My fourth source for my research paper is a book called "Hitting the Sweet Spot." This book is focused around one of the most recent advertising strategies. Throughout the history of advertising things have been focused around the product, but this is the first concept that deals with the heart and the emotions of the consumers.
"Hitting the Sweet Spot" is a guide to giving consumers exactly what they want to see through the advertising of the product. Instead of commercials focused on what the product is, they are now focused on how they will make the consumer feel. It has been found that people are emotionally attached to certain brands and this strategy plays off of that. The goal is to hit the sweet spot of your target audience, or to find the one thing that will connect with them on a personal and emotional level.
Instead of Tide just being a laundry detergent, it is now a feeling; it reminds you of your mother washing your clothes and the scent brings you back to those fond memories of childhood. Sure, it washes your clothes, probably gets them pretty clean, but Tide means so much more than just simply clean clothes.
The concept sounds a bit silly, but almost anyone can name a few brands that they are emotionally attached to, and that is exactly why this strategy is so successful. Maybe it's that your dad gave you your first baseball glove and it was Wilson brand, or that you ate Cheerios with your grandmother every morning. Just think about it. Both of those would make great commercials.
"Hitting the Sweet Spot" is one of the more recent strategies in advertising and it will probably continue to be successful for a while. A lot of information is useful in this book and it will definitely fall somewhere into my research paper, most likely towards the end of the chronology.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Breaking Through the Clutter
In the past, advertising was easy. Merchants would yell in the streets about their fruit. People would post up signs around the town advertising their service. Competition was minimal, and technology was nonexistent. There was no such thing as mass communication. People had limited means of getting the attention of their customers. However, in today’s society, there are numerous ways to get a message to the consumer. Advertisers today are having more and more difficulty getting their voice heard through all of the noise.
Previously there has not been as much competition in the advertising business as there is today. There were ads on television simply stating what the product was and why you should purchase it. There were only a few different brands in each product category. People were not forced to pick and choose as much as they are in today’s society. Advertising was more of a means of simply getting the word about your brand out there as opposed to persuading the customer away from a competing brand.
In today’s fast-paced society advertisers are forced to do just that. The object has shifted from stating to persuading, and as thousands of ads are being thrown at consumers everyday, it is crucial for advertisers to find a way to make their ad stand out above the rest. A person is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day. As you can imagine, each person remembers very few if any. New strategies are needed to create the ad that they will remember.
A few strategies have been implemented in the past and they have paved the way for future advertisers. However, these strategies are slowly becoming outdated and there is a constant need for new and innovative ideas in the advertising business.
How can people break through the clutter? How can we make the consumer not only see but remember our commercial? And even better, how can we get the consumer, after seeing the advertisement, to purchase the product?
These are just a few questions that advertisers today are being faced with.
Previously there has not been as much competition in the advertising business as there is today. There were ads on television simply stating what the product was and why you should purchase it. There were only a few different brands in each product category. People were not forced to pick and choose as much as they are in today’s society. Advertising was more of a means of simply getting the word about your brand out there as opposed to persuading the customer away from a competing brand.
In today’s fast-paced society advertisers are forced to do just that. The object has shifted from stating to persuading, and as thousands of ads are being thrown at consumers everyday, it is crucial for advertisers to find a way to make their ad stand out above the rest. A person is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day. As you can imagine, each person remembers very few if any. New strategies are needed to create the ad that they will remember.
A few strategies have been implemented in the past and they have paved the way for future advertisers. However, these strategies are slowly becoming outdated and there is a constant need for new and innovative ideas in the advertising business.
How can people break through the clutter? How can we make the consumer not only see but remember our commercial? And even better, how can we get the consumer, after seeing the advertisement, to purchase the product?
These are just a few questions that advertisers today are being faced with.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Peer Review Session
When we had our peer review session in class, it seemed like everyone was able to benefit from it, or atleast take something away from the constructive criticism. Because the four of us all had the chance to read each others papers, we were all able to compare and contrast each paper, as well as find the weaknesses.
In my paper I found that I needed to better explain what the Unique Selling Proposition was because the average person does not know about it. I somewhat took this for granted, and for the rest of my paper I will have to be careful about assuming that the general population already knows some of the things that I know about advertising and its history.
I think the peer review session was helpful, especially because it allowed me to fix things in my paper that I hadn't found on my own. I corrected a few comma errors and reworded some of my sentences. I also started threes sentences in a row with the word "the," and after the peer review session I was able to correct that as well.
I hope everyone else benefited from the peer review session as much as I did, and I really think its a good, helpful was to use class time in a way that everyone can benefit from. It was nice to be able to fix the paper after the peer review session, because I think everone's papers would have improved.
In my paper I found that I needed to better explain what the Unique Selling Proposition was because the average person does not know about it. I somewhat took this for granted, and for the rest of my paper I will have to be careful about assuming that the general population already knows some of the things that I know about advertising and its history.
I think the peer review session was helpful, especially because it allowed me to fix things in my paper that I hadn't found on my own. I corrected a few comma errors and reworded some of my sentences. I also started threes sentences in a row with the word "the," and after the peer review session I was able to correct that as well.
I hope everyone else benefited from the peer review session as much as I did, and I really think its a good, helpful was to use class time in a way that everyone can benefit from. It was nice to be able to fix the paper after the peer review session, because I think everone's papers would have improved.
Positioning
The third source I'm using for my research paper is a book called "Positioning: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace." There is a ton of information packed into this book, but I definitely think I will be able to use a lot of it in my paper. It will be difficult to pick and choose from the examples, because there are a lot that relate to my topic. A lot of the information can be weeded out and picked apart.
The book is written around an advertising strategy called positioning. Positioning is when an advertiser "positions" the product in the minds of the consumers. Instead of simple stating what the product has to offer, positioning gives the product an identity in the consumers mind. Often times the product is positioned against its competitors. This usually occurs when a brand is #2 in the category and they need something that will let that brand stand out from the #1 brand.
Numerous successful advertising campaigns have been formed around the positioning strategy, and the authors provide many examples of successful brands that were repositioned in the marketplace. One of the most famous examples of this is 7up.
Originally 7up was positioned almost for medicinal purposes; it was the drink your mom gave you when you had an upset stomach. It was not even in the same category as Coke and Pepsi. After 7up sales began to plumit, it was repositioned as the "uncola." This new advertising campaign compared it to Coke and Pepsi, but said that it was different, new, and not a cola. 7up sales skyrocketed due to this new position.
"Positioning" will definitely be a lot of help for my paper, and I think I will be able to incorporate the information easily with the rest of my sources so far.
The book is written around an advertising strategy called positioning. Positioning is when an advertiser "positions" the product in the minds of the consumers. Instead of simple stating what the product has to offer, positioning gives the product an identity in the consumers mind. Often times the product is positioned against its competitors. This usually occurs when a brand is #2 in the category and they need something that will let that brand stand out from the #1 brand.
Numerous successful advertising campaigns have been formed around the positioning strategy, and the authors provide many examples of successful brands that were repositioned in the marketplace. One of the most famous examples of this is 7up.
Originally 7up was positioned almost for medicinal purposes; it was the drink your mom gave you when you had an upset stomach. It was not even in the same category as Coke and Pepsi. After 7up sales began to plumit, it was repositioned as the "uncola." This new advertising campaign compared it to Coke and Pepsi, but said that it was different, new, and not a cola. 7up sales skyrocketed due to this new position.
"Positioning" will definitely be a lot of help for my paper, and I think I will be able to incorporate the information easily with the rest of my sources so far.
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