Month: September 2010

As in this weeks lectureswe have been talking about consumer behaviour, I thought I would have a think about that and try to look at the different ways marketers attempt to influence consumer behaviour with their adverts. It is widely recognised that through linking celebrities with products, it is a prime way for organisations to cash in on the ‘association principle’ – if I use this perfume/shampoo/face cream, maybe I too will look just like Beyonce! It’s a long shot, but has been shown to be highly effective. Sports starts are eagerly signed to companies such as Nike, in the hope that associating such athletes with their products it immediately conjures images of professionalism and success amongst consumers.

However, the other day I came across an advert that I had not seen before. It was for Motts apple juice, featuring Martia Cross. At first this struck me as strange. Firstly, because most products with celebrity endorsements are either sports goods, cosmetics, perfumes and other beauty goods, or large well known brands such as Pepsi. Motts however, seemed to be aiming its target audience at Mums buying apple juice for their kids, so why did they have celebrity endorsement? Furthermore, Marcia Cross while extremely attractive and well known, is not the usual candidate chosen….after all she’s no Jessica Alba!

Yet on further reflection, I began to see things differently. The other week in a different class we spoke of how authority could influence people’s behaviour and that often marketers used this tactic, especially through association. The example given in the text, was a TV commercial featuring the actor Robert Young waring people against the dangers of caffeine, and instead recommended a caffeine-free brand of coffee, Sanka. The commercial was extremely successful, but why? Robert Young was an actor, clearly with no medical experience so why would so many people take his advice and buy de-caffinated coffee? It was because, as the company had so wisely worked out, people saw him as ‘Marcus Welby,MD’ (the character he played on the TV show.) People associated him with a Doctor, having medical experience, thus linking this with knowledge and authority and were more likely to ‘take his advice’ and buy caffeine-free coffee. (cited from Influence Science and Practice, R B Cialdini.)

It got me thinking that Motts’ campaign, and they in fact had not picked a strange candidate for their celebrity endorsement, they had actually hit pure, subtle genius! Martia Cross is well known for her role on hit TV show Desperate Housewives, where her character is Bree Van deKamp. On the show, Bree upholds strong family and moral values and in recent series has been extremely successful with her catering business and cook books – thus suggesting that she is a knowledgeable and trustworthy source when it comes to healthy living and eating.

Therefore, even though Martia Cross herself is probably not much better to take health advice from than you nor I, because of the association people hold between her and her famous TV character Bree who portrays the ‘perfect housewife’, providing wholesome nutrition to all, mothers seemingly would take her advice when it comes to nutrition for their children. As she gleefully exclaim, Motts contains 2 whole portions of fruit and vegetable and the kids wont even notice! Now, who would turn down an inside secret like that!

This is one of my favourite adverts, which I feel is entertaining, effective and appealing. It is from ghd, a British company which was founded in 2001 in my home town of Leeds, who developed a range of hair straighners (irons). I’m not sure if they are available in Canada, they are available in the US, but they are extremely popular back in the UK and even though they are an excellent product (I display firm brand loyalty here!) their success and popularity was vastly increased after their effective marketing campaign.

The adverts main target market is clearly women, as like so many other adverts, it uses extremely attractive women with beautiful hair thus suggesting that if you buy the ghd product you too will have hair that looks like this. However, the plot of the advert suggests the numerous outcomes you may experience if you use their product: women will be jealous of you, men will lust after you or even fall in love with you – ideas that some women may well find extremely appealing. The belief that women want and need this product is reconfirmed by the scenario that sisters will steal from one another to obtain ghd’s and the tag line of the advert ‘the gospel according to ghd,’ suggesting that the product is sacred. It’s an item to be treasured explaining why ‘borrowing without asking’ may be seen in the eyes of the owners as betrayal! Clearly the advert is suggesting that once your purchase their product, it will become one of your most prized possessions.

Interestingly, the actual product is not well documented in the advert. There is only one shot of one of the girls actually using the hair straightners. Indeed the product was fairly well known by the time of this advert release, but as I mentioned earlier, it was this marketing campaign that really boosted ghd’s popularity. I believe this is in fact an extremely clever tactic, as it suggests that the product may not look extraordinary at first glance, hence its lack of air time, but the results certainly are. This explains the majority of the advert showing beautiful women with beautifully styled hair. Furthermore, it subtlety demonstrates that the ghd hair straightner can be used for a number of styles i.e. curling as well as straightening – a curling iron and a straightening iron in one! As the first shot of the advert is a girl with perfectly curled hair – perhaps what you would not expect from hair straightners.

This idea was further expanded in the following set of advertisements, which were based around the emotions of lust, love and anger, all running with the same tag line ‘thou shalt never be the same girl twice’ reconfirming the idea of the diverse nature of the product, as she styled her hair depending on her mood. Interestingly, this follow up marketing campaign did not feature the actual ghd hair straightners once.

The advert did generate some controversy as some felt it was inappropriate to compare a product such as this to something ‘wholly’ or ‘sacred’ by using the tag line ‘the gospel according to ghd,’ but as the advert appealed to so many a little bit of scandal was certainly not a bad thing, and as well as vastly increasing sale, this advert had some more unusual outcomes.

As mentioned earlier, it would seem that the clear market this product is aimed at is women. However, popular demand rose among males as ghd’s became the new ‘must have’ accessory. This led to the company developing a new thinner model, designed for shorter hair – thus males, and again they were an instant hit and extremely popular. People even developed their own parody versions of the advert, but instead the gospel is aimed at men!!

Yet most baffling of all, there was no direct marketing campaign for the male version of ghds. It appeared that this line of adverts was so popular, that the only promotion the new ‘male’ product needed, was positive word of mouth and there was plenty of that around!

So, I am pleased to report that my hair straightners are now safe as my younger brother has a pair of his own!