Contemporary issues in marketing
Part 1: critical review of a journal article: Alcohol advertising and youth by David Jernigan
Credentials of the author
Dr Jernigan is a renowned scholar who has made significant contribution in alcohol policy and the field of public health in general. He has also made several contributions in media advocacy specifically advocating for strategic and proper use of media to influence public health policy. Dr. Jernigan has served under several capacities in many organizations. He has been an adviser to the World Bank and the world health organization with regards to health, development and the role of alcohol. Currently he is the director of Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, an organization that is funded by the CDC. He is also an associate professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. From the above information the author of the journal article has enough credential to write the article.
This article is specifically written to influence policy especially with regards to the influence of alcohol advertisements to the youths. The article uses the appropriate vocabularies that help to bring out the author’s point of view concerning the topic. The article supports information with evidence from credible research studies conducted in line with the topic under discussion. It presents findings of surveys conducted within a specific period of time analyzing the trends within the span of 6 years, 2001 to 2007. This article is not only touching on the issue of alcohol and youth but also touches on the issue of marketing strategies used by alcohol brands in promoting their products. These strategies seem to have an influence on the consumption behavior.
Alcohol brands use a strategy where they air their advertisements on media programs that youths between the ages of 12 and 20 are more likely to watch. This is relative to the programs that adults of legal drinking age are more likely to watch. In addition, alcohol brands would also publish advertisements on magazines and websites that large numbers of youth audience. This further worsens the problem.
As a professional, the author provides data from various research studies conducted in the US with regards to alcohol marketing and the impact on youth consumption behavior. For instance, the author uses data from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, an organization in which he leads; this organization is also funded by the center for disease control and prevention (CDC). The study by the organization presented in the article to support the topic analyzed over 2 million alcohol advertisements aired on television between 2001 and 2007. It also analyzed almost 20000 advertisements placed on national magazines. From the findings of this analysis, two issues in marketing greatly contribute to the alcohol consumption behavior among the youth. The first issue is the marketing strategy used while the second issue is the amount of advertisements for all the alcohol brands.
The article also uses data from federally funded surveys. The government conducts surveys for the sake of records and decision making. The research studies funded by the government are reliable and valid since they have the resources. Also, in order for the government to make decisions and formulate policies concerning the issue of youths and alcohol consumptions, it has to rely on credible data. This implies that the author has used and correctly identified outside research to support his argument in the article .
The main problem about the issue of alcohol consumption among the youths is that it takes a direct toll on their well being, academic performance, injuries and death . If children begin drinking early or become heavy drinkers at an early age, their health outcomes later in life is likely to be affected . This information has been clearly put in the article however it needed to be supported with research that prove the adverse impact of alcohol in people’s later stage of life . The author also argues that people who use or abuse alcohol before the age of 15 are more likely to be controlled by alcohol in their later life compared to those who wait until they reach the age of 21 . The author further adds that heavy adolescent drinkers develop metabolic profiles which put them at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease especially in their later lives. All this information may be consider mere speculation especially if not supported by research evidence .
A lot of the evidence used to support the author’s argument focus on the issue the influence of heavy advertisement and marketing strategy by alcohol brands to the youth. Very little evidence is used to support additional information provided in the article. Since 2001, the peered reviewed and federally funded research studies on the topic lay the blame of under aged drinking to marketing exposure. According to the article, more than seven peered reviewed research articles compiled between 2001 and 2007 have supported this notion. Other research studies presented in the article suggest that reducing the percentage of under aged drinking requires a reduction in alcohol advertisements .
Part 2:
In this section two alcohol brands shall be used as examples to further provide insight into the topic under discussion. The two brands are Skyy and Smirnoff. There are several similar marketing strategies that these two brands have used in trying to promote themselves. For instance, Smirnoff has been using the celebrities such as musicians to associate with the brand and promote it among the fans of that particular celebrity . In 2011, the brand did a commercial with Pharrell Williams, a Grammy winning artist and music producer. Also in the same year, the company signed a deal with influential celebrities such as Madonna to promote its brand. Obviously, such celebrities have the support of teenagers more compared to adults of legal drinking age. This therefore sends the message to the teenagers and persons below the legal age of drinking that they need to consume alcohol .
