Commercials galore!

After reading your posts for Chapter 11, I wanted to share with all of you my thoughts about some of the ones you chose.  I've provided youtube links, but be aware they can get broken at any time.

Let's start off with one from 2011's Super Bowl commercials - Chrysler:



This commercial left me speechless when I first saw it.  First off, Eminem doing a commercial was surprising to begin with but given the content of the commercial I can see why he would.  This commercial is an emotional appeal that focuses very little on the product and more on 'made in Detroit.'  Inherent drama is created because until the end you aren't sure what the product is or even what the commercial was about.  The ad was cut down from its original 60 second to 30 and 15 second.  On Chrysler's youtube page, you can get some behind the scenes footage from the making of the commercial.

I had never seen the Kate Walsh Cadillac CTS ads that a student mention, and I hate that I missed them!  They are a great example of positioning based on product user.  Here's two ads that a fan posted on youtube:





In both these ads, they paint the picture of a successful woman who most likely works in a "man's" field.  The first commercial does mention the attributes/benefits of the car, but the end is all about the emotion appeal - winning at the take-off.

Transformational ads show us how a product can take us away from our everyday world and transform us.  Perhaps the best example of this is the Corona Extra ads that have been playing lately:




Here's another one:




Both of these ads focus on how Corona can take you away - transform you, so you feel carefree - like you are on the beach.  Listen carefully to the background - what is missing?  If you said, "music," you would be correct.  The sound of the waves crashing is the soundtrack for Corona.  The first ad also has a bit of the 'slice of life' execution style as a part of it as well.


Let's look at two travel sites - Priceline and Expedia.
Priceline has used William Shatner as their spokesperson for some time now, with various characters coming and going.  The latest - Naomi Pryce:



Here's another of their latest commercials:




Clearly, Priceline is positioning itself against the competition - but it never mentions the competition - just the other travel sites that took advantage of the poor man in a trench coat.  The commercial also mentions Naomi Pryce last - to remind consumers of what is different about Priceline - their USP.

Expedia focuses more on its benefits in its commercials:



Pauley Perrette is the actress hired by Expedia - she is Abby from NCIS.  Last year she had a reported Q Score of 50 (the same as Tom Hanks and Morgan Freeman - who topped the list) but only a familiarity percentage of 42.  What does that mean?  It means, not as many people know who she is compared to Hanks and Freeman - but those that do know her, love her.  Shortly after the Q Scores were published, she got the endorsement deal with Expeida.  If you want to read more, check out Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch article.

Here's another Expedia commercial:



Expedia, like Priceline, has used a celebrity to market them, used a humor appeal and positioned themselves using the competition - but the execution is drastically different.  Expedia focuses much more on the attributes and benefits while Priceline focuses more on humor and their USP of 'name your own price.'

Let's look at one company - Covergirl - and how it uses celebrities to target different demographic market segments   In all cases, the product is positioned by user with benefits/attributes being used as well.  The commercials are also good examples of the combination of informational/emotional combination appeals.




This ad also utilized demonstration.  It uses Drew Barrymore's appeals to a wide age range of women.



Now, Taylor Swift is telling us about lipstick while targeting a younger tween/teen market for Covergirl.


Now, Ellen is targeting a 40-something target market for Covergirl.  What does it say about American culture and how it has changed that a lesbian is a 'covergirl?'  Covergirl and Olay have teamed up to offer products to deal with aging.  There are many other examples of Covergirl targeting different ethnic markets using female celebrities such as Queen Latifah.

Let's close our run down of commercials by looking at the latest from Kohls and Sears.







Kohl's has teamed up with the Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez couple.  Previously, they have hooked up with designers such as Vera Wang.  Now, let's look at what Sears is doing:



Sears is following Target (who first used celebrity designers to set itself apart from other mass merchandisers - WalMart) and Kohl's in using celebrities.  The softer side of Sears - sears style - will hopefully find some takers with the Kardashians.


Sears is also using a seasonal push to highlight it's USP amongst department stores - layaway:



I hope you enjoyed all the commercials.