Since Christmas is right around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to look at x-mas advertising. I've seen the same 2 Target Christmas commercials just about every day multiple times a day and it's really starting to annoy me. But this got me thinking, are their ads even working? A recent article on Ad Age says they're not. According to the article, a survey found that half of consumers say they're not inspired to shop at the retailer who's holiday TV commercial or online promotion they liked best. That's bad news for these huge retailers like Walmart and Target who are spending millions on their holiday advertising.
The article goes on to say that because of this, retailers should spend more money and time focusing their advertising efforts to consumers who are their target markets rather than the general public. They should also spend more money on in-store promotions through direct mail.
I find this interesting. It seems like a huge waste of money for no benefit at all. These big companies should take a hint from smaller ones. Maybe they should spend more time on Google AdWords, figuring out what consumers are really looking for. They should think before they spend.
4 comments:
It's actaully really interesting because I just wrote a paper for my persausion class about message repetition and its persuasive abilities. Without explaining all the complicated graphs and equations the findings show that repetition works to a point. For awhile repetition of an ad increase the viewera ability to process the message, but after a point something called psychological reactance happens. This essentially means that people feel like their personal freedom is being threated because of the bombardment of the same terrible message. I can totally see this coming into play around christmas time!!
I have also seen those Target ads numerous times and am sick of them. Personally, I don't think those commercials are as good as previous Target ones have been. Target definitely isn't keeping up with their once set standard. The commercials are not funny or entertaining, therefore are not effective. It doesn't surprise me at all that these commercials aren't reaching consumers.
I found that article to be right on target(no pun intended). Before when commercials were original, I think consumers were more inspired by these ads to shop at these stores. I love Target and shop there partly because of the image I have of it, inspired by ads and commercials. Now consumers aren't influenced as much by these ads/commercials, therefore advertisers must seek new ways to effectively attract consumers.
This is really interesting because I was thinking about this the other day. Advertising such as commericals are becoming non effective in the entertainment world today. With DVR and TIVO, people blow past the commercials without a thought. In addition, consumers have learned how to tune out what they do not want to hear or what they don't care about. This means that PR needs to step up and work it out on places like social media networks. Something to think about!
I've never really thought of advertising as very effective. The way I see it, it's not meant to inspire people to buy products. Rather, it is to get your name out there, so when someone needs your product they know your product exists. An example of this is the godaddy.com commecials during the superbowl. No one knew what the hell godaddy.com was. But after those commecials, I guarentee you that their website got millions of hits. Now, anyone who needs their services will know of godaddy.com.
One last thing, if major retailers start concentrating on direct mail...and I start getting it...I will NOT be pleased.
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