The Umbrella of Advertisements and Emotional Branding - Coursework Example

?Critical outcomes of assignments and 2 and profile for assignment 3 Critical outcomes of assignments 1 and 2 and profile for assignment 3 This essay looks at the umbrella of advertisements and emotional branding and narrows down in focus towards looking at how for these advertisements and branding efforts, the target markets are defined, their pros and cons and the main ideas put forward by these brands in their ads. Specifically, this paper talks about the importance and critical effect on the practical side of things of using an emotional appeal when branding a product or advertising it. Further, it looks at how advertisements are used as a medium to put forth this image of the brand or product that the company has cultivated, so that the target market can relate to it, form an emotional bond with it and finally and most essentially, be motivated to purchase that particular brand or product. When we look at the three advertisements in question, namely BMW, Nike and Adidas, there are strengths and weaknesses that are projected, related to how these brands are advertised. For instance, in the BMW adverts, the positive side displays confidence, vitality, style; a product that is coveted by others who don’t have it. While on the downside, it directly attacks a rival brand (Audi) by implying that it is inferior and thus may displease the consumer segment who own or prefer Audis at present. What remains to be seen as the most important point though, is that throughout the advertisement an effort is made to establish an emotional connection between the end consumer or the target market and the brand. This is done by projecting the brand image in such a way that people who own BMWs feel proud of their purchase and people who don’t, but aspire to purchase a BMW covet the brand for the luxury it is posed as and the glamour it will bring to their lives when they do eventually purchase it. Kotler (2000) says that a brand can be defined as “the name, associated with one or more items in the product line, that is used to identify the source of character of the item”, elaborating this point, Keller (2003) says that then, essentially, “whenever a marketer creates a new name, logo, or symbol for a new product, he or she has created a brand”. This holds true when practically examined as well. Every now and then, companies are coming up with new brands, each with its own identity and image, each portraying a different color and image and each creating a separate emotional bond with its target market. Branding thus becomes a critical component of a particular product’s strategy (Kotler, 2000). The importance leant to the brand is due to the fact that this is the part of the product that will be actually communicated to the target market, in essence the marketers will use the brand to create and allure for the customers and pique their interest to reel them in. however, in the highly competitive market that firms operate in, in this day and age, only creating a brand is not sufficient. To be successful, a brand must “create a strong and distinctive image” (Kohli and Thakor 1997) which means that it is essential for a brand to define its unique selling point or its factor of differentiability. Kapferer (1997), says that a brand has eight functions to complete; identification, that is to be able to be easily identified by its target market, practicality, that is to be economical to guarantee a repurchase, guarantee, that is to be quality consistent, optimization, that is to be the category/market leader, characterization, that is to build a strong brand image and identity, continuity, that is to provide continued satisfaction, be hedonistic, that is create an attraction and allure and be ethical, that is socially responsible in actions and implications. Ghodeswar (2008) says that building a brand from the ground up takes time, the most important thing to focus on is differentiability of the brand so that the customers can forge a bond with the brand that they will come to treasure and value. Brand associations help a brand establish its image or identity in the market. “While some customers may attach greater importance to functional bene?ts, emotional value helps the brand stand above others”. When communicating the brand to the target market, the promotion or advertising media need to reflect some tangible factors like functionality and some intangible factors like imagery. The use of emotional appeal is extremely important in building a strong and lasting connection with the end consumer. Taking emotional branding a step further, we look at McEwen (2004) who says that humans are emotional creatures and it does not take long to figure out that things that are alluring to humans have in them an emotional appeal or connection. Making an emotional appeal to your target market helps you establish a competitive edge over rivals in the market by lending to your brand or product a factor of differentiation. Often, companies use celebrities in their advertisements to promote their brand image and to form an emotional connection with the section of the audience who like or aspire to be like that certain celebrity. Using this as leverage, they use the celebrity as a brand ambassador to lend to their brand some glitz and glamour which will help consumers covet the brand like they covet the celebrity’s lifestyle, because as soon as the celebrity endorses the product, it becomes part of his/her personality and people who follow that celebrity are highly likely to be motivated to purchase that brand. Schlecht (2003), talks about the impact of using celebrities in advertisements when branding a product. According to her work, celebrities can be used as spokespeople and as a symbol of attractiveness and credibility to promote the brand in question. However, just using a famous figure to promote your brand does not guarantee success; the celebrity has to relatable to the brand and once attached to the brand must work to enhance its image, not pose as alien or unrelated to it. For example, when Whitney Houston was used to promote AT&T, the promotion attempts failed because consumers failed to see a relatable link between her and what the brand stood for. For example in the case of BMW, the brand has created for itself a distinctive image which is easily recognizable when one sees its logo anywhere. This image of BMW is cultivated through its adverts which portray it as being luxurious and desired by those who don’t have it and a source of pride for those who do. Similarly, Nike and Adidas have also established their own unique selling propositions. Although they are competitive rivals, each stands for its own. Adidas represents functionality and durability, while Nike stands for skill and success. Consumers opt for either brand when they feel like they can identify with the image that the brand puts forward. These brands also establish an emotional connection with their audience in addition to displaying their tangible and intangible facets. BMW inspires a sense of a luxurious lifestyle, Adidas inspires the importance of hard work and Nike stresses the importance of success. To further this emotional connection, brands like these often use celebrities in their advertisements. For example Nike, that has used numerous famous football players to portray who wearing a Nike shoe brings you in the spotlight and guarantees your success. The Nike ad is shown through the eyes of these football stars that millions world over aspire to be like and look up to and use imagery, voice-overs and sound effects to motivate the person watching the ad to make the purchase by displaying tangible and intangible features and establishing a firm emotional connection. In conclusion, this paper has looked at components of branding and using celebrities and employing an emotional appeal to attract consumers. Looking at the three example advertisements of BMW, Nike and Adidas this paper looks at theoretical research in the same vein to establish how and why these connections work and are so critical to the branding process. The conclusions drawn from looking at the practical examples in conjunction with the research show how using an emotional appeal is a successful approach in attracting and retaining customer relationships over the years. Further research should be conducted on the topic elaborating on how these components and essentials of branding should be employed specifically and what factors turn these success factors into drawbacks for the brand. Such research will allow brand managers to be able to avoid making these mistakes so that they can maintain successful promotions of their particular brand. References: KOTLER, PHILIP (2000), Marketing Management. The Millennium Edition, Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall. KELLER, KEVIN LANE (2003), Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall. KOHLI, CHIRANJEEV AND MRUGANK THAKOR (1997), “Branding Consumer Goods: Insights form Theory and Practice”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 14 (3), 206-219. KAPFERER, JEAN-NOEL (1997), Strategic Brand Management, Great Britain, Kogan Page. GHODESWAR, BHIMRAO (2008), “Building a Brand Identity in Competitive Markets: a conceptual model”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, 17(1), 4-12. MCEWEN, WILLIAM, (2004), “Getting Emotional About Brands”, The Gallup Organization. SCHLECHT, CHRISTINA, (2003), “Celebrities’ Impact on Branding”. Columbia Business School Read More