Hong Kong International Airport: the Campaign Ho Ho Sik - Case Study Example

Marketing Communication PART 1 The campaign ‘Ho Ho Sik’ employed by Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) was very successful because it employed a route suggested by the Elaboration Likelihood Model effectively. The designers of the campaign were able to identify a route that was easily adopted by the target audience. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) demonstrates that ideas can be formed and later changed along a continuum from low elaboration to high elaboration. All promotional and advertising campaigns can be classified using the continuum based on the content of the campaign (De Mooij 49). This model has been advanced by researchers in the social psychology realm to explain the different ways in which an audience can be persuaded. The model suggests two processing routes namely central route and peripheral route. The central route processes need the audience to think more and can be mostly applied in high-elaboration conditions. The route involves analysis of persuasive communication (such as an advertisement or speech) to determine the merits of an argument. In these conditions, the cognitive response of a person to the message dictates its persuasive outcome. If a message is perceived as being well-constructed, reliable, and convincing; there are high chances that it will be received favorably even if it goes against the original position of the receiver with regard to the message (Petty & Cacioppo 13). When favorable thoughts emanates from the process of elaboration, the message has a high likelihood of being received. An attitude that is congruent with the message’s position will come up. If thoughts that are not favorable are generated when considering the merits of the presented arguments, the message is bound to be repulsed or rejected. The second pathway of the model was applied in the HKIA advertising campaign. This is the peripheral route that was applied in this Ho Ho Sik campaign. The peripheral pathway does not entail message elaboration through cognitive processing of merits of an argument. The processes employed rely on the environmental characteristics of a message. These include message presentation quality, the source credibility, the source attractiveness or a catchy slogan. This is what HKIA campaign entailed. The catch-phrase Ho Ho Sik was coined and spread through a word-of-mouth campaign. The peripheral route is normal a mental shortcut which accepts or rejects messages with regard to external cues as opposed to thought. The advertising campaign team at HKIA correctly identified that people when travelling are interested in learning one or two simple local phrases, whether it is a joke or a greeting, which can make the journey more interesting. Ho Ho Sik was loosely translated to mean ‘very delicious’ and a team of people dispatched to the airport to teach tourists from all over the world on how to say it. Videos of tourists learning how to say the phrase was shown to them and they shared it with other people. The video went viral on social media and it was shared global. The campaign was successful since the phrase Ho Ho Sik looked interesting to learn and was easily adopted by the passengers and shared with friends and relatives. The campaign was simple and with a low budget. PART 2 There are other theories of change of attitude that can be used in marketing, advertising and promotional campaigns. Some of these theories include interactive communication model and theory of reasoned action. Theory of reasoned action was incorporated in the HKIA advertising campaign that proved to be a huge success. Interactive communication model The interactive communication model shows the events that happen when two people are talking or conversing with one another. It shows the steps that exist when one person speaks and the other person responds. The speaker encodes the information while the receiver decodes it before responding to it. A response is formulated after the receiver has successfully interpreted the coded message. A way a communication has to be adopted that is understood and easily decoded by the target audience. In the case of HKIA advertising campaign there the message was a catchphrase that people were taught how to say. Ho Ho Sik meant “Best Airport Dining”. The encoding and decoding work was on the part of the advertising team and the customer had the responsibility of recalling. Memorizing of the phrase and sharing it with others was the important target of the campaign team. Theory of reasoned action This theory was developed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1975). The model takes into account both subjective norms and attitudes that people hold in predicting their behavior in future. The behavioral intentions of person are determined by the attitudes he has towards performing a certain act or engaging a certain behavior. Every component of attitudes, intention, and subjective norms are determined by the specific beliefs attached to them. A person wears a certain brand of shows or chooses a certain type of toothpaste owing to the beliefs that are formed within him. Some of the behavioral intentions can be influenced by subjective norms while other intentions are influenced by personal attitudes. The campaign using at HKIA overrode personal attitudes and subjective norms. The campaign applied emotional appeal to excite tourists into learning the new phrase Ho Ho Sik. It was not about overcoming deeply rooted personal perceptions and beliefs. The campaign was able to predict the behavioral intentions of the tourists. The campaign was able to transcend subjective norms and attitudes successful. The reasoned action theory was also used well in the advertising campaign. Ho Ho Sik was able to overcome beliefs and attitudes of travelers and present a point of interest to all. The campaign team was aware of the subjectivity of norms and attitudes and that is why they came up with something that could not result in bias or rejection of the message. The behaviors of the traveler with regard to learning new phrases or greetings wad predictable and transcends personal bias and attitude (Okazaki & Mueller 499). Application of the theory of reasoned action provided room for the advertising campaign team to come with something that was going to be accepted globally. The phrase went viral in social media despite cultural and traditional boundaries. PART 