Social Media and Toblerone of Switzerland

Social Media has become everything to the business industry. This is the best tool that a company can use to advertise to its customers. This is especially true in the generation Y demographic. This is because they're all using these resources regularly.

This way of advertising can work really well with a food company. Today I'll take a look at the Toblerone candy bar specifically. It is a delicious chocolate bar made from Switzerland. Deciding how we could sell this candy bar using social media was a some what easy thing to do, considering the endless capabilities that social media possess.

We decided that a picture contest would be a very exciting thing for consumers to participate in. Since the chocolate bar is made in triangles, we decided that having a contest that the consumers take pictures of triangles would be a good idea. This could be done on both Instagram and Pinterest. The person who gets the most likes would win the contest. They would be rewarded a care package of Toblerone candy bars. This kind of event gets people involved and can increase sales for the company.

Relaxation

December is a crazy month in the United States of America. We have to run around getting gifts for Christmas. Although I have feel a bit of stress in this, I am almost certain moms around the country feel way worse than I. They are driving around everywhere looking for gifts that can satisfy their crazy brother or that dreadful mother-in-law of theirs. I am assuming that there is no greater gift to give your mother-in-law than an ipod dock that attaches to your toilet paper.

They're two ways that advertisers can reach these mothers during this crazy time. A) during a radio station break, or B) on a T.V. commercial.

Let's start with the radio ad. It would start off with a phone call with one person telling her friend that times are rough and she can find no way to find thinking time. So the friend recommends the ipod dock, so that her friend can recharge herself and her ipod at the same time. This commercial would attract the mother in a heart beat. She would find time to relax. She could easily buy this for herself, or anyone she thinks needs to relax (mother-in-law).

Second, there is the T.V. commercial. This would have a similar theme as the radio ad. The stressed out mom chasing her kids around the house. The commercial will try to relate to the "busy mom". It could show different scenes of how the mother is running around the house or stressed out in the car.

Creative ads

When used correctly creative advertising can be very effective. In today's world with endless Internet capabilities it would seem that print advertising is on its way out. This is an incorrect assumption because it is very relevant in today's world. Seeing these advertisements sparks interest in everyone because some are a creative master piece. It creates a certain buzz for your product that can be good for profits. Lets look at a couple of these creative master pieces.

 We see billboards all the time. Some even go unnoticed by us. But if your driving by this billboard it will be a little hard to ignore. The ad shows you just how strong your teeth will be when using their brand. This toothpaste company did a great job of creating something that people will enjoy to look at and in the end remember their product.

 

 

This ad is my personal favorite mainly because I have a weakness for superman. I once broke my leg trying to be like superman. Anyways, this ad is very creative to me. As the elevator doors open you can see that superman is taking off his average Joe cloths to go save the world. I think that this ad could of got more people to go see the movies, but who really knows.

I'm not really sure what this ad is, but it does make me laugh.

Good Ole Days

Because of a recent recession many advertisers have had to come up with many ways to sell their products. One of the strategies that they use is nostalgic advertising. What this means is that if we hear a song from the 80s in a commercial and we're from the 80s then the ad is tapping into our childhood which will result in positive thoughts about that particular ad. For example, McDonald's has some ads that bring people back to the 50s when you could go to a "burger spot" and get a burger and shake.

This makes you think about your childhood and when McDonald's was more personable to you, not  just this mass corporation that just wants your money. This is a very effective way of advertising, and works with lots of different things. Remakes of movies are very effective. We see lots of movies being remade at this time so that people relive their childhood's brightest moments. Music on the radio always brings you back to the good ole days.
I feel as if nostalgic advertising is a positive thing. You get to take the stress out of your modern living in order to relive the past.  This brings joy to your brand, and what can be better than that? On the flip side, what if you have bad memories of the 80s and you hear an 80s song on the ad? Well this would most likely mean that person will not be purchasing your product. So it is your companies risk to take, but more often than not nostalgic advertising will prevail as a positive thing. I think that if we have a thought about the past every now and again it is not bad, but living in the past can be crippling. With that said, the companies that can bring you to the past for a brief moment and bring you back to reality will succeed.
There are some companies who should probably never use this style of advertising. For example, these companies are Apple, Microsoft, and Toshiba. This is because old technology is looked down upon. If apple had a advertisement of this picture would you go out and buy an Apple computer?

