Is Political Advertising The Ultimate Vulgarity?

While some ad agencies willingly make political campaigns, such as Saatchi & Saatchi, some withdraw themselves from such services, such as Ogilvy & Mather. And some only do political advertising. In Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963), David Ogilvy expressed his disinterest in taking politicians as clients for two reasons: "The use of advertising to sell statesmen is the ultimate vulgarity." and that "If we were to advertise a Democrat, we would be unfair to the Republicans on our staff; and vice versa."

Among other reasons that ad agencies refuse to engage in political advertising are ideological deferences, and the fact these clients are short-term clients and come in cycles. An average client changes agencies once every 4 or 5 years while 10-15 year long client-agency relationships are not uncommon. Another reason is that around election times, these clients constantly need a particularly high level of attention which can overwhelm and exhaust the staff. Reputation risks are also a factor. Every time an ad agency supports a political party, it risks losing clients and prospects.

However, it is no secret that a hefty amount of money is spent on political campaigns. In 2012, the presidential election cost hit $2 billion mark, making it the most expensive election in the history. Half of this was spent on TV and radio advertising. Then comes the costs of digital advertising and print, and other costs such as fundraising, salaries, administrative, etc.

The ultimate purpose of this research is to find out how political advertising influence the voters' behaviour and possibly along the way answer why it has been described as the "ultimate vulgarity" by one of the most influential figures in Advertising industry. I will share with you some important information I came across during my research.

- A lot of protection, little regulation and lack of incentives to self-regulate: Politician are privileged to be over-protected. The First Amendment creates the perfect environment for politicians to engage in continual attacks and counter-attacks during election times. Basically, they are legally permitted to do whatever they want. They can make false claims and groundless accusations without ever getting caught. No politician has ever been disciplined for unethical or dishonest advertising. This makes the truth irrelevant.

Commercial advertising on the other hand is bound by restrictions. Studies show that people clearly distinguish between political advertising and commercial advertising and not surprisingly, political advertising scores much lower in believability and credibility compare to commercial advertising. Political advertising is usually done in a negative form (also known as attack ads). The purpose is to draw attention to the opponent's weaknesses and create a negative perception about him/her. The following ads are a few examples:

Some politicians believe that they are stuck in a "prisoners' dilemma", that they have to use attack ads as their opponents are using them and if they don't, they will lose.


- Political ads bore people: Research shows that people are jaded with political ads, especially the attack ads. They're described as unfair, uninformative, stupid, unethical, and deceptive. I have to admit that I find them particularly entertaining though, watching a bunch of politicians ridiculing themselves in front of a nation is wicked. :D

People believe that negative advertising is not useful as it is often image-based and not issue-based. Some argue that the lack of enthusiasm for voting and cynicism is partly due to the intense dislike that people have towards political advertising, and the low perceived utility of such advertising. Political campaigns often use mixed strategies (a combination of negative ads and other forms of political ads) to be less annoying. That being said, people might hate the attack ads but studies show they don't necessarily hate the candidate for it (negative ads occasionally cause backlash though). As a matter of fact, research suggests that negative ads actually work. Let's see how.

- Negative messages are more easily remembered than positive ones: Not only people remember them more easily, but they tend to weight negative information more heavily than they do positive information when assessing someone's likeability. This partly explains the last minute ads the day before the election. Politicians bring up new claims close to the election when their opponents don't have enough time to respond. The negative message sticks to people's minds and since it's the most recent information, it's remembered most easily. Some ad directors refuse to print last minute political ads for this reason.

- Special effects do have special effects on voters' behaviour: One study has found that the special effects used in television ads affect voters' judgements about political candidates, even if they're fully aware of them. They significantly increase a candidate's chances of winning. This includes editing and any distortion like changing a scene from colour to black-and-white, stretching the nose of the opponent to look like Pinocchio's (this is their favourite, it has been done for almost all politicians), using slow motion or still images, adding background noise (people cheering up in the background), etc. I lost count of the distortions in the following video:

 Barack Obama inspirational TV ad

- Getting people emotionally engaged is the secret: Another study revealed that voter emotion will significantly influence advertising believability. When people are less emotional, they tend to believe the positive messages delivered through advertising; when they are more emotional, they tend to believe negative messages more. So if an attack ad makes you cry, it means it's working, like this one:

- The elderly are easier targets: They have more difficulty accurately remembering the claims made in the ads and are more likely to make illogical inferences from them. Older people usually fall for the attack ads.

The federal election is around the corner. Candidates have already started the war. We'll be exposed to a lot of attack ads. A healthy dose of skepticism is necessary and it wouldn't hurt if we remember these few points when making our decision.

