory,  2. Characterize the Brand, 3. Characterize the Prospect,  4. Connect the Characters, 5. Confront the Obstacles, and 6. Complete the Storybrief. 

Although these steps were discussed a few weeks ago in class, we continue to discuss the "collect the backstory" step. Now that we have completed our own videos for Oreo, the backstory is something I realize to be very important. The backstory is like the backbone of your story. It's where all the initial information and thoughts come from, shaping the plot and main story points. According to Jim Signorelli, the backstory "identifies the reason for the story being written in the first place, as it defines the problems and opportunities for the main characters of our story: the brand hero and its beneficiary, the prospect". I never realized how much I agree with this quote until I went back and re-read the Backstory chapter in our Storytelling 2.0 book. 

The backstory is giving purpose to the story- it helps explain why it even exists. I like how Signorelli referred to the brand as the "hero", because it shows the importance of consumer needs. Consumer needs begin the Consumer Decision Making Journey. When a consumer realizes there is a problem and that they have a need for something, they begin to search for information and evaluate their options. This is where the brand becomes the "hero". For instance, you're searching for a detergent that smells fresh for a long period of time after you wash your clothes. When you learn that Tide can solve that problem for you with their guaranteed "24 hours of freshness", they become your hero and solve the problems you had. 

When we have been working on our Oreo Story videos in our teams, I feel like I have gained a better understanding of the overall storybranding process as well. It was interesting to characterize Oreo as a brand and figure out a way to reach and engage consumers through various peripheral cues and techniques. This project has given me a strong understanding of Oreo as a brand, and how they target different groups of consumers. Collecting the backstory starts this process, and can help mold your story into something your consumers will be able to connect with.

I also think that Collecting the Backstory, as well as the other C's of the Storybranding process, play a large role in evoking an emotional connection in consumers. My group's main goal was to get viewers of our video to feel nostalgic as a result of seeing the main character's flashback. We also wanted viewers to think back to their own childhood memories of eating Oreos. Overall, learning about the Storybranding process has been a very important part of this course, and that shows as we are applying the theory and information we learned in the classroom into our group videos and consulting projects!

The Moment of Receptivity

In class on Thursday, we discussed the Moment of Receptivity. This relates to the idea that your marketing strategy is no longer about how many people you reach- it's about reaching the right people at the right time. How do brands narrow in on what that right "time" is?

I think that finding that perfect "time" where your target consumers are most receptive is essential. But is it possible to find it out? I think that all consumers have very different shopping habits- and they also have different ways of processing information presented to them. Even though consumers might all be within one target cohort, they may be extremely different. For instance, I could be part of the target market for Victoria's Secret PINK. Their brand targets women from ages 16-25 (ish) who like comfortable and stylish apparel. To successfully reach me, Pink needs to fully understand what moment I will be receptive to their message. I'm susceptible to advertisements if they are not thrown at me. I prefer subtle, non-invasive/pushy ads that spark my interest. I am receptive to peripheral cues such as music and celebrity endorsers as well. In terms of the advertising medium, I think my receptivity depends on the situation I'm in. If I'm impatient waiting for a YouTube video to load, the last thing I want to look at is an ad for something. I am not receptive to it at that time. But, if I'm browsing the web and notice an ad of a celebrity wearing a cute shirt on the side of my screen, I'm receptive to it and drawn to it.

But- what about the other consumers in the target market? What about people who like to be advertised in a different way? I'm receptive to music- but what if someone in the target market hates the music I like? I feel like this whole concept is tough for brands to grasp. How do you figure out the perfect moment of receptivity for your target market if all of the people within it aren't really the same?

I think the difficulty of this also depends on what your brand is and what kind of product you're trying to market. Is it high involvement, low involvement, expensive, hedonic, etc? That will determine what kind of message you have to send out, as well as what your target market is. If your target market is broad- especially those that reach out to a large age group, it's going to be a lot harder. Specialized products being marketed to smaller groups of people may be easier, because there won't be as much diversity within the group.

This reminds me of many of the other concepts we've talked about, because they seem to be too generalized. Marketing has so many exceptions. It seems like people could find exceptions for every theory out there. The idea that you need to create your message in a way that it will reach the right people at  the right time makes perfect sense, but how realistic is it?

