8: New Internet Explorer

(I do not own this video)

Internet Explorer users have slowly been moving away from that internet browser and towards others such as Google Chrome. Reasons for the decline in users included: security issues; a lack of support; and a slow rate of fixing consumer’s problems. Since Internet Explorer 9 was re-built from scratch, it was important to recuperate all the lost users. I think that this advert has its pros and cons including; use of nostalgia, emotion evoking music, and also not providing factual information.

Firstly, in regards to nostalgia, the new Internet Explorer advert targets those in generation Y as that generation are those who probably remember Internet Explorer at its worst. Holak and Havlena (1998) found that there are uncertainties when producing a nostalgic advert due to the combination of positive and negative feelings, i.e. warmth and sadness.However, if the advert does not portray a sense of loss the negative feelings are reduced, if not eliminated. The Internet explorer advert does well in this concept as although the advert is nostalgic, they’re concluding with Internet Explorer is still here and is now better then before, nothing is lost but everything is to be gained.

When thinking about music, Chou and Lien (2010) concluded that when a song or piece of music is relevant to the context, for example, music from the 90s, there are positive effects such as evoking good moods & more nostalgic thoughts. Kellaris, Cox, and Cox (1993) also found that if the music gained the attention of the viewer, then the message of the advert would be enhanced if the music was congruent to the advert – in this case it is.

However the advert, despite all of its positives, does not show the new browser in use or include what has changed about it to gain our trust back again. Is their nostalgic advert enough to convince consumers their issues have been resolved? Is their tag line ‘you grew up, so did we’ enough to make consumers take another look and try again? According to the Brand Power Index (BPI), Internet Explorer rose by 18% concluding that this advert was effective.

References:

Kellaris, J. J., Cox, A. D., & Cox, D. (1993). The effect of background music on ad processing: A contingency explanation. Journal of Marketing, 57, 114 – 125.

Holak, S. L., & Havlena, W. J. (1998). Feelings, fantasies, and memories: An examination of the emotional components of nostalgia. Journal of Business Research, 42, 217 – 226.

Chou, H, Y., & Lien, N, H. (2010). Advertising effects of songs’ nostalgia and lyrics’ relevance. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 22, 314 – 329.

Lifechannelable. (2013, January 23^rd). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B05AqF3kEHY.

7: Emotional Advertising

(I do not own this video)

Many charity advertisements go for an emotional approach, but has it been found to be effective? Fisher and Dube (2005) found that men reported a less positive attitude and a less pleasant experience whilst viewing emotional oriented adverts with another person present, however their viewing experience was not affected during the high-emotional condition. Overall it was found that private responses of men and women do not significantly differ. So although the stereotype that women are more emotional than males may not actually be true in terms of emotional advertising. Kring and Gordon (1998) found that men and women experience the same intensity in regards to the intensity of anger, depression, happiness, guilt, and fear. In context of viewing television adverts, Fisher and Dube (2005) found that their results supported the social desirability explanation for differences between responses from males and females.

Burt and Strongman (2005) looked at the use of images in emotional advertising as well as donations and compliance. They found that using images of children in emotional adverts provoke powerful emotional reactions, and the use of negative emotions, in comparison to positive emotions, produced a larger donation towards the cause of the advert. Eayrs and Ellis (1990) found than donations to charity were larger when feelings of guilt, sympathy and pity were provoked.

According to Ruotolo (2005) more that 60% of households in the U.S.A give to charity. But what is it about these emotional advertising that makes them effective? Banks et al., (1995) found that presenting negative information led to gaining more attention from viewers and also increases the need for more information (Burnkrant & Saywey, 1983).

In conclusion, research suggests that adverts in a negative light increases donations and the need for more information. It also seems that emotional advertising effects men and women in the same way so the adverts themselves are not particularly aimed at one gender in particular.

References:

Banks, S. M., Salovey,P., Greener, S., Rothman, A. J., Moyer, A., .. & Epel, E. (1995). The effects of message framing on mammography utilization. Health Psychology, 14, 178 – 184.

Burnkrant, R. E., & Sawyer, A. G. (1983). Effects of involvement and message content on information processing intensity. In R. J. Harris (Ed.), Information processing research in advertising (pp. 43 – 64). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Burt, C. D. B., & Strongman, K. (2005). Use of images in charity advertising: Improving donation and compliance rates. International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 8, 571 – 580.

Eayrs, C. B., & Ellis, N. (1990). Charity advertising: For and against people with a mental handicap. British Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 349 – 366.

