Learning agreement

Brief explanation:

I will be focusing on brand promotion campaign and brand TVadvertising in semester2. After some relavant research, I’ll choose 6 ads among different brand area as my example and make comparison between them, they are : Honda, Ikea, cadburrys, Chanel, American Apparel, Diesel. My subject will be around topic of  “What a good advertising should do”, discuss both the good and bad elements, idea, technology or storyline appeared in those ads.

 

Context / Rationale

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“Fun” Diesel “Kicking Ass” controversial ads (from WaveMetrix media)

    WaveMetrix analysis shows how brands can utilise viral videos to engage consumers with a new message or concept. The recent “Kicking Ass” viral ads by Diesel have successfully engaged consumers and prompted them to associate the Diesel brand …

Controversial issues about brand United Colors of Benetton

United Colors of Benetton which is a Italian brand focus more on social issues than product marketingThe fame, the force and the messages behind Benetton’s ads began gained fame and recognition from 1986 on. All their ads have something to say… sometimes they it’s loud and clear and sometimes its under a beautiful controversial image! The point is that you need lots of creativity, talent and courage to do these kinds of ads. Ads that mean something, that support a cause, that have an important message… or ads that simply show different colors together.

Benetton’s strategy of using its symbolic photography to highlight the key social and political issues of our time made the brand synonymous with ‘shock advertising’. The reportage style – the only nod to conventional marketing was the presence of Benetton’s green logo – was created in-house by Oliviero Toscani, a photographer and Benetton’s creative director from 1982 to 2000. Here is Marketing’s pick of the most memorable ads:

1989: A picture of a black woman breastfeeding a white baby was part of Benetton’s anti-racism campaign. The ad drew both brickbats – it was withdrawn after critics saw it as an unfortunate reminder of how slaves had been used to nurse white babies – and subsequently plaudits, at the Cannes Advertising Festival.

1991: An image of a mucus-covered new-born baby was intended as an ‘anthem to life’, but ended up as one of the brand’s most censured images.

1992: At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Benetton used a photograph of a real-life death scene. The ad, featuring David Kirby minutes after his death in hospital in 1990, won the 1991 World Press Photo Award, but magazines such as Elle, Vogue and Marie Claire refused to run it.

1996: Toscani created this ad featuring three identical ‘human hearts’ to highlight racism. The organs used were actually pig hearts.

2000: The anti-death-penalty campaign created a firestorm for its sympathetic portrayal of convicted murderers on death row. Protests came from the state of Missouri, where some prisoners were photographed; consumers; the families of the inmates’ victims; and department store Sears, which refused to stock Benetton products. The controversy caused Toscani to resign.

2003: Benetton was approached by the World Food Programme of the United Nations to help highlight world hunger. The result was a series of ads featuring people in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

2011: Benetton’s ‘Unhate’ campaign featured world leaders ‘kissing’ their adversaries. One of Pope Benedict XVI locking lips with Egypt’s Ahmed el-Tayeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was withdrawn hours after launch and its denouncement by the Vatican. The campaign won the 2012 Press Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for ‘jumping off the page’ and into online conversation.

Research into celebrity endorsement (3)

There is a quite interesting old post about the endorser of  “Chicken of the sea”. This is a funny story about Jessica Simpson.

Like perfumes and fashion lines, reality shows are now another part of the modern celebrity package. But the idea of having cameras inside celebrities’ homes was a relatively new concept in 2003, when MTV debuted Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, a reality series about Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. The show offered a candid look at the all-American couple as they navigated their first year of marriage and boosted Simpson’s popularity — and record sales. By now, the world knows Simpson’s no dumb blonde. But in the debut episode of the reality series, viewers had good reason to doubt. While eating a can of tuna fish, Simpson turned to now ex-husband Lachey and asked, “Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken … by the Sea.’” A dumbfounded Lachey could only laugh.

This is a special example of celebrith endorsement, which come from a funny mistake.  apparently someone at Chicken Of The Sea finally realized they had an opportunity on their hands and invited Simpson to visit the company headquarters. “We wanted to bring her down and make sure she understood the difference, and told her the story of how the brand name originated,” said Chicken of the Sea senior vice president of marketing Don George, also adding that he would love to talk with Simpson about becoming a company spokeswoman.