 Let's have a look at this very old ad made by Disney in 1952 for Eisenhower presidential campaign.

I like Ike...

Ogilvy On Advertising

David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, has written two widely-praised books: Ogilvy On Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man. In "Ogilvy on Advertising", in 20 chapters, he gives his thoughts on major trends in advertising, figures that shaped the industry, the do's and don'ts of advertising and the changes he predicted for the future of advertising. He is direct, meticulous, honest, precise and sincere. This is by far, the most inspirational book I've ever read, so I decided to dedicate a post to it. In this book, he generously shares 217 pages of useful information that he accumulated throughout his long career, in a particularly amusing and thought-provoking way. If you're a beginner, like myself, this is a must-read book. Put it on top of your list, it will give you great insight into the industry. And if you've already been in the business for couple of years and haven't read this book yet, well, shame on you (kidding). 

I'm going to randomly share with you some interesting points that David Ogilvy made in this book. The book was published in 1983 (before most of us were even born). We need to take this into account. Although a lot of things have changed in the industry ever-since (internet, social media, Photoshop and endless design possibilities), the essence remained the same to my opinion. 

First of all, what's interesting is that when reading this book, you'll realize where Matthew Weiner got his ideas from for Mad Men. Mad Men is full of references to this book, things such as the industry volatility, all the smoking and the alcohol (Ogilvy actually mentioned in this book that a lot of talented people in the industry lose their jobs because of alcohol addiction, though some agencies try to retain their talents by offering rehab opportunities.), resigning Lucky Strike, working with difficult but talented people (remember Peggy & Stan on their first project?), hated account executives, ignored housewives/gender inequality (well, the perception that women belonged in the home), etc.

Ogilvy sure had his own ways of getting the attention of potential consumers. He tells us stories about how he once sent carrier pigeons to prospects with a promotional offer and their address tied to the pigeons' legs. Some "ate" the pigeons (°_o), some replied. Once, his brother wrote a letter in Greek to headmasters of private schools, selling cooking stoves. They replied that they couldn't read Greek, they sent another letter in Latin and it worked. They got their attention and sold the product. In the following ad, Ogilvy put an eye-patch on the model to create "story appeal". Genius!

This man went to great extents to make advertising that sells. Somewhere in his book he confesses that he once hired a professional hypnotist to make a commercial, "suspecting that hypnotism might be an element in successful advertising". It turned out he wasn't so wrong. He watched the commercial and could envision millions of consumers rushing to the stores "like zombies" to buy the product. Coming to the realization that he gave a new meaning to "manipulative advertising" and risked bad publicity both for himself and his client, he "burnt" the ad with shame and never told his client about it. Am I the only one getting excited here? Haha.

He is honest in admitting his biggest mistakes, like how he refused to take a small account of a newly established company with potential that sold office machinery. It was Xerox. And he takes pride in his past struggles. He, after all, built one of the most successful ad agencies, form scratch, in 1948. He started out as a door to door salesman.When he founded Ogilvy & Mather, at the beginning, he was so desperate for a client that he offered someone 10% of their stock, if he brought in a particular account. Luckily for him, the guy refused. 

He was a big fan of research. He liked his creative ideas to be backed by research findings. He didn't believe there is any correlation between recall rates and brand preference (purchase) as it wasn't supported by research. He believed one can make a very artistic and memorable ad that wins awards and is liked by people but that's not nearly enough to persuade potential consumers to make a purchase. To do so, the ads must contain specific, factual and relevant information. For the same reason he didn't like celebrity endorsement. People remember the celebrity but not the product, he believed. 

A testimonial from an ex-safecracker. By Ogilvy 

In terms of improving readership, he gave some very useful advice. He said if you don't want anyone to read your ad, set it in Italic, with capital letters and in reverse (white text on black background which he "hated"). He could not emphasize the importance of having a proper headline any more. The number of people who read the headlines are five times more than those who read the body copy and headlines are where you spend 90% of your client's money. "If you can't come up with a good headline, copy other people's work, the work that have proven to create results."  

In the last page of the book, there is a list of the predictions that Ogilvy made about the future of advertising. Some are very true. He predicted that the quality of research will improve and this will generate more knowledge. This is valid. We now have big data and rich data that help us have a more accurate picture of what's going on. He, very interestingly, predicted a renaissance in print advertising. Could this be referred to Digital advertising and design programs that made it all possible?! The industry standards have definitely changed ever-since. In his book, Ogilvy admired long copy, he said it has more readership, it's more persuasive and generates better sales (especially for direct response where readers need a lot of information before making an order).

