The Future Of Advertising

Dyer (2009) defines the characteristic of communication as "its diversity - it ranges from the mass media and pop-culture, through language to individual and social behaviour". Advertisements influence our thoughts, feelings and lives. 

Controversial Advertising - Overstepping The Mark?

Controversial advertising - a controversial topic. When done for good, it's perfectly acceptable but sometimes it's done purely to make a scene. Take United Colors of Benetton  and in particular, the image above - this may cause offence to those still stuck in the dark ages but it certainly makes you sit up and pay attention, right?

Stereotypes In Advertising - Where Is The Line?

A little while back PepsiCo came under some fire in regards to an advert they released for Mountain Dew. This didn't make the rounds on social media as I expected it to. I only found out about it through my mother as evidently it did make some waves in Bermuda. 

The Proper Use of the Infamous Hashtag

Welcome to 2013, or rather, welcome to Generation Y territory. We don't use digital to aid our lives - we LIVE by digital. I'm the worst culprit - I can't sit for two minutes without my FOMO (fear of missing out) kicking in and then I go through my cycle: instagram, twitter, tumblr, facebook and finally, blog stats. I repeat this until there is literally nothing to update myself on. When I wake up in the morning - phone. When I'm going to sleep at night - phone. During the adverts - phone. Honestly, I'm obsessed and I don't know what to do about it.

Anyway, this isn't a therapy session. My point of all that was to preface this post with the statement that in my view, when it comes to social media, I know my stuff. I have also had the pleasure displeasure of noticing some certain behaviours when it comes to the ol' hashtag. 

Photoshopping in Advertising

You may want to grab a cup of tea before reading this because it's a long one with a lot of background issues. 

As a young female who has been through the absolute mill when it comes to self-hatred and body issues this is a subject close to my heart. I've never been naive and always knew the pictures in the magazines are not a true

Tesco Turning Horse Meat Scandal into Lesson - Yay or NEIGH?

Yeah I'm pretty proud of that title so let's just all take a minute to appreciate it...

Appreciated it enough? Good. Let's crack on with the mane point (I can't stop, I'm sorry) of this post. 

So I was in Tesco avoiding talking to humans by using the self-service machines (our generation just do NOT like to interact personally do we...) and I spotted this huge cardboard stand with leaflets:

Excuse the image quality - snapped it quickly and didn't want to look odd taking photos in Tesco. 

Semiotics in Advertising

I will start with the definition of semiotics, though it is not actually a defined system. In simple terms, it is the analysis of meanings and signs within our culture. In the role of advertising, it is more specifically the analysis of meanings in advertisements. 

Beasley and Danesi describe the goal of semiotics in the study of advertising is to unmask the arrays of hidden meanings in the underlying level" (2002). 

Iain McRury defines semiotics as "the attempt to offer insights not just to what ads mean, but proposing how they mean" (2009). 


Umberto Eco (1976) views semiotics as a science in the traditional sense of the word for five reasons:

• it has an autonomous discipline 
• it has a set of standardised methodological tools 
• it has the capability of producing hypotheses
• it affords the possibility of making predictions
• its findings may lead to the modification of the actual state of the objective world.

In advertising, semiotics allow advertisers to identify the target market - it mostly plays on common references and cultural knowledge etc. 

Let's take a look at the latest advert from Flash celebrating their fifty years:

Welcome

I shall start by first saying why this blog exists. Part of my course requires me to keep a blog and post topics surrounding Advertising Strategy. 

The influx of posts just now should probably be explained too - this is the third blog I have now set up. I was required to keep a blog in the first year and then moved those posts onto my every-day regular blog and now, to make life a little easier I have created AdStratUndergrad so all my marketing posts can be in one place. 

Any created in the first year are labelled with "year one" and any created this year will just have your regular, normal and relevant labels. I didn't think it worth deleting them. It shows how far my knowledge has grown and people of the internet still look at them from time-to-time. 

So these posts have been created over the past five or so months but now would make it seem I can type at lightening fast speed which, by the way, is a perception I am more than happy to have. 

Enjoy!

Business Cards - is there any point?

Are business cards a thing of the past?

I'd like to think not.

What with social media sites such as LinkedIn, there really is no need to print and distribute business cards surely? I think there is still a place for physical business cards and they're perfect for those random opportunities where you just happen to meet someone in a pub or sandwich place. Have you ever tried searching your name on LinkedIn and seeing how many other people share the same name? Or perhaps like me you have a name commonly misspelled - things like this mean you miss out on potential contacts and potential opportunities in terms of internships and jobs. 

