Nostalgia

When someone thinks back on their childhood, they remember the good times. Nostalgia marketing uses these good thoughts and images to their advantage. When we grew up we have certain images that stick out to us like maybe Mr. Bubbles bubble bath soap or pizza rolls. If we loved these things a long time ago, they have an attachment to us therefore we’re more likely to buy into these brands and items. Instead of being a just a product, these items engraved themselves into our past memories. This is a pretty smart way for advertisers to target customers but it has its advantages and disadvantages.

A major perk that nostalgia marketing incorporates is consumer loyalty. You could be loyal to a brand without nostalgia, yes, but this type of marketing creates a much more powerful bond with a product. Creating a lifelong consumer is one of the one of the greatest achievements a company could make. This type of marketing relies on good schema.

A disadvantage of this marketing is, if you’re trying to market an older product, maybe “older isn't better”. Consumers may not relate a product with good memories but instead bad ones. I think creating a good schema for a product is the key to having a successful nostalgia marketing technique.

Since this type of marketing may not work for all products. You have to know your target audience. For products such as converse or mini, I may be too young to understand all the references in their advertisements even though they are intended for me. Let's take converse for example, many people my age do not know Sid Vicious because we did not grow up listening to the Sex Pistols (instead we grew up with Lady Gaga and Britney Spears which is sad and I could write a whole new blog post about how that is a terrible thing, but I won't). Converse uses Sid's rebellious demeanor to sell converse but if the consumer does not fully understand who he is, this type of advertising may not work. 

Another way nostalgia marketing could not work is when they company changes the product in a way consumers do not like. This happened when KDD changed their ice cream to Blitz. Consumers had so much negative backlash and the company went under fire.

There is no doubt that nostalgia marketing is successful but companies should just understand some disadvantages.

Jeep Patriot for the Elders

Selling jeep to an older audience is a little more difficult than selling to an outdoorsy kid in their twenties. We wanted to incorporate the fact that Jeeps have a lot of safety, gas mileages, and affordability perks to offer to older folks. Models like the Wrangler and Cherokee wouldn't work well for this target audience.

Not only did we wanted to focus on the fact that these cars have a of of features but that they are also suitable for adventures. Elders have a lot of spare time so this age group would be perfect for those types of "off-course" life adventures.

We decided to pick the Jeep Patriot model of Jeep. This model gets the best gas mileage (30 mpg) and has won the award of the best priced SUV in America. It starts at around $16,000 for the 2013 model which is a good point because although elders have money to spend, they don't have a lot of it.

For our commercial we thought of a very basic advertisement. We didn't want to be too showy or creative with this ad. For the advertisement we wanted an older man to be driving in natural terrain while an announcer states all the perks and safety features. The off-road terrain will showcase this cars durability and performance. At the end of the commercial we thought of a slogan like "Jeep. Perfect for life's small detours."

And for print ad we thought of the same thing. A basic ad listing all the features. We found one online that is similar to what we had in mind.

And this is what our campaign looks like!

Harley Davidson

Yes I feel like brand communities like Harley Davidson result in greater involvement in the brand. These communities make the brand like Harley a lifestyle and encourages involvement. Through this involvement and community feeling Harley is able to associate themselves with an 'experience 'and 'group'. No other bike brand is able to do this and this community Harley Davidson formed makes their consumers are loyal to their brand.

The posse ride was a brilliant idea for Harley to promote, even if it was expensive. The experience that these consumers associate with Harley is very important. I believe the fact that this group travels as one, is a point that enhances the meaning of "Harley". They get their passport signed for every check point they reach so I believe that this ride promotes adventure with your Harley and an American type of freedom only felt when you're on your bike. Also, this article states something about a "no whining clause" in a document these riders have to sign. This aspect is promoting that Harley Davidson is a tough brand and if you're not tough, you can't ride. Through this posse ride Harley is selling a brand image and it's a fact that their image is very strong.

I believe that Harley's interference with the ride is enough already. The fact that this ride is not laced with promotions and advertisements is what makes this more of an experience with Harley rather than a promotion event. Harley's fans are already loyal to them so they don't need any more brand awareness than they already have.

The posse ride is a brilliant experience and a great way to get community involvement. I believe they should have more real life promotions like this rather than TV advertisements or social media. These riders already know the brand, plus they're in their older years so hashtagging Harley on twitter or Instagram wouldn't be as successful as a real experience like this one.

Tide - Day in the Life

The alarm clock rings at 7am, but the snooze button is hit until 7:45. Amy has to get to work at 8:30 so she is frazzled as she rushes to get ready. She grabs clothes without much thought and smells them to make sure they're clean. Mmm smells like tide.

She gets to work in her Honda which gets great gas mileage. Her car is green because it's her favorite color. She works at a tech company that is up and coming. People say this company is going to rival Apple, shes a graphic design artist. She brought her eco bottle of water to work and also brought blackberries to snack on at her desk. For lunch, she brought leftover Indian food but then spills some on her pants. Good thing she uses tide, so that stain will not be there for long.

