Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Analysis of Project in the Real World
Creative Content
The creative content I created for this project is in the form of a 30 second commercial suitable for television or web based advertising purposes and a print ad that could also be used as a billboard or taxi cab topper. The commercial and print advertisements are cohesive in the content and congruent in the ideas they convey to the audience. “Television and web commercials have to do the following and do it all in fifteen or thirty seconds: Get someone’s attention before he or she zaps, skips ahead, or leaves the room. Look or feel fresh. Entertain. Work in the context of television programming. Endear the brand or group to the consumer. Call to action, create awareness, or drive people to the web.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 218-219) This commercial completes all of these objectives. It pulls the audience in from the very beginning with the beautiful, unique setting and compelling story. “In marketing, we use storytelling about a brand or group to communicate related messages that, over a period of time, will distinguish, differentiate, reflect positively, construct or contribute to its brand personality, be memorable, resonate, and influence people. That is a really long list of tasks for a story to perform, which is why the storytelling has to be strategic and its premise sound, beneficial, and flexible.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 192) The story in the commercial is a fresh, linear approach to advertising. A girl is walking through the mall at the Cosmopolitan and spots the swimsuit she’s been looking for in the window of Molly Brown’s She walks in, immediately sees the suit, and picks it up to try it on. She walks into the fitting room as a normal, 20 something and walks out looking and feeling like a supermodel. “Your story should illuminate something about the nature of a person, subject, or situation. The story starts with a problem or conflict and should demonstrate the ability to understand and find a solution to a problem. To look for the insight, we start by mining for something common to us all in human nature: our needs, hopes, aspirations, and desires.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.193) This commercial is capable of being identifiable with the target audience because the actress looks and acts very naturally. She is a member of the target market and will immediately be recognized by fans of the store as a model that has participated in all of the events that the store has held and will hold during the summer months to come. She is essentially becoming the face of the brand. Consumers will see her as the sweet, fun, Las Vegas girl next door that they all want to know or be. “Of course, you can think of a commercial as storytelling, as containing characters, goals, conflicts, scenes, and a plot line. When telling a story, one must consider the element of time.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 221) In this commercial, time is an important element. The idea is that by shopping at Molly Brown’s, a girl can become a supermodel in no time flat. She just has to own a suit from the store. “There are as many structures for television commercials and commercial videos as there are for film, prose, poetry, or music. The structure should flow out of the brand strategy, the creative brief, the idea, the tone you want to set, the feeling, and an insight into the audience.” (Advertising by design, Landa, p. 220-221) The linear structure of the story of the commercial is very in tune with the brand and company itself. They strive to make things easy for the customer. Customer service, store layout and merchandising, and website accessibility are all important elements of the company’s mission. “We have all heard advertising jingles that we can hum or that stay with us, provoking endearment to brands or nostalgic feelings. Audio provides a strong component in screen-based media, lending to the audience enthusiasm, engagement, and a way to make the piece memorable, to make it stick.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 220) The song “Long Vacation” is an important element in creating the feel and tone of the commercial. The company is based out of Newport Beach, California and it was important to communicate the feeling that the store, the employees, the company, and the brand are trying to get the consumer to have. This song is catching and gives off a distinctive beach feel to the commercial that it wouldn’t have had in a setting like a Las Vegas casino resort. This will convey a message that the company strives to send to its’ customers.
Promotion
“A campaign must have visual impact, whether a visual surprise, graphic interest visual drama, or a breakthrough appearance. A creative approach in advertising must be appropriate for the product or service, and it must communicate and enhance the client’s message-form follows function.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.204) Molly Brown’s advertising campaign will feature a print ad and a television commercial that is 30 seconds long. These types of advertisements can be used in the existing media the company utilizes in their promotional efforts. The company relies on word of mouth from the buzz they create on their internet website and through their customers that have found them by searching for particular hard-to-find swimwear brands. “From the strategy, you conceive a premise, a central theme that forms the basis of your claim. The premise should be based on an insight into the brand, the product, and the audience.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 192) The promotional strategy of this advertising campaign is to promote the brand to new potential customers by attracting them to the store on the most popular form of social media used by the target market today. All elements in the campaign can be used online on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These are websites that all of the target market of the company is heavily involved in. The commercial will help to relate to the consumers what the store and the brand are all about while showing them some of the merchandise they can expect to find in the store. It also will familiarize the audience with the store by letting them get a sneak peak at what the interior of the new Las Vegas location looks like. The print ad can even be made into a billboard and put anywhere in Las Vegas or the Los Angeles area just by changing the location that is advertised in the copy.
