FCMG Advertisement Review - Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

1.0 ADVERTISEMENT REVIEW
1.1 ADVERT 1: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
This advert taken from The New York Times, advertises for family cruise, with the brand message of "Bringing the whole family together", which was advertised by Travelocity (Royal Caribbean International).

As information and technology continues to transform the global market into a click and drag box, newspaper companies can now reach people across the globe with just a click. Neoclassical research in the past did conceded families as institutions or handled it like a single individual or as if a family was personified to be one by the household (Hodgson, 1999). A family can be seen as, group of two or more individuals, interconnected by blood, marriage or adoption and lives together as a household (Lawson et al, 1996). Since family is a unit, it is likely that there are interpersonal influences arising among them during purchase decision making. Influences here can be seen as any action by any member of the family, which makes impact purchasing decision (Beatty and Talpade, 1994). This influence can be direct – based on decision maker‟s own needs (Roissiter, 1978) or indirect – based on taking another family members need into consideration (Rossiter, 1978). The advertisement will be reviewed using 3 external factors and 3 internal factors as analysis point.

EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCES FAMILY PURCHASE FOR TRAVELOCITY PACKAGES
CULTURE
Keesing (1974) defined culture as having three identical themes (cognitive, symbolical and structural). The American culture is mainly if a non-compensatory strategy, characterized by the fact that weakness in one attribute cannot be offset by strength in another attribute because what you have is what you get (Bettman, 1979). As families grow bigger and kids get wiser in an open environment where barely anything goes, the need for families to spend time together becomes a priority and the Travelocity tends to be the solution to this problem by providing cruise holiday packages for families. These cultures can be categorized basically into religious, hard work and leisure and active life.
Religious culture: throughout history, religion and spiritual life been integral to economic activities in the United States (Kale, 2004, p.97). The America moral code (Wines and Napier, 1992) has been categorized as deontological (Murphy and Laczniak, 1981) or idealism (Schlenker and Forsyth 1977). Idealistic individuals, who do things in a deontological way, believe that right behaviors always have positive result (Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1993).

Hard work and leisure time: the growing consumerism has lead to the need of hard working individuals for organization management in America (Reich, 2000). The importance of leisure in the American society can generally progress with the traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs which positioned work as penance for Adam and Eve‟s disobedience; heaven would finally offer eternal leisure (Rodgers, 1974). Leisure can virtually be defined as any satisfying experience (Torkildsen, 1992). Leisure is very important in contemporary lives of many Americans (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996 a & b; Schein, 1996; Snir and Harpaz, 2002).

Active life: it is very widely recognized in American society that maintaining an active life confers positive health (Armstrong and Welsman, 1997). An active life can generally be described as merging your altitudes and desire to what the society offer (HEA, 1998).

Travelocity effectively diffused the American culture into the adverts in all aspect, ranging from the moral believe that a positive input is equivalent to a positive output, the advert tend to psychologically persuade families to have holidays together, because the more holidays they have the more they know each other and parents get to understands each other‟s weakness and provide solutions for transforming them into strength. Secondly, it covers the side that working families sometimes need time out from duty to spend leisure tom. This gives them opportunity to meet friends on-board and built a better reputable social status. Finally, the advert also illustrates the idea that families need to maintain an active life style. This can be seen from the package facilities which include a gymnasium class, sports clubs and talent show.

DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONS
Demography is a key importance in marketing (advertising) as companies need to understand whom they are targeting and how to position their goods in their company‟s mind. Research shows that in the USA, children between the age of 12 and younger spend over $14 billion of their own money annually (Azoulay, 1998; McNeal and Yeb, 1993). These children also influence over $160 billion in household purchases (Azoulay, 1998; Wolf, 1998). With the recent increase in baby boomers generation, the number of American families has basically increased, as many sees the need to have family not just as a social fulfillment but also as a priority to existence. Demography basically described age, gender and race. Families are made up of the context of demography. On the other hand, social stratification can be defined as one‟s position relative to others on one or more dimensions valued by the society.

The adverts basically uses its target market (family) to illustrate that they generally targets all ages, races, and gender which is common in the American mixed families. The pricing of just US $99 per day generates the idea that the advert targets all American social class which is basically divided into three – upper, middle and lower class. From the advert, it can be understood that Travelocity made a thorough research towards understand what their customers need and what they can afford. This lead the market and price strategy which basically persuade customer to live the life they want and meet their goal. This is a positive point for the advert because it will increase demand while raising profit and building company / brand image at the same time.

FAMILIES
A family is a group of people, two or more in number, related by blood, marriage or adoption and living together as a unit (Lawson et al., 1996). Families are the main decision making unit in the American society. Since the family is the main decision making unit, choice of consumption is like to be more significant that other units. Researches in family decision making process have revealed the relative decision making process among family members and influences between family members (Ferber and Lee, 1974: Haley, Overholser and Associates, Inc., 1975; Davis, 1970; 1971; Beatty and Talpade, 1994; Na et al., 1998; Lee and Marshall, 1998) which make a difference during decision process (Rossiter, 1978). Every American family undergoes a certain life cycle of revolutionary changes in terms of spending power, income, social status and class within its life cycle. This changes leads to a decision making processing which are usually linked to a decision making role (Assael, 1987).

