Advertising is the main resource to business since it allows businesses or organizations the chance to reach or connect with its customers. Moreover, it avails other opportunities of gaining new customers. Through advertising, an organization may raise its market share. Nonetheless, large base of customers determines the market share a company owns. This is the reason effective advertising planning and implementation or executions are important (Berger & Mitchell, 2009).
Many factors can make advertising effective. An effective advertising execution plan has several key components, and every component serves a purpose within the smooth operation or functioning of advertising strategies.
Properly positioning and promoting a brand requires extensive analysis of the market and identification of customer the brands is targeting. An advertisement may then be designed to draw the target market. An effective advertisement has the capacity to create a need for the product customer. Effective advertising may propel a company or brand to success or may create its collapse as well as disintegration of its image. The advert should be true to the image of the brand while simultaneously being effective in drawing in novel potential consumers or customers. Through the scrutiny of an Etienne Aigner and a Louis Vuitton advert from ELLE Magazine or publication, it is easy to highlight the advertisement success or achievement of the Louis and the failures of the Etienne advert.
The advertisement of Louis Vuitton shows Williams Michelle, as an accredited actor as well as a style icon, having an iconic Louis monogram print bag carelessly or casually hanging over her shoulder. The advert is tasteful and simple. The image shown is not exciting though the subdued and cool coloring of Williams Michelle is appealing in comparison to camel tones of the bag, producing an attractive image. It is apparent within this advert that the product being sold or marketed is the bag. On the contrary, in the Etienne advert, it is less straightforward determining what is being sold. The advert has a brown fur as well as leather boot horizontally positioned at the page top and a table having some bangles as well as a plum at the page bottom. The selected colors in the advert, apart from the red tint, are all brown. The colors are not appealing to the eye and are dismissible. The advert components do not link or make sense. The bangles and plum appear inappropriate and random under the ostensibly floating boot. Whereas customer flipping through the magazine can stop on the advert, it cannot be to admire and marvel the boot; rather, will stop or pause out of confusion (Weiner, 2009).
One of the primary aspects of an ad is its capacity to extend and link to the target or preferred market. If the advertisement does not attract or lure the potential consumers or customers, it is likely that interest in the advert or product will be lost, and they will not buy it, generating profit loss for the brand (Doherty et al., 2012). The Louis advert plays into the elegant and classical image that Louis desires to promote or market for itself. The intended Louis customer aspire an exclusivity sense. By including a famous actor within the advert, an image of luxury is promoted, which targeted customers desire. The advert simplicity also appeals or attracts the target market through allowing the advertised product to speak or market itself. In the ad, the predominant focus is the bag, making it apparent that no whistles and bells are required to display the product. The advert of Etienne misses the mark with the target market. It is unclear whom the advert is appealing to, as it has an ordinary and common feeling that is not appealing to its luxury expectant customers (Tellis, 2008). Without concentrating on the real appeal or attractiveness of the boot, the advertisement itself does not display a strong image of the brand. It is confusing to distinguish or tell whom the advert is targeting. The boots are of materials, which can make customers trust that they are high end yet the inclusion of the three simple bangles and plum remove the shoe artisanship and create an aged and dowdy image. The advert is not interesting or innovative and makes the brand cheap creating or generating a lack of reverberation with the target market (Weiner, 2009).
Advertisements are designed with the primary aim of attempting to sell services or products. Their aim is to lure a customer into needing or wanting the created brand. The advert of Louis Vuitton is only attempting to create more brand awareness and imagery. Through celebrity endorsement, the advert of Vuitton Louis differentiated its brand from other labels of designers. Many people know Vuitton Louis and are acquainted with LV monogram, which is within their products. There is no need for the advert to create new awareness; it should reinforce the already existing prominent brand. The advertisement of Etienne Aigner may be imagined as attempting to market its brand. By displaying the boot, the ad is attempting to promote their merchandise as well as characterize what product is being sold. The disconnected imagery within the advert undermines the product quality and reduces its overall effectiveness.
