Nostalgia in Advertising

Using nostalgia as an emotional advertising technique has been seen in numerous trade publications as a highly effective and persuasive advertising tactic. The result is that we see nostalgic themes in many advertising campaigns. Advertisers use words, pictures, music or scenes to connect their brands. Many advertisers use the nostalgic feelings to evoke positive emotions to influence consumers’ attitudes and buying behavior. The use of nostalgia in advertising does arouse attention, is very entertaining, and is a persuasive tactic provoking nostalgic reflections in consumers. Besides the positive emotions, they also induce mental images of former situations and experiences that are also positive in nature. Nostalgic advertising brings out more positive emotions in consumers and more heartwarming images than non-nostalgic advertisements. The combination of the positive emotions and images evoked by the ads generate positive resonance toward both the ad and the product advertised.

It is the emotional response by consumers that advertisers want to hit the nostalgia appeal that generates a positive response on consumers’ attitude toward the ad itself. Nostalgic advertising is believed to have a positive effect on consumers’ attitude toward the product. Consumers’ judgment processes are influenced by nostalgia appeals. Nostalgic ads can stimulate imaginative recreations of the past that can be associated with the advertised product.

Nostalgic imagery cues (instructions) can evoke and enhance nostalgic mental images that are related to the advertised product.

·         Re-live the moment…

·         Remember when…

·         It was a time like no other…

·         Using a specific date from the past

When consumers experience nostalgia in a consumer base aspect, they have a higher purchase likelihood with regard to the advertised products and to especially favor nostalgia-related products. It even shows more persuasive influence on consumers. Nostalgia advertising appeals are especially appropriate for emotional products because the positive response to them can enhance the other positive emotions generated by the product itself.

Harley Community

Brand community is defined as an enduring self-selected group of consumers that share a system of values, standards and representations (a culture) and recognizing bonds of membership with each other and with the whole. Brand communities are characterized in shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility. These communities are formed on the basis of attachment to a product or marque. In marketing and advertising brand communities try to connect brands, individual identity and culture. When people take a closer look in consumer behavior, the concept of a brand community focuses on the connections between consumers.

            Harley Davidson is the perfect company that encompasses loyal brand communities. To Harley Davidson their brand community is a business strategy. The brand, itself, had developed as a community-based phenomenon throughout America. The “brotherhood” of riders, united by a shared passion for the bikes, offered Harley the basis for a business strategy as the unique motorcycle manufacturer that understood bikers on their own terms. To reinforce this community position and connection themselves between the company and its customers, Harley staffed all community-outreach events with employees rather than hired hands. For employees, close contact with the consumers they served added meaning to their work that the weekend outreach assignments routinely attracted more volunteers than were needed. Many employees became riders, and many riders joined the company. Executives were required to spend time in the field with customers and bring their insights back to the firm. This close-to-the-customer strategy was codified in Harley-Davidson’s operating philosophy and reinforced during new-employee orientations. Decisions at all levels were grounded in the community perspective, and the company acknowledged the community as the rightful owner of the brand. Consumers now have the mindset “Harley Davidson does not make motorcycles. They make Harleys…”

Coca Cola vs Diet?

Diet Coke was introduced in 1982. To advertise the new product, Coca Cola used an American film production and distribution company Columbia Pictures for product placement, guaranteeing that actors would be chugging Diet Coke for decades to come. Because Diet Coke did so well in the market the company tried to reinvent themselves by introducing other products. There was 2005's Coke Zero, which was the same as Diet Coke. Coke Zero was meant to appeal to men who were too embarrassed to drink a sissy weight loss beverage like all those weight-obsessed ladies out there. But no one bought Coke Zero. Then, in 2007, Diet Coke launched Diet Coke Plus with vitamins and minerals. People didn't want vitamins in their drink. But it did not mean that those campaigns did not work in other areas of the world. It was appropriate that Coca Cola utilized different strategies in Europe and Australia. Since cultures are different around the world some marketing strategies will naturally work better in at some countries then others.

While Diet Coke was created with its own flavor profile and not as a sugar-free version of the original, Coca-Cola Zero aims to taste just like the "real Coke flavor." Despite their polar opposite advertising campaigns, the contents and nutritional information of the two sugar-free colas is nearly identical. To market the product of Coke Zero, Coca cola introduced a fake blog called: The Zero Movement. This website gave a push for the product because it fit the concept of guerilla marketing which was the first anyone had seen from the company. But once the blog was discovered by many that it was 'fake', the success of Coke Zero came to a standstill. Although blogging about Coke Zero was a great marketing strategy for a while, angering the target market by producing a fake blog to, somewhat, manipulates the market was overall not a great strategy.