This role includes:
 Initiator – recognizes problem or need for an item.
 Influencer – exerts personal influences on other members of the family on a particular purchase situation.
 Information gatherer – gather, assembles and analysis information related to a possible purchase.
 Gatekeeper – controls the flow of information to other members of the family.
 Decision-maker – had the authority to make buying decisions.
 Purchaser – physically completes the purchase process.
Past studies noted that role specialization occurs in many family purchase decisions (Davis, 1971; Davis and Rigaux, 1974; Woodside and Motes, 1979; Assael, 1987). Husband tends to specialize in decision making process, wives in information gathering and control process and children in choice and design making process.

The Travelocity critically implemented all these family roles, duties and life cycle into their advert. The royal Caribbean international cruise uses a picture of a family with a moderate life style. This persuades all families and members of families, not minding their background or role that the cruise is meant for everybody and that be a purchase initiator and influence other members of the family with the information they have from the advert to make the purchase. The price on the other hand, is skimming strategy that offers a whole Caribbean cruise family package for just $ 99 dollars, and this is basically positioned to attract husbands who hold the main decision making responsibility by offering them quality family package at low cost. Finally, the brand message "Bring the whole family together" is geared towards persuading single families to make an order for their extended families too. Not just because of the low prices, but because it also gives them the chance to make more friends while on the cruise.

INTERNAL FACTORS
CONSUMER PERCEPTION
Perception can be seen as how individuals view things. In the US, cruise ship travel has been seen as something for the rich, and those who use it are also making a social statement at the same time.

The way a consumer perceives a product depends on the amount of exposure and attentions gained. Exposure –is amount of information a consumer has about a good, while attention – is consumer‟s decision to review the goods. The two factors that influences perception are individual factors, which is the characteristics of individuals and their needs, and social factors which is the environmental factors other than the individual characteristics that are induced by time or pressure. These two factors transmits stimulus about a products in a depending on the amount of information they have about the product and it features.

The price in Travelocity for a day package is just 99 US dollars and this is not just meant to attract customers, but as well as changing the Americans perception about sea cruise and the market they target. This increases their customer attraction level since those who wished to be in a cruise now have the opportunity. The advert also has many colorful pictures of a family, these pictures are strikingly attractive and changes consumers‟ perception that sea cruise is actually meant for adults and not kids.

PRODUCTS POSITIONING
Product positions is a strategy used by marketers to achieve a defined brand image, relative to competition within a given market segment. The pricing strategy is a form of product positioning which Travelocity uses to define their brand. This form of strategy tends to persuade consumers into believing that Travelocity is the only company that offer Caribbean Sea cruise at a reasonable price.

MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY AND EMOTION
Motivation is the energizing forces that activates consumer behavior and provides purpose for the direction. Personality reflects to the common response that individuals make to a variety of reoccurring situation, while emotion is strong relative uncontrollable feelings that affect consumer behavior.
These three concepts are closely related and used together analyzing the internal factors that affects consumer behavior. They are three main factors that influence consumers to be motivated, this includes safety, health and status.

The safety Travelocity has held over the years is a motivation to consumer, because it has increased trust between the company and consumer. Travelocity also provides healthy environment for spending a holiday together with their families. And finally, it can also be seen as a way of making a social statement because they offer quality services.

1.2 ADVERT 2: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
The second advert is from The New York Times, advertising for wine club.
Nowadays, the role of wine in regional economies had been a major issue both in European institutions and other regions with large wine producing sectors like the US (European commission, 2006; Committee of the Regions, 2006; Gomez-Bezares, 2005). The advert targets young working adult market.

EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCES CONSUMER PURCHASE
VALUE
Value is the worth or equivalent of a person in a society or within a class. They are many kind of social values in America, ranging from gay, lesbian, straight, and vegetarianism. Though, value has been treated as same, they are many striking differences on the way people value things ranging from preference to passion and desire. The American society value can be categories into:
Self-oriented values: traditionally, Americans are active, materialistic, hardworking, religiously inclined towards postponed gratification. This values are mainly attained within a given family, unit or group of individuals who seek the same need and satisfaction.

Environmental value: this is a society‟s relationship with its economic, technical and physical environments. Americans traditionally admire cleanliness, change, security, problem solving and performance. These relationships with the society differ among individuals.
Haven understood the perception of values within the American society, the New York Times wine club advertising, mainly persuades individuals to belong to a group with the same need and demand. Clubs is a very common and integral element in life of many Americans, they idea that when people belong to a society, they stand out among others increases the desire for Americans to join a club that best suits their lifestyle.

The wine club adverts is a combination of values desired by majority of Americans, which includes quality, status and security. The advert is a collection of different kind of wines, from many parts of the world like the US, furnace, Italy, Spain and Australia. This underlines the
value of quality which is used to persuade young working American market to join the club in other to stand out among others are the best because of the fact that they consumer of the best wines and are members of one of the best clubs.