Brand Loyalty

I believe that brand communities like Harley Davidson are the ultimate goal for niche brands. Harley Davidson represents a characteristic that separates them from their competition. That is that they are for the "tough guys" and the "don't-care-just-want-to-ride-crowd." After realizing that they have a certain crowd that buys their product they decided to have these Posse Rides. They knew that this could be successful because they were having people who had common lifestyles come together. It is their normal just like people who buy apple products have common ideas or opinions on products. So this Posse Ride is an amazing idea to bring people together to build an everlasting brand loyalty that can bring lots of profits to the company. The fact that you have to take an oath to join is that much better. This gets the riders feeling involved. They can say that they are apart of something, and that they love it. Harley Davidson has done enough with the ride that they don't need to get involved. The riders are doing the work which makes them feel that much better about it. If someone feels involved in the decision making then they are most likely to do it with more passion. With that in mind, Harley needs to help the riders, but let the riders do most of the work. I feel as if Harley Davidson has done everything to bring brand loyalty, but it is it at the same brand loyalty level as say, apple? Probably not because no company can mess things up and its customers will forget about it quite like apple. But Harley Davidson has done enough to keep the people riding.

Coke Zero

I believe Coke made the right decision in advertising a low calorie drink instead of a diet drink. I would rather drink a drink that says low calorie instead of diet. For example, Arizona tea has a half calorie drink and a zero calorie drink. I am a frequent drinker of this tea brand. I have never tried the zero calorie tea because it sounds like a risk to me, but the half calorie tea I'm willing to take a risk on. This is because 1. I want to try to be at least "a little healthier" so I pick a lower calorie drink 2. I don't want to spend my money on something I don't like, so I never do. I just get the half calorie drink because it is a safe bet. So the fact that Coke advertised a lowered calorie drink makes sense because they know customers are going to be willing to take the risk because it might not be as bad as diet.
The fake blog Coke created was really creative of them. It brought a lot of attention to their brand and helped them to sell more products, but when people found out what they had done, it really upset them. They felt like they were tricked and they were tricked. Was it right of Coke? I think it was because it did them more good than harm. They got enough publicity from it that the negative feedback didn't hurt them much.
A couple a years ago when fake blogs were popular, L Oreal the beauty product jumped into the action and created a fake blog. This got a lot of folks mad. In response L Oreal learned that they can't try to trick their customers because it will only come back to hurt them. So the lesson to be learned here is if your going to create a fake blog for your company you better weigh out the pros and cons.

Cal Grant Cuts

Many students wouldn't make it through college without loans and grants. This is the only source of income they have because their parents don't make enough money to send them to college. One of my friends said that they would not be where they are in life without these loans and grants. It is estimated that 65.6% of students have some kind of aid. Every dollar counts for these students and they take that into account for their monthly budgets. So what if some of it was taken away? No food for a week? One less textbook? Or maybe they would have trouble paying the rent. This is a reality that many students had to face this semester when Cal Grant announced a 5% decrease for student grants. Cal Grant A maximum award reduced from $9,708 to $9,223 and Cal Grant B maximum award reduced from $1,551 to $1,473. The Cal Grant B reduction is $78. This could be the money they were going to spend to buy tooth paste or soap. Although the Cal Grant B reduction is costly for some, the Cal Grand A reduction is a lot worse. You lose $485! That is a lot for anybody let alone a struggling college student. That is rent money or tuition money.


How do we stop this? We have to take charge and protest against this. The 5% cut is just a beginning. They will continue to cut  away until we have barely any money to pay for school. Tuition is rising and that will not stop either. We should write to our Governor or Representatives. This will force them to change their ways because we are a large voting group. We can't let it go, lets react!

Bows and Arrows

Most modern advertisements are made for the purpose to target a certain consumer. It could be for the rich or the poor, for women or men and even for the color of your skin. What ever the reason, you have a target on your back. It is a simple concept, if Mountain Dew isn't selling enough to blacks, they will start targeting them in order to get them to purchase their product.There is nothing wrong with a company targeting a certain minority group in order to maximize profitability. How they go about making the advertisement lies the problem. They cannot throw stereotypes in their ad because this will inevitably harm their companies image. And as I discussed in a previous blog, your image is your brand and your brand is everything to you and all stakeholders. Stereotyping or being racist was a huge problem in early advertising. Many people believe it was because we were naive, and that we didn't know any better. Well now we do know better. Right? No way we still have racist ads in 2012... Well we do. For example, NIVEA a home care product recently targeted blacks in order to sell more products. The problem is that they obviously placed a stereotype on blacks. Here is the ad.

The ad says "re-civilize yourself" and shows a "clean cut black" getting rid of the of an "uncivilized black." This is extremely racist. First of all, it is giving the stereotype that all blacks have afros. In addtion, it says that if you do have an afro that you are not civilized? The company did have this statement, "This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again." Are they really sorry or are they sorry that they got caught? I would like to think that their advertisement team and top management are smart enough to figure out that this ad is racist. These companies need to think about what they're doing. This could ruin your company. Your goal was to "get more black customers",  but you just smacked them in the face to do it. If someone from craigslist smacked me in the face before purchase I wouldn't buy from them.

