Blog #5: Global, cultural and other diversity in advertising

Diversity. . . Where to start?
by Andrew Lehman

            As we all know, the world is filled with different people. Different people make up anything and everything we see. America for that matter is the epitome of diversity. No one is American. Everyone in this country has ancestors or they themselves are immigrants. The media for that matter really reflects the different minds that make advertisement unique but yet relevant to everyone, or at least the target audience.

            Take alcohol for that matter. Though commercials for this delicate item are slightly restricted, yet it’s one thing that always does well even if there is a depression, prohibition, or a recession. According to a graph done by CATO Institute, you’ll see alcohol consumption sky rocketing during the depression/prohibition and then when the prohibition/depression is over, it returned back to the normal level. Marketing alcohol is a simple yet complex subject, but the one thing it has is its no need of adversity. If you don’t drink however, this obviously does not apply to you. But nonetheless, everyone enjoys a cocktail or beer to take the edge off or socialize with friends. This is a market that will never be unsatisfied because of diversity due to the demand.

            Advertisement as a whole is getting to the point of, well, what the constitution states: “All men are created equal”. Although there have been ample incidents in the past of intolerance, I feel that race and or color of skin is becoming non important as far as advertisement and marketing to these groups. Although there is certain items that are strictly race related.

            Sports are a perfect example of adversity and its relevance to marketing to everyone. Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest day for commercials to show their stuff and pay an arm and a leg for thirty seconds of time on the television. Well let’s take a look at the audience: according to the Huff Post, 111 million people tuned in. That made it the most watched television program in history. That’s over a third of the population in the United States. That’s a lot of people, but better yet, that’s a lot of potential for advertisement and sales increase. So knowing that let’s look at the ethnicity of the players. One should know that there are all kinds of star football players from around the world. This gives you a perfect chance to get your product out to different races, and disbanding from one kind of person. I feel that sports by itself are a tremendously huge area of advertisement that has everything to do with diversity, and how they try and exceed their traditions and reach out to some different people.

            For a while now I’ve devising this plan on the mixing of nationalities and becoming one whole organism. The concept is quite simple but yet no one really notices it. It’s Music. Whether you actually realize it or not, music has such a wild impact on not only Americans but the whole world. AC/DC, Guns & Roses, The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, U2, and other big name bands are from different countries but yet you don’t think about it. Different minds from different places thinking all in one room towards a positive idea will and always will have an outcome that is sure to turn heads. We watched a program about diversity in the marketing world, almost everyone that was interviewed was of a different nationality. This I feel is a very important tool because when you have diversity you get a view from every angle and you can perfect your idea to appeal to everyone, and that is indeed the main goal.

            Diversity is a tricky thing, but when you have a way to achieve it and better yet take advantage of it, powerful and positive things can come of the ideas. Marketing is in a way overcoming diversity in an attempt to grab EVERYONES attention and not just one group of people.

Picture from:
https://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html

I also used:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/super-bowl-2011-ratings-s_n_819559.html

The power of advertisement

            As much as we get annoyed of constant advertisement, with all of the billboards, commercials, banners at the top, sides, bottom, and the middle of every website, and of course pages and pages of it in our favorite magazine. It’s very easy to forget the thoughts and ideas that go into each particular advertisement. Because of being bombarded with advertisements, we start to just feel annoyed and don’t pay much attention to them. One person who we’ve all heard plenty about within the last couple weeks, has time and time again taken his own ideas and made them into gold. The late Steve Jobs has undoubtedly had a role in the advertisement and marketing world that we know today.

“A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

Steve Jobs

            He is known for many famous quotes, but this one I feel gives you a look at his philosophy of how you have to be diverse in your marketing schemes. If I were to plant an apple orchard, I wouldn’t want to plant many of the same kind of apple. You’d need to plant as many different apples as you could. Then when they’re all ready for eating, you’d have many different apples to choose from. I derived this from his quote. The more dots (apples), you have, the dots to connect and have a very broad influence on the given matter. Meaning that apple had a great deal of products that not only appealed to a certain crowd, but to a huge amount of people.