My blog, thankfully, is starting to pick up and get a lot of digital footfall and I'd like for it to have more so putting your blog domain on a business card is a good way of getting it out there. If you talk to someone about it, chances are they'll

Is the High Street being made redundant?

This is going to be a more topical post based around the three companies which have gone into administration literally just over two weeks into the new year.

Now, I studied economics for a year but am by no means an expert in this field however I do have a passion for marketing, business and of course, shopping so I like to know about these sorts of things and have, unfortunately, been on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to companies going bust.

So if you're in the UK you'll have seen that Jessops, HMV and now Blockbuster have all had to call it a day (although, I believe HMV and perhaps Blockbuster are still waiting for a last minute white knight) all basically within the same week. This is not a good start to the year as thousands lose their jobs and it's certainly not a good feeling when it comes to looking at the UK's economy. 

As I was laying in bed the other night I got to thinking about the future of the High Street. I certainly don't buy movies, CDs, cameras and pretty much any electronics in-store preferring to hunt for better deals online and with shoppers becoming more savvy and the introduction of smart phones it seems these retailers were doomed. Stores such as CEX and Cash Converters are my new favourite haunts for DVDs as you get a cut price deal for used discs with the safety of knowing they've been tested

John Lewis Christmas Advert

Just like my Coca-Cola Christmas post a few posts ago, I am always astounded at the power of advertising in connection to Christmas. This time, it is all about John Lewis. As per every Christmas at this time of year there is a whole host of posts on Twitter and Facebook about the latest John Lewis Christmas advert! 

This year, it definitely didn't disappoint in terms of emotions. I cried re-watching it for this particular post. Actual tears. Over a snowman. Having said that, all the John Lewis adverts recently have made me well up - the "Never Knowingly Undersold" advert has me crying and clutching onto my boyfriend every time I see it. 

In case you're one of the few who haven't seen the new John Lewis Christmas campaign featuring the beautifully voiced Gabrielle Aplin as the singer I have posted the video below:

The Magazine Illusion - what are you really buying?

Today's post is on the topic of magazines - more importantly - advertising in magazines. 

Before I begin - I love magazines. I would kill to work for a major magazine and like many women, I buy the main three every month - Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Company. Occasionally I will buy Marie Claire depending on the contents. Unfortunately I haven't got the funds to be able to afford the likes of Elle and Vogue and I tend to really only buy "trash mags" like Heat when I need to fill my lunch hour despite it being one of my firm favourites. So this isn't me bashing magazines or the magazine featured in any way.

This post will feature the magazine Glamour. Purely because it was the first one I picked up. It's a fairly old copy (October 2012, we're now on December 2012) as I like to keep two months backdated with my magazines where possible. I used to be a hoarder but then realised there wasn't much point as I never go back to them!

£2 for a magazine is cheap. It's monthly, it's packed with everything I like and I mean, look how thick it is - value for money or what?

No. In terms of actual content it's half the size of the physical object. When I was about thirteen and started buying magazines my dad posed a question to me that I have never forgotten - he asked why I bought the magazines firstly and then when I said all the positive reasons why listed above he set me an exercise. My father told me to go through my magazine and rip out all the adverts. Not the ones that were an advert on one side of the page and a feature on the other but all the "this sheet of paper is completely sponsored" pages. 

I was shocked. I didn't even realise two thirds of my magazine that I thought was so thick and full of content was all just advertising. Now, I enjoy adverts, I like looking at them, I like being sold certain products and lifestyles and I like seeing what companies do but I know some people don't and see them as consumerism taking over the world and a waste of their money. 

I've spoken to various friends and colleagues and none of them have ever done this exercise or even thought about it at all and bought magazines for much the same reasons as I do. So I thought I would do this exercise again as a blog post. Now, if you really want to get an accurate picture you can go through and remove adverts mathematically so there's not a single advert in there but for the sake of saving time and my clean up process I left the half ad/half feature pages in. 

I took out all complete adverts as well as the advertising space at the back and the promotional features. 

Example of half advert/half feature pages - the other side of the article was an advert

My pile of adverts and promotional features

Remains of the once-thick magazine

Just to get a real idea I am inserting a before and after of the thickness of the magazine below:

It is now less than half the size of the original product when you remove almost all advertising. So when you hand over your £2 for your super thick and seemingly good value for money magazine - just remember - you're paying for all those adverts. 

