Advertising Week 4

20.09.2016 (Week 4)

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Advertising Principles and Practice

Advertising Practice in Support of Marketing

Lecture: Advertising Practice in Support of Marketing

The lecture slides started with a repetition of some of the previous weeks' important slides in order to refresh our memory. A free market economy was defined, and the function and effects of advertising within this economy were then listed out. Product differentiation, market segmentation and positioning were also described. The slides introduced the product life-cycle curve, and its different parts: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. 

Part 2 of the slides seemed to hint towards the marketing process involved during advertising. Broken into five points, these were: understanding the target audience, the planning process, the creative process, reaching the target audience, and integrated marketing communications. 

Outcomes from the lecture:

• I was refreshed on some concepts of advertising that I admittedly had forgotten. 
• I understand the terms product differentiation, market segmentation and positioning better.
• The product life-cycle curve made a lot of sense to me.

In-class Exercise: Volkswagen Ad

This was the brief as given to us:

We have learned about marketing being the action or business of promoting and selling, while advertising is the art of communication and persuasion. This video clip went viral recently: it shows a Volkswagen Polo ramming a Malaysian Police car from the back and then speeding off. The incident was recorded by a dashboard camera and was uploaded onto YouTube which then went viral on social media. Viral marketing/advertising (sometimes) uses a pre-existing social phenomenon (like this incident) to advance a service or a product by leveraging on its popularity.

Task

Your task is to leverage on this incident that has gone viral on behalf of Volkswagen's Polo brand of cars, and increase the brand awareness of the car. You can approach this by using humor, wit, or any other means necessary and make play of the incident to ride on its popularity.

Client: Volkswagen

Medium: Online Web banner (336 x 280 pixels)

Deadline: 30min–1hr

News Portal: The Malaysian Insider, The Star, The Malay Mail Online, etc.

The ad will feature on the home page of the news sites and on the side of the online article featuring the incident.

Results:

We were split into two large groups. I was paired with Samantha and Sudarvili.

We initially came up with the tagline "Can't wait to bring it home" to show how the driver of the supposedly new Polo car would go to desperate measures (like bumping into a police car) to bring home the new car to show his/her family. We believed that this ad would work quite well, as during the time of the incident, Volkswagen had a promotion for the Polo in conjunction with the Raya season. We came up with this as an initial draft:

Figure 1: In-class Exercise Draft 1 (excuse the horrible fire effects)

However, the lecturer was not too impressed with the concept for that one, so we reworked our minds and came up with another idea: The (Yolo) Polo. This idea hopes to show the Polo in a more rebellious, "young and wild" way.

Figure 2: In-class Exercise Final Ad

Research: Competitors

Secondary Research

This week I will be focusing on some competitors present in the Malaysian market. It's important to research the competition in the market to be able to assess the environment the product is being subject to.

• Okamoto

Okamoto is a Japanese brand established in 1934. It is more well-known for it's "003" series of condoms. I took a look at their website(s).

Okamoto's Singaporean website is well designed and quite comprehensive. 

Figure 3: Okamoto-condoms.sg

However, the Malaysian side decides to slap on a boring default website...

Figure 4: Okamotocondoms.com.my

I was shocked when I heard audio coming from the website — a low-quality clip of a man saying something in Cantonese  I cannot make out. And the worst thing is that the audio loops indefinitely till kingdom come. Reminiscent of the neighbourhood truck that collects old newspaper, this had a very poor impression on me.

Figure 5: Okamoto Advertisement

This advertisement of theirs is a playful interpretation of the numbers "003" for their 003 series. 

• Durex

Durex is the world's leading condom manufacturer and has a lot of history under its belt. It has been around for around 100 years. I visited Durex's Malaysian website.

Figure 6: Durex.com.my

The website is really well-designed. To the right of the page you will notice that there is an exclamation mark with the words "HIDE". Clicking this would immediately hide the frontpage of durex and lead you to...

Figure 6

A perfectly innocent page about The Wonderful World of Pets. This is quite handy because some people would get shy about shopping for condoms and can cover up their actions if there is anyone looking over their shoulder. Who doesn't love pets anyway.

The website is filled with a lot of content and is very easily to navigate and view their products. It even has a "playtime" section where they recommend sex tips and suggestions to spice up your sex life. 

