Advertising Strategies - Essay Example

? Submitted too: Shifting the Balance: Apple, Micromax and Smart Phone Advertising Strategies A PAPER SUBMITTED by In advertising, the medium through which potential customers become acquainted with a product is among the key factors in determining the outcome of an ad campaign. Print advertising is a time honored conventional medium that allows product manufacturers to prompt customer response in a very specific and focused manor. One of the best examples of harnessing and conceptualizing it in a visual print advertisement is Apple‘s innovative iPhone Campaigns. Conceptually the Ad’s must be considered the benchmark for any successful product campaign as the Apple iPhone has defined the smart phone market in the United States for the better part of a decade. No carrier or manufacturer had ever managed to expose any vulnerability in Apple’s iPhone and its advertising strategy, until Micromax teamed up with Android OS to produce an “iPhone killer” advertisement. Introduction: “You don’t buy a smartphone, you buy an iPhone.” This is the Apple mantra; it is the capstone of their entire advertising and marketing campaign. Apple isn’t content with being a leader in sales alone; they want to own the market. The iPhone wasn’t the first phone, but they engineered it to be so unique that you couldn’t help but think it was. Apple introduced a concept of innovating ergonomics that could be marketed in simple dynamic visual ads that affected consumer perceptions of their products, and ultimately allowed Apple to dominate the entire smart phone market segment. Such was the state of the smart phone universe until October 2011. The iPhone 4S was unveiled at Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" event on October 4, 2011, on the Apple Campus in Cupertino, California.( Chaffin, 2011) With the usual pomp and circumstance Apple rolled out its standard new product campaign in a typically “Apple fashion”.( Chaffin, 2011) As iPhone 4s sales commenced on October 7, 2011 Apple prepped a One Half page Top Fold Advertisement to run in the USA Today on Sunday October 9, 2011. Following the Apple print ad Micromax and Android OS rolled out a Full Page print ad in the exact ad space within the USA Today on Sunday October 16, 2011. These two ads are the focus of this paper and represent the proverbial yen and yang of the battle between Apple and its competitors for the smart phone universe. While Apple’s ad followed its dynamic marketing strategy, the Micromax and Android Advertisement exposed a hugely successful tactic that could be deployed to counter the iPhones dominance in the market. II.The Advertisements Comparison/Contrast: The Apple “Fasten Your Seatbelt” Print Ad from October 9, 2011: The Apple iPhone 4s Advertisement follows a traditional “Apple” philosophy: It’s not so much the marketing angle that matters as it is the way that people identify with that angle. The Ad itself is a clean Picture-Window Layout featuring the sleek sexy iPhone as the center feature of the Ad. The theme, copy brilliance and wit of the Ad are more important than layout. Apple takes the basic ideas of Doyle Bernibach and enhances them around the architecture (Beasley, 2002) of the iPhone as a product. The simplicity and execution of the Ad creates a contextualization of the product for the consumer (Beasley, 2002), it successfully builds upon the aura of the iPhone and Apple with a “New” and “Faster” sales hook that captures consumer’s attention and presents a clear call to action that motivates current iPhone and Smart phone owners to upgrade to the iPhone 4s. The Micromax and Android OS “I CAN’T” Counter Ad from October 16, 2011. The Micromax Advertisement is a variation on the frame layout in which kidney-shaped copy is spread over a large portion of the layout, creating a cul-de-sac of white in which the headline and product are placed. (Altstiel, 2005) The Copy type is reversed in non-patterned or plain-toned areas to allow the consumer to first focus on the headline, then focus on the product and finally read and follow the copy message in a smooth directed chronological order. (Altstiel, 2005) The brilliance of this ad is the introduction of the “I CAN’T” concept to the consumer. The firm establishment mantra rests on the laurels of iPhone as an icon that is too costly and may in fact have grown “too long at the tooth”(Holbrook, 1978) to compete with the Mircormax product and the Android OS . The sale hook and call to action are direct: buy the Micromax A-70 and get a low cost better preforming alternative to the stale and dated iPhone 4s. III- Ad Placement /Medium and Target Market: Both Ads were run in a conventional print format in the USA Today newspaper on sequential Sundays in October 2011. USA Today is a national daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company and circulated in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada and the United Kingdom. (Neiman, 2012) USA Today is the widest circulated print newspaper in the United States with average daily circulation of over 1.8 million and Weekend/Sunday edition circulation of slightly over 3 million copies. (Neiman, 2012) Both Ads were strategically placed on the back page of the Business (B section) of the newspaper. In context of readership the business section of the USA Today is the second most read section of the newspaper.