Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
The Scarcity Principle
In psychology, the Scarcity Principle describes the urge to purchase, gather, or obtain something that a person feels that they may not be able to get in the future. Part of this urge stems from the need to ensure we have what we need to survive. We also tend to value things either rare or that we cannot have, but the pleasure principal also addresses the need to feel in control. By obtaining something that is difficult to get we demonstrate an ability to control our environment. This need to control is not just about self-worth, but also about "keeping up with the Jones'."
The Perception of Value is Just as Important as Actual Value
In post-war Japan, it was illegal to important diamonds until 1959. Diamonds were not highly prized by the Japanese as it was not a part of Japanese tradition to give diamond engagement rings. But in 1968 ad campaigns depicting thin, attractive Caucasian women wearing diamond rings flooded Japanese magazines. The ads conveyed the message that women who had diamonds epitomized western wealth.
Within the next thirteen years, Japanese consumers became the second largest purchasers of diamonds. By creating the perception that having a diamond ring was something reserved for the wealthy, the Scarcity Principle came into play, and the demand for diamonds soared. In order to continue the perception of the rarity of diamonds, another marketing ploy had to be developed.
Controlling Supply and Demand Stimulates the Scarcity Principle
Diamonds are not rare. The number of diamonds on the market at any given time is carefully controlled by only a handful of companies, including the De Beers company. These companies purchase the bulk of all diamonds and then control their availability. By making it harder to purchase diamonds, even though not rare in nature, they have become even more desirable.
This clever and sophisticated marketing ploy has worked since the 1960s. But the diamond industry took this control one step further. In order to keep diamond owners from reselling them, thereby creating less of a demand as more diamonds would become available, massive ad campaigns continue to associate diamonds with romance, sentiment, and the slogan “diamonds are forever,” in an effort to curtail the resale of privately owned diamonds.
When Scarce is “Too Scarce”
Simply controlling the amount of product available does not necessarily mean higher value or higher sales volume. Retailers know this, and limit the number and type of items on sale at any given time so that sales themselves do not seem as common place.
This limiting of “scarce” can be seen in sale ads that offer phrases such as “limited time only,” “while supplies last,” or even by limiting the number of items that will be produced “never to be produced again when supplies are gone.”
Banning and Censorship Creates Artificial Value and Stimulates Public Interest
Books, movies, even video games, that are banned or censored become taboo – something we cannot or should not have. This stimulates increased desire and interest in the item being banned. Evidence of this can be seen in prohibition laws the lead to an increase in the demand for alcohol far more significant than when alcohol was legal.
Other examples include government or war-time rationing, restricting the types of music, Internet, and movies your child is permitted to access, and even dieters who try to avoid certain foods altogether. When someone perceives that they are being denied something, it generally makes them want it more.
”Keeping up with the Jones” - Using Social Envy to Market Products
Because we tend to compare ourselves to others, we often want what others have, or, to have something even better. Many companies exploit this desire, which falls under the realm of the Scarcity Principle, by associating their products with social status reserved for the few.
This type of advertising is often seen in high-priced luxury items including cars, upscale travel arrangements and accommodations, and even in hair care products “costs more, but you’re worth it.”
If you can successfully create an aura of envy associated with your product or service, consumers will want it all the more – especially, if the item is already limited and a sudden increase in sales creates an even scarcer product.
The Pleasure Principle
The term “Pleasure Principle” is attributed to being coined by Sigmund Freud but has nothing to do with dream interpretation. This principle asserts that people will pursue pleasure instead of, or to avoid pain. Nowhere can this concept be seen more applicable in marketing than in the diet and fitness industry.
How many ads have you seen that suggest rapid results without pain? Very few advertising campaigns use the “no pain no gain” approach. Not that “pain” does not work when applied well (think Nike and Propel Fitness Water).
Simply put, most consumers want something that offers pleasure or satisfaction for little pain or sacrifice; something that simplifies an otherwise difficult task which includes physical, educational, and psycho-social tasks. The Pleasure Principal, although not exactly the same thing, might also be oversimplified by saying people want to “work smarter, not harder” to achieve goals that give them pleasure and satisfaction in the fastest way possible.
According to Freud, the opposite of the Pleasure Principle is the Reality Principle. This principle allows us to put off seeking gratification until later if the reality of our circumstances dictates it is better to use do so.
Business owners need to find ways to prevent the Reality Principle from overriding the Pleasure Principle. Advertising drives consumers to make impulse shopping decisions to get their business in the moment. However, it is vital to your long-term success that you do not exploit customers in the process of securing a transaction.
Marketing Strategy Questions
- How can my product or service help someone achieve an end with less effort involved?
- How can I make people feel good about their purchase?
- How can I present my product or service in a way that encourages the “pleasure” mindset of consumer that supports the “reality” mindset without taking advantage of customers?
Marketing Ideas Based on The Pleasure Principle
Tell, or demonstrate, how your product of service will improve the lives of your customers, and how good it will make them feel. But do not just stop at “cuts time in half,” also state what consumers might do with that time such as “have more time for your family.” And, by simply using your product, something a consumer would ordinarily do, are they getting something rewarding from the experience? Does your product help the environment? Give a portion of sales to a charity of choice? What, for no extra effort, do pleasure-seekers gain from choosing your business over another?
Be careful not to make a product sound as if the buyer will have to do nothing at all. Total substitution or automation does not completely meet the needs of the Pleasure Principle. To receive pleasure, your consumers still need to feel that they were a part of the experience; otherwise, it becomes too impersonal to capitalize on the Pleasure Principle.
An example of making things too easy is exemplified in an interesting marketing catastrophe in the baking mix industry. In the 1980s, to help busy working women, several types of baking mixes were mass-marketed that only required that water be added. The advertising campaigns boasted quick and easy results – “just add water.” Sales immediately dropped. But when one additional step was added back in, “add an egg,” sales returned.
Why? Because when something is too easy, consumers are deprived of the pleasure of self-satisfaction from doing something – even if they actually do very little at all.The danger of using stereotypes
The Psychology of Buyers: Customers Have Needs and Feelings
Consumers first and foremost are individuals. The more you see and treat customers like individuals, the more loyal they will be to your business.
You cannot peg individuals into mass impersonal groups based on stereotypes. For example, do not assume that all retirees are interested in gardening, all women are interested in buying shoes, or all men are sports-crazy. These are examples of stereotyping groups of people that can lead to disastrous results in advertising and marketing.
Research supports that mass stereotyping groups of people does not work in the development and marketing of business ideas. Although many corporations still try to capitalize on stereotypes, this line of thinking simply does not work as effectively as the old “mom and pop country store” approach to business: Getting to know your customers as intimately as possible.
If grouping populations like cattle into marketing niches worked, why would major corporations still continue to invest so heavily into studying consumer habits and demographics? If this type of marketing philosophy worked well then anyone with a great business idea could make it simply by targeting. Obviously, this is not so.
Stereotype Myths
For example, stereotype marketing ideologies might focus too much on one group and ignore another equally, or even more important. For example, target only kids for (non-PC) video games and lose access to millions of customers. Nearly a quarter of all video games are purchased by consumers aged 40 and older, and 38% of all video game sales are made by women.
In fact, even when it comes to “men’s” products including sports items and expensive cars, women still spend more than men. According to a study in part conducted by WomenCertified, a women’s consumer advocacy and retail training organization, women spend $4 trillion annually, accounting for 83% of all U.S. Consumer spending – or, an astounding two-thirds of the nation’s gross national product.
Another case in point: Senior citizens have become the fastest-growing population in the United States.; however, mass marketing to seniors has remained somewhat elusive. Several pioneers in the senior marketing industry note that age alone has little to do with the interests of senior consumers. Those who have attempted to cash in on the senior population, simply lumping retirees together by age, have failed, and miserably so.
When it comes to advertising, “marketing” studies that offer only cold statistics may play less of a role than you think in developing successful marketing strategies and advertising campaigns.
