End of Semester Reflections

Being a junior, I'm getting closer and closer to entering the real world. And before this class, I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to do in the business world. I just entered the CARS department with a vague idea of fashion and retailing. After being exposed to the marketing side, I've actually come to enjoy it. Taking this class has definitely opened up my eyes to what's around me. Now, I'll watch tv with a different perspective or read magazines more actively and pay attention to the ads just as much as I do to the articles. The process that goes behind an advertisement is just fascinating to me. Who knew so much work went into a one page spread in a magazine or a thirty second commercial? Who knew that it took so much work to figure out what appeals to the consumer most and how you can motivate them to buy your product? This class has taught me all of those things and more, and I've come to realize that I'd love to have a part in that process. The challenge of figuring out the who, what, where and why just seems so exciting. I'm sure the knowledge I've gained over the past semester will be invaluable to me and I'll be able to continue to use it throughout the rest of my college days and into my professional life.

BBC and The New York Times

It seems like there are ton of different ways to get information these days, whether it be online, in the newspaper, or on television. I prefer watching CNN, the local news, or going online to Greensboro News and Record for information about what is going on in the world. Until this class I’d never even heard of the BBC. The website seems rather bland to me, something about the layout and the color scheme makes it look like an un-creditable source of information. Even though it does have the same information as most other websites and news shows, something about the appearance isn’t very eye catching, which doesn’t make me what to continue to look at the stories on the site. I also never really look at the New York Times, for information either. However, after looking at the site and reading some of the stories I did like it, as far as seeming like a creditable and reliable source. I mean it is a well known name, so I know it’s a good source for information, but not just one I’m interested in using. I’ll stick to CNN.com or USAtoday.com.

New York Times and BBC

Personally, I'd much rather get my news from an actual newspaper, as reading from a computer usually gives me headaches. But being a college student, I often find myself pressed for time, so getting news online proves to be the most efficient way. I've never actually visited the BBC website before and rarely do I visit the New York Times. Mostly I'll just hop onto CNN whenever I get a free chance. But after viewing both of their websites, they each seem very informative and rival CNN. Both offer news that appeal to everyone, they have the top headlines and business news that many professionals like to keep up to date on, but also they each offer entertainment and sports news as well. One of the things I noticed on the BBC site is that they offer their news in 33 languages. Which I think is amazing. It makes their news site much more accessible to those who don't speak english very well or even at all. I think, in my opinion, I view the New York Times website as being targeted more towards our part of the world while BBC is trying to reach out to everyone.

HP Commercial

I'm sure many of you guys remember this commercial. Before HP started using the celebrities in their commercials like Gwen Stefani and Vera Wang, these are what I remember. I thought they were extremely clever and I always enjoyed watching them when they came on TV. It demonstrated the creativity of HP and how it's customers can capture those moments with their HP camera. It showed the fun aspect of taking pictures and how HP can help you and how it can be really easy to capture all those fun moments of life. It was a very successful and effective advertisement. It related to its customers by showing people in everyday life and how HP can become part of your life. It showed that HP can be for everyone.
But also while being an effective advertisement, it was also just visually pleasing. I'm sure that there are many others that enjoyed this commercial. It helped to create a brand in the consumers minds, and when the commercial aired everyone knew that it was for HP. It helped to create a very memorable brand and now most everyone knows of HP. I'd like to think that it all started with this commercial and now HP is becoming known as an innovator in their products as well as their extremely clever and entertaining commercials.

Budweiser Frogs

I've always enjoyed a good advertisement. Especially those that always stick out in your mind. One of those happens to be the old Budweiser commercials with the talking frogs. I'm sure many of you remember seeing it. I thought it was a very clever, and effective commercial. The humor of the frogs repeating each syllable was very memorable and the frogs soon became associated with the Budweiser brand. It was a very simple advertisement, with no much other than the frogs talking. But since Budweiser is such a recognizable brand, that's pretty much all the commercial needed. I think if much more was added, it would have been too much. I think that as Budweiser is a classic beer, this commercial will always be a classic in the consumers minds. I'll always remember the frogs and Budweiser, as I'm sure many others will also.