JS has been criticized for her smarts by some of netizens. However, it is kind of “stupid” make her rich and impressive, that is totally what advertising merchandise’s want.

Research into celebrity endorsement (2)

It is widely believe that companies who use celebrity endorsements can cash in on their star power and have the potential to earn millions. But this strategy is only successful if the star in question stays out of trouble. We …

Research into celebrity endorsement (1)

Endorsement is a channel of brand communication in which a celebrity acts as the brand’s spokesperson and certifies the brand’s claim and position by extending his/her personality, popularity, stature in the society or expertise in the field to the brand. In a market with a very high proliferation of local, regional and international brands, celebrity endorsement was thought to provide a distinct differentiation. Celebrities serve not only to create and maintain attention but also to achieve high recall rates for marcom messages in today’s highly cluttered environments.

However, as branding evolves as a discipline companies must be extra cautious to utilize every possible channel of communication rather than just a celebrity endorsement.

Traditional explanations of celebrity endorsement persuasion effects are based on the source effects literature and find that 1) celebrity endorsement increases the attention paid to an ad (Buttle, Raymond, and Danziger 2000); 2) celebrities are generally attractive, which helps persuasion when consumers are worried about social acceptance and others’ opinions (DeBono and Harnish 1988) or when the product is attractiveness-related (Kahle and Homer 1985, Kamins 1990); 3) celebrities may be credible sources if they have expertise in a particular area, such as an athlete endorsing shoes(Ratneshwar and Chiaken 1991) or a beautiful model endorsing make-up (Baker and Churchill 1983); and 4) celebrities are often well-liked, possibly leading to identification and consumer persuasion in an attempt to seek some type of relationship with the celebrity (Belch and Belch 2007). In traditional dual process models (e.g. ELM; Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann 1983), celebrities are most often considered a peripheral cue: they are important in persuasion only when consumers are not involved in the product category or in processing the ad. However, celebrities may provide central information when an aspect of the celebrity matches the product (as with beauty products and attractiveness; Kahle and Homer1985).

Celebrity endorsement is recognized as a potentially potent tool in communications, with celebrities viewed as more powerful than anonymous models and campaigns tending to verbalize the meaning of the celebrity in relation to the brand (Brian Moeran, 2003)

Further more, merchandiser must always keep in mind that the purpose is to build the brand and not the celebrity. It is significant to appreciate that just because an individual is famous and considered a celebrity, he/she might not necessarily be an effective endorser.

Week for advertising research

I did some research this week about different type of advertisements. Due to the gap between Chinese culture and English culture, I find bank of impressive or interesting adverts, but I still confusing about the meaning of “Iconic”, so I decided to classify my research by my own opinion. I will looking for some advise from Louise about those questions. If you guys have any advises and opinions, please leave commons, it will be really helpful, thank you.

One class of advertisements are adapted by political situation and real events, and they might be widely known. However I believe they could be sensitive as well. Because some people think they are funny, but someone might suffered by them which I mean some people they really gone through those situations. Volkswagen POLO, for example, terrorist attacks were threatening to destabilize our social. To the people living in safe, this is a smart one. However, it could also take unkindly to people who met or harmed by suicide-bombings.

On the contrary, mass entreatment media should amuse people and well-known. I think it is a good example of Heineken. It chose talent show as a background to entertain audience, not only caught people’s attention but also can not be forgot.

On the other hand, the impact of movie influence a lot on people’s daily life. Dirt Devil “The Exorcist”, for example, it is inspired by the exorcist film, but it is quite tricky ending which benefits from the genius of director. I would say this is an “Iconic” advertising.

Otherwise, what will a good advert can do that is express the real function in a humorous way, like Barcleys advertising which simple and funny.

However, some unusual adverts can be treat as a negative example, or a controversial topic.The reason why is they always brought some negative information to viewers, like erotica, violent or cheating. It will be a bad influence to people in different age from social angle, especially children. But it is unique and smart ideas from commercial angle. The example below shows some bad impacts or controversial topics.

Cheating:

Violence:

Erotica:

Levi’s vintage clothing ads

This is a pieces of advertising about the story behind Levi’s vintage clothing.

