Yeirang Lee

This week I found a new interesting marketing communication method called “boomerang effect.” The boomerang effect is the social phenomenon that pushes a person towards anti-conformity (Bird, 2011). In other words, if a social marketing clause tries to strongly change the perception of someone, an equal force will counter that effort. This would then result in an attitude change away from the original effort given by the social marketing clause (Brehm, 1966).

If you still don’t get the concept, don’t worry. It took me a while as well, and it’s really simple once you get it. I’ll give you an example. For example, a group of college students campaigning to reduce alcohol consumption had an effect that increased alcohol consumption among their peers. What happened was that their peers read the campaign statement (The campaign stated that average college students spends $900 on alcohol per year) and realized that they were spending less on alcohol than the average person, so they spent more on alcohol and drank more to drink more than an average college student (Bird, 2011). Thus, the campaign created an opposite effect than the intended purpose.

Another interesting aspect about the boomerang effect is that it can relate with the “magnetic middle,” which is the force that attracts people towards the middle or average (Bird, 2011). So what happened with the alcohol campaign was that they were using social norms to influence the behavior of the students. This social norm provided a point of comparison for the students with the average. Thus those students who were above or below the average were attracted to the middle.

Although I explained the boomerang effect in a light manner, the dynamic relationship between agreement and confrontation is very complex. As I mentioned previously, there are two forces in persuasive communication – one that pushes towards positive change (directed by the communication) and one that resists the positive change. But the degree of force, incentives, language, and other factors implied in the persuasive communication can change the outcome of a boomerang effect (Mann & Hill, 1984). What movie theater marketers are doing now, for example, is that instead of stating “You MUST NOT litter,” they pinpoint signs where the trash can is located. This way, customers who feel as though they have the right to litter as part of the price paid for the ticket do not overtly react and feel that their freedom has been taken away as a customer (Mann & Hill, 1984).

Going back to the boomerang effect, there were also studies that showed there are ways to prevent the boomerang effect. There is what’s called “injunctive social norm” which is described as others’ approval of a particular behavior, and “descriptive social norm” which is the description of the norm, such as given by the alcohol campaign (Bird, 2011). For example, many organizations use injunctive social norms such as the community’s disapproval of littering, but also use descriptive social norms that just state that littering is present and the community should be aware of it to encourage picking up trash. But when both social norms are combined, it can have a powerful effect.

One energy NGO campaigned to reduce energy consumption of the average person promoted four ways to reduce energy consumption: turning off unnecessary lights, taking shorter showers, turning off air conditioning, and using fans rather than air conditioning (descriptive social norms) (Bird, 2011). For those who did better than the average received a smiley face J on their front door, but those who did less than average received a frown L (injunctive social norm). The results showed that the households generally decreased the energy consumption, decreasing the boomerang effect (Bird, 2011).

It’s amazing how social norms can affect us in so many ways. This was a very interesting marketing method that utilized psychology of social norms and I feel as if it can be applied in so many ways. Simple ways include placing both injunctive and descriptive norms in marketing campaigns, billboards, and commercials to make people aware of the issue. Once people find the company to be powerful and persuasive in their act, organizations can have a strong impact on consumer behavior that could have dividend effects.

Bibliography

Bird, N. (2011). Boomerang effect: how you can take charge of your life. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse Inc.

Mann, F. & Hill, T. (1984). Persuasive Communications and the Boomerang Effect: Some Limiting Conditions to the Effectiveness of Positive Influence Attempts. In T. Kinnear, NA – Advances in Consumer Research (pp. 66-70). Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research.

Brehm, J. (1966). A Theory of Psychological Reactance. New York: Academic Press.

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping.

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, On Tuesday, November 20, Amazon launched a “Brand Pages” section to their website as a personalized Amazon Page for brands to promote and sell their goods. https://ams.amazon.com/products/pages.

The Pages are free to create and lets brands customize their content by creating a microsite on Amazon, just like how it is done on Facebook. Companies can now create their own pages as “custom destinations” under their own domain name under amazon (“www.amazon.com/brandname“), and add features like product pictures, links to social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter pages) and “merchandizing widgets” (which are links to specific products on Amazon) on their main brand page.

Amazon also lets brands become “more social” in a section called “Amazon Posts” by enabling them to publish posts that could also be synced to the brand’s Facebook page simultaneously. The company also offers a dashboard for brands to monitor the status and circulation of their website through Amazon Analytics, which is also free. Doesn’t the name sound familiar? Google Analytics, Amazon Analytics?

According to Amazon, the main purpose of the brand page is to create a friendly environment so that consumers would feel comfortable to spend more. Brands can also be more involved in communicating with potential customers as they sell their goods through Amazon, and consumers would have easier access to go to a certain brand or reseller directly as long as they know the brand’s name.