The two advertisements were within an ELLE Magazine. The target audience of ELLE is women in the age bracket 18-34 years (Doherty et al., 2012) and target individuals enjoying the luxury, the latest fashion, advice on life and love, beauty trends, as well as providing pop culture information. The ELLE Magazine focuses on the contemporary women, blends classics and trends to attract traditional audience. The advert of Louis Vuitton is efficient in ELLE Magazine. The simplicity as well as elegant formatting, appeals to many in the ELLE Magazines’ target customer and remains relevant with its application of Williams Michelle as the model. ELLE and Louis Vuitton are attempting to reach the same age bracket of consumers or audience and are trying to target the same category or class of women. The location of the advert in the magazine too leads to its success. This advert is simple and next to a table of contents and cramped writing generates an appealing imbalance, hence innovative within the advert. On the contrary, the advert of Etienne Aigner was located within the magazine centre and could be flipped through easily. Since the advert does not have any appealing qualities, it is not different from other pages in the magazine. The advert has a rural feel, which may not appeal to readers of ELLE who may pride themselves as being unique and current (Winston, 2014).
Effective advert requires extensive marketing research. Successful advert planning entails an extensive marketing research initiative. In the opinion of Winston (2014), marketing research assists the management team of a company makes a sound or informed decisions, besides, assists in the creation of logical procedures for collecting information. The methods or procedures also help in recording and analyzing information. Moreover, marketing research assists companies with what (Berger & Mitchell, 2009), term as the 3R’s of marketing. The three R’s denote R- recruiting new customers, R- retaining current customers, R- regaining customers previously lost. Information collected from a firm’s marketing research helps the management team in identifying important elements for its ad research initiatives.
An effective advert requires extensive advertising research, which creates information for the firm management team in making informed or sound advertising decisions, as well as to design effective advertising campaign strategies. Nonetheless, before the development or creation of an ad campaign strategy, an organization must fathom its target market. The firm must determine how its products and services are perceived or regarded by the public, as well how the public regards the competitor's products or services. Moreover, the company needs to find out what imaging and branding is appropriate for placing the organization within the most suitable light (Winston, 2014).
Successful organizations combine thorough advertising and marketing research to execute effective advertising, as well as planning strategies. For example, Energizer Holdings, Inc., is one such company. Energizer advertising message entail an analysis of the target audience, a comparison between consumer behavior and target markets, and a look at the product's positioning status. Besides, include an analysis of where this product is seen in advertising media, an analysis of possible changes in product positioning and the advertising message, and a look at how advertising messages are created and whether resources are efficiently used. Moreover, consist of a suggestion on improving the effectiveness of the advertising campaign for Energizer batteries.
Energizer Batteries Advertising Message
According to Weiner (2009), effective advertising presents a company’s products or services from the perspective of the customer. What the customer feels and thinks regarding a product or service, after exposure to advertising, determines how buying decisions are made. Energizer’s advertising message seeks to cater to the customer’s senses of security and economy, by presenting Energizer batteries as the longest lasting batteries in the marketplace. Energizer’s current slogan is “now that is positive energy” (Energizer.com, 2011). This slogan seems to suggest that Energizer batteries somehow contribute to positive forces in the universe, and since energy cannot be destroyed, the message in the slogan eludes to Energizer batteries lasting virtually forever. This gives people a sense of security with this product, especially when considering needing batteries for emergencies. Additionally, this concept sends a global message that it is economical and green to use longer lasting batteries, which also speaks to social responsibility.
Energizer Batteries Target Audience
The main target market for Energizer batteries is more than likely parents, teens, and young adults. In the age of consumer electronics, teenagers and young adults need batteries for a variety of uses. In addition, parents are always in the market for batteries to use in their children’s toys and electronic devices, especially around the Christmas season (Doherty et al., 2012). Seeing an increase in battery sales over the Christmas season is an example of how consumer behavior influences consumer trends within target markets.
