Advertising Week 4

19.09.16 (Week 4)

Jessica Ngu Wei King, (0323639)
Advertising Principles & Practice (BGCD)Advertising Practice In Support Of Marketing 

Lecture

Outcome from the lectures: 

I understood that:-

• The definition of free market economy
• In free market economy, the prices change depend of supply and demand
• The functions and effect of advertising in free economy 
• What product differentiation, market segmentation, and positioning is 
• The product life-cycle (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline), everything has a shelf-life 
• Explanations for each cycle

Instructions

In class exercise

On Tuesday class, we were given an in class exercise. As usual, we were divided into  groups., Zizi, Yana, Merry and I were in the same group. We were required to watch a video on times. The video was about a Volkswagen's 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. Our task for this activity was to leverage on this advertisement on behalf of Volkswagen's Polo brand of cars, and increase the brand awareness of the car. We can approach this by using humor, wit or any other means necessary and make play of the incident to ride on its popularity. 

We come out with this Headline, 'Heil Polo"

10 sketches (week 4) 

Research

Primary research

For this week's research on the competitors, I've went to the shops out there few weeks before, and I found out that the few competitors for Playsafe condoms are:
1. Durex
2. Okamoto
3. One
4. Care
5. Playboy

Fig.1 Competitor brands that found in one of the stores 

Secondary research
I went to Sunway Pyramid to see whether there's any condom ads around, but unfortunately I can't find any. So I went online to find the ads for other competitors. 

1. Durex 
I've seen a lot of Durex ads online before, they are good at advertising their products in a creative way and very different from others. They really focus on advertising their products, which I think this is why it gained trust and create awareness for the consumers (Most of the people know this brand).
Few ads from Durex which I got it from google: 

Fig 2  

Fig 3

2. Okamoto 

Even though Okamoto doesn't really focus on advertising their products, they still produce quite interesting ads for the 0.03 series condoms. 

Fig 4, 5, 6 Okamoto 0.03 series ads 

3. One 

I couldn't find much ads for this brand, but they still do have ads for it. 

Fig 7  

Fig 8 Only found on the packaging of the condom

4. Care

Fig 9, 10, 11 Care ads uses girls/ women to advertise their brand

5. Playboy

Fig 12 

Fig 13

Even though there's no condom ads can be found outside, they still do have their own fan page on Facebook and advertise through it. 

Fig 14, 15, 16, 17 Durex advertise their product through their Facebook page

Fig 18, 19, 20 Care Facebook page 

Fig 21 Playboy Facebook page, they had roadshow to promote their product last December 

Fig 22, 23 One has their own page too, they also uses popular people on Internet to advertise their product 

I also did a lot more research on Gen-Y based on their buying behaviors/ patterns: 

Since Gen-Y are always connected to the Internet, they tend to make purchase online more often too. However, most of the millennials would review blogs or comments first (especially comments given by theirs peers whom they trust) before making their purchase, compare to the older generations, where they rely more on traditional media  (Dan, 2015). 

• 65% out of 100% of people in Malaysia shop online
• In Malaysia, Gen-Y tends to shop more online, which takes 40% 
• Surprisingly, guys in Malaysia shop online more than girls
• Free shipping, convenience and deals are the turn-ons 
• On the other hand, most of the people who wouldn't buy online is because of the expensive shipping fees
• Most people bought clothing & accessories online
• The final buying decision is based on the detail about the product, following by reviews and deals. 

However, I've noticed my friends buying behaviors:
When purchasing online: 
- The prefered platforms for online shopping are Instagram following by Facebook, websites and carousel. 
- Ask for more detailed photos of actual product before buying
- Check review and quality of the stores
- Most of them prefer paying by cash/ bank transfer rather than cards (reason being: they are afraid to use credit cards online)
- Reasonable price and good quality
- Don't buy electronics online (except for official websites)

When buying in physical stores:  
- If not sure which brand to buy, they will stick to the ones that are more familiar/ recommended by friends/ seen in their house before
- Prices are always the first consideration
- Next its the quality 
- Always want to find cheap yet good quality products

Besides, I've interview few of my friends about their attitude towards advertisements, and I've found out that:-

• They will not be influenced by ads (especially on tv, radio, games, and YouTube) at all.
• They find that ads are annoying and its wasting their time
• Some pay money to get rid of ads on games/ spotify
• They tend to remember Facebook ads that shared by friends rather than ads from tv/ banner & etc. 

Feedback

Specific 

Good work on the in the in-class challenge! Research on competitors was evident, there were a lot of samples however you need to articulate your thoughts about the samples. What did you learn, what was your view? etc. Some interesting idea developments. Need further explorations.

Reflection 

Experience

This week is quite stressful for me, as there are a lot of work to do for every week and for different subjects. I can still manage to jot down notes from the lecture, but sometimes I am still unable to focus. The discussions for sketches is getting interesting as everyone of us starting to have some ideas that have 'legs'. In class activity was fun. 

Observations

I realized that work with groups are better than working alone. I find out that It's getting difficult for me to manage my time. It is also getting stressful for me every week. I find out that it is really time consuming to think if an idea every week, as it is quite difficult for me. Whenever I am out of ideas, I will improvise my last week's sketches in order to come out with a new one. 

Findings

Group work are always fun than doing it all alone because there are variations of ideas and it can be generated very quickly. I personally like group projects than doing it all alone. Maybe I will reduce my time for procrastinate in order to get thins done faster. Improvising ideas is good as well, but I'm trying to come out with more new ideas that make me doesn't get bored drawing the similar ideas sketches every week. I also try to be more sensitive about my surroundings every time in order to find new inspirations for the sketches. 

Book of the week 

This week's book is 100 ideas that changed advertising, Simon Veksner

The book started with a brief introduction of advertisement and how it changes over the years. Then, it introduces then 100 ideas that changed advertising. I will summarize some of it that have a stronger impact to me in bullet point:

• One of the ideas is publicity stunts. The stunt itself may only be seen by a few, but if it is bizarre or controversial enough, the resulting PR could be seen by millions, and its all free advertising.
• Sex in advertising. Sexual imagery has gone from non-existent to virtually omnipresent today. Sexy ads achieve significantly above-average recall scores. 

• Product demonstration ads. No selling method is more successful than someone showing you exactly how a product works.
• Comparative ads. This method of ads has an undeniable power and is frequently used by the 'underdog' competitor, such as Pepsi vs Coke (I personally think its interesting to see ads like this, but unfortunately I've never seen this kind of ads here in Malaysia).
• Ambient. It appears everywhere, at its best, the use of this ads can create power; and provocative ads. The best thing about this ambient is that it can surprise anyone at an unexpected place. 

References 

Dan, S. (2015). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/#1a9e758c28a8