Week 11 - Final Evaluation

Overall I feel that the Fundamentals of Advertising course has in fact furthered not only my interest in advertising in general, but also has definitely increased my knowledge on the subject.  With my business and brief marketing experience, I knew that advertising is not as easy field in which to be successful.  The creation of advertisements almost has a scientific quality meaning that while they need to be creative and catchy, there are many formulas and considerations that need to be taken in order to make them effective, not just throwing a funny quote on the page in a ‘cute’ font.  This class has enabled me to examine these qualities from composition, to line, to symmetry and begin to evaluate why and how an advertiser may have come up with the ad that they did.  Being able to read in the book and learn from the experience of industry giants who contributed their thoughts and work was extremely helpful as well.  In an area of business such as advertising that is very subjective, it was a great help to learn about the different perspectives of people who are of great importance in the field.  Overall I feel that the class has helped me gain a stronger understanding of advertising, and how one should, and may, come up with different forms of advertisements for a product.  The creation of our final project was the epitome of this understanding by forcing us to think creatively and market a product that is already on the market, something that a real ‘ad man’ would have to do.  I think that my successful creation of this advertising campaign, the creativity behind it, and my overall contributions to the class throughout the quarter entitle me to earn an A in the class. 

Week Nine EOC - For Those Who Think Young

America has always been a youth obsessed culture.  The idea of getting older, being bedridden, and forced to live in a retirement home has never appealed to anyone in our society.  In fact, we loathe the idea so much that we do in fact put our parents, who raised and cared for us, in retirement homes for nurses to take care of rather than ourselves.  There are cultures in the world, mainly in Asia, where we are looked upon with loathsome eyes for doing such a thing, in their society elders are respected and often live at home with their families until the day they pass.  As we grow older we drastically change our eating habits, constantly sweat away at the gym, and even take injections and vitamin supplements all in the hope of retaining our youthful demeanor.  Older employees at firms are usually looked upon with pity and let go before their younger peers if job cuts need to be made, usually forced into early retirement or just let go.  But why have we been obsessed with youth?  Why do we allow it to run our country and our lives?  

The striving for youth is not a new phenomenon.  In fact "In 1,500 B.C. people were ingesting tiger gonads to rejuvenate them," says Dr. Gene Cohen, a George Washington University expert on aging. (USA Today)  We are constantly searching for a way to prove that we are healthier and more vital than our parents were at our age.  50 has become the new 60 and then 40 became the new 50 just as quickly as the 4 (dress size) became the new 6 and then 2 became the new 4.  Our society has constantly been bombarded with ideals of beauty and health for ages and in the current age of magazines and internet it has been happening more constantly than for other generations.  But at what cost to our health are we striving to stay young?  Is all this plastic surgery and injections and dieting really helping us?

Do not misunderstand me, I will get botox injections tomorrow if I see a wrinkle on my forehead.  I plan on having plastic surgery at some point in my life and would love to have jaw implants now.  I, as a young, affluent, gay male in our society have been completely consumed by the idea of youth as beauty.  Particularly in the gay community, where at 22 I might as well be 55, these impossible beauty ideals thrive and spread into all areas of one’s professional and personal life, and eventually to those around them.   

Week Nine BOC - Frank O'hara

Frank O’hara was an American poet and art critic who was born in Baltimore, Maryland and was one of the New York School of Poetry.  He first studied piano at the New England Conservatory before being drafted to the Navy in WWII and serving in Japan and the South Pacific.  Upon his return he utilized the scholarships offered by the government to attend Harvard where he was majoring in composition and music but his interests began to wane.  He began taking theology and philosophy classes and began writing in his spare time.  He changed his major and graduated with a degree in English and went on to study at graduate school at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

In his poem, Mayakovsky, I think that O’hara is referring to his time as a soldier and his yearning for knowing  what that has done to his psyche.  I think that at the beginning of the poem he is reminded of when he was a little boy, perhaps getting ready for bed at night, wondering where his father was.  He wanted to see his father one last time before he went to bed.  He then goes on to say “That’s funny, there’s blood on my chest, oh yes I’ve been carrying bricks, what a funny place to rupture.”  He has now transitioned to war time, he has blood on his chest and the bricks are the baggage from home that he brings.  Everyone who I believe goes to war begins to revert back to old distant memories in order to escape the painful images they are seeing around them.  This poem may have some relevance today with the onslaught of America’s  “War on Terror” but has no personal resonance for me.  My father was always home at a reasonable hour, due to not having an extremely long commute to work, and I have never seen the spoils of war.  The poem itself is still poignant and beautifully written and I think that I understand what he may be searching to say, but I could not feel nor convey the emotions that he expresses myself. 