Consumer Habit and Target Customers
Sound strategy of advertising stems from developing advert campaigns dependent on trends of consumer behavior in target markets. Buyers or Consumers make purchasing decisions based on mental and emotional cues from the environment to which they are exposed. As mentioned above, it is important for a company to understand what the customer thinks and feels about its products or services. The main aim of an advert is to lure or influence current and potentially new customers’ attitudes toward buying a product or service (Winston, 2014). Energizer batteries ad campaigns influence peoples’ sense of awareness of safety, longevity, and cost savings to persuade them to purchase the product. This contributes to Energizer’s comfortable position in the marketplace.
Energizer Batteries Product Positioning
According to Berger and Mitchell (2009), Energizer Holdings’ shares show a year-to-date increase of 12.2%. This is due, in part, to sales of it batteries. Berger and Mitchell (2009) also projects growth in Energizer’s earnings of about 10% over the next 5 years. To do this, Energizer’s ad campaigns must continue to connect to consumers in different ways.
Energizer Batteries Ad Media Resources
Energizer batteries advertising mediums include print, digital media, radio, and television, for instance, the Internet and personal electronic devices. Energizer.com (2011) also has a multimedia gallery that displays current Energizer television commercials, archived commercials, print ads, and press releases. In addition, Energizer ad campaigns always feature its registered trademark, the Energizer Bunny®, and this image is associated with its brand awareness initiatives when the ads are presented via any media resource.
Possible Changes to Energizer Product Positioning or Ad Message
Show that the scope of the market is constantly changing with the times. In addition, as the market changes it is sometimes necessary for companies to change how they position themselves in the marketplace. As mentioned above, Energizer’s new slogan is “now that is positive energy,” and it replaces its previous slogan of “it keeps going and going” An article on Zacks.com (Weiner, 2009) states this change came about because of Energizer’s product expansion away from just alkaline batteries to include household items and lithium batteries. The new slogan is inclusive of the new product line and use of power-pulling new technologies.
How the New Energizer Ad Message was Created
An article on Zacks.com (Weiner, 2009) reports an outside advertising firm created the new Energizer ad message (“now that is the positive energy”). This same firm developed their previous ad message (“it keeps going, and going”) in 2004. This apparently is a good use of outside resources, since the previous slogan helped solidify brand awareness of Energizer, along with its trademark Energizer Bunny®.
The marketing team of Energizer has improved its ad campaign by keeping with the times as it relates to how consumers are exposed to advertising in these technological times. Energizer maintains a presence on social networking sites such as Twitter.com and Facebook.com and keeps its web site up to date and relevant. This is in addition to an aggressive multimedia ad campaign for its new product line that includes more than just batteries.
Conclusion
Energizer Holdings, Inc. has an effective advertising planning and implementation strategy in place that keeps evolving as the changes or demands of the consumer trends and changing times. The Energizer advertising message is effective as it includes its slogan and trademark, reflecting a globally inclusive approach to satisfying its customers, protecting the environment, and sustaining business growth in the marketplace.
References
Berger, I. E., & Mitchell, A. A. (2009). The Effect of Advertising on Attitude Accessibility, Attitude Confidence, and the Attitude-Behavior Relationship. Journal of Consumer Research, 1(2), 6. doi:10.1086/209213
Doherty, A. R., Pauly-Takacs, K., Caprani, N., Gurrin, C., Moulin, C. J., OConnor, N. E., & Smeaton, A. F. (2012). Experiences of Aiding Autobiographical Memory Using the SenseCam. Human-computer Interaction, 3(1), 5. doi:10.1080/07370024.2012.656050
Energizer.com (2011). New ad campaign lights way for Energizer : Business. Retrieved from http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/new-ad-campaign-lights-way-for-energizer/article_5bdc4484-0b11-11e1-abb7-0019bb30f31a.html
Tellis, G. J. (2008). Effective advertising: Understanding when, how, and why advertising works. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Weiner, S. (2009). Two Modernities: from Elle to Mademoiselle. Women's Magazines in Postwar France. Contemporary European History, 3(1), 1-3. doi:10.1017/S0960777399003045
Winston, W. (2014). Persuasive Advertising for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners: How to Create More Effective Sales Messages. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