I have managed to perform a SWOT analysis on the brand as shown below: 

Strengths	Long experience in the industry with over 100 years of experience. Financially strong: it is the 3rd largest company in terms of revenue in the cleaning and consumer healthcare products. A very extensive variety of products. Large international presence: it is available in over 140 countries. Distribution: Available in most pharmacies and convenience stores, it’s distribution chain is wide and efficient, allowing consumers to make contact with the product easily. Attractive and consistent brand identity: Consistent and fresh graphics don their packaging and website, allowing consumers to have a friendlier perception of the brand.
Weaknesses	Bold advertisements tend to lead to controversies Competitors can offer cheaper alternatives Competitive segment with even the Govt. distributing free contraceptives
Opportunities	Increasing awareness on sexually transmitted diseases and the need for protection. Increasing costs of living in Malaysia, hence making it harder to support large families. Family planning has become essential for urban folk. People are beginning to mature and be more open on the topic of sex. Prevalence of the Zika virus can cause people to be more aware of using condoms.
Threats	Low brand loyalty, as the availability of the local, cheaper brands can easily sway consumers. Limitations on the communication of values in advertising due to restrictions imposed by the relevant governing body. Other contraceptive methods.

Durex's advertisements are usually characteristically minimalist. They have a lot of brilliant concepts and their advertisements tend to have a lot of white space. This is an ad released in India in time for Christmas.

Figure 7: Durex Advertisement

• Care

Care is a Malaysian brand of condoms. They have numerous certifications as well, with a consistent design throughout their brand. They have a lot of different flavoured condoms.

Figure 8: www.carelatex.com

They seem to have a lot of events, which is good to connect with the general public. 

Figure 9: Care condom ad

Their ads seem to have a very direct seductive tone, this is a big contrast to Durex's more elegant suggestions. This ad was taken from their facebook page.

• 520 Brand

I've searched high and low and for some reason cannot find anything on this strange brand except at websites selling it. They don't seem to have an official website either, which is very strange.

Primary Research

When we ordered the product in Week 2, it came with a sample of 520 classic condoms.

Figure 10: Packaging of the 520 condoms

Figure 11: Comparison with Playsafe condoms.

Figure 12: The difference in Playsafe (left) and 520 (right).

We had the opportunity to compare the two different brands and we found that:

• 520 condoms feel slightly thinner than the Playsafe condoms.
• 520 condoms smelled slightly better (less strongly of latex) than the Playsafe condoms.
• The two condoms have a slightly differing shape from each other.

I visited a couple of stores to check out the condom selection.

Figure 13: Sunway Pyramid's Caring Pharmacy

This is at Sunway Pyramid's Caring Pharmacy. Note how Durex occupies almost the entirety of the shelf, followed by Okamoto.

Figure 14: 7-11 Convenience store at Taylor's Commercial Block

This is at the 7-11 at the Taylors' commercial block. This is one of the rare places I actually see the Playsafe brand being sold at. 7-11 has a good variety: ONE, Durex, Okamoto, Care and Playsafe. 

Rough Sketches:

I tried to reevaluate what it is that made some of my sketches bad and what worked slightly. I was encouraged to create "ideas with legs" as much as I can. I went back to my old sketches and tried to revisit them and see if there are possibilities that I could have left out.

Figure 15: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 16: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 17: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 18: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 19: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 20: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 21: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 22: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 23: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 24: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 25: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Figure 26: Week 4 Rough Sketches

Idea Sketches:

Figure 27: Week 4 Idea Sketches

Figure 28: Week 4 Idea Sketches

Figure 29: Week 4 Idea Sketches

Forum:

Question
We have come to understand that Advertising is a paid form of communication and persuasion. If Publicity is free form of communication and persuasion, wouldn't it make sense for Marketing to use a free tool like publicity to communicate and persuade rather than Advertising?

Answer

As economical as publicity is for marketing in terms of getting a message out to the general public, it lacks one major element: control. In advertising, the message is carefully constructed based on thorough research on the brand identity, target audience, cultural environment, competitors, and so on. This high level of control allows advertisers to deliver exactly what they want the public to understand upon seeing their advertisement or advertising campaign. Publicity, however, could portray a brand or product in an unwanted manner, such as the MH370 missing flight case, which procured a huge amount of publicity, but in effect caused huge doubts among the public regarding the airline's safety and reliability.

Publicity stunts may be planned by companies to illicit publicity among the public but they would not have control over the valence of which the publicity stunt would produce. An example of a publicity stunt that successfully translated the brand's identity and values was the Stratos Space Jump by Red Bull in 2012. Sponsored and organised by Red Bull, Felix Baumgartner was the first person to break the sound barrier by free fall from the Earth's stratosphere. Being the sole live broadcaster, Red Bull pulled in 8 million live views on Youtube.