What in the world is a Yahoo Avatar?

This is completely new to me...I'm usually pretty up to date on all the online stuff, but I had never even heard of a Yahoo Avatar until now. It took me a little bit to figure out how to use it, I just started clicking and before you knew it I was wearing a hot outfit standing in a sushi restaurant. Since I've been sick the past few days it nice to create an image of what I would like to be doing if I felt better. I think it is neat how you can create different moods and images and scenes for yourself.
However I think this would have been really fun for me it I was younger. I don't really do the online chatting thing anymore, not that there is anything wrong with it, but I mostly just use my computer for school work, and checking my e-mail. It's my last year of college and I really have to stay focused on what I am doing when I'm using the computer. This neat little program would be something I could get off track and be distracted with. I think that a good target market for this item would be high school kids, especially girls. Since chatting online is really popular with that age group, I could see them using this tool as a way to express themselves. Honestly for me, the characters seemed to be too much of a cartoon like figure for my interest.
It’s a neat idea; it’s just not for me:)

~Renee

"Healthy" Models

In today's fashion industry, there is a lot of controversy over the size of runway models. How thin is too thin? Would introducing bigger size models take away from the glamour of the show? Is that what people really want to see? These are all questions that have been argued over for a long time, and will probably continue until we see a change.
Clearly, the size of most fashion models are borderline unhealthy. But in my opinion, I think the thinner frame contributes more to the fashion than the frame of an average size ten woman. The runway show is a chance for the designer to present their lines, and the clothes should be the main focus, not the girl wearing them. Therefore, a clean, generic canvas is required to make the clothes stand out. Clothes just seem to fall better on skinnier frames. It makes the whole show more uniform and less, for lack of a better term, sexual. Yes, an average woman has curves, and women these days are embracing them rather than trying to hide them. But certain cuts on clothing can lend themselves to more of a revealing, sexy look instead of the haute couture image many of the designers are going for.
I agree that healthier looking models should be introduced into this industry, but I believe there should be a limit to their size. I think that a size two or four would be sufficient enough without taking away from the high fashion, uniformity look of the show. Hopefully in the future we will see a little bit of change, as clearly this image of stick thin girls are not healthy for the models themselves and also for young girls that look up to and admire them.
America's body image is slowly taking a turn as many women are learning to love their bodies that they were born with and to not hide away their flaws. I'd like to see a little bit of this filter into the fashion industry. But I still do believe there should be a limit as to how much actually does change.

Pedigree Commercial

Pedigree Commercial

Ok, I don't know how many of you own a dog, but this commercial may make you want one. I remember the first time I saw this commercial it almost brought tears to my eyes. That may seem a little silly to some people. But being a dog lover, and the owner a spoiled Yorkshire terrier, it makes me so sad to think there are dogs out their without a home. We haven't really talked much in class yet about how commercials can affect you emotionally, but I feel like some of them do. Pedigree hit the nail on the head, when trying to win over consumers by playing with their emotions. Between the background music, the tone of the announcer's voice, and the sad look in those dogs’ eyes, it really makes you think. I know that even though I am not in the position to adopt another dog (my boyfriend would kill me) at least we do buy pedigree and its good to know that a portion of that money is going towards homeless dogs. As a consumer who has so many different choices when it comes to do food, I gotta say pedigree has won me over.

So what do you think?

Do you feel like pedigree is playing with your emotions through this commercial?

How did it make you feel?

Target Market: Right or Wrong?