The Product Color Matrix & Peripheral Cues

Today in class, we were given a set of commercials for a particular product. We then had to identify the color of the product (according to the Product Color Matrix), and then think of whether the product requires a central route to persuasion or a peripheral route.When we went over this concept in the beginning of the semester, I don't think I had a full understanding of it. I'm going to try to break it down right now.

To backtrack, the Product Color Matrix is a useful tool to classify products based on their level of risk and the consumer's objective for purchase. The product my group had was perfume, which is considered a "Red Good". These are products that give consumers an opportunity to feel good. When thinking about ELM and attitudes, consumers follow the "feel, learn, do" order when it comes to red products. Red products have a higher risk, and they are considered to be expressive toys.

The product my group was assigned was perfume- Chanel No. 5 in particular. Through watching a few of their recent commercials, we were able to get a better understanding about red products. This kind of product requires visual peripheral cues, as opposed to images (like many other peripheral cues). The peripheral visual cues used in the commercial were things like the attractive female, elegant and chic style, Paris (familiar, classy location). The overall idea for perfume is to feel good about what you are wearing- because it is your scent. That is why this kind of product starts with feeling.

The purpose of these peripheral cues is to keep consumers interested and engaged. With all of the distractions out there, it can be tough to retain your target market's attention. These peripheral cues are aimed at keeping consumers engaged and focused on what you are trying to tell them. Because this product is not a functional tool, these consumers need less of an "outer layer" explanation on the product attributes and features. They need more of an "inner layer" focus, relying on feelings and attitudes.

It's interesting to realize that peripheral routes of persuasion work better for particular products and particular consumers. I think that as a consumer, I connect easily with brands when there is a peripheral cue. For instance, I can recall Geico commercials because of the gecko- the peripheral cue. Like the Old Spice commercials we watched in class, there are various peripheral cues, including the shirtless man, that make me remember this commercial.

Can these peripheral cues also be considered touchpoints? For instance, if there is a celebrity endorser for a brand, and they use that same person across various marketing platforms, there is a stronger likelihood that consumers will interact with their brand. All of these touchpoints have consumers becoming aware and thinking about your product, service, or idea. Using peripheral cues seems like a good idea for brands, because they not only gain the attention of their target consumers, they can create an increased amount of touchpoints.

Social Media Marketing for Dummies

In class on Thursday, the presenting group discussed the importance of social media in a brand's marketing strategy. BUT- they made it very clear, as did the author of our Brand Media Strategy course trade book: Social media is NOT a strategy. It is wrong to refer to it as that.

Social media plays an important role in a brand's marketing strategy, but it is not THE strategy. Our professor accentuated this statement and made it very clear. No longer is social media considered a cutting-edge, new, trendy marketing strategy. It is just another necessary element of a company's regular communication mix. We also discussed how years ago, companies were fixated on web pages and that was the "hot" marketing tool. If a company had a website, they were ahead of the game. Then, it turned into social media being the marketing "fixation".

Our Professor said something that really stuck with me in class- "If you treat social media as a strategy, you're only focusing on the outer layer". Only focusing on your brand's outer layer will never allow you to emotionally involve your consumers. Standing out from other brands is important to be able to do, especially in today's day and age. By using social media as your main strategy, you aren't differentiating your brand.

Just having a presence on social media isn't enough- but having a strong and creative presence on social media? Now we're talking. Brands need to focus on the inner layer. Giving your consumers content and marketing that digs deep into the meaning and purpose of your brand is important. Don't just tell your consumers why your product is the best- make them believe it through creative copy (always going back to that Empirical Generalization).

Another social media marketing tip I gained from our course reading is this: "Instead of collecting additional new fans, brands had to think about how to keep them engaged and bring them back to their page" (156). When I thought about my interactions with brands on social media, I found this to be extremely true. How many brands do you "like" on Facebook once, and never interact with their page again? For me, the answer is a lot. Marketers can't judge their success on social media based on how many likes they are getting on their page- it has to be by how many of those "likers" are actually engaging with it. It's about quality, not quantity, and this holds true for social media as well.