So in conclusion, I believe that publicity can work well in specific cases when performed with some sort of control, but when it comes to delivering a finely-tuned controlled message with no second thoughts — advertising is the man for the job.

Feedback:

Reflection:

Experience
Having been absent for this week's lecture, I went through them on the student portal. The in-class activity felt very stressful for me. This week felt really tough for me, having none of my ideas from the previous weeks seemed to work as well as I thought they would is quite discouraging. I felt quite lousy until reaching the weekend, where the deadline pushed/forced me to keep working at the ideas. 

Observation
I realise I have trouble presenting my ideas in a coherent manner, and that I tend to shoot ideas down before it even has a chance to germinate. I find it hard to provide constructive criticism in terms of the actual execution of an idea, especially when there is a lack of understanding in basic design principles. This was apparent during the in-class activity. When met with a wall in coming up with ideas, it is very easy to let my personal feelings and lack of self esteem drag me all the way down. 

Findings
I find that by shooting ideas down too quickly can result in a lost opportunity. I should be more open and evaluate it thoroughly before properly writing it off. I should be more patient and try to provide constructive feedback because we all learn from one another, at different paces. I should also try to manage my emotions and personal events better as well. 

Book of the Week:

Figure 30: Week 4 Book of the Week

Creative Advertising: An Introduction by Miriam Sorrentino

This book is a very pleasant comprehensive guide to all things advertising, this time focusing more on the creative aspects of it, which is good for me. The friendly tone provided was offset by the curious choice of a tall narrow sans serif for the body copy. 

The book is filled with a lot of good pictures of good advertisements, which proved to be effective in maintaining my interest. A good contrast from the text-heavy books I've picked the past few weeks. 

Here are some points I found interesting.

• There are some quoted in the book that believe that advertising and branding should not be viewed as separate entities as they both perform similar jobs in portraying a brand's ideas to it's consumers. 
• “To get into someone else’s head it helps if you can picture who they are.”
• “If it (the idea) feels interesting, explore it, but do not spend too long on it — learn to recognize that some thoughts are just dead ends.”
• You have to develop the tone of voice of the advertisement through the brand values.
• On pitching ideas: Explain why you started thinking in this way, then summarize your idea in one line, and describe your executions succinctly. 

In the book there was also a lot of tips from industry leaders on idea generation:

• Work on several projects at a time to keep the mind moving and fresh.
• Write down keywords and connect them.
• Look deeply into the product.
• Research the product.
• Think about the people involved: those that made it, those that will be using it.
• Observe how people behave.
• Juxtaposition, or use analogies and similes. 
• Think of who does not want to use the product, or wish it didn’t exist.
• Spoof or parody, tap into popular culture.
• Social commentary, such as Dove’s Real Beauty campaign in 2006 The Zimbabwean “trillion dollar campaign” 

Figure 31

 I found this ad series very interesting because they manage to use repetition and juxtapositioning to prove such a strong point.

Figure 32

An ad for The Economist, it cleverly gets people to buy their product by showing the consequences of not using the product. In other words, don't end up like this guy.

References
Bhasin, H. (2015). SWOT analysis of Durex - Durex SWOT analysis. [online] Marketing91.com. Available at: http://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-durex/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2016].
Sorrentino, M. (n.d.). Creative advertising.

Picture Credits

Figure 1 & 2 
Personal documentation

Figure 3
Screenshot from https://www.okamoto-condoms.com.sg/

Figure 4 
Screenshot from http://www.okamotocondoms.com.my/

Figure 5
Nexogen, (2010). Okamoto Advertisement. [image] Available at: https://files1.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_1418/14187755/file/okamoto-condoms-numbers-of-pleasure-3-small-56824.jpg [Accessed 25 Sep. 2016].

Figure 6 — Screenshot from http://www.durex.com.my

Figure 7

Sabjeet Singh Bedi, (2016). Durex Christmas Ad India. [image] Available at: https://files1.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_2111/21116305/file/durex-durex-christmas-600-69326.jpg [Accessed 25 Sep. 2016].

Figure 8 — Screenshot from http://www.carelatex.com

Figure 9
Care Condoms, (2016). Care condom ad. [image] Available at: https://scontent-kul1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/12764761_10154633445817222_3399880321284901712_o.jpg [Accessed 25 Sep. 2016].

Figure 10 – 32
Personal documentation

Link to Exercise

Link to Project 1