Week Eight EOC -- Slogan Fonts

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Luxury is never out of place

Analysis of Project in Real World

With so many advertisements being bombarded at consumers at an almost constant basis in this day and age, it is more difficult for advertisers to reach their target market than it ever has been before.  What then makes an effective advertising campaign and how can in be labeled as successful?  “Not only do you need to think critically about formulating a core campaign idea, you must think critically and creatively about communicating something specific about the brand or group, not a generic message or pedestrian design.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 204).  The Luxury is never out of place advertising campaign encompasses all of the ideas that would make an advertisement successful, not only to those that already want to purchase the vehicle but to those who had not previously thought of purchasing the 3 Series. 

“A campaign must have visual impact, whether a visual surprise, graphic interest, visual drama, or a breakthrough appearance.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 204) This will most definitely be achieved in the new advertising campaign created for the BMW 3 Series.  The television commercial will be especially visually interesting with the sophisticated young woman surrounded by the roughneck country folk in the diner, and then also her beautiful white BMW 3 Series in juxtaposition with the run down vehicles of said country folk.  The print campaigns will follow in this style by showing both of these visually interesting components of the ads.  “Find a way to utilize something that you can create that others might not think of or utilize.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 207)  The emotional pull that is created by this new campaign is one that many may not have thought of before when trying to sell a luxury car.  For many luxury cars the aspect that is focused on is their performance, though that is not what many of the consumers of such cars, especially entry models like the 3 Series, are concerned about.  This new campaign has taken an overlooked quality about the 3 Series and made it the forefront of the campaign.  Taking such a risk I think will make BMW stand out from the competition and gain them more of a market share. 

“Throughout the life of a campaign, which can run for a short (months) or long period of time (years), you create and maintain a visual look or framework” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 199)  The most successful part of the new BMW campaign will be its consistency.  The main theme of the campaign will carry on throughout all of the different mediums as stated above and will ensure the advertising campaign’s success.  

Creative Content

Bar fight image - courtesy StaticTV

BMW push start - courtesy CarView

Proposed Print Ad Campaign

Competitive Analysis

BMW has taken many steps to set themselves apart from their competitors in the luxury automobile market.  The closest competitors are Japanese owned Lexus and fellow German competitor Mercedes-Benz.  Each company has their own approach to setting themselves apart from each other.  It seems that in services being offered, and the automobiles themselves, the companies are, in all intents and purposes, equal.  While there may be small differences, they are not large enough to really matter to the purchaser.  At this level, most consumers are purchasing the lifestyle image that comes along with the vehicle rather than the features of the vehicle; the BMW may get a better MPG rating than the Mercedes, but at this level the purchaser is not going care about one or two miles either way. “Most competing brands are of equal quality-that is, they are parity products or services.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 2)   In this respect I think that it is the ad campaigns and way that the company portrays their product in the media. 

This is why the ad that I created for the BMW 3 Series will be successful.  The ads aims to tug at the heart strings of the purchaser of the car.  Creating an emotional connection to the consumer is the most important step in selling any luxury item, and the Luxury is never out of place campaign will do just that in order to separate BMW from the crowd.  “What differentiates a brand is how it is characterized, its visual and verbal identity as expressed in each media unit and through every point of contact.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 52)    Currently, BMWs overall slogan, Ultimate Driving Machine, is good for the motor enthusiasts who purchase the super sporty M series vehicles.  The M series is built for speed and performance, but the purchaser of the 3 Series is buying a lifestyle, not a car.  “The brand idea is based on an insight into the audience that makes the brand relevant to them.  It must exemplify something – tangible or intangible – that people find compellingly relevant to their lives.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 52)  Both Lexus’ and Mercedes’ ad campaigns also leave much to be desired in this arena of emotional pull.  Lexus states that they are in the Pursuit of Perfection, if a consumer is paying this amount of money on a vehicle I think that they will be looking for perfection, and not just the pursuit of it.  Lexus has created a campaign that may be slightly working against them in their target consumers subconscious.  Mercedes as well as failed to create an emotional connection, and therefore longing, for their vehicles through their ad campaigns.  All the ad campaigns are similar, and include the same typeface and same sort of message, but there does not seem to be one unified slogan across the entire brand.  While each vehicle may need some sort of specific advertising, when selling a lifestyle the company itself should also have some sort of overall brand message to sell to the consumer. “In an overcrowded, competitive marketplace, relevant and engaging branding can ensure efficacy for a quality product, service, group, individual, or commodity.” (Advertising by Design; Landa, Robin; 49)