                        

Big T vs. small-t Truths

In class today, we continued to talk about storybranding and its importance for marketing strategies. A group of my classmates gave a presentation about the most important concepts from this week's readings, but we never got around to talk about a concept I found both interesting and confusing. This is the Big T vs. Small-t Truth idea, which is talked about in chapter 20 of our Storybranding 2.0 book. To better help myself understand this, I thought I would blog about it.

This section of the chapter talked about how successful story writers go along with the principle that "truth is not what is said, but what is believed". This concept seems very valid for marketing and the whole concept of emotional involvement. Consumers believe brands that generate emotions from them. If a commercial makes you cry (like the Duracell one I blogged about last week), you're probably going to believe whatever message is being told. It's almost as if brands want to make consumers vulnerable. By generating these strong emotions, it seems like they're using that as a persuasive tactic.

The small-t truth, according to our book, is objective, a provable fact or arguable opinion, that is explicitly stated and directly communicated. I connect this to the brand's outer layer. This could be a commercial explicitly stating a product's features or benefits. It's what is "obviously" stated or told to you as a consumer, and not much thought is needed to process it or understand it. The Big T truth, on the other hand, appeals to the non-rational side of consumers. It is also said that we know these kinds of truths based on personal perceptions and beliefs. I connect this kind of truth with a brand's inner layer. These truths are not explicitly stated, instead they are to  be interpreted by consumers based on their inner values and beliefs.

So, what I think this means, is that the Big T truth is the more important truth for consumers to understand. By having to interpret and analyze it (without it being explicitly stated), consumers are engaging and getting more emotionally involved with the product or brand. For a company like Nike, the small-t truth might be that their shoes are the best for athletes' needs. The Big T truth could be that Nike focuses on inspiring every athlete in the world to be their best. It's a deeper, more emotional kind of message than simply stating the product's unique attributes and features. This relates back to Unique Value Proposition vs. Unique Selling Proposition.

Overall, I found these concepts to be a little confusing when I first read them, but breaking them down was very helpful. I think I've gained a better understanding of them, and I hope my explanations were helpful for you readers as well!

The Importance of Storybranding

In the past couple weeks, we have been learning about storybranding and its importance in marketing. My group members and I led a class discussion on Thursday focusing on the second half of the book "Storybranding 2.0". The main concepts we touched upon were the inner and outer layers of both brands and prospects. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea that brands try to tell stories when marketing to consumers. However, I now understand that "storybranding gets to the heart of why your brand exists", as stated in the book.

Storytelling is a tactic, but storybranding is where the brand itself takes on a character. In order for a brand to successfully appeal to consumers, they need to have a thorough, deep understanding of their values and beliefs. This is known as the brand's inner layer. The ideal target market is one that has similar values and beliefs as the brand itself. This concept is interesting to me- is it always true though? Think about it. Every purchase decision you make, is it based on your beliefs and values? Does this concept hold true for low involvement, utilitarian products? For instance, when you go to the store to buy toothpaste, are you really thinking about your personal values and beliefs and lining those up with the beliefs of the brand you're thinking of buying?

I understand the general scope of the inner and outer layers, but I think this concept is a bit exaggerated in some cases. I think the idea of inner layers of the brand and consumers lining up is obviously ideal, but I can't imagine that this would happen with all kinds of products. I can imagine that with a high value product or service, such as a college education, prospective consumers (or in this case, students) look deeper into the brand's values and beliefs (the college's). For example, Catholic students with strong religious beliefs may choose to go to a Catholic college.

The concepts from the Storybranding 2.0 book make a lot of sense and are extremely strategic. However, I just don't know how realistic they are for certain brands. Even though consumers might not necessarily look deep into a brand's beliefs or values, it is a good starting point for a brand to accurately define itself and thoroughly understand where it stands in the marketplace.

Get your Tissues Ready!

Over the weekend, I saw a Duracell commercial that brought tears to my eyes. Last week, I was questioning whether or not a utilitarian product can offer emotional or hedonic benefits, especially through advertising. This commercial shows a young girl going through the hardship of having a parent deployed at war. Because of Duracell batteries, she was able to listen to her dad's voice when she missed him. This is the perfect example of an advertisement that is for a utilitarian product, but can still generate an emotional response from consumers.

