Persuaders Review Part III

If advertisements are successful in creating a feeling beyond the product it increases the likelihood of the advertisers reaching its goal; which is to create brand loyalty or identity.

“Brand loyalty” consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service.

Basically, if you constantly buy Nike shoes then you are loyal to Nike products.

Some studies have linked brand loyalty to cult because a cult is a group of people devoted to beliefs or practices. A comparison that I agree with because whether it’s believing in a new deity or only buying Docker’s pants, you have a devotion to a belief or practice.

With brand loyalty is sure to come “brand experiences” and to better illustrate this point let’s use the iPod as an example.

The commercial for the iPod is a silhouette of a guy dancing and having a fun time listening to his iPod. So, the next time you are listening to your iPod and are dancing and having fun to your own music you would have shared in the brand experience.

Beyond brand loyalty and experience the true goal of marketers and advertisers is to create “lovemarks” (objects of devotion). The movie provided the example of Tide laundry detergent becoming the heart of the family, well in my family a Kodak camera would be considered the eye of the family.

My father will only buy Kodak cameras and he takes his camera everywhere with him. Kodak cameras have taken pictures at all of our families’ milestones. From graduations to weddings, my dad always checks the front, checks the back and makes sure its Kodak.

Unfortunately for advertisers not everyone is as loyal to brands like my father, in fact more and more people are dodging the bombardment of advertisements due to the creation of Tivo and DVR.

This has forced advertisers to display their products in television shows and movies in order to been seen. A clear example would be with FedEx in the movie Cast Away.

From the opening scene of the movie we see and hear how FedEx values their shipments and procedures and throughout the movie we see FedEx packages and one of the packages saved Chuck Noland’s life (the main character played by Tom Hanks).

Another example of advertisers trying to replace the lack of viewership from TV commercials is utilizing “webisodes” which are short films designed to be seen on the internet and American Express used this method by creating a story with Superman and Jerry Seinfeld.

Rather it just being a commercial about how low the interest rate is for American Express credit cards it told a story and made the credit card a character or play a role in the story.

American Express is not the only company to use webeisodes as BMW employed a similar tactic to reach internet users. The documentary “The Persuaders” provided an interesting viewpoint on the world of advertising and how much time and dedication is needed to sell a product.

The goal of the advertisers is not just for people to buy the product it is to make people emotionally connect with the product they are trying to sell.

As I previously mentioned this documentary touched on many unknown themes in the advertising world and now I realize how much advertising plays a role in my daily life. What new schemes and ideas can advertisers use to persuade us, only time will tell?