The Big Idea
“An ad idea is visually and verbally expressed through the creation, selection, combination, manipulation, and arrangement of visual and verbal elements and the written copy. A big idea is a solid, creative, on-brand idea that is large enough and flexible enough to be used effectively across media for a period of time.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The big idea for the Molly Brown advertising campaign is to create something that the audience can relate to and make them want to come to the stores, in both locations, even if it’s just out of curiosity. This is a store that has risen to have national recognition by its customers because of their website and the fact that they carry hard-to-find designs. The advertising needs to support this history that the company already has with their customers and appeal to customers that haven’t ever heard of them before. “Basing ideas on personal life experience or observing others can help make your ad ideas relevant to others’ lives. People should react: ‘Yep, that’s how it is!’ When we can relate to the story, we feel a kinship with the brand or group being advertised.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 195) Since I have worked at Molly Brown’s, I understand our customers and what they want when they come into the store. I want existing customers to talk about the ad with their friends because it caught their attention and made them think how like the real experience is to the commercial. I want potential customers to catch the advertising and tell all their friends how they absolutely must check out the store that made this fun, feminine, ad. “An effective ad is driven by the underlying concept. An advertising idea-or concept-is the creative reasoning behind a solution. The concept determines the resulting message: what you say and how you design.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The concept of the advertising is that every girl deserves to feel like a glamorous diva just like her favorite rock star or celebrity. “According to Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, we have a hierarchy of needs that influence our behavior. At the pinnacle, we find self-actualization, which is defined as ‘the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming’.”(Advertising by Design, Landa, p.068) By coming to Molly Brown’s and buying a swimsuit, she will attain this desire. In the store, it is not uncommon to hear the sales associates tell a girl that she could buy a suit somewhere else, but it’s the girls in the swimsuits from Molly Brown’s that get all the stairs at the pool clubs. This is the concept that the advertising is meant to convey. “An ad idea is visually and verbally expressed through the creation, selection, combination, manipulation, and arrangement of visual and verbal elements and the written copy. A big idea is a solid, creative, on-brand idea that is large enough and flexible enough to be used effectively across media for a period of time.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The commercial and the print ad go together to help create a cohesive advertising campaign that can be used by the company at least for the rest of the season. They will always be able to use it on the website because it is their very first commercial ever and their customers will always be able to enjoy it as a way to feel closer to the company.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Competitive Analysis
The main competition for Molly Brown Swimwear is Everything But Water. This is a national chain that has a location at The Fashion Show Mall on Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s a small store with swimwear lining the walls from floor to ceiling. The store carries a couple of the same brands, including L Space, Vitamin A, Despi, Cia Maritima, Nanette Lepore, Luli Fama, Sauvage, Letarte, and VIX. The variety of product of each of these brands, however, is much smaller than Molly Brown’s offers. Also, Molly Brown’s has the capability to get any suit a brand is currently offering because of the good relationships the company has formed with the designers. The designers themselves make special advertising campaigns just for Molly Brown’s to use on the company website. “In an overcrowded, competitive marketplace, relevant and engaging branding can ensure efficacy for a quality product, service, group, individual, or commodity. Not only does branding identify and distinguish, it builds equity.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 049) Molly Brown’s has done a better job of branding themselves online with their infamous website. Women are always coming in the store excited to see the brands they have become so familiar with by using the website. Everything but Water’s website is useful, but there is actually more available in the store than online. “We have to generate ideas and content that people will seek out, that pulls people in across media. When so many people stay continually connected throughout the day by mobile phone or computer, each person decides which advertising messages they care to receive and where to hear or view them.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.048) They have a nationwide presence with their stores that Molly Brown’s doesn’t have, however, so in order to stay competitive, Molly Brown’s has to maintain a better online presence. “We can think of a brand construct as a developed personality-a strategic concept incorporating a positioning platform based on the product or group with insights into the brand and the prospective audience.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.049) Molly Brown’s online presence and brick and mortar locations offer their target market a cohesive look that is in touch with their style and the look they want to create. The website for Everything but Water is rather plain and boring and doesn’t speak to a very clear target market. “Emotional benefits are not based on a tangible characteristic of a product or service but rather on subjective experience.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.050) Molly Brown’s also has a blog that is used to form an emotional bond with customers.
Molly Brown Swimwear: Unearth Your Inner Diva
Molly Brown Swimwear is a store based in Newport Beach, California. There was a recent expansion made of the store to a new location in Las Vegas at The Cosmopolitan. The store has created a brand name for itself in the swimwear community by carrying only high end, well made swimwear brands from around the world that are rarely found at other swimwear boutiques. “Advertising has become more ubiquitous than ever, as advertisers try to find new ways to get their message through. Advertising differentiates brands, groups, and causes, and ultimately sells products and calls people to action.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 002) Women that shop the brands are found all over the world as the brand has a huge online following. The new store opening calls for some advertising that will make the new Las Vegas market aware of the store’s presence and what the company is all about. The website emphasizes that the point of the company is bring swimwear to women that will make them feel sexy, confidant, and allow their personalities to shine through in the suits they choose without having to sacrifice quality or customer service. The slogan for the brand will now be “Unearth your inner diva.” This is a phrase that was used in the narrative on the website. It conveys the message that the company wants their customers to understand going into the stores. The advertisement for the store will convey this message and address the consumer insight of “self-actualization, which is defined as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 068) Women that buy their suits at Molly Brown’s want to be noticed and look their best. They don’t mind spending a little more for the quality and look that they desire to achieve. “That consumer insight should be coupled with an insight into the brand. This combination can achieve an attainment of an advertising ‘sweet spot’- the most effective place to hit the audience with your marketing messages.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p.068) Molly Brown’s gets in touch with their audience by keeping a daily blog, having very knowledgeable sales staff, and telling the story of the designers they feature. “People are engaged by compelling narratives. If a brand or group has a story to tell, then it will be more dimensional. Through the branding, advertising, and every point of contact, people learn the brand story.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 056)