3 Keeping HKIA Buzz alive The buzz of HKIA can be kept alive if the values that are carried in the phrase ‘Ho Ho Sik’ are engraved in the culture of the company. It is not only about the travelers learning how to say the word but it should portray credibility by making sure that the dishes prepared at the airport are deliciously amazing. People will be interested in confirming what is carried in the phrase and other good values that can be found at the airport. Promotions about the phrase should have to be persistent and consistent with the values held by the company. It would be important to generate a story that led to the formation of the phrase. Travelers will be interested in knowing how Ho Ho Sik was coined and what its origin was. The advertising team can go a step further and brand some of the section of the airport like arrival terminal with the phrase. The campaign in social media and other print media should be enhanced. Ho Ho Sik has to be one of the identities attributed to Hong Kong International Airport. Sales promotion has to continue and advertising in other forms of media has to be kept alive. The buzz of HKIA can be kept alive if there is consistency and observing high standards of quality when it comes to service delivery. Excellent and perfect public relations have to be maintained in order to encourage first timer travelers to have an interest of coming back at the airport to be served again. Workers have to carry around with respectable decorum and serve visitors with humility and politeness. The good values projected by the company will be spread by word of mouth to other people who have not been to Hong Kong International Airport. Campaign for the next 12 months The campaign selected is celebrity endorsement alongside client testimonials. This is a form of advertising or brand campaign that involves a well person using his fame to help promote a service or a product. This kind of promotion has been widely used by manufacturers of clothing and perfumes (Arora 377). The target audience of this campaign with the general public particularly the upper middle class who can afford the luxury of travelling around during vacations. The media that will be used for this campaign will be print, electronic and visual. Specifically television advertisement, magazines and newspapers advertisement and websites will be used. The choice of media of advertisement targets to reach out to many people as much as possible. The campaign will target to use testimonies by people who have used the airport to lure others to develop an interest into doing the same. Testimonials and endorsement from celebrities is important because it helps to create brand awareness. People who have not heard the existence of HKIA will get to know it because a certain person known to them (celebrity) had used the airport on a previous occasion. Endorsement by celebrity helps the masses to quickly remember advertisement (Solomon 57). It is important for positioning. There are many advertisements that flashes on people’s TV sets but only some can be remembered with regard to people who feature in them or how well a person understands the product. YouTube developed carrying the testimonies of regular customers and celebrities will be uploaded on the company’s website to be viewed by anyone who can access the website. The use of internet will be convenient since many places in the world have stable supply of internet. The use of celebrities will encourage the credibility of the product to other consumers. If people see a person who they can identify with using Hong Kong International Airport then they will believe the airport is safe, comfortable and interesting enough to be used by people of such caliber. Any advertisement that has been created using a prominent person will stand out from the rest. Hong Kong International Airport can utilize celebrity endorsement to raise its status and encourage more people to visit it. Without having a specific celebrity to endorse the celebrity campaign, it will be product to caption any famous person who uses the airport and use it in sales promotion. A well known celebrity figure like Oprah Winfrey, Lionel Messi, or Shakira will have their videos recorded if at one time they use the airport and then aired as part of advertising campaign. The essence of using testimonials is to make other people to get to know a service or a product and identify with it as being real. Endorsement by celebrities increases the credibility of a brand (Souiden, Kassim & Hong, 831).The catchy slogan Ho Ho Sik can be incorporated in the campaign. A celebrity can be used to say the slogan Ho Ho Sik and the advertisement aired on television or put in magazines and other print media. People will want to use a service or product that has been used by someone that they can identify with. Testimonials can either be from famous people or a regular customer who enjoyed services at Hong Kong International Airport. When people listen to real testimonies of people who have used a service they tend to belief its credibility as opposed being told through mere advertisements. Regular customers who have been used in the testimonials will feel valued and will in turn recommend relatives, friends and acquaintances to use Hong Kong International Airport on any of their visit to China. Use of testimonials and celebrity advertisement will require the company to set aside a certain percentage of its budget to be used in advertising the testimonials of celebrities as well as regular customers. This campaign will be evaluated quarterly (after every four months) to evaluate its effectiveness in the market. Work cited Arora, R., Message framing strategies for new and mature products, The Journal of Product and Brand Management, 16, 6 (2007), 377. De Mooij, M., Global Marketing and Advertising, Understanding Cultural Paradoxes (3rd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T., Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986. Okazaki, S. & Mueller, B., “Cross-cultural advertising research: where we have been and where we need to go”, International Marketing Review, 24, 5, (2007), pp. 499–518. Solomon, M. Consumer behavior buying, having, and being (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.  Souiden, N., Kassim, N.M. & Hong, H.J., “The effect of corporate branding dimensions on consumers’ product evaluation, a cross-cultural analysis”, European Journal of Marketing, 40, 7/8, (2006), pp. 825–845 Read More