Of course, I will continue to purchase my favourite magazines but for the purpose of knowledge I hope this has been insightful. 

Christmas Sales Observation

It seems to be the new trend for retails in the past few years to do post-Christmas sales BEFORE Christmas now. 

I'm not complaining, as much as I like a bargain I don't like them enough to get up early on boxing day and fight everyone else to find a good deal. I never think to go online, quite frankly, Christmas is the ONLY time where I can actually see my family thanks to my job so I don't like to waste a minute of valuable mother-following time. 

However, recently things have started to go in my favour. Retailers seem to be throwing sales through November to January which of course is helpful for those of us who see Christmas as a massive hole in the pocket but not nice for those who are slow to realise the new trend and end up missing out come boxing day!

I seem to remember last year an article in the Daily Mail about how some shoppers were outraged because there was pretty much nothing left after shoppers had cleared out the stores BEFORE Christmas. 

Personally, I don't see the issue. How can anyone not want to space out the shopping? I LOVE buying things and then bringing them home and showing my other half everything I bought even if he doesn't quite feel the same enthusiasm! So spacing it out more means more show and tell. I suppose it's never bothered me because I don't have common clothes sizes, I'm not particularly keen on what's hot to wear and I never have money after Christmas anyway.

And if Christmas can be less dear, what's the issue?

The Power and Branding of Coca-Cola

I have a confession. I, Phoebe, am truly, madly and deeply addicted to Coca-Cola. I don't care that it may not be the healthiest drink, it makes me feel complete. A little sad, I know. But I don't drink coffee, I rarely drink tea and I've never really been a fan of juice. 

I love Coke (I tried to stick to Coca-Cola so as not to be misconstrued with a certain illegal substance but screw it) to the point where I creepily feel a slither of pride when I see people drinking it. I love that it's sold everywhere and YES there absolutely is a major difference between the heavenly taste that is Coke and the rip-off that is Pepsi. 

A lot of people after a hard day of work look for a pint or glass of wine but me? I dream, literally dream of the sweet, sweet taste of fizzy cola. When I crave it I get an image of an ice cold glass of coke with a maraschino cherry, full of ice, dripping with condensation on a table between sun loungers by a pool in an exotic location. Intense. 

So now the level of my love for coke has been identified and I feel I can at least attempt the twelve steps (after I finish my bottle of course) I will get on with the point of this post. 

Holidays are Coming!

The latest Christmas coke advert has been released!! Hallelujah. Now it really feels like Christmas. That last sentence right there is what I want to discuss. I know I am not the only one that feels this way because every year everyone goes wild when the Coke ad makes its debut tweeting about how Christmas is officially here. 

Why do the Coke trucks and the infamous "Holidays are Coming" song inspire all of us to feel Coke = Christmas?

This is amazing branding. I mean, I know Coke are all about their Christmas cans and bottles and of course Coke have their very own Santa who is the most Santa-looking Santa I have ever seen.

I mean look at these bauble bottles!

But they've managed to create an annual campaign that just signifies the start of Christmas. My favourite part? They AT LEAST wait until November to air it. That particular pet hate of mine when it comes to retailers starting Christmas from August/September/October is another post for another time though. 

I don't really have an answer for this, it's not an issue to me and I'm shocked some sort of Jamie Oliver wannabe hasn't started some sort of petition against the significance Coke has to Christmas although I'm sure there will be some sort of campaign about how water should be the face of Christmas soon. I'll enjoy it while I can for the time being. 

I just thought I should share my views of how amazed and continually impressed I am with Coca-Cola's powerful branding. 

Now, where's that bottle of Coke of mine got to...?

That diamond customer

I know every customer is important. Trust me when I say I live by that mantra. I always get the customers that seem a bit... difficult and I always just think "you know what, they might be moody because they're having a bad day or broke up with their partner or dealing with stress at work" and the crazy cracker ones are just always a bit of a pleasure in the end! 

I'm nice to everyone and I'm always commended on my customer service skills (not to sound David Brent-esque) but I really do think it's because I have a genuine joy for getting to know people and experiencing things with them. I'm lucky that an aspect of my job is sharing the joy (and stress) that comes with finding out you're expecting a visit from the stork and there's nothing more miraculous to me than childbirth, not just in humans either! 

So to the point - today was a Saturday at work and it was all going a bit slow, I drank a lot of Ribena and tidied up a lot of clothing rails and it was getting to that point where I was just trying to occupy myself and then the nicest couple ever just metaphorically fell into my hands. 