In the business world there are many product success and product failures. Ben-Gay Aspirin is one product that is a great example of product failure. Having such a big and recognizable name behind a new product does not always guarantee success. As a product, Ben-Gay is known for its distinct smelling, pain-relieving balm with a warm sensation when it hits the skin. But trying to combine the name on Ben-Gay and aspirin did not sit well with consumers. To them Ben-Gay is known as s pain relieving balm not an oral pill. The product is too well as a product for pain relief, people just couldn't get a taste for swallowing something made a brand they associated with a burning sensation. Ben-Gay made the fatal mistake of attaching a recognizable brand name to something totally out of character.

Obama 2012

During the presidential elections of 2008 I was seventeen and was not able to exercise my right to vote. It made me angry I was not old enough to vote because I believe in Obama so much. By now you know that I am a democrat and most of my family is as well. What I had believed in the most from what Obama promised in 2008 was that he advocated universal health care. But throughout these first four years Barack Obama has been in office I have become frustrated because the Bill that was passed was not anything close to what was promised to us originally. Some other ‘accomplishments’ that President Obama promised the citizens of America also came a bit short in my opinion. The DREAM Act didn't even come close to what I originally thought it was going to be! All I saw was the Bush era tax cuts that we have seen before being renewed and put into place. That basically insulted the middle class that, ultimately, gave him the presidency. Guantanamo Bay was still operational, equal marriage was still not spoken for; so many short comings have been done I thought I was done supporting Barack Obama and vote for Ron Paul so Marijuana can be legalized and I could become a hippy and not care about politics!

But with elections coming up I had to rethink to myself…

It has always been said that democrats and progressives always tend to have a ‘glass-half-empty’ mentality and knowing myself I always do that. I, like most democrats, have dwelled so much on the little disappointments Obama has given us rather than celebrate the major accomplishments. We forgot what Obama had to face when taking over the presidency…Two Wars and a near Great Depression! Even the god of all presidents Bill Clinton probably could not get us out of this mess if he was president. He even admitted it at the Democratic National Convention 2012!

 

 “No president, no president — not me or any of my predecessors, no one, could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years. But he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy, of shared prosperity, and if you renew the President’s contract you will feel it. You will feel it.” – Bill Clinton

Here are the three main reasons I will vote for Obama in 2012:

1. Obama has accomplished a whole lot more than we liberals give him credit for.

• In 2010 in  an interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama noted, "I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign, and here I am, halfway through my first term, and we've probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do … So I think that it is very important for Democrats to take pride in what we've accomplished."

2. Since President Obama took office is that the state of the economy and the state of Washington were even worse than we knew in 2008.

• It's easy to give up on Obama because he was supposed to change Washington. But that view places all the blame on Obama, but not on Congress and the Republicans. The delays, cloture votes, and obstruction that has taken place in the Senate has been ridiculous. Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) famously openly stated that Republicans' priority is to defeat President Obama, rather than to legislate. Against these odds, President Obama's accomplishments should be more notable!

3. President Obama quite simply has a better long-term vision for the country than Romney or Paul.

• President Obama’s domestic policy goals: infrastructure spending, green energy initiatives, investing in education, a new energy policy that doesn't rely on fossil fuels, regulation of the financial industry, laws to protect workers, and taxes to boost the middle class.

 Vote Obama 2012! 

Racial Stereotypes in Advertising

Stereotypes is “…a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” Stereotypes have been found to exist in many different races, cultures or ethnic groups. Advertising agencies uses stereotyping to reach out to their target audiences. Although using other stereotypes (demographic, gender, age, etc.) is socially accepted by society, racial stereotyping walks the borderline in advertising. In the past, advertising was extremely racist and was almost accepted by society, but in modern times, that attitude has changed. There are still traces of this outdated mindset that focuses on clichés and stereotypes. Even though conditions have improved and people are more likely to criticize racism, inappropriate marketing strategies still have found their way into the public eye.

There are many racial stereotypes that society follows and advertisers use those stereotypes to develop a shorthand method of defining characters in ways that are easy for people to identify and categorize in their ads. What these stereotypes all have in common is that they reduce to a one-sided view of a group of people.

Here are some examples:

·         White People Don’t Have Rhythm

·         African Americans Are Good at Sports

·         All Asians Eat Rice

·         Hispanics Don’t Speak English Very Well or Not at All

·         Middle Easterners Hate America

·         White People Are All Racist

These stereotypes are judgments that assign negative qualities to other groups. But because society thinks some are funny these stereotypes tend to repeat and become normal. Repetition tends to normalize stereotypes, because repeating stereotypes validates and perpetuates them. Because stereotypes often contain a somewhat the truth (they may be characteristic of some or many members of a group) they are widely accepted as the truth.

Advertising today is more sensitive to issues of culture and gender than it once was, but the creation and common misconceptions about groups of people continues. Oversimplified and inaccurate portrayals have affected how we perceive one another, how we relate to one another and how we value ourselves.