Check out the video here:

Another Connection to the Consumer Decision Journey

In the beginning of the semester, we studied the consumer decision journey in depth. We have learned that it is important for marketers to influence consumers at every phase of the consumer decision journey. This consumer decision journey is always referred to during class, and it seems like any marketing concept or topic connects back to it.

Since we started reading Storybranding 2.0, we are starting to learn about the importance that storytelling has on marketing. Storybranding allows marketers to connect with consumers and empathize with them. Many storybranding concepts can be connected to the consumer decision journey. The consumer decision journey begins with a consumer having an initial consideration set. Brands might be part of a consumer's consideration set based on their outer layer or inner layer. The outer layer is composed of the brand's physical attributes, and the inner layer is a deeper level, and it focuses on values or beliefs the brand is associated with. These are attributes of the brand that will carry over into the second step of the decision journey, which is where information gathering and shopping occurs. The story that is told to the consumer, whether it be in a commercial, or print ad, can have a big impact on this part of the journey as well. If the story "hits home" or triggers an emotional connection with consumers, they are likely to choose your brand.

The next part of the consumer decision journey is the moment of purchase, which is where the consumer decides which brand is right for them. This can also connect to storybranding because if the inner/outer layer of the prospect (the consumer making the purchase decision) line up with the inner/outer layer of the brand, they will use that to make their purchase decision.

The Consumer Pathway can also be directly connected with the Consumer Decision Journey. Both of these models show phases that consumers go through while making purchases/thinking about making them. The Consumer Pathway begins with product news and awareness, then goes along to emotional engagement and involvement made with the brand, followed by active consideration. These correlate with the first two steps of the Consumer Decision Journey, where consumers are considering brands and evaluating them. These are critical points for marketers to influence consumers' opinions. Emotional engagement is a big part of this, because it can relate to storybranding. By giving consumers' messages in the form of a story, they are likely to have stronger emotional engagement with them.  The "convert to action" stage of the Pathway lines up with the moment of purchase stage of the Consumer Decision Journey. The final stages of the consumer pathway; improve the experience, reward brand users (relationship building), and enabling WOM are part of the post-purchase experience that takes place in the Consumer Decision Journey. This is where opinions about brands and relationships are formed based on the purchase decision that took place.

..and More Oreos!

Today in class, we continued to dig deeper into our investigation about Oreo cookies. I can't say I minded this- because food is fun to talk about in class (and eat!). I find that I enjoy talking about products I have a personal interest in or connection with. I've always loved oreos, so I have a lot to say about the product.

Our assignment over the weekend was to pass along the Oreo survey to three people. I was surprised to see that most of the answers to the associated words portion were the same/similar to what I had put. This goes to show that people have similar thoughts about the product in general. I would be curious to see if consumers thought of Oreos when I named some of the words mentioned such as "cream filling" or "cookie sandwich". Oreo does seem to have achieved top of mind awareness with many consumers.

I think our activities these past few days with Oreos can relate to the marketing concept of consumer motivations. We did some in-depth research on what consumers' needs and motivations are for purchasing Oreo cookies. It's interesting to me that consumers have such specific motivations for buying/using a product even if it is one that you would consider to  be low involvement. I would typically associate a cookie as being a low involvement product, but our discussions show how much hedonic and emotional value Oreos actually provide.

We also looked at the Hierarchy of benefits and determined the product attributes, functional benefits, and emotional benefits are for Oreo. I thought the Hierarchy of Benefits was interesting and I don't remember that concept from previous marketing courses. I was curious to see if the Hierarchy of Benefits is applicable for all consumer goods? After doing our investigation about Oreos, we know that they provide both hedonic and utilitarian value to consumers. Are other food items considered to have emotional benefits like oreos do? Or, is it because they are a dessert? Our activity has triggered some questions like these, and I would be curious to see what our class activity would be like if we did it for less of a "special" product or food item. It would be cool to see the activity done with a basic snack product- like chips or popcorn. I think that because people get excited about Oreos and desserts, it makes for an interesting product to research and investigate further.

           

Oreos!

Today in class, we did a fun activity. Our professor had us each put on a blindfold, and then gave us a plastic bag with an unknown object in it. When it was placed in front of us, we had to use our senses of touch, feel, and taste to identify it. In about 10 seconds, many of us knew that it was in fact, an oreo!