They weren't that different to your standard happy couple who were friendly but I really loved the fact that at the end she complimented me on how friendly and helpful I was. Even though I had a lot of Ribena, sugar doesn't affect my energy in the slightest (I feel my Coca-Cola addiction killed it off) she said it seemed like I had bountiful energy and really suited my job. 

I loved that she said that. Don't get me wrong, I'm a lazy person at heart but once I get going on something there's no stopping me - the energy and passion comes out of nowhere. It's not the pushchairs that I have passion for but more the fact that someone is listening to me and I'm being helpful. She also queried as to whether I had kids of my own as I seemed very knowledgeable but I'm putting that down to a mix of good training and learning through other customers' experiences. 

I love building a relationship with customers - it's like having a grown-up friend coming to visit you at work and I have three of my golden customers who come in regularly and I actually feel genuinely happy to see them and their kids. I was more than happy to include this couple into my golden list because they were just so lovely.

The best part of all? She actually called me by my name at the end of the transaction. I find it so unbelievably rewarding when a customer remembers your name.

Loyal customers vs new customers

This post has been sparked by a tweet from GlossyBox. I am subscribed to them and they take £12.95 a month and in return send me five luxury samples in a lovely box. It's a nice service, I enjoy it. I'll have been subscribed for three months now and this morning they tweeted an offer - put a code in the checkout when ordering a July box and you'll get a Harrods themed box for free. 

I missed the Harrods box so of course I tweeted them asking if current subscribers could jump on this offer and I got:

"If you're already a subscriber you'll need to order another July box with the code to get the free box. Thanks"

Now, I can't help but feel a little bit disheartened by this. My box has already gone to the warehouse to be dispatched so I'd have to cancel it, pay again for a second one to get the free one, and then wait for a refund from the original order. 

After this I begin to wonder why I even bother. I know it's petty but I expect to have a fair shot at these offers. Why should new customers receive ALL the benefits. Surely companies should be rewarding their current customers too. After all, I'm a sure bet money-wise for them - until I get sick and cancel my subscription that is!

They're not the only company that do it either - I read loads of online complaints about how Amazon, Netflix, LoveFilm, Sky etc never reward their current customers. 

I think it's high time companies start acknowledging and rewarding their current customers. I don't mean exclusively, but at least give us a fair shot at receiving these offers.

The loyal customers are just as important as enticing new ones in. 

The problem with long queues

Everyone knows what the problems with long queues are from a customer's point of view so I'll delve into this issue from a business prospective.

I am guilty myself of doing this - when there's a long queue due to not enough tills being open or not enough staff I begin to ease my boredom by looking at my potential purchases.

And then it hits - do I really need this? I could get this cheaper somewhere else, I'm just being lazy. I think I might even have this already. I'll just leave it cos there's no point. It's time to be smart about your money, Phoebe.

By the time I reach the till I've offloaded half of what I was originally going to buy because I've had time to think.

When I'm at work and there are no tills free for me to serve customers I can see them doing it in their minds too!

At the supermarket I'll look at all my goods laid out on the conveyor belt (pretty sure there's an actual word but I can't remember) and I'll think "why am I buying yoghurt when I barely ever eat it" or "I really shouldn't be buying these croissants - I'm not sure my cross trainer would appreciate it" and then I pick things out bit by bit and chuck them to one side having changed my mind.

Obviously, if there is no way around it because of a lack of tills or staff the business can't help it (at my work we have plenty of staff members but a lack of tills). Sometimes though, I'm looking at what the employees are doing and how many tills are available and I don't understand why it isn't in their sales training.

Surely this is no secret?

Pester power and impulse buying

Two years ago (though according to this timeline it was earlier today), I wrote a little post about pester power.

This is a marketing phrase that describes the influence a child has on an adult (normally parent or family member) and their purchase decisions.

As a current employee of Mothercare, I find it really interesting to see not only where our products are placed but also how many parents give in. As a marketing enthusiast I obviously revel in the fact that parents give in (also it helps me in my job too so win-win for me).

I've noticed that a lot of the time the mid-range products are stored where children can get to them - middle to bottom shelf - and I also noticed that once the child has grabbed the product a lot of parents just let them have it rather than deal with the screams and tantrums.

That comes as no surprise, I know.

I was serving a young mother at the till point the other day and she was chatting to her friend following a big blowout tantrum from her child over a chocolate lolly that he wanted and she raised an interesting point.