(Neiman, 2012) Based on the demographic of the readership of this section and the following data, it is most applicable to establishing the Advertisements target market for both campaigns. As of 2010, 25 percent of all smartphone users are under age 25 while 46 percent are under age 35(Rapaport et.al.,2011), which means consumers that utilize smartphones are generally young and, according to additional statistics, affluent, (i.e. most likely to have investments or stay abreast of financial news). Also of note smartphone users are 57 percent male. (Rapaport et.al.,2011) USA Today analytics in 2009 revealed 23 percent of all respondents to a survey who read the “B” section of the USA Today were under age 25 while 38 percent are under age 35. ( Gannet Publishing, 2009). The correlation between these two data streams directly implicates “who” the target market of both ads was: young, affluent, males. Therefore, we can extrapolate that products and services that appeal directly (Statt, 1977) to members of these groups are among the most efficient ways to advertise smart phone products. IV-Marketing Appropriateness and Target Market Synergy Both Apple and Micromax carefully evaluated their target market and Ad placement in a high conversion medium. The Appropriateness and Market Synergy generated by the two ads contributed directly to both campaigns in a very significant manor. The Apple Ad is a direct Informational Advertising construct (Haig, 2006) aimed at continuing the success of earlier Apple products by influencing brand loyalty toward a “New” and “Faster” iPhone 4s. The Micromax Ad is a clear Transformational Advertising construct (Haig, 2006) aimed at “transferring” underlying consumer sentiment against the cost and technical weakness of the iPhone product line. The Apple Ad includes some element of information, primarily nothing more than the raw “New” and “Faster” hook along with the Apple brand identifier. By definition Informational advertisement provides consumers with factual (i.e., presumably verifiable), relevant brand data in a clear and logical manner such that they have greater confidence in their ability to assess the merits of buying the brand.(Statt, 1977) The Micromax Ad follows a different philosophy of transformational advertisement in which the consumer associates the experience of using (consuming) the advertised brand with a unique set of psychological characteristics which would not typically be associated with the brand experience to the same degree without exposure to the advertisement. .(Statt, 1977) Thus, the Micromax ad is aimed directly at iPhone users that are aware of the limitations and costs associated with ownership and product operation of the iPhone. The appropriateness of both ads is founded in solid advertising and marketing theory. However, the synergy derived from the ads is dissimilar. The Apple Ad was a bid for consumers to continue “habitual” habits”(Holbrook, 1978) and purchase a new iPhone. The Micromax Ad was aimed at “re-defining” ”(Holbrook, 1978) the consumers buying preference for smartphones by creating a significant variance in price and performance between the iPhone and the Micromax product ultimately affecting appropriateness of the products need in relation to their target audience. V Conclusion: While both Ads were created as “tools” in substantial and large scoped advertising campaigns, the implications of these two ads are profound on their products. Apple will follow their corporate strategy and focus on building what they want to build, no matter the perceived cost or consumer expectations. Their competitors must find the “weakness” of the Apple products and exploit those issues to market and sell their products against an ever more dominant Apple brand. In Advertising terms it is a proverbial David versus Goliath Story, and Apple as Goliath does have a weakness that the Micromax Ad clearly established. As both Ads rest today we can conclude neither is a watershed moment in advertising that will forever change the industry. However, they both have established how advertising in their market segment will be carried out. The Micromax tactic employed in their ad has been adopted and utilized in the last two years to chip and attack Apples smartphone dominance (see Samsung) and has even forced Apple to stop ignoring the competition in its advertising strategy. Overall these two simple print Ads highlight what is the status quo of their market segment and what may be the future of their products. VI-Bibliography: Chaffin, Bryan (October 5, 2011). "Apple Announces iPhone 4S: New Antenna, 64GB Capacity (Update)". The Mac Observer. Retrieved, February 4, 2013. Nieman Journalism Lab.(2012) USA Today: an Encyclopedia of the Future of News. Retrieved Feburary 4 , 2013 Rapaport, Lisa and Wang, Xu (October 11, 2011). "Apple received more than 1 million pre-orders for iPhone 4S in a day". The Economic Times. The Times Group. Retrieved Feburary 4, 2013. Gannet Publishing (2009) USA Today: Press Room : Press Kit . Retrieved 2013-02-04. Statt, David (1977). Understanding the Consumer - A Psychological Approach. London: Macmillan Press. Holbrook, Morris (November 1978). "Beyond Attitude Structure: Toward the Informational Determinants of Attitude". Journal of Marketing Research 15 (4). Beasley, Ron (2002). Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising. Berlin, Germany: Walter deGruyter GmbH & KG. Altstiel, Tom, and Jean Grow(2005). Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics From the Outside/In. CA: Sage Publication Inc. Haig, M.(2006) Brand failures: the truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time, Kogan Page Publishers, p.219; 266. Read More