Fisher, R. J., & Dube, L. (2005). Gender differences in responses to emotional advertising: A social desirability perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 850 – 858.

Kring, A, M., & Gordon, A. H. (1998). Sex differences in emotion: expression, experience, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 686 – 703.

Ruotolo, G. C. (2006). July 2006: Special edition detailing giving USA 2006 findings. Retrieved March 18^th http://www.ruotoloassoc.com/newsletter/NetlinksJuly06/NETLINKS_July2006specialfnl.htm

6: Share a Coke

(I do not own this video)

What I like about this advert is that although at the beginning there is the top of a coke bottle and people may not realise what is being advertised or why people are describing what they like about other people, the whole coke bottle comes into view with different peoples’ names on them.

It was as though the Coca Cola brand was not already popular – and then they went and put people’s name on their bottles. They have taken one aspect of personalisation and have made it that the consumer makes it their mission to go out and seek their name, or a friend’s name on the side of a bottle after either seeing the tv advert, the bottles in the shops, or after seeing other people with personalised bottles.

One benefit about enabling personalisation of products is that people get attached to them which leads to better caring, repairing, and delayed replacement (Mugge, Schifferstein, & Schoormans, 2006). Although in Coca Cola’s case as personalisation was not person specific it could encourage people to go out and seek another personalised coke bottle. Factors which influence product attachment include; pleasure, memories, group affiliation, and self expression (Kamptner 1995). All these factors Coca Cola seemed to address. So although the consumer has not personalised the bottles themselves, Coca Cola have got around that by inspiring people to search for the bottle desired through perceived personalisation.

According to a report in the Guardian, Coca Cola’s share a Coke campaign showed an increase of 7% in sales, 18,300,000 media reports, and an 870% increase in traffic on social networking sites such as Facebook.

In conclusion, the ‘Share a coke’ campaign was so popular because people could go out and find their persoanlised coke bottle with no extra expense for the personalisation as well as being able to buy friends one if it were to be found.

References:

Coca Cola (2013, May 9^th). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD-014QqCf0

Kamptner, N. L. (1995). Treasured possessions and their meanings in adolescent males and females. Adolescence, 30 (118), 301-318.

Mugge, R, Schifferstein, H, N, J., & Schoormans, J. P. L. (2006). A longitudinal study on product attachment and its determinants. In European Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 7, Eds. Karin M. Ekström and Helene Brembeck, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, 641-647.

5: Children as Consumers

(I do not own this video)

Fast food adverts on televisions are not an uncommon sight. Many of these adverts are presented on channels aimed at children to influence their thinking and behaviour. According to Taras and Gage (1995), during every hour of television, children watched on average 21.3 advertisements, of which 47.8% were for food.

One issue with advertising fast food to such a captive audience is that in family choices, their opinion is valued, although the child is not directly purchasing the products advertised, they are indirectly affecting family selections. Aiming adverts at children can also be seen as beneficial as they are the future consumers. Even if children are unaware of powerful advertising, brands will be imprinted on their mind for future reference. With all this marketing hiding the negative consequences associated with eating fast food, gambling, and pay day loans, what can be done about it?

Demarketing is the term used for advertising discouraging people away from certain products. Examples of this include stopping smoking and being aware of the effects of drinking alcohol. The advert for this blog is a very striking and powerful attempt at demarketing. The beginning of the advert makes the consumer start guessing what is being advertised as the mother is getting ready to shoot up with what can be assumer as heroin whilst the child is sat there as if this is a normal occurrence. The advert gets interesting when the focus turns to the child as they are prepared for the substance, soon after which the substance turns into a burger. This advert highlights risk associated with fast food. This perceived risk presented in the advert has been found to increase searching into specific products, which hopes to show adults how bad that food is. The second point about this advert is that it is aimed at parents who should think twice before deciding what food to feed their children with.

In conclusion, children are consumers and are the future of the consumer world so targeting demarketing at products such as fast food could shape future behaviour and as a consequence also reduce childhood obesity.

 

References:

Taras, H. L., & Gage, M. (1995). Advertised foods on children’s television. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 149, 649 – 652. Doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1995.02170190059010

 

4: Aldi – I Like Gin

I do not own this video.

From personal experience, I have found that if an advert can make me chuckle, it is doing well. It appears that from research, it is not just me who finds humour effective in advertising. Duncan and Nelson (1985) concluded the effectiveness and attention to the advert is increased if advertisements use humour. However, persuasion towards the brand is not increased. Zhang and Zinkhan (1991) concluded that adverts which used humour led to a higher recall rate of brands compared to non-humourous adverts. So overall it would seem that humorous adverts are effective. Personally I find this Aldi advert to be quite entertaining at the end when the lady states that she doesn’t like tea but she like gin.

