I know that I
usually post on Sundays, but with yesterday being a marketer’s dream in the
Super Bowl, it seems fitting to do a post about the Super Bowl commercials. It
also seems fitting because the commercials were about the only (at least
slightly) entertaining part of the Super Bowl. Congratulations to the Seahawks,
though, they really deserved that win. One more football related thought before
moving on to the marketing: why can I never escape the Eli Manning struggle
face as a Giants fan? They even showed it when he was not playing…sigh.
Anyways, I want to extend my apologies to those who looked for a post
yesterday. Hope this post makes up for it!
So in talking
about the Super Bowl commercials, I would like to approach them from the
perspective of the marketers. As a marketer, there are four very important
aspects to consider. These four parts, known as the four P’s, make up what is
called the marketing mix. The marketing mix is what a marketer can control in order
to influence consumers. The four P’s are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
For the sake of time and to get straight to the point, I have linked each of
the four P’s in the previous sentence to definitions from
businessdictionary.com that will hopefully help in your understanding. I am
going to analyze three different Super Bowl commercials that I found to be very
effective in light of the four P’s and their target markets.
*It is important
to note beforehand that most commercials will not necessarily incorporate
aspects from all four P’s. Most commercials will focus on one, maybe two P’s
and attempt to sell the consumer on those.
The first
commercial I want to address is the TurboTax commercial called “Love Hurts” (video below). The commercial brings up the concept that the Super Bowl is not actually a
national holiday because most of the people watching already saw their team
fail to reach the big game. This concept is then likened to watching your
“girl” with another guy (named Sean in this case, who is absolutely hilarious)
at senior prom. The commercial closes by showing how it is possible to make it
your holiday by getting a big refund using TurboTax. TurboTax’s target market
is very large in being everyone who is not a Broncos or Seahawks fan, but I
think that they were very successful in reaching them through the effective use
of product, price, and promotion. I would argue that TurboTax most effectively
used promotion and price because the company was able to appeal emotionally to
a large amount of people by showcasing a largely relatable experience while
also showing that the specific Federal FREE Edition service that they are
offering is completely free. The product aspect of the marketing mix was not
necessarily the strongest selling point of the advertisement, although it is
important.
The next
commercial that I am going to talk about is Chevrolet’s “Romance” commercial (video below).
Most of us are familiar with Chevy’s tough-guy pick ‘em up truck
advertisements, and this one starts no different (I was thinking: “Oh boy, here
we go again). It starts out with a man hauling a bull in a trailer with his
Chevy with narration pertaining to the man, but then the narration shifts its
focus to the bull. The bull, an “eligible bachelor,” is then released into a
pen full of cows to the narrator saying “Hello, ladies” as the commercial comes
to a close. Chevy’s target market for the Silverado pickup truck is no
different than the usual everyday working man, but the company places a
different spin on the ad. From a product standpoint, Chevy is able to exemplify
the extreme towing capacity feature of the Silverado by showing that it can
easily tow a bull in a large trailer. The comical spin on the commercial is
unexpected, making the ad even funnier and a good use of the promotional aspect
of the marketing mix. While it is funny, the humor does not distract from what
is being sold.
My personal
favorite commercial that I also found to be the most effective is the RadioShack (called “The Phone Call”) commercial (video below) that starts with the line, “The 80’s
called, they want their store back.” The commercial then moves on to show many
quintessentially 80’s folks like Hulk Hogan and the TV show character Alf
coming in and taking old radios and massive computer monitors. The commercial
ends with a transition to a present Radio Shack that has all of the latest
technology. The strongest aspect of this commercial comes with the promotion.
Most people who watch the Super Bowl lived through the 80’s and will be able to
relate to most of the cultural references made, which gives Radio Shack a leg
up. Including Radio Shack as one of the cultural references is certainly an
interesting idea, as the company then moves on to show that they are changing
with the times and becoming a hip store. There were no specific references to
product, price, or place in the ad, but the commercial did show that the
company does have a lot of contemporary technology products available.
All in all, I
felt that this year’s Super Bowl commercials were quite good. The successful
ones were able to appeal to emotion and/or showcase some sort of experience
that the product or service will provide. The unsuccessful ones, though, were
unable to do this because they did not focus enough of their efforts on aspects
of the marketing mix. I apologize for not getting to any of the commercials
that I thought were bad, but if you want to check them all out, here is a link
to Bleacher Report’s analysis of the commercials (videos included). Have a
great Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment