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.