Continuing our examples of different types of advertising, this commercial that includes both Doritos and Mountain Dew is a good illustration of a reminder advertisement. When a brand reaches the preference or insistence stage of brand familiarity, reminder advertisements can become useful. These advertisements are there to reinforce previous messages or simply to reinforce the brand image (as is the case here). Both of these commercials introduce a new product (Doritos Blaze and Mountain Dew Ice) but the bulk of each commercial has nothing to do with the new product and is instead built around maintaining their established brand image.
Indirect Competitive Advertising
Here’s another current commercial that illustrates another category of advertisement, indirect competitive advertising. This Progressive commercial focuses on highlighting a product feature – their Home Quote Explorer. Beyond simply showing commercials like this I often ask the class to dissect the commercial and look at what tactics were used to support the message. In this case humor is used to grab and maintain the viewer’s attention, the phrase “it’s easy” is used, and the product description is provided very succinctly (less than 4 seconds) – “you just answer some simple questions online and you get coverage options to choose from”.
Direct Competitive Advertising
Continuing the theme from our last post, our next example will be an example of direct competitive advertising, specifically this fits in the category of comparative advertising. This Blue Buffalo commercial is focused on highlighting the differences between their dog food and that of Iams.
Pioneering Advertising
I’m always on the lookout for current content that can be used to illustrate the concepts discussed in my marketing classes. Students especially enjoy video clips so when I can find commercials or other video clips that fit with class content that feels like a home run. Advertising is often taught at this time in the semester so our next few blog posts will focus on current advertisements that illustrate the various forms of advertising covered in Chapter 15 of Essentials of Marketing.
This post covers pioneering advertising. As we explain in the textbook, pioneering advertising is more focused on creating primary (or category) demand rather than selective demand. This is most applicable in the earliest stages of the product life cycle and helps educate customers about the existence and potential value of a product they might be unaware of. This advertisement for Google Home does a great job of illustrating that concept. It doesn’t talk about advantages versus competing products, instead it focuses on various uses of the product.
Are Super Bowl Ads Worth It?
I really enjoy these Marketoonist cartoons because they can succinctly capture great marketing concepts and students never object to discussing a cartoon.
Another Super Bowl has come and gone and it’s actually impressive how many people mention the advertisements as a major draw for watching the game. If you want to make a splash, you need to come up with a creative, funny, or heartwarming ad to have a shot at making the list of “top Super Bowl ads”. At $5M for a 30 second commercial, companies are making a big bet on the value of these novel ads but are they actually worth it? I didn’t watch this year’s Super Bowl so I asked my students which ads were worth taking a look at and it was interesting to hear how they referenced the ads and what they took away from them. Some companies did a great job of entertaining and associating their brand or value proposition. In particular, the Tide series of commercials seemed to do a great job. The design was creative and funny but they also reinforced the brand name and value proposition numerous times. Amazon also created an amusing ad that entertained but also informed viewers about the capabilities of their Alexa-powered devices. In contrast, several students said they thought the commercial “where Eli Manning dances” was also pretty good but when I asked what the ad was about, who was the ad for, and what message should we take away they all scratched their heads. The commercial was clearly amusing and entertaining but the message and even the brand being advertised (NFL) was obscure and not memorable.
Are Super Bowl ads worth the price tag? If so, which objectives can they best satisfy (pioneering, competitive, or reminding)?
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