Customers can be your best or worst source of advertising. Word of mouth referrals, especially in the age of the Internet, should not be undervalued. And, since consumers are more likely to complain than to compliment, it pays to have customer-friendly and trustworthy complaint resolution practices in place.
It pays to see your customers as individuals, with common needs, but not as groups who, because of stereotype images, have lemming-like behaviors when it comes to making purchases.
Going Ape
"…so to summarise I believe the idea for Cadbury's Gorilla (and this is subjective and not the law, if you can support your idea then it’s valid – that’s the beauty of advertising analysis) is that Cadbury's are more generous with their milk content than any other chocloate bar, therefore they use that generosity in their advertising by giving the public 90 seconds of entertainment. In order to execute this, the advertising is be as enjoyable as eating chocolate so to have a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins is not only random but funny and therefore enjoyable. The rationale for this being that Cadbury's Dairy Milk has reached a peak in terms of awareness, everyone knows it exists, therefore there isn't a need for a hard sell but to create an emotional affinity with the product, to have positive values attributed to the product. Therefore this ad is there to entertain and engage audiences with Cadbury Dairy Milk via a completley different TV advertising model - almost branded content if you will (that's a different post)."
Source: http://adgrads.blogspot.com/2007/09/real-planning-school-of-web-critique.html
"
Cadbury’s TV Commercial featuring the drum playing gorilla is a wonderful, and now much awarded piece of creative. But it’s not perfect advertising by a long shot.
1) It grabs attention. Tick.
2) It’s worth watching, over and over. Tick.
3) People do realise it is for Cadbury. Tick. The brand is far from being the star but the commercial creates tension “what’s this all about ?” which makes people look for the brand, and fortunately Cadbury do own a distinctive asset in the colour purple (shown in the background behind the Gorilla). So the branding does work, at least in Cadbury dominant countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It would be far less effective elsewhere.
4) It refreshes and/or builds appropriate memory structures that make the brand easier to come to mind of be noticed in buying situations. Ahh, no. This is the commercial’s BIG weakness. It builds a link between Cadbury and the Gorilla, and few of us think of gorillas when in potential chocolate buying situations. Perhaps today when people think of gorillas (e.g. at the zoo) they are more likely to think of eating a Cadbury chocolate bar but that’s going to make a trivial effect on sales.
That’s why the TV commercial has not been a roaring sales success. It’s played its little part in helping Cadbury recover from the lows of its salmonella contamination but the brand was already bouncing back before ‘the Gorilla Ad’.
So what Cadbury needs to do is get its gorilla, a distinctive asset they now own, close to purchase situations. And I now see that they are - see below for a photo from my local supermarket. The competition is just an excuse to get the gorilla into a prominent position close to the chocolate display (or at least I hope the marketers realise this is the important objective).
PS If anyone tells you that the Gorilla ad works for the brand because it taps the brand’s core essence of joy run from the psychobabble."
Source: http://byronsharp.wordpress.com/
People as a rule don’t mind being advertised to, we’ll freely sit in a pub and chat about fantastic Guinness commercials, but we do mind being interrupted by 30 seconds of stuff not fit for our u-bends. Engaging with someone’s emotions in a fresh way is the key. But this doesn’t mean we have to create something bizarre and entirely new every time:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Pv2_sc4kQ,
It’s often about the context you place something in. The following advert transposes a rather average conversation about mobile phone bills into a super-villain cartoon, which suddenly (with the addition of the smartest written dialogue around) into something spectacular:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ2NcFAn_e0&feature=related
The now legendary Dunlop commercial is just a road test for tyres advert, but rather than using crash test dummies, test tracks and oil slicks the viewer is taken to a very surreal place indeed.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWWtgqDG2M
We all love to post-rationalize adverts and in our search for the secret formula all we are doing is creating formulas which are ultimately counterproductive to the very thing that makes a great ad great – how different it is.
Source: http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.1974
Also...
http://debbidoo.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/cadbury-gorilla-ad-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n24312871
http://wannabeadman.blogspot.com/2007/09/never-mind-brand-bollocks-heres.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_(Cadbury)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/11/cadburyschweppesbusiness.advertising
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