           

            I also would like to point out how Steve Jobs’ eye sight worked. When he saw something people would want, he produced a product that not only met everyone’s expectations, but exceeded them in almost every aspect. I greatly admire, and look up to him for that. Because it’s one thing to program, research, develop and whatever countless steps there are to making a product, but he didn’t care about that. He just used his imagination and provided technology that will be aiding people in a lot of different aspects.

            I attended the Belle Plaine public school which is about an hour south of the twin cities, and it was nowhere near a large well funded school. I grew up using Mac computers, and it’s amazing to see how powerful getting people hooked at a young age can develop customer loyalty. The very first computer I ever used was a Mac, and from there on would demonstrate why I’m typing this blog on a Mac right now. Steve Jobs recognized the opportunity to not only get young kids hooked on his software, but he saw the chance to help schools out by helping the funds needed for their education with computers. I talked to Belle Plaines grant coordinator and she said that it’s really easy to get a grant with Apple. Which I feel is very enlightening because of how large a corporation they are.

           

All in all I feel that Steve Jobs, is THE most important and influential person in business and electronics the world has ever seen. It’s a shame to see him pass at the height of his career, but the weird part is that he was always at the height of his career, and for this he is recognized and looked up to so much.

Here is a site I used: http://www.ehow.com/how_2316088_get-grants-apple-computers.html

blog # 3

The champagne of beer

We’ve all seen those commercials of with the heavy set black guy, who goes around liquor stores and asks the proprietor of the establishment how much he’s selling Miller High Life for. If it’s too expensive he takes all the beer out of their cooler and continues to verbally punish them. If anyone has ever tasted a high life you’d know that, well, it’s not the best tasting beer in the whole world. So Miller of course will sell it cheaper than their other beers. So therefore they are making their liability of not tasting the best, into their strength of selling it cheaper.

Another way they are making their weakness better is carbonating the hell out of it. On the side of the bottle it even says their slogan, “the champagne of beer”. With comparing it to other beers I would agree, it really is the champagne of beer because of its carbonation. My thoughts on putting more carbonation in it are killing the flavor and making it. We’ve all tried to chug a soda to realize that your tongue is on fire. That’s from the bubbles, and I could see why they want it more carbonized for drinking it and then the taste will soon turn into a slight burn.

Another thing they are using to get their liability of a bad taste, into a positive issue, is appealing to a younger crowd. In the show and movies of Jackass, every beer you see them drink is miller high life. Is this a coincidence? I think not because I’m almost certain that they’re being endorsed by Miller. Also there aren’t many older people watching, it’s all pretty much the younger generations tuning in to see their crazy antics. And with appealing to younger audiences, the taste of the beer doesn’t really have that big of a role because younger beer drinkers don’t have that sophisticated of a palette because they haven’t experienced that much as far as tasting different beers.

Older people on the other hand are a different story with beer. Consumer loyalty is a key factor in beer choice. Let’s take my grandparents as an example. Every time I see them with a beer in their hand, they’re either drinking McMasters whiskey, or Milwaukee’s Best Light. For 20 years, that’s a lot of the same brand of beer, and I can name numerous people that stick to their favorite beer and that’s all that they drink. I think it somewhat has to do with the status of every beer. It’s kind of like a car, different brands relate to your social status. Like let’s take Chevrolet, they’re the backbone of America because, the buyer likes a good quality vehicle, but it’s not going to break the bank. I would consider them more upper middle class. The beer that they drink is probable either Miller Lite or Bud Lite. These beers have a lot of taste, but yet a case of it isn’t very expensive compared to other beers.

Miller High Life uses a lot of twists and bends in their advertisement by using they’re flaw into their strength. Funny commercials and the slogan of the beer is what got me hooked. In a lot of rap songs you hear about popping bottles of champagne, well I can’t afford champagne, so I just figure the next best thing is the champagne of beers. I will admit their advertisement has gotten me hooked, So I would consider it as being successful.