Oreo is an instantly recognizable brand to many. I was excited when an oreo was placed in front of me, because it brings back so many childhood memories (not to mention it is delicious). Oreo, one of the Nabisco brands, has successfully created a product that has such a strong hedonic value. When people see, think of, or eat oreos, they are brought back to that childhood moment of eating oreos around the kitchen table. Oreo has successfully found a way to bring out people's emotional and nostalgic side, all from one little cookie!

So how does Oreo do this? I'm not quite sure. People have their own products that they used as a kid that become a part of their regular adult life as well. But, oreos are different- and I think this is because they are more of a product that people want, as opposed to what they need. They are dessert snack item, not by any means a necessity. Oreos have a special place for people because as young kids, they may have served as a reward. "If you eat all of your vegetables, you'll get dessert"- this is a common line my parents told my sisters and I over and over again. In many cases, that dessert was oreos with glass of milk.

There are many products that I had in my childhood that bring back memories. Juicy Juice, Hoodsie cups, both are things I loved having as a kid. What I think makes oreos so special is that they are a delicious treat for people at any age. I don't have any urge to drink Juicy Juice (it's obviously a beverage for children), but I still love a good oreo. This product doesn't just have one distinct target market. Although Oreo may try to market specific demographics for certain campaigns, I think the general target market is "oreo lovers".

When trying to relate this activity to a marketing concept, I think right to emotional appeals. This kind of emotional appeal seems different. Without seeing any sort of advertisement or promotional piece, I had an emotional connection with this brand. Their product is able to evoke emotion in people without even doing much. This makes me wonder, do brands have to continuously try and provide hedonic value and generate emotional responses, or is one time enough? If I feel nostalgia from this product one time, will I always feel that way about it?

Additions to the Marketing Concept Toolbox

One key concept that I think should be added to our Marketing Concept Toolbox is Word of Mouth, which is commonly referred to as W.O.M. Although this concept is a bit general, it comes up in every class discussion we have, many times more than once. Now that we're in the digital age, almost every textbook or article we read mentions how brands need to have a strong presence online more than ever. With that said, Word of Mouth is a vital concept in marketing.

Consumers talk- and they talk often. Whether they liked a brand, hated a brand, never want to hear about a brand again, they're talking about it. Word of mouth can be in person or online. In my opinion, word of mouth is a great way to generate brand awareness, and this is why marketers aim to get consumers talking about their brand. In class, we have discussed online review sites and how they can be make or break for some brands. Positive W.O.M. on a review site can give a company a good reputation and consumers will think favorably of their brand. On a different note, negative W.O.M. can be extremely damaging to a brand, so marketers have to try and manage this as best they can. In my opinion, people tend to share negative experiences more than they share positive ones, because like they say, "misery loves company". I can't even count the amount of times that my friends or family members have come up to me complaining about a negative shopping experience or issue they have with a brand. People are also able to spread W.O.M. to the public because of social media. Overall, generating brand awareness and having consumers spread positive W.O.M. about a brand is an instrumental part of marketing campaigns and an important concept we've covered in class regularly.

W.O.M. has a big influence on top of mind awareness, another concept we discuss in class quite a bit. Marketers aim to have consumers think of a product category, and then think of their brand as a result. For example, if someone were to ask me about athletic apparel. The first brand that comes to my mind is always Nike. Why is that? Because they've achieved top of mind awareness, or in other words, they're the brand on the "top" of my list. Top of mind awareness is another concept that is worth adding to our concept toolbox in my opinion. Many, if not all of the marketing strategies we discuss in class go back to companies wanting to achieve top of mind awareness.

I know that fear appeals are already on the marketing concept toolbox list, but I think emotional appeals overall (specifically humor appeals) are worth adding to the list as well. In class, we've discussed the importance of emotional appeals frequently, as they play a big role in creative copy within an ad. Ads that generate an emotional response have a big impact on consumers, and definitely help to generate personal connections with the brands. We've also talked quite a bit about the effects humor can have on advertising. I remember our professor saying that humor helps to lower barriers so consumers can accept the message easier.

