Integrated global marketing

Résumé du document

David Ogilvy, a British advertising executive, famously said that nobody buys from a clown.
This essay will analyze if it is true or not. We will analyze the effects of humor in advertisement on consumers in America.

Firstly, an analysis of the advertisements' market should be done in order to see the trends. The US market has a strong advertising presence. According to Datamonitor (2010), the US advertising industry reaches $34,826.8 million, with an increase of 3.2 % between 2009 and 2010. This market is forecast to increase by 17.4 % between 2010 and 2015. (It is forecast to reach $40,899.2 million in 2015). To compare these figures, Europe reaches a market value of $23,503.3 million, and Asia - Pacific reaches $23.171 million for the same period.

According to Media Matters, in 2007, every day, an American is exposed to around 600 advertisement messages. Advertising involves many forms such as television, magazines, on the Internet, radio, direct mail, newspaper and outdoor (Brian Sternthal and C. Samuel Craig (1973), Humour in advertising).

Advertising is a way of communication between a company and its customers or consumers, in order to maintain them, or in order to attract new ones. It also helps to constitute an advantageous position for the business in relation to its competitors. (Strategic Marketing Decisions in global markets-Isabel Doole & Robin Lowe).

Nowadays, advertisers rely on emotion created through advertisement, and are not solely concentrated on making sells. They are looking for changing the mind (or feelings) of its consumers. The brand should provide more than a product or a service: the consumer is waiting for "psychological advantages" (Benoît Tranzer , CEO Ipsos ASI France). These emotions show the efficiency of an advertisement. By emotions, we can notice passion, happiness, fear, joy, shame, and of course humor.

According to Advertising Effectiveness, humor in advertising is defined as, something judged as funny by the viewer (it can be the watcher or reader, depending on the kind of advertisement) or incongruous.

Extraits

[...] For some fans of the super bowl, they are waiting for the news commercials because they know advertisers spent a lot of money in order to surprise them. According to argent.canoe.ca seconds of a commercial on the channel CBS (USA) cost around 3 to 3.7 million $US. In 2011, the four “best rating” commercials were mostly low involvement products such as soft drinks (Pepsi, Coca-Cola), beers (Bud Light), snacks (Doritos, snickers). Following past studies from authors, these products are appropriate for using humour in commercial. We will see if this is the case. [...]

[...] Some of authors conclude the use of humor in advertising has a negative or neutral effect on consumer, others conclude as a positive effect. Authors (mainly Weinberg and Spotts and Weinberg and Campbell 1991), found that humor in advertising is more efficient for some products. It is used for low involvement products. Low involvement products means products, which are, buy by customers frequently, without a high interest. As example, dishwasher soap, soft drinks, beers are low involvement products. RESEARCH/METHODS The research will be divided in two parts. [...]

[...] Humor is an implement used with the aim of “attracting attention and raising the level of processing the ad, involving and engaging the viewer, and creating a positive emotion attached to the brand advertised” (Advertising in the mind of consumer, 2000). The target audience is important to analyze. The effects of humor in advertising can have different effects depending on variables as for example age, gender, education level, culture or the familiarization of the viewer to the brand. According to Madden and Weinberger (1984), humor in advertising is more effective on young men, with a middle education level. [...]

[...] - disprove the hypothesis that humour harm to remember the advertisement and of those maintain that humour enables to memorise the message of the advertisement. On the basis of this study, we can maintain that humour does not harm on the comprehension but the results are ambivalent. With humour and attention, the results were obvious, but for humour and comprehension, it is not the case. Some authors such as Stewart and Furse (1986) Duncan and Nelson suggested that humour allow a better understanding. [...]

[...] (Strategic Marketing Decisions in global markets-Isabel Doole & Robin Lowe). Nowadays, advertisers rely on emotion created through advertisement, and are no only concentrate on making sells. They are looking for changing the mind (or feelings) of its consumers. The brand should provide more than a product or a service: the consumer is waiting for “psychological advantages” (Benoît Tranzer , CEO Ipsos ASI France). These emotions show the efficiency of an advertisement. By emotions, we can notice passion, happiness, fear, joy, shame, and of course humour. [...]