A while back, there was a Truth commercial that showed the guy in a booth similar to a homemade lemondae stand, but instead of selling lemonade he was selling cigarettes. Painted all over his booth were brightly colored appetizing words describing the many flavors. The commercial then goes to show children walking up the booth, thinking that he was selling something delicious. He simply responds with 'Sorry kids. These are for adults'. This ad made me think about the target market of this industry. Who are they trying to reach out to? Adults are not going to be excited about fruity flavored cigarettes. More than likely, who's going to be excited are the young adults in the range of eighteen to mid-twenties - or even those younger than eighteen. How many ads have you seen that the company seems to be selling their product to the wrong target market? It happens more often than you think.
Often alcohol commercials give off a fun and exciting vibe, saying 'If you drink this beverage, you'll be this cool too'. Many adults who of age to drink do not consider this fact when they run out to the store to purchase a case of beer. The ones who think of this 'cool factor' are the ones that aren't yet legal and are still drinking because it's 'cool'. So why would a company want to target their product to the wrong market?
In my opinion, especially with cigarettes and alcohol, I feel like the companies are trying to work their way in to the younger consumers lives and hope that maybe it'll create a lasting relationship between the consumer and the product. I would just like to see classier ads that are reaching out to the correct audience, rather than feeling like I'm being taken advantage of because of my youth.
-Heather

Offensive Ads???

Yay my first blog, bare with me I’m new at this. So, it didn’t take me long to come up with something to discuss for this blog! After class today and our discussion about the Old Navy ad that Anamarie had pointed out, I started thinking about what other ads could be out there that people have found offensive? So I hopped on the search engine Google, and it didn’t take long to see the results of my search which I titled, “offensive ads”. One of the first results was from a USA today editorial, titled Offensive Ad’s. As I began reading the article, which was published in 2003, I remembered exactly what it was referring to. I am sure everyone remembers the year Abercrombie and Fitch came out with the thong underwear for young girls, but it wasn’t just any underwear, it had slogans on it like “eye candy” printed on it. As the article continues it also talks about the ads posted in store windows, which shows a 14 year old girl topless from the waist up, her arms and hands being the only thing covering her chest. The articles discusses how many groups had protested the products and the ad’s, however Abercrombie refused to pull the products and the spokesperson for Abercrombie, Hampton Carney, (and I quote from the article) insists the thong was "totally appropriate" for children. Now maybe it’s just me from the words thong and children don’t even belong together in the same sentence!!!

But enough about that particular situation, because at first I was like no surprise Abercrombie has offended someone again, but then when I read the statement by the Abercrombie spokesperson I was a little disgusted. So where am I going with all this, after all that was 2003. My question to you is do you think Abercrombie has improved there advertising much since then, and if not why do they continue to be so successful? This isn’t the first time they’ve created controversial ads. So how is it that they continue to upset people, but remain such a well known brand?

-Renee

Store Brand vs. Name Brand

Every morning, thousands of people across the country pass through the doors of their local Starbucks and pick up their daily caffeine fix. Starbucks is a nationally recognized coffee chain offering a wide variety of gourmet coffee drinks. However, some may argue that their coffee is no better than the diner down the street of that little mom and pop place just around the corner. So how come people are willing to shell out two or three times more money for the same, or better, quality coffee?
Consumers today are finding themselves paying way more money than what's necessary, simply for a specific brand name. How many times have you found yourself standing in an aisle at Target, trying to decide between two almost identical products? However, one product is Target brand, while the other is not. Most of the time in my case, I would choose the store brand because I'm a poor college student and the store brand can be up to a dollar or two cheaper. But there are those brands that I, as well as many other consumers, gravitate towards, despite the higher price. This is because we have been trained to believe that store brand products are lower in quality than the name brands. One of the reasons why we may have these false beliefs is because of the lack of advertising that supports the store brand products. But in reality, most store brand products are comparable to their name brand counterparts.
So take a chance and buy those store brand products for once. Not only will you be saving some money but they just might surprise you. And if the fact that the label doesn't say a name brand, just close your eyes and I'll bet that you won't even be able to tell a difference!
-Heather