I think it is very good ads which represent a whole process about a vintage collection production. Form the evidence analysis to re-new the clothing. It is not just a promotion ads but about a brand history. I’d love to buy one after watching this video.

 

 

Different kind of display advertising

I keep moving on field of  brand advertising at semester 2, and I will pay more attention into vintage brand or brand launched certain vintage collection.

This days, I analysed brand window display and store display. I found they give me a sense of real feeling and directly visual sense. The window display and store display will change by different season, collections or particular events. Window display is a way to advertise one brand, it shows the key elements of this season collection, tell a story or sketch a brand feature for every citizen.  I strongly believe that window display and store display play a vital role in brand  social communication and  merchandise  advertise.

Those pictures blow are taken by me in Christmas holiday in London 2013. Those are some luxury brands located around by Bond Street.

Ted Baker golden tone window display. 

Victoria secret window display, there has a specific background was printed in a photo frame  side by the item.

 

Jagermeister window display with forest and fairy tales atmosphere.

Ralph Lauren flagship shop window display which gives me a sense of vintage and luxury.

On the other hand, those picture of window display and store display below are taken by me in London as well around Kennington high street and Piccadilly circle.

H&M 2014 Spring vintage collection new arrival. The store display with big annular light set and different pose mannequin.

Outside the Selfridges. Selfridges set their window display as a fancy productions museum.  

Store display of Traffie People, which is a vintage cloth shop in London. The old car, paper tag, luggage case，coppery light and vintage wall paper decoration. 

This is image sources of American Apparel window display in America which I found on website. This brand always keeps some vintage elements on their visual sense. 

However, some merchandiser even hire real people for their window display to attract more attention.

In the store display nowadays, the big LED screen or computer (pad) have been more and more popular.

This is All Saints store display in London, wooden furniture, vintage mirror, and be modified computer, customers can find item details self by this computer.

 

Mango store, big LED screen

 

London Fashion Weekend diary

Before this September, I’ve only ever get news about fashion week through the pages of magazines or an Instagram filter. However, it is exciting to get London fashion weekend silver ticket with my classmate Ivy and Betty. This is my first time to go out and take part in a global fashion event.

Somerset House have been transformed into Britain’s most exclusive fashion and designer shopping experience, brimming with catwalk shows, pop-up shops, hair & beauty and educational panels from leading industry experts for 4 days (20/02/2014–23/02/2014).

We have visited a few designer outlet shop, especially the vintage fur shop which all items with lovely price. After the show we walked around the rooms of Somerset House, we watched the 2014 trend catwalk show included 4 particular trends, which is Precious Metals, Lace Embrace, Good Sport and Flower Power. I just want to say all of the trends productions are totally wearable. And it is worth to mention it that we even can see some luxury elements in the Good Sport section!!

 

  

 

There are some important tips I found in a blog, it is quite funny but true!! I have to say I experienced exactly same feeling with that blogger and that is totally what I am gonna to do at next fashion week in the future!

Don’t bring a clutch bag because it looks fashiony. By five o’clock your arm will kill.
Don’t dress for the photographers – it’ll just bruise your ego when they walk straight past you. I found myself muttering ‘I’m wearing a cropped shirt and a full midi skirt – what more do you want?!’ repeatedly.
Comfort is key. And I hate myself for saying that, but by Jove, dress comfortably. There’s a lot (a lot) of standing around.
Plan your route carefully – don’t think you can make it from The Mall back to Somerset House for shows half an hour apart. Queues for the second show will have gathered before the first show even starts.
Try not to let an odd immediate rivalry spring up between you and the other queuing folk because they may/may not dress better than you. Most of the time they’re really friendly.
Bring some reading material – see point 3.
Feel free to laugh at the fashionistas perching outside venues looking rad (I’m talking to you, coordinated girls with ludicrous dome hats and green lipstick). They think that a striking look alone will get them entry into the show. It won’t.
Be prepared to not get into some shows despite having a ticket – brush it off, on to the next one.
Eat lots because oh my, the hunger of a day on your feet in a big city is staggering. But try not to scoff your face in the queue outside some fancy venue. I did with a Starbucks gingerbread man, and I was judged.
Realise that a lot of models aren’t that great close up, and quietly rejoice in this realisation.