We are now, only a click a way from all the information we possibly need and honestly, I think our attention span is the lowest it's ever been. I blame it on the nation's obsessive TV watching, Netflix and social media, and generally internet and technology that make instant connectivity and access to specific information possible at any time. Also, we're the most visual we've ever been. High quality pictures, cool graphic design, colours and shapes make up a larger portion of the print ads today. So I don't think long copy would get any readership, as we see below, today's print ads, have a significantly shorter body copy. He also predicted that billboards will be abolished which hasn't happened yet. As a matter of fact, DOOH (digital out of home) advertising has emerged and giant companies spend a ridiculous amount of money for their ads to be displayed in Times Square's billboards.

A particularly long copy which was successful back in the day

While modern ads look like this:

My Favourite Quotes From the Book:

- "The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife." 

Haha, this is so confusing, I'm challenging my inner feminist.

- Roy Whittier: "In advertising, the beginning of greatness is to be different, and the beginning of failure is to be the same."

- On cross cultural advertising: "What is the significance of a Western jingle to a person who dances beautifully to a sound of a bamboo flute?" Said Barry Owen.

- Ogilvy on Claude Hopkins: "He always wore a fuchsia in his buttonhole, chewed licorice root, and spat profusely on the person he was talking to." He also said a lot of nice things about him. :) 

- "It is often charged that advertising can persuade people to buy inferior products. So it can - once."

- "The world would be a safer, prettier place without billboards." 

Ogilvy on the fact that highways with billboards had 5 times more accidents. 

-"Creativity is not a function of size. Small can be beautiful."

- "Like most boys of my generation, I started life believing that women belonged in the home, until I noticed how happy my mother was when she went out to work."

-"I do not believe that fear is a tool used by good leaders. People do their best work in a happy atmosphere. Ferment and innovation depend on Joie de vivre."

-"I am always surprised by the illiteracy of men and women who look for jobs in advertising." 

-"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."

Advertising in Uncertainty Avoiding Societies

If you are a good planner, chances are that you don't like uncertainty. As a matter of fact, you plan in order to avoid uncertainty. When you ask someone a question, you would probably appreciate a straight and precise answer than an ambiguous one. At work, you would want your responsibilities and duties to be clearly stated by your manager; if not, chances are you'll get frustrated with her/him. If you can relate yourself to the person that was just described, it's safe to say that you score high on the uncertainty avoidance scale. 

The level of uncertainty avoidance in different cultures is one of the determining factors how communities respond to different advertisements. Here, I want to share with you the subtle differences that I noticed in advertising in countries such as Japan, France and Germany which rank high on uncertainty avoidance (HUA) compare to countries with relatively lower scores (LUA), like U.S.. Although, throughout this article we need to keep in mind that advertising appeals are highly dependant on product category.

1. Fear sells in high uncertainty avoidance cultures: For example, in HUA cultures, they put more emphasize on safety appeal in commercials. According to Japan Pulse, in Japan, anti-virus products are popular because people fear getting sick. Surgical masks, sterile hand sanitizers and air purifiers (called virus-attacker) are advertised using fear appeals. In HUA cultures, rules, laws and regulations are more easily accepted and more strictly followed. People tend to rely on rules to manage the situation. Authority is the power that is accepted by others. Take a look at the following ad for Porsche 911. People tend to respond better to testimonial advertising in HUA as in HUA countries, experts' opinions are greatly valued and trusted. In the following ad, it looks as if German police officers are giving a testimony. 

Subaro, a Japanese manufacturer, usually uses safety appeals to sell their cars. While safety is a crucial factor and is used by all car manufacturers, it is definitely more noticeable in HUA countries. 

 Ford, an American company, focuses on mileage and fuel economy when advertising their products. 

2. Purity of products matters more (in food and drink category): It's been proven that in HUA cultures, the consumption of some products are relatively higher than in LUA cultures, such as bottled water and antibiotics. Some European countries such as Italy and France (HUA) have always been knows for their fresh and natural food. Some argue that this is because in high uncertainty cultures, the relationship drawn between health and the purity of the consumed food in much greater that in let's say U.S., where health is more related to fitness and working out rather that the organic-ness of the food consumed. Therefore, in HUA cultures, food ads are more focused on purity and quality of the products. (Global Marketing and Advertising By Marieke de Mooij)

Real, natural & pure.