She's off of work at 4pm. She has time to go to the gym like she usually does but decides shes going to skip it that day and heads home because she has plans. When gets back to her small apartment, she searches for some clean clothes and realizes she has none. She throws a load into the washer along with her Indian stained pants, and takes a shower in the mean time. She uses natural dove body wash and head and shoulders shampoo. She suffers from sensitive skin, and tide understands her struggle. When she is clean and her clothes are clean. She gets ready and uses makeup she bought from target. She just uses blush and some mascara, it must be nice to be naturally beautiful. As she gets ready she listens to Joy Division and the Smiths. 

At 7pm she gets a knock on her door and it's the boy she met at yoga. They go out to dinner at a new vegetarian restaurant since she doesn't eat meat. They love the food. Too bad she's not feeling the guy. He arrived with a stain on his pants anyways. She figures he doesn't use Tide.

She comes home, falls asleep in her bed at 10 pm. She cuddles with her pillow with a big inhale full of fresh linen. Thank you Tide.

Consumer Behavior - Product That Failed

Remember this delicious yogurt? Odds are you probably don't.

The same magazine that gives seductive sex tips to young women also decided to give it a go in the dairy business back in 1999. This attempt was a total failure. Their logic to selling this yogurt was "sex sells" and "Cosmo is sex" therefore, "Cosmo can sell anything". Which wasn't the case when this yogurt was discontinued within 18 months of being put on the shelves.

Cosmopolitan seemed to have viewed their target customers behavior all wrong. The consumers attitude of this company has already been made before this launched. Cosmopolitan is a sexy magazine and their customers purchase this magazine because they know their interests. This sexy, seductive image doesn't transfer nicely into the yogurt business and that's where Cosmo went wrong.

Cosmo already has an image that their consumers perceive already and transferring this image to yogurt can make someone go "ew". Even if Cosmo yogurt was made to do some dirty things, it was higher priced than some named brand yogurts on the shelves next to them. Cosmopolitan was trying to go for "sophisticated" and "classy" but these two things don't transfer over to the yogurt business. A majority of the population wants regular, healthy yogurt and that wasn't even a selling point Cosmo made with their consumers.

If Cosmo really wanted to get into selling yogurt, I believe they should have done it differently. They should not have used their whole name (Cosmopolitian) on the packaging because consumers familiarize this name with raunchy sex tips. Instead they might have went for Cos-gurt or something healthier to name this product. Also instead of selling sex with this yogurt they should have created other selling points to their consumers like that it’s healthy and has sexy strawberries in it. or something like that.

Their target market was wrong from the beginning. Their logic was wrong. Thinking their sex driven consumers would purchase this product was completely wrong too.

Although the guys and girls of Cosmo HQ are not laughing about this failure, it is amusing to look back at and wonder "what was Cosmo thinking"?

Green Peace

Green Peace is a group which investigates and exposes those who are responsible for an “environmental crime”. They take action against these wrong doers and campaign for a “greener, more peaceful and equitable world”.

Right now they have three main campaigns: protecting ancient forests, protecting our oceans, and stopping global warming. On their website under these campaign descriptions, they have links describing how they help and how you can get involved with the cause. This simple user interface is important, because people find what they're looking for with ease and stay on Green Peace’s webpage.

Green Peace is also involved with social media too. On their homepage there is a huge “like us on facebook” text so people can spread the word that way. Green Peace also has a twitter but does not advertise it as much as their facebook page.

They also have a special section dedicated to journalists and press. They have a bunch of images and videos that journalists can use. The website makes it easy for journalists and media to get these stories and spread the word.

One fun thing that this company did was when they used social media to express their dislike for VW. The posted things on their blog and Facebook to make fun of VWs advertisments. At the time VW did not sign an tighter emissions document even though they stated they were an environmentally friendly company. Green Peace called them out and used social media to show their supporters. Through Green Peace’s pressure, VW eventually agreed to tighter emission standards.

Overall, Green Peace uses this social media wisely. These media outlets work to their advantage and they are able to spread their cause more efficiently.

Gender Neutral Playhouse Workshop

versus

In class today, we viewed a commercial for a playhouse specifically made for girls. It contained a kitchen and additional add-ons like laundry machines and a vacuum. In the background, there was a little girls singing a song about how they love to clean and cook. We were told to make up with a gender neutral version of this girls play kitchen/home. Our idea of an ad for this commercial went a little something like this.

It starts with kids running in the backyard, all of them run to the Dream Home. (We wanted to make the name of the house more gender neutral).

Both boys and girls sing about how they like to play pretend in their toy home. Instead of girls singing about how much they love chores. We wanted to extenuate how they help each other rather than having the girls do all the housework. The lyrics might go a little something like this -"We like to work together. We both play a part. We like to work together. Let's start start start!"

Instead of having pinks and pastel colors, we decided the colors can be geared towards both genders and we'll make it more of just a kitchen where cooking is the main objective, rather than doing chores.

The commercial ends with both the boys and girls cleaning up their mess, in harmony!