In addition to these concepts, we've also referenced back to empirical generalizations quite a bit. One empirical generalization we seem to go back to frequently is EG #7: "brand advertising often has a short-term sales impact. This impact decays over time. The most dramatic influence on short-term effect is creative copy". Although this is a "generalization" and not so much a theory/concept, it's definitely a finding that we refer back to a lot in class and connects to most other concepts. I touched on this in one of my previous blogs as well. This empirical generalization has created a lot of conversation in our classes, and also ties back to W.O.M., top of mind awareness, and emotional appeals. Emotional appeals connect to creative copy (especially humor appeals), because they help ads stand out among all the others. Creative copy influences short-term sales impact (as the EG says), and this can have an impact on what consumers are saying about your brand via Word of Mouth, and that has an impact on whether or not your brand has achieved top of mind awareness. It's interesting to see how all of these concepts not only make great additions to our marketing concept toolbox, but they are all closely related to one another and create this "web" of connections.

Out of the box Billboards

Thursday's conversation about unique billboards was interesting to me. Stephanie told the class about how she drove by a billboard in Connecticut recently, and it appeared to be upside-down. When she knew she would be driving by the same billboard a few weeks later, she told her Mom to lookout for it. To her surprise, the billboard was no longer upside-down. Was this on purpose or to generate awareness? Personally, I think that marketers do things like that on purpose. Anything out of the box or "strange" will cause people to notice it, pay attention to it, or even (hopefully) talk about it. This goes back to the empirical generalization that states that creative copy has the greatest effect on short-term sales.

This conversation made me want to look up some more interesting, out of the box billboards. Here are some unique ones I found:









All photos were found on Google images.

Mere Exposure Effect: True or False?

In class on Thursday, the mere exposure effect was brought up as a result of our conversation about outdoor advertising. We discussed how the mere exposure effect says that we start to view things more favorably as a result of seeing it more often. However, our professor mentioned that in some cases, seeing something frequently can cause you to tune out and get sick of it. The question is, which one of these is true?

I'd say that in my personal life, I tend to agree that the mere exposure effect is accurate. I tend to think more favorably of things when I'm constantly exposed- I definitely "warm up" to topics and ideas when I become more familiar with them. I think I touched upon this in one of my previous blogs, but I tend to think positively of brands or fads when I see them being worn often. For instance, I used to think flannels were incredibly "tom-boyish" and weird. A few of my friends were always wearing them and I slowly started to warm up to them. Here I am now, wearing a flannel as I type this blog. Seeing flannels on models in advertisements has also made a positive impression on my opinion of them. I can connect this to celebrity endorsers. When people see a celebrity wearing a brand or certain type of clothing, they may think it's "cool" or "trendy". Celebrity endorsers and the mere exposure effect seem like they can both be powerful tools to persuade consumers from a marketer-standpoint.

All of this also caused me to make a connection back to selective exposure. Doesn't the mere exposure effect contradict the selective exposure effect? If I remember correctly, the selective exposure theory says that consumers tend to favor information if it goes along with their pre-existing views or ideas. The mere exposure effect seems to prove the selective exposure theory wrong. If a consumer sees a commercial for a brand repeatedly, and it goes against a pre-existing view they had, wouldn't this be saying that the mere exposure effect wouldn't hold true, and the selective exposure theory would?

Every time I look back at an old theory we learned about in Buyer Behavior and Promotional Strategy, it seems like I can contradict it with a different theory.

Is the Purchase Funnel Always Accurate?

Today in class, we analyzed the consumer Purchase Funnel. We made connections to where different social networks fall in the funnel as well as where promotional mix elements would go. This conversation about the funnel got me to start thinking about my personal experiences.

The articles we read for class suggest that Facebook and Twitter are at the top of the funnel and relate to your initial awareness. In my personal experience with Facebook, I do not think I've ever seen a Facebook post one of my friends wrote about a brand and have it spark my interest about something so much that it led me to search for information or pursue it. Yes, seeing brands on Facebook makes me knowledgeable and aware that they exist, but its a rarity that I'll see a post regarding a brand and then think about buying something from them. If I'm looking to buy a product, it's typically because I have a need for it. For instance, I need a new water bottle because my Camelback just broke (frown face). I didn't go on Facebook to browse or become aware of different water bottle brands- I went to Amazon immediately. This also goes against what we talked about in class, because Amazon is at the bottom of the funnel.