Bottled water ads in Spain, France & Germany. The use of natural setting reinforces the purity of the products. (Marieke de Mooji)

3. The products/services are described more precisely: I read an awesome article in Adweek on the topic of cross-cultural advertising. Shankar Harrison, Vice president of strategy at 360i gave the following example to illustrate how a successful ad campaign communicates with both cultures.

Airbnb, a website that facilitates renting out accommodation from local hosts in 190+ countries, targets HUA and LUA societies in two different ads in their "Belong Anywhere" campaign. The following ad is all about introducing possibilities and the freedom it offers.

While in the following ad, they give a clear description on what Airbnb has to offer. They also touch on the safety concerns of travellers.

Overall, no rules are strictly followed in the advertising world. Cultures are merging and we're moving towards a global culture. However, boundaries still very much exist and this requires advertisers to use tactics that facilitates communication with their target markets.

Let's finish up with this awesome ad.

By DDB New York for Subaro

Fear Sells...Fear Sells Not

“Fear, after all, is our real enemy. Fear is taking over our world. Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. Itʼs how politicians peddle policy and how Madison Avenue sells us things that we donʼt need. Think about it. Fear that weʼre going to be attacked, fear that there are communists lurking around every corner, fear that some little Caribbean country that doesnʼt believe in our way of life poses a threat to us. Fear that black culture may take over the world. Fear of Elvis Presleyʼs hips. Well, maybe that one is a real fear. Fear that our bad breath might ruin our friendships… Fear of growing old and being alone.”  - Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

Fear is an emotional response to a threat. Fear appeals have been used in advertising to sell us all things from personal hygiene products, anti-ageing creams and children's car seats to ideologies and lifestyles.  This is because fear is a strong emotional response and some of us would do anything to remove a threat. Usually these ads portray the horrible medical, social and legal consequences of doing something such as DUI or not using a product such as deodorant;  ultimately, to encourage behaviour change and purchase.

We now live in a world full of uncertainty. At any moment, bad things can happen; terrorist attacks, wars, tsunamis, economic recessions, data leakage, etc. The truth is that most of us have, more or less, similar insecurities and fears. That's why marketers can successfully point them out. But what matters the most is hitting the level of fear that effectively leads to persuasion for most of our target audience (called optimal level of fear). And that's not an easy task, because there are many factors that influence our emotional response to a threat, such as our age and the way we perceive a threat. For example, the strongest threat (i.e. death compare to disability) does not necessarily evoke the strongest fear response (and therefore, persuasion and behaviour change).  That's why before using fear appeals, marketers study how fear operates in a particular situation, starting by understanding what their target audience fear the most. 

Understanding the audience is the first step to success in advertising and this is no exception. Marketers take a close look at the market. They know what we feared yesterday might not be what we fear today. For example, I notices a change in trends for deodorant ads. While before, they were selling using fear appeals, they have now taken a different approach. Take a look below.

The fear of being called stupid and weirdo convinces us to buy Old Spice.

But as deodorants are most widely used now more than ever, expanding the total population of category users (by attracting new customers to the market) is not a profitable enough option. How many of us don't use deodorant? Not that many. And fear appeal doesn't do the job of convincing users to switch brands. That's when Axe gets creative and introduces the Axe Effect.

The relationship between fear and persuasion has always been ambiguous and scholars can't agree whether the relationship is linear or curvilinear. I believe the fear-persuasion relationship is far too complex to fit into either category. We know that sometimes when we fear something too much or too little, we choose denial and message avoidance as a coping mechanism. We also know that apart from the perceived severity of the threat (which is different for everyone), other factors such as the perceived likelihood of it occurring, the perceived effectiveness of the proposed solution in removing the threat, and the perceived difficulties of behaviour change (i.e. losing weight, purchasing a product, calling a taxi instead of DUI) play a role too.

In his article, Social Marketing and myths of appeals to fear, Herbert J. Rotfeld gave an example that illustrates this complexity further. He compared the Australia's traffic accident campaign aiming to promote safe driving practices with a very similar campaign in New Zealand. The latter one failed to make any major changes, even though it was more graphic and gruesome than the Australian campaign. The reason was the minor differences in the core message of the campaigns. The Australian campaign suggested that "you will definitely get caught if you break the law", that there are hidden speed cameras and you can be stopped at any time and location. Also, the Australian laws were painted as less forgiving. The New Zealand campaign on the other hand, suggested that there were speed camera signs, and that drivers could only be stopped at certain locations and could only be fined (rather than losing their licence). In this case, the fear of legal consequences was more persuasive that the fear of death, as silly as it sounds. In another example, Herbert Rotfeld argues that the fear of not being attractive to the opposite sