Coke seems to understand the concept of hedonic consumption much better than Pepsi does. Lets face it, none of us really believe that drinking Coke/Pepsi could possibly do us any good (its unhealthy, contains only artificial flavours, has sugar/aspartame, destroys teeth, and the list goes on…). But we do drink these soft-drinks for other purposes. My roommate recently told me about how refreshing a glass of coke feels after a day in the sun. My old landlord never got handy around the house without a can of coke in his hand.
Soft-drinks serve a very hedonic purpose. Their consumption gives us sensory pleasure – immediate gratification. Amongst the two soft drink giants, Coke seems to get it much better than Pepsi does. While Pepsi is busy redesigning their logo, Coke is out there making ads that hit the nail right on the head.
Check out these two ads and you’ll see what I’m talking about. In fact the Coke ad that’s currently running on TV (I couldn’t find it on youtube) performs the same function – again reinforcing the pleasure aspects of consuming Coke.
Coke
Pepsi
Marketing Commentary by .
There is so much ad-clutter in television today, yet it perturbs me why corporations continue to place their products in shows. While I agree that it helps increase brand or product awareness, product placement really does not sway consumers’ purchasing decision. Further, in most cases product placement actually ends up diluting a brand and making it appear as part of the “clutter” that consumers have gotten used to IGNORE.
How many of you have started buying groceries from Whole Foods after watching Top Chef ?
Further, given the shift we’re witnessing in popular culture today, producers of shows must be careful of how much they bury themselves in endorsements. The more ‘corporatized’ a show appears, the lesser its appeal.
Marketing Commentary by .
Thanks to one of my classes at school, I have recently started doing research on the concept of sharing. The idea is to understand the implications of – how consumers react to sharing (under various circumstances) – to product development. Although the process isn’t complete yet, I have already found some very interesting data.
For example, I can already see the influence of societal constructs in a consumer’s openness to share products/services. Most Canadians are very proud of their health care system as they believe that its for the larger good of society. This belief or schema allows consumers to accept the system, even though they may not be utilizing it as much as, say… their neighbour might. A similar schema helps explain why music listeners still continue to download and share music illegally.
A lot of psychologists attribute such behaviour to consumers’ need for identity. People are always looking to belong and to identify themselves with a certain culture or community etc. The health care system for example plays a big role in helping Canadian’s distinguish themselves from their rather “individualistic” southern neighbours. By refusing to pay money to gain access to music, illegal downloaders distinguish themselves from prominent ‘pop’ culture and identify themselves with a rebelliious, anti-establishment commuity.
So what does all this mean to a marketer? If she (a marketer) can understand the societal framework within which her product would fit/fall, then marketing that product would become much easier. A great example of campaigns that use such insight is the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty”, where an understanding of societal pressure on womens’ grooming helped Dove successfully reach its target audience.
This process has become an immesely successful learning exercise for me and I plan to pursue this study over the next many months. So, look for more interesting insight on this issue in the coming months. Also, give me a shout if you feel like chatting about this over some pints.
Cheers!
Marketing Commentary by .
Jul 09
24
Lesson 1: Consumers as actors
Remember the most basic lesson in consumer behaviour? Consumers are like actors – playing different roles at different times …either during a day or during their lives in general. So it becomes absolutely essential to understand what role your target consumer is playing at the time they’re exposed to your messages.
So, if you’re (as a consumer) at a club and looking at that screen above the urinal for 45 seconds (or however long it takes for you to pee), the ads have got to be related to the role you’re currently playing to actually invoke any purchasing behaviour. Are OOH campaign designers paying attention? Maybe.
Here’s an example of what I think is a clever but not particularly effective campaign.
Posted in Marketing Commentary by Ujwal Arkalgud. No Comments