OBVIOUSLY we keep the chocolate by the till because it's 85p and it's at kid height and can encourage impulse buying.

This customer was moaning to her friend about how every time she walks past our store she gets dragged in because her child knows we have fun chocolate lollies at the till. Again, a win for our store. She said she thinks it should be illegal for stores to sell chocolate at the till point and apparently there is a petition to stop Tesco and other leading supermarkets from having these kind of products near the tills.

If this were a health issue in her mind, I would silently agree but as a marketing person and a business minded individual I can't, I simply can't. I know it was about the money and the pester power for this woman (eavesdropping led me to this conclusion).

Just imagine the money lost by supermarkets if chocolate and sweets weren't temptingly by the till? I mean, you're waiting and it's staring at you and you think about how good a bag of Maltesers would be on the way home and bam, just like that, Tesco has 60p extra in their pocket.

Perception research carried out in first assignment

There are a variety of views on perception according to different theorists. One theory – the Howard and Sheath model explains long-term brand preferences by looking at the reactions of an individual to a range of stimuli. The stimuli come from the social environment and are categorised into three parts: the elements of the brand, such as price; the message delivered by advertising and promotion of the product; stimuli presented by social groups. Society affects the behaviour of the consumer a great deal as society dictates trends. A hierarchy of personal needs adapted from Maslow, Motivation and Personality shows that social belonging needs ranks third. For example, if a consumer were considering what phone to purchase, they are more likely to drift toward an iPhone, BlackBerry or other smart phone, as these are the current trend in the mobile telephone market. With the packaging selected as an example, Walkers Extra Crunchy crisps are currently priced at ninety-nine pence per packet. This price is deemed reasonable considering it is a new product and one that is perceived to be a more luxurious alternative to the standard Walkers crisps. As it is a new product, Walkers use penetration pricing, they are have placed an introductory price on the packets of ninety-nine pence to gain market share. As Walkers already have forty-two per cent of the share in the British crisps market, they are already a well-known and popular brand. However, this is a new product and a consumer would prefer to purchase the more luxurious looking Walkers crisps instead of the standard Walkers crisps if they are the same price. If the Walkers Extra Crunchy crisps prove to be a success then they can increase the price. As far as promotion goes, Walkers have famous ex-sportsman Gary Lineker as the face of the brand and have introduced Lionel Richie into the promotions. They have now automatically targeted two major markets – the sports fans and the music fans. The message being delivered in this series of advertisements is that Gary Lineker and Lionel Richie consume this product; this sparks the feeling of wanting to imitate celebrities, which is a very successful way of promoting a product.

Gibson’s theory of perception was that humans directly perceive their environment through visual stimulation. Known commonly as an ‘ecological’ theory. Gibson proposes that perception consists of the five senses – sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. When promoting a product it is important to access the five senses to ensure a reaction. Walkers Extra Crunchy crisps are in tune with the senses as the packet is different to most packets of crisps. It features a minimalist look, with a simple colour scheme - this is eye-catching as it differs from the other packets on the shelf that are more often than not brightly coloured to ensure they grasp attention from potential consumers. The texture of the packaging is different to that of a normal bag of crisps. The packaging is a lot thicker, and has a matte finish to it rather than a glossy finish to ensure the appearance of a luxury product. The product manages to target taste and sound using the packaging by using onomatopoeia in the name – ‘Crunchy’. The taste is offered in the typography used when stating the flavour and the image on the front of the packet.

Culture

Culture is built on perceptions of what is right and wrong, values of both society and families, community learning and communal memory.

"A culture is the configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society" - Ralph Linton (1945).

Culture is represented by “the skin of an onion, indicating that symbols represent the most superficial and value the deepest manifestation of culture.”

A lot of factors make up a culture including religion, social organisations and law and politics. Stereotypes are created through culture for example - British people are shown as having bad teeth, always drinking tea and having a posh accent. However this is not the case, a lot of people don't drink tea and have very good teeth. The posh accent is dead due to the introduction of slang words. 

A person's culture is important when deciding on the most efficient way of marketing as it is easy to put people off by offending their core values. In business it is important to be aware of international culture. In Japan they don't shake hands - when you meet someone you hand over your business card (it's very important to take theirs with two hands), read it and then whoever has the inferior position within a company has to bow lower. When marketing products that are targeted towards the general public you have to consider who is going to see it and what their views on it will be. Britain is a very diverse nation so their are a lot of cultures to take into account.