Another plus of this advert is that it is short, sweet, and to the point. Not far into the advert the consumer knows that ‘Aldi’ is the brand being advertised. Along with knowing that Aldi is the brand, that advert references prices, showing the consumer that it is cheaper to shop at Aldi instead of other supermarkets. According to Urbany, Bearden, and Weilbaker (1988) adverts which include referencing have been found to be very effective in regards to being able to change consumers perceptions of price and value. If the price in the advertisement is thought to be believable by consumers, the influence on behaviour is greater (Compeau & Grewal, 1998).

What Aldi have tried to achieve through this advert and others, is to show people that just because a brand is new, cheaper products can be just as good and tasty as the well known brands that consumers have been buying before. I think that Aldi have achieved this through their advertising and on top of including humour and referencing prices. Because of these reasons I think that this advert is effective in trying to change consumers’ opinions of Aldi as a brand.

References:

Compeau, L. D., & Grewal, D. (1998). Comparative advertising: An integrative review. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 36, 284 – 294.

Duncan, C. P., & Nelson, J. E. (1985). Effects of humour in a radio advertising experiment. Journal of Advertising, 14, 33 – 64.

Urbany, J. E., Bearden, W. O., & Weilbaker, D. C. (1988). The effect of plausible and exaggerated reference prices on consumer perceptions and price search. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 95 – 110.

Zhang, Y., & Zinkhan, G. M. (1991). Humor in television advertising: The effects of repetition and social setting. Advances in Consumer Research, 18, 813 – 818.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytrg4dpv8Ho. I do not own this video.

3: MFI – Made for Idiots?

(This video does not belong to me)

MFI, the question, that not many know the answer to, is what does it stand for? Unfortunately for Mullard furniture industries, MFI is often referred to as Made for Idiots despite advertising (on their website) high quality furniture at affordable prices from their business. Their television adverts, although slightly generic in comparison with other furniture advert, seem to advertise products available and triggers a need recognition by advertising the fact that there is a sale on for a limited time only. So how has MFI’s association with made for idiots affected their company?

Could it be that although many people refer to MFI as made for idiots, they would still consider shopping there? Do only people whom are not going to shop there calling it made for idiots? Or is it that actually, MFI could have done a lot better in the business world without the unfortunate association?

Brand associations help people to form attitudes and that people can become ‘locked-in’ to some associations which are hard to change (James, 2005). According to this, MFI had no hope in shifting their association as soon as the association was made, which in turn would cause potential customers to think twice before deciding whether of not to purchase furniture from MFI or another brand/company.

But on the other hand, despite the connotations of calling prospective customers idiots, as they did sell flat-pack furniture made their association, which was perceived as bad, was actually good as customers thought that if they bought furniture from that company, it would be easy to put together as it was ‘made for idiots’.

In conclusion, brand associations are powerful and affect businesses because of this, which works in both positive and negative ways.

References:

James, D. (2005). Guilty through association: brand association transfer to brand alliances. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22, 14 – 24. Doi: 10.1108/07363760510576518

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2GX-3dvaNQ

2: All whilst Hive is controlling the heating at home

(I do not own this video)

Personally I love the Hive advert that is currently on our tv screens. I think what is so great about it is that at first it gives you the basic information that is key to understanding both the product and the advert ‘this is Hive, it lets you control the heating from anywhere with your phone’. Secondly what I love is the catchy tune to which a song about many impossibilities is sung which every so often reminds you about the product ‘all whilst hive is controlling the heating at home’. What this advert does, and I think well, is it emphasises all the things that you could be doing, no matter how impossible or silly according to the song, all whilst you, the homeowner, have complete control over temperatures far away from where you may be to let your mind ease knowing that, say you’re on holiday and there is an unexpected snowstorm, you can turn your heating up to ensure that your pipes don’t freeze.

Despite being somewhat silly, the advert is still slightly relatable as well as emphasising how much control the homeowner, not the brand as such, have control over their belongings, in this case the heating at home.