Such a strategy sends out a strong message that is highly influential. It can be noted that celebrities are very powerful when it comes to influencing the youths. They can dictate the fashion trends among the youth, and similar any association of celebrities with alcohol brands is likely to influence consumption behaviors among the youth. Currently Smirnoff is the leading selling spirit in the world . The company has spent a lot of money on advertisements to the point of making the brand be listed as 84th out of 100 in the top 100 global brands for 2010 .
Some of the best marketing practices the company making the brand has involved in include having a recent target market that is not aimed at under aged drinkers. For instance, the advertising campaigns have been aimed to target social and party loving people between the ages of 25 and 35. This target audience enjoys spending the night out in the company of friends and not drinking in their homes. The brand is also associated with the Manchester United football club. Football fans are very social and love to be in the company of friends while enjoying drinks. By associating with a football club, the brand will definitely have its impact on the target audience. However, the problem of the message being exposed to adolescents still lingers on. It is hard to rule out that adolescents do not enjoy football. Therefore every time they see the brand associated with Manchester United, they are getting exposed to the message.
Both Smirnoff and Skyy vodka, try to bring out the message of age limit and responsible drinking. Three vehicles are used in SKYY’s advertising campaign strategy. These three vehicles are magazines, internet and outdoor. The majority of the money is used to pro-mote magazine advertisement awareness. However, even though SKYY spends less than half of their media budget on outdoor ads, most of the attention and audience that is drawn to the brand comes from out of home advertisements .
Each of these brands is well known and market toward the same target audience. Although each brand has the same audience that they market toward, they each use different advertising vehicles . In their advertising, they all want to portray that their vodka is of the highest quality, trend, and offers a little more than the competitors. Each of its brands uses trendy and fashionable advertisements in order to attract their target audience. Because these brands offer similar product features, benefits, positions, and values, each of these brands have a specialized and unique marketing mix that works better or worse for certain brands depending on the advertising vehicle.
All four of these brands chose not to include Network Television in their marketing mix; and only Grey Goose chose to include Sunday Magazines in their marketing mix, which is just a fraction of their total advertising. SKYY Vodka only uses magazines, US Internet, and Outdoor mediums in its marketing mix . The other competitors use at least eight vehicles in their marketing mixes. Although Sky Vodka uses magazines for the majority of their advertising, they have the least Share of Voice. Grey Goose Vodka controls the Share of Voice in most categories, which shows the control that they have in the vodka industry .
SKYY Vodka’s target market is men and women ages 18 to 49. The majority of the target market didn’t graduate from college and resides in the Southern region of the United States. Purchasers prefer SKYY over other types of vodka because of quality and social appeal. The loyalty rate of our users is high and we have noticed after one use of the product they are likely to use our product again. We have also noticed some geographic differences that relate to SKYY’s consumers. Such as how SKYY is more heavily consumed in the Midwest and Southern areas of the United States when compared to the West and Northeast. From that information we can infer that subsequent advertising will be needed more heavily in the areas that are not heavy purchasers of SKYY Vodka. Consumers look for convenience, superb taste and the idyllic blue bottle when recognizing the brand. Perceived product benefits of SKYY include smoothness in taste, fewer impurities, social ambiance and ability to mix simply with cocktails. The criteria people use to make purchase decisions for vodka is availability, flavor, price but most is based on if they have had the brand before.
A lot of attempts have been made in reduce access of youths to alcohol. It is said that alcohol is the leading drug problem among adolescents and young people. This is relative to other drugs such as tobacco. Many more young people are dying from injuries and conditions related to alcohol compared to other drugs. In 2006, research report that 7.2 million people under the age of 21 reported being alcohol consumers. All these are attributed to the influence of media and heavy advertising by the alcohol brands. The article presents an argument that is logical. Looking at the growing numbers of under aged drinkers in the US, despite the age limit of 21, something has to be used to explain this problem.
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