What I'm getting at, is that I'm starting to think that consumers' decision making and purchase funnel experiences are extremely subjective and different for every individual. My experiences with AIDA and purchasing things are always very different- especially depending on what kind of product I buy. I think that high involvement purchase decisions require much more thorough research and searching online than a low involvement purchase, like my water bottle for instance.

This makes me wonder- is looking at social media in relation to the purchase funnel only valid if it is a high involvement consumer situation? Are consumers more likely to seek information on social media platforms if they're highly involved, or will they just use the information presented to them as the starting point when buying things? Our class discussion has left me with a lot of questions about the model. Like I've found myself saying over and over again, I am questioning everything we've been discussing, because marketing seems so subjective. One of my professors instilled in my mind that "the only generalization you can make about advertising is that there are no generalizations to be made about advertising" (I think Stephanie touched upon this in her prep questions a few weeks back). This concept seems to hold true for marketing too, as all generalizations made about it can definitely be questioned/argued.

Peer Pressure for Consumers

Today in class, we talked about TV shows using Twitter hashtags to generate buzz on social media. We discussed how there have been cases where people will see others tweeting about a show (most likely because it is on live), and then they start tweeting about it even if they aren't watching it. My roommates are all serious One Tree Hill fans and talked about the show 24-7. Because they were always tweeting about it and talking about it in front of me, I started watching the show just so I could join in the conversation!

One of my classmates connected this to a concept she had learned in another course where people are on an elevator and are all facing the "wrong way". The study shows that people who entered the elevator went along with it and stood that way simply because everyone else was. I tried to research the technical name for this topic but was unable to find a technical term for it.

However, this idea, or phenomenon, can definitely work in a marketer's favor. If people are tweeting or even talking about a particular brand, others may start using it just to be like everyone else. This reminds me of peer pressure, but in a less serious sense. People give in to trends or fads simply because it is the "cool" or accepted thing to do in society. Think about it- did people really start buying UGG boots because they thought they looked stylish and cute? Probably not. I remember my sister came home wearing UGGs and I made fun of her for having them. The following winter, everyone was wearing them, so they started to grow on me. Soon enough, I had my own pair.

Marketers can definitely take advantage of the concept of "peer pressure" if they are targeting middle school students or teenagers. I can vividly remember these years being full of trying to "fit in" or go along with what everyone else was doing to feel "cool". Companies geared at this age group can generate a lot of hype and buzz about their brand. Once one kid starts wearing that cool brand of shoes they saw on a TV commercial, many others will soon follow.

All of these ideas and examples relate to marketing because they show how easily people can be persuaded! Consumers may end up buying something simply because they'll feel more accepted. This can relate to the attitude theory- but in a different way. If people think that others have positive attitudes about a product/brand, they may think favorably about them, and result in making a purchase. I would call this the peer pressure attitude theory.

                       

More Concepts, More Questions

Today in class, we continued to discuss empirical generalizations. We got to talking about brand advertising and how it connects to hype and buzz, as I wrote about in my last blog post. Our professor talked about how social psychology says that over time, "annoying" characteristics of an advertisement will decrease over time. He brought up the example of Jordan's Furniture and how their commercials are considered rather annoying by consumers. Despite the "annoyance" of it, people still find themselves buying furniture from them.

This goes back to the idea that creative copy will influence short-term effect of an advertisement. The creative copy, or in this case, the humor/annoyance, is generating an emotional response from the consumers. We also connected this concept to fear appeals, where marketers are also stimulating negative responses to generate a purchase. I can connect both of these ideas to the concept of mere exposure, which states that the more exposure you have to a brand's message, the more likely you are to make a purchase and generate WOM.

All of these topics make me think of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. In class, our professor posed the question, "how do you change people's attitudes?". I know that there is both a central and peripheral route to persuasion. How do the appeals mentioned above "work" on someone who is cognitively drive that would need more of a central route to persuasion? I can understand this concept for consumers, like myself, who are more emotionally driven and takes the peripheral route. With that said, do fear and humor appeals only work if a consumer is highly involved?

A lot of these questions begin to run through my mind as we talk about different concepts in class. I am starting to question what I've learned in previous marketing courses, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing. Like our professor says, we have a "tool box" full of concepts and theories that we know about marketing thus far. The more concepts I am adding to my toolbox, the more questions I have!