However, having read some reviews it would seem that my opinion is not the norm and many people don’t like it and don’t see the point of it. As I am not yet a homeowner, I can’t comment on how much the advert actually has worked but from my point of view the most catchy part of the song is the most critical: ‘all whilst hive is controlling the heating at home’. I also find that because of the drawn quirky nature of the advert it means that as soon as the advert appears on the screen I know what is being advertised. Although some don’t like the advert, many comments seem to be that they find it annoying and daft, they probably are still finding themselves knowing what is being advertised, thus the advert is still successful.

Overall, I think the advert is really catchy and people know what is being advertised as soon as the advert appears, as it is a new product, that might impact sales as well as their advert but personally I like the advert and think the product is a good idea.

Having just found a second advert for hive:

(I do not own this video)

I find that I do not know what is being advertised for quite a while and keep forgetting as the advert is quite long. I also don’t think this advert works as well as the sillier musical one because there are many adverts situated around family life at the moment and they are not all distinguishable which doesn’t make it very original, however it does show you how hive can be used during everyday life.

References:

Hive. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TErKzJs_HeY.

Hive. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzbmWEr1gqg.

1: VW Polo.. Small but Tough

(I do not own this video)

This VW advert was on our screens not long ago, but was it actually effective? Personally I find that this advert is very emotional and highlights the bond between a father and daughter all through her life and that he is always there for her. It also puts a great emphasis on family life; an ideal that many people have.  The song used ‘Whispers and Stories – Sniffy Dog’ also evokes emotion. I think that this advert is not just relatable to me, but to many people, especially fathers and daughters, but mothers too. However, I don’t think this advert is aimed at adolescent males as the emphasis is not there.

Despite me thinking that this is a great advert, how well has it actually worked? For me, when searching for this advert I could only guess that it was a VW car advert, I found that I remembered the ‘dad and daughter’ theme rather than which specific car was being advertised. As always, memorability is affected by the frequency in which an advert is seen, which varies for everyone, but no matter how many times I’ve seen the advert I don’t think that I could say with 100% confidence that it is a VW Polo advert.

The car itself is only present and only mentioned at the very end of the advert, but how can that be interpreted? On one hand, the car is not seen for long, but on the other hand, the end of the advert is emotional in its own way as the father is handing his daughter’s safety into the hands of this new car, not a boyfriend or a hand me-down car, but a new car that is just for her.

Overall, I like this advert and I think it has been effective due to the positive portrayal of the car and family life that it has been associated with along with how relatable the advert is.

Reference:

Eastern Western Motor Group. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ku5MW-Ks4w.

Motivation: Review of how I’ve found blogging

I feel that blogging in one of my university modules has aided self-directed learning which in turn promotes learning (Boud, 2001). Despite being recommended to read around a subject, apart from when writing around an essay, when does that happen? Blogging about what I find interesting has increased my willingness to read around the subject as well as my self-regulated learning which involves meta-cognition and motivational factors such as intrinsic motivation (Vrugt & Oort, 2008). Publishing blogs online also has another aspect of starting debates on subjects due to the allowance of comments on others’ work (Jacobs, 2003).

It is interesting that Vrugt and Oort (2008) found a positive relationship between engagement in self-regulated learning and exam scores. This suggests that those who actively take part are more likely to achieve more from their degree. Self-efficacy, one’s perception of their own abilities, has also been found to be a good predictor of students’ performance (Coutinho & Neuman, 2008).

However, comparing blogging between first and third year I have noticed that it is easier to stay motivated and my interest lasts longer when I have had guidance which is in accordance with research (Jang, 2008). Despite the point of blogging, that is to be about anything you wish, when it is part of an undergraduate degree program I have enjoyed blogging more when some guidance is given about in regard to what direction to take it. This has also increased my motivation to keep writing blogs when I achieve a grade which I feel reflects my effort.

Another reason that blogging is a good idea is because people know that other people could see their work because it is published on the internet; because of this, those who do not always put in 100% effort could be motivated to do well in their blogs. Who’s wants something badly written to be published? When academic essays are handed in, only the person who wrote it and those who are marking it are going to see the quality of work, however, when work is published on the internet is available for all eyes to see. As the blogs, which are forming part of an undergraduate degree program, the scientific style of writing means that work produced is more like mini-essays rather than having a colloquial and subjective style.

‘Blogademia’ (Saper, 2006) has become the new term for blogging in academia, however Saper (2006) has argued that blogging is not part of knowledge production because blogs, unlike journal articles, do not go through any peer review, however it is helpful for the social processes involved with knowledge production.

Over the course ‘emotion and motivation’, I have enjoyed having the freedom to write about the topics that interest me with the guidance given so that I know what my target is. As shorter and alternative versions of essays I have found them helpful, however I do feel that not just blogging should be used as a form of assessment, because not matter what the form of assessment is, different people will prefer different forms.