Being in the shoes of a particular brand, is it worth it? Companies these days are continuously trying to gain presence in social media by creating facebook fan pages, separate facebook event pages, manage twitter accounts, etc. When I used to work for a tech company, I couldn’t believe the number of brand pages the team had to manage. I felt that the team was basically saying the same thing over and over again through different outlets, but they had no way to respond back to consumers’ comments in time because there were just too many websites to manage. However, Amazon Pages does not seem like another one of those “social media sites.”

Amazon’s brand page is directly linked to the site where its products are sold, which would be more convenient for consumers to check what the brand has to say as well as look at other products that the seller offers – all on the same page. In contrast to other social networking sites or brand pages, consumers would not have to sign up or “like” the page to take part in socializing with the company. Furthermore, Amazon is known for its credibility, and using the same platform would create synergy for brands to promote their products.

Well, it has only been a few days since the platform has been launched. We have yet to see whether this page would be a success or another one of those like friendster and myspace that failed to maintain their pages.

“Gungnam Style”

“Justin Bieber”

“Rebacca Black”

“The annoying orange”

Similarities?

It is highly possible that you are familiar with these names and even watched their videos because their videos went nuts all over the cyberspace. No need to mention what the internet has brought to Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black. They started from YouTube videos and have now became famous stars. Even the annoying orange gets its own segment on cartoon network. Millions and millions of views will not only bring you fame, but also money. The question is :How do you make your videos go viral?

Buyral makes it all possible now. (and I am not trying to make a sell.)

Anyway. Buyral is a company that offers clicks on your video that help your video to go viral,and lets now watch their informative sales video.

Doesn’t sound like a bad idea isn’t it?  Because it says Buyral “guarantees” you with a viral video if you buy their service.

The price isn’t so bad either. 5 millions views is even on sale.

This reminds me of  the Twitter case that we discussed in class where people sell fake fans to make you look more popular. I believe this case is just as controversial. The true value of a viral video to a brand is the attention and the awareness from the audience and possibly potential consumers. However, Buyral is now making all of these values into a mice and multiple clicks. Is this right? Would this work?

Lets see what are the vague values of a viral video.

So the viewership really doesn’t mean everything. Even though Buyral can give you millions and millions of view counts, but it doesn’t give you the things that a real viral video gives.

Lets now take a look what is real viral video marketing:

As mentioned in the clip, a real viral video has many benefits. Viral video marketing is really not just about the view counts. I believe the content still rules everything else. Maybe Buyral and the meaningless viewership will get you a good start? I don’t know. People may get curious to see what the fuss is about a highly viewed video, but if the content is not attractive enough, audience will soon lose interests, and no one wins in the end.

On the other hand, some people might need the viewership and nothing else because some marketing agents have mentioned in the comments of Buyral’s sales video that they had clients asking just for the view counts and were not worried about what that really means.In this case, Buyral is just about to give the right things to the right people: filling the need gap in the market. This is never wrong.

How would Buyral do in the future, better or worse? The question remains unanswered. Do you think buying the views is ethical? or do you see the future of it since the social network is getting more and more powerful?

Let me know what you think of it.

After watching those endless episodes of 007, Mission Impossible or the Bourne series, don’t tell me that you’ve never dreamed of being a secret agent yourself. With the release of the newest episode of the 007 series entitled Skyfall in UK on Oct. 26, Coke Zero is offering everyone the chance to become James Bond for 70 seconds. Well at least that’s what the commercial shows. Check it out here:

It all happened in a train station in Belgium. What’s more to the vending machine routine was a task to get to another Coke Zero vending machine at another platform in 70 seconds to win a movie ticket to the 23rd episode of the 007 series. Undoubtedly it’s never easy to be a secret agent. The escalators were never clear. And there were always a dog walker with a bunch of dogs or spilled oranges and boxes to block your way. Even if you had made your way to the other vending machine in 70 seconds, there was still one last task waiting for you at the destination. You had to sing the James Bond theme song to finally win the ticket. Fortunately it got a lot easier when all the nice people were singing with you. The movie ticket finally came out and it’s the end of the story. The whole plot echoes perfectly with the Coke Zero tagline “Make It Possible”.

This cross campaign for Skyfall and Coke Zero entitled Unlock the 007 in You has gone viral on the web. First of all, it’s cool. Who wouldn’t want to become James Bond even if it’s just for 70 seconds? It’s always tempting to challenge yourself with some mission impossible. In this sense, it fulfills some sort of movie fantasy in everyone. Moreover, while watching those funny encounters on the participants’ way to the destination, you might wonder on a second thought if all this was just a fiction or a documentary. It shouldn’t be hard to come up with a conclusion if you think rationally. And yes it’s all stunts. But does it matter whether it’s fake or real? We are all well aware that movies aren’t real but a lot of times we still find ourselves inevitably trapped in the fantasy. Therefore, it’s a smart campaign as long as it links Coke Zero with the coolness of 007 for consumers.