Racism can be fixed. Will it ever be totally fixed? Probably not, but we can minimize it. Advertisements that are non-racial will help us in this pursuit.

The Eyes of The Beholder

It is quite obvious the role women play in the world of advertising. In some adds they are used as eye candy to get the attention of the typical guy, or even to be admired by other envies women. This is not a problem at all considering that men are used in the same way except they don't bare as much skin. The problem is that women are continually seen as the care taker for men and the family itself. Their only duty is to make sure the family is running like a well oiled machine. While some organizations are fighting to stop the discrimination  in advertising, some cannot even agree to what line for discrimination is or is not. The idea of discrimination can be very debate able. The European Community (EEC) did have this to say, " states that advertise on television must not: A) injure the human dignity; B) be discriminative with respect to race, sex, religion or nationality. Still, no interpretations or definitions of the concept of discrimination have been developed along with the directive. The question therefore is left unanswered as to where the limits in such considerations actually can be drawn, and on what criteria. As a consequence, this lack of criteria may imply that the similarities to the principle of self-regulation are close (Glifjell, 266)." What this means is that what you think is discrimination can be totally different from what someone else things is discrimination. For instance, you may look at an ad and think how in the world can they advertise like that, but it maybe possible that in that country they do not find it discriminating to a woman at all. So whether an advertisement is discriminating a women or not, is not objective but subjective. With this in mind, lets take a look at an ad.

Lets first look at the perspective that this ad is totally discriminating against women. The ad is "putting the women in her place." That is as the person who has to clean, cook and take care of the house. It suggest that the mans job is to bring home the bacon and that women do not belong in the business environment. This is a total low blow to women, because obviously they can and have succeeded where men have not in being the head of the household. On the other hand, someone can look at this ad and believe it is good for women. In the ad you can see that the women is out performing the man in her daily tasks. The ad reads, "So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks!"Some women may find it flattering for a man to tell them that they look cute while they work. So as you can see ads can be very shady and maybe discrimination, but to some it might just be good humor or flattering. Whatever the case maybe, it is important to realize that it is all in the eyes of the beholder.

The Eye Popping World of Advertising

 I have always wondered what the difference is between two advertisements of the same product were. You look at an advertisement from Coca-Cola and an advertisement of Root Beer and they seem the same. This is an incorrect assumption. These two companies have very different strategies when it comes to visual advertising. So which brand does a better job of advertising? Lets take a lookie.

Lets talk about the first one. This advertisement is reliant on the fact that there is a pretty girl in it. This would suggest that if you drink Coca-Cola that you are joining all the other pretty people who drink Coca-Cola. The second one is more heart warming. The sign here is the baseball with the Coca-Cola. The signifier is that no matter what your doing -whether at a ball game or just hanging out- it would be better with a Coke in your hand. Now lets take a look at Root Beers approach or more specifically Hank's Root Beer.

 As you can see this one is a lot different. The root beer and the car being the sign that draws your eyes to the ad and the signifier being that root beer equals luxury. This ad suggest that you can get something great at a low price. You do not have to go out and buy an expensive car to have luxury. Just get Hank's root beer.

In conclusion, we can see that two similar brands take way different approaches in their techniques. Which one is better? That's for you to decide.

A world without advertising?

What would the world be like without advertising? Would there be less businesses? Would we make our own stuff more often because of the lack of knowledge in brands? Branding is the foundation of all advertising. Brands are your promise (the company) to the customers that you will provide them with the best product possible. Take Nike for example, it has been accused of putting people in sweatshops to make their products. This is a dangerous environment that is harmful to it's employees. How can Nike stay in business with horrible news like this? It's actually a very easy answer, it's brand. Nike is so well know and it's brand is so strong that it can survive these kinds of things. Bottom line, it provides customer satisfaction.
The growth of advertising is because of four key ideas mass produced goods, mass communication, mass distribution, and mass education. The industrial revolution helped optimize production. With printing, magazines, and newspapers people could now see advertising on a more consistent bases. The evolution of railroads really helped advertising get going. You had away to get your advertisement to any demographic that you wanted. This would also be where research advertising was useful. Finding who used what and advertising it to them. In early advertising, people could not read what the advertisement said. It wasn't because of a fancy font or the words were like a 2 font, but because people just didn't know how to read. And so laws that forced kids to go through k-12 were made and it helped advertising in the end.
So the world really does need advertising. Most of the greatest brands on the planet have relied heavily on advertisements to get sells. For example, coca cola is one of the oldest brands in the world and got it's business going from advertising. Advertising is important because it attaches us with our favorite products.
This video summarizes a world without advertising very well.