References:

Jacobs, J. (2003). Communication over exposure: The rise of blogs as a product of cybervoyeurism. In Hatcher, C., Jacobs, J., &

Flew. T. (Eds), Australian and New Zealand Communication Assoiation Conference Proceedings, Brisbane.

Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 20, 9 – 17.

Vrugt, A., & Oort, F. (2008). Metacognition, achievement goals, study strategies and academic achievement: Pathways to achievement. Metacognition and Learning, 3, 123 – 146.

Coutinho, S. A., & Neuman, G. (2008). A model of metacognition, achievement goal orientation, learning style and self-efficacy. Learning Environments Research, 11, 131 – 151.

Jang, H. (2008). Supporting students’ motivation, engagement, and learning during an uninteresting activity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 798 – 811.

Saper, C. (2006). Blogademia. Reconstruction, 6, 1 -15.

Memory and the Internet

There has been a lot of research conducted about memory, for example, we now know that the average number of items which can be remembered is seven plus and minus two (Miller, 1956). One aspect of this research is looking at how motivation affects our memory. Robinson et al., (2012) found that memory performance significantly increased when the group was motivated compared to the unmotivated control group, as well as finding that people who were intrinsically motivated were less affected by external motivation. Ngaosuvan (2004) found that memory was not influenced by goals and ego-involvement but competition and the chance of winning can influence episodic memory.

As well as motivation, emotion has an affect on memory. Emotion plays a role in cue dependent forgetting (Tulving, 1974) where we know some information but it is inaccessible at the time and one of these influencing factors is emotion, so some information can only be remembered when we are in the same emotional state as when we encoded the information in the first place. Emotion similarly plays a role in the likelihood that we remember previous experiences as well as what details are remembered (Kensington, Uttl, Ohta, & Siegenthaler, 2006). Emotion is also involved in flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977) which are precise and concrete memories which are due to emotional arousal at the time of the event; emotions increases the capability of recalling an event.

However, as much memory research was done before the internet was around and before information sharing was almost instantaneous, has the internet affected our memory? According to the International Telecommunication Union (2013) 77% of the population in the developed world are internet users. With the internet being an external source of memory for people, do people now remember less information?

Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner (2011) conducted four experiments looking into whether people remembered the internet more or the answers and found that when answers are unknown people are primed to turn to the internet to solve the problem. Participants were also found to recall more statements when they thought they would not be able to access the information online compared to those who thought the computer would save their searched statements. This follows the idea that search engines have created a scenario that when we need to know something we can just look it up there and then. Memory seems to be affected by whether or not we think we need to remember it; participants had the best memory for the statement they thought the computer had erased. Bjork (1972) found that information that is thought to not be needed later is not remembered at the same rate compared to when they think they will need it.

In conclusion, emotion and motivation affect memory in many ways, however we memorise information that we think is not necessary for our future at a slower pace compared to information that we think we need to know (Bjork, 1972). Now with the internet around with so much information being at our fingertips it may have a detrimental affect on our memory as less information is needed to be memorised because it is just a Google search away. Investigating what impact the internet has on our memory may however be difficult to find empirical evidence for. One way would be to compare non-internet users with internet users as well as taking into account the differences in information flow despite the internet. So as a theoretical idea it makes sense, however the empirical evidence is rather lacking due to the lack of research.

References

Bjork, R. A. (1972). Theoretical implications of directed forgetting. In A. W. Melton & E. Martin (eds.), Coding processes in human memory (pp. 217 – 235). Washington, D.C.: Winston.

Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73 – 99.

International Telecommunication Union. (2013). Geneva.

Kensington, E. A., Uttl, B., Ohta, N., & Siegenthaler, A. L. (Eds.). (2006). Memory and emotion. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81 – 97.

Ngaosuvan, L. (2004). Motivation and episodic memory performance. (Doctoral Dissertation, Umea University).

Robinson, L. J., Stevens, L. H., Threapleton, C. J., Vainiute, J., McAllister-Williams, R. H., & Gallagher, P. (2012). Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on attention and memory. Acta Psychologica Amsterdam, 141, 243 – 249.

Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science Magazine, 333, 776 – 778.

Tulving, E. (1974). Cue-dependent forgetting: When we forget something we once knew, it does not necessarily mean that the memory trace has been lost; it may only be inaccessible. American scientist, 62, 74 – 82.