Another value assumption is the green marketing. Americans are concerned about the environment and conservation and the advert shows a neat environment, and recyclable materials used in manufacturing the wine as a symbol of the clubs commitment to the society. This would influence the purchase because it encourages the residents to maintain a green society.

CULTURE
Keesing (1974) defined culture as having three identical themes (cognitive, symbolical and structural). The American culture is mainly if a non-compensatory strategy, characterized by the fact that weakness in one attribute cannot be offset by strength in another attribute because what you have is what you get (Bettman, 1979). As families grow bigger and kids get wiser in an open environment where barely anything goes, the need for families to spend time together becomes a priority and the Travelocity tends to be the solution to this problem by providing cruise holiday packages for families. These cultures can be categorized basically into religious, hard work and leisure and active life.

Wine consumption is part of the American culture. As the world leading entertainment industry, wine toasting is very common and this is an influence part to consumption of wine. the advert understands the culture and the competitiveness among wine industries with many options provided for consumers to choose from. This can be seen from the 20% percent discount for first shipment offered to consumers. This encourages purchase while persuading individuals to join the club as well.

GROUP
A group is defined as two or more individuals who share a set of norms, values, or benefits and have certain implicitly or explicitly defined relationship to one another such as their behavior are inter dependent (Davis and Rigaux, 1974). Groups such as reference groups, consumption sub-culture and brand community influences the way consumers think and behave.

This influence in consumer‟s behavior is critical to market understanding because it can alter target market and brand positioning. This is one of the strategies the advert uses, by combing group of individuals who have same desire for wine to form a club for wine lovers. this influences consumption behavior because members of the club are provided with the physical benefits of using the product which includes, high quality, low price, social statement and relationship building. Majority of the members tend to develop a brand community that always desire and recommend the use of the product within the American society.

INTERNAL FACTORS
CONSUMER PERCEPTION
Perception can be seen as how individuals view things. In the US, cruise ship travel has been seen as something for the rich, and those who use it are also making a social statement at the same time.
Wine drinking and toasting is generally perceived in the America society as a priority and common for entertainment. This generally perceived idea influences consumer‟s behaviors, because each consumer wants to have the best quality wine while belonging to a social club as at the same time.

PRODUCTS POSITIONING
Product positions is a strategy used by marketers to achieve a defined brand image, relative to competition within a given market segment. The New York Times wine club uses pricing strategy to attract their consumers, by letting them know that they can have a quality wines at a lesser price. This changes consumer‟s behaviors and increase their chances of purchasing decision and desire to order the product and join the club as well.

MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY AND EMOTION
Motivation is the energizing forces that activates consumer behavior and provides purpose for the direction. Personality reflects to the common response that individuals make to a variety of reoccurring situation, while emotion is strong relative uncontrollable feelings that affect consumer behavior.
These three concepts are closely related and used together analyzing the internal factors that affects consumer behavior. They are three main factors that influence consumers to be motivated, this includes safety, health and status.

By convincing consumers that their products are made in a highly environmental way, the New York Times wine club tends to persuade consumers into buying good that are not harmful to the environment and this motivates consumers to make purchase and join the club. Individual personality and emotion also alters consumer behavior because different individuals have their own lifestyle.

2.1 FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS APPRAISAL – 7 UP SOFT DRINK

Packaging: the package performs two critical tasks which involves capturing attention and communicating meaningful messages. The colors are very environmental friendly, and the lemon picture on the body indicates that the lemon flavors used are biologically good. A detailed food contents which describes all the contents of the drink is also shown on the body, this delivers the message that 7up is a customer friendly company that has much concern over their customers health. The drink is enclosed in recyclable can, which send the message that customers should use recycled products and help maintain and eco-friendly environment.

Label: the products labels are very clear, stating the nutritious contents, brand name and expiry date of the product. This reduces the risk of any legal action which could be carried against the company because of unclear disclaimer or labeling.
Logo: the logo is made of a "7 "and an "Up" with a red spot between the 7 and up. This red spot represents a cool spot while the 7up represents ultimate value 7 times higher than any other soft
drink brand. This is a very powerful logo and even the red spot has been animated and used as a mascot for cool spot indicating that it is just the best drink to relax with.
Retail strategy: 7up is a world class brand name and they are normally found in the entrance space or refrigerators of any retail shops, and across all corners of the world where soft drinks are available.

2.1 FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS – GOLEAN CRUNCH CEREALS

Packaging: the packaging delivers a very clear message on ways of preparation, contents and nutrition values. It also provides company details, expiry date and food quantity. The packaging is very bright with clear message; a white color indicates the clean environments which the product was offered, while the chocolate color indicates the sweetness the cereal offer.
Label: concise and diffract messages describes the contents of the cereals, manufacturing company, direction for preparation and the weight of the cereal. The label is very nice and clear as well as attractive to the eyes with the white and chocolate color background.

Logo: the logo "Kashi" which appears in green color is attractive and with a healthy message of the fact that the product is manufactured in a green environment and has not harmful effects to the environment.
Retail strategy: the cereals are commonly found in the first section of shopping malls in Malaysia, and that makes decision process faster and forces some customer into impulse purchase with the attractive colors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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