Here’s a new commercial of this partnered campaign. It looks like the hero manages to accomplish another mission impossible, only that this time it’s a more clichéd plot.

It’s not a first-time partnership between Coke Zero and the 007 series. This is the ad for the promotion of the Quantum Of Solace episode from a year ago.

It’s fair enough to say that the one from last year is more abstract but visual while the new one this year is more concrete and sticky as it tells a story with humor. Now do you feel like trying a Coke Zero or buying a movie ticket? Will this campaign boost the sale of Coke Zero or raise the box office numbers of Skyfall? Hopefully it’s a win-win situation. We’ll see.

With the coming of Christmas, shopping malls start the war of communication campaign. Tired of mountainous commercials and promotions, John Lewis  draws an extremely different picture of Christmas which creates new understanding on the shopping festival.

Recently, John Lewis launched their 2012 Christmas campaign with a 90-second TV advert called the journey. The commercial is banking on a love struck snowman’s journey to meet his love.

Please click the picture below to watch the sweet video. 

The ad, dubbed ‘The Journey’, opens in a family’s snow-covered garden, with children making a snowman and snowwoman. When the snowman has mysteriously disappeared the next morning, the audience is transported to a magical world, following the determined snowman on an epic journey across river, mountain, road and city. The motive for the snowman’s journey is not revealed until the last scene, when we see him return on Christmas morning.

The love story is unique. Snowman’s love melts my heart. Great visuals and heart rending music leaves the viewer with a lovely warm feeling. I genuinely admire this advert as a tele-visual artwork. Differently with other commercials, it doesn’t actually sell John Lewis nor would it induce me to visit one of their stores. In fact, the advert presents John Lewis’ understanding of Christmas: meeting people you loved, which is much more important than commercials. It’s  heartwarmer in the cold winter and therefore it makes me have a great expression on the shopping mall: considerate, warm and sweet. I have to admit emotional sweet story can always work, at least, for me.

In fact, This advert, which features the tag line “Give a little more love this Christmas“, is the follow-up to last year’s multi-award winning campaign, which is highly praised by BBC news as a breakdown in Ads. Actually I love last year’s video more than this newly launched one. I remember When I saw it the first time, I just cannot help crying.

Please click the picture below to enjoy the video. Please do not miss it.

The video features a little boy who could not wait to give his parents the perfect gift on Christmas morning. The child in the video is seven-year-old Lewis McGowan, who in the ad spends 10 days counting off the hours, minutes and seconds until Christmas. Not so he can indulge in a frenzied present-opening fest, but so that he can experience the joy of giving his parents a special gift of his own. The Long Wait is engaging on an emotional level – having a character that we can relate to, such as checking the time again and again, being too exciting to fall asleep and cannot focus on anything else. I totally understand the feeling of cannot wait to give, which is far more excited and even nervous than receiving gifts. I remember every year when I finish preparing the birthday gifts for my parents, I just cannot help telling them before the big day.

John Lewis uses this commercial to press home the real meaning of Christmas – that it is better to give than to receive. Customers put real effort and emotion into finding the perfect gift for their loved ones at Christmas. This commercial succeeds by motivating the philosophy of giving which is extremely hit the core of the festival. More importantly, the smartness is that John Lewis selects an intangible way to encourage customers to consume in the name of showing love.

Above all, I favor the commercials by John Lewis not only because it use a intangible way to describe a beautiful life but also it has been using storytelling to take the viewer through a long-form ad for a few years. It is a successful strategy. Each year, the Christmas commercials it promotes is consistent. When I watch newly launched Ads , I will always go back to review the former ones  and expect more for the next year.

If you would like to know more about John Lewis’ Ads, here is another classic commercial from: Never Knowingly Undersold. This one does not focus on Christmas theme, but I extremely like it because of the Britishness as well as the love story that spans time and space.

The advert is the story of two people falling in love. On the left side of the screen we see the girl’s side of the story. She lives in 1925, the year that John Lewis made its life long commitment to Never Knowingly Undersold. On the right side of the screen we see the boy’s side of the story. He lives in the present day. By bringing their two worlds together as one, we show that falling in love, and embarking on a relationship, is a universal story which will keep being replayed throughout time. The Ads tells us while many aspects of our lives today are very different to almost a century ago, the really important things haven’t changed at all.

Please click the picture below and enjoy the romantic story that spans time and space.