Introduction
Marketing and marketing strategies have evolved over time and so have the promotional strategies. Today more advertisements are seen in electronic media and alternative media than it was visible 2-3 decades ago. Marketers have realized the immense potential of the advertisements and the need to target them to the right audience. An ad produced without clarity of the target audience seldom finds any takers and is not able to add dollar value to the firm’s initiative to earn more. Though the culture of multi-national companies has evolved a lot over the years still, ads and promotion strategies remain an issue that the marketing manager and the creative heads decide on at national levels. At times the need becomes so niche as to prompt a region, city, or personal level decision.
Ads have traditionally leveraged the use of actors, sportspersons, and socialites among others. A trend to use songs from popular videos is also gaining importance now that the creation of jingles seems tedious and risky. The risk proposition is attached with the fact that a jingle may or may not gel with the audience while the song is already tried and tested to be successful with a particular section of the society or whole of it. Such songs usually gain international acceptance and are easy to market globally. It also reduces the cost of customizing the ad when the ad is aired in some other market.
Though it seems a good proposition and beneficial too, managers need to guard against the unnecessary use of such songs in ads as it has both monetary and human resource costs attached with it. It also affects the brand’s equity. If a song or the singer of the song or celebrities portrayed don’t match up with the image of the product the whole endeavor fails. With companies spending fortunes on such campaign’s it makes sense to select and decide on ads before just delving in to produce or air one.
Use of Music in Advertisements
The use of music from videos and movies has increased manifolds over the years. One such advertisement that featured the background score of the famous song “Don’t Stop Me Now” was produced to promote Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate. The ad features an airport where a plane is shown taking off. Then in a darkened hangar, the lights come up and various airport vehicles startup. The drivers line up on the “starting line” of the runway and take off. A pack of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate is depicted taking up and stabilizes on the screen with the script. This ad was a sequel to Cadbury’s successful ‘gorilla’ ad. (www.splendad.com)
Phil Rumbol, Cadbury’s marketing director, was quoted to have said on the release of the ad: “What we are focused on is the response. The key question we ask is: ‘Will people see this and have a moment of unmistakable joy?’ That is the acid test.” (www.brandrepublic.com). This ad was first aired in March 2008 and the launch was on Channel 4. The ad was written and directed by Fallon’s Juan Cabral and agency producer Nicky Barnes. (www.splenad.com)
Ads represent the culture of the country/market and the product and must portray that. (Sherry Jr. P 441) A brand that loses sync with the market or its culture usually does not go well with the audience. In Cadbury’s ad; the song featured uses a very lively, meaningful lyric and is of the jazz genre. The full version song was used in a video of car racing and was also voted as “The Greatest Driving Song Ever” (www.youtube.com). While being used in this ad, the song is still under a backdrop of racing and speed; the use of non-conventional vehicles suggests the spirit of freedom and liberty. Usually, slow-moving vehicles are shown to be racing and competing for speed. Finally, these ground vehicles are shown as taking off which again reinforces the sense of liberty and freedom.
The song’s lyrics (see Appendix- A) “Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time, I feel alive” reinforce the same sense. Thus the song and its spirit gel up well with the ad and its theme. The product (chocolate) has an image of relaxation, freedom, and pampering self. Thus the elements in the ad gel and complement each other. The US society relishes and respects the sense of freedom and liberty and hence the ad was in sync with the usual feel of the masses. Such ads help a lot to create a positive image of the product and reach the target population. Using proper imagery helps a lot in reinforcing the product and its image in the minds of the consumer.
Conclusion
The cultural meaning keeps shifting from one location to another with goods and consumers in a consumer society (see Appendix- B). In this system, advertisements are acknowledged to be an important medium and hence act as a diffusion agent of cultural changes in society (McCracken, 1986, p. 71).
People buy products due to various reasons. At times it’s simply the functionality while at others it is the imagery of the product. Ads add a sense of image and bonding to the product (Leigh and Gabel, 1992, p. 27). Thus ads need to use components that gel social norms, product imagery, and ad image together in a bond.
Appendix- A: (source: www.splenad.com, 2008)
Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive
And the world turning inside out, yeah
I’m floating around in ecstasy
So don’t stop me now
Don’t stop me
‘Cause I’m having a good time
Having a good time
I’m a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I’m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I’m gonna go go go
There’s no stopping me
I’m burning through the sky, yeah
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
I’m traveling at the speed of light
I’m wanna make a supersonic man out of you
Don’t stop me don’t stop me don’t stop me
Hey hey hey!
Don’t stop me don’t stop me
Ooh ooh all right
References
- SpendAd.com Website, Cadbury Dairy Milk – Trucks commercial. Web.
- Sherry, John F. Jr. Advertising is a cultural system, (Pages 441 – 446)
- YouTube, Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen, Web.
- McCracken, Grant (1986) “Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods”, Journal of Consumer Research (1986-1998); Issue13, Source: ABI/INFORM Global (Page 71)
- Leigh, James H., and Gabel, Terrance G. (1992) “Symbolic Interactionism: Its effects on consumer behavior and implications for marketing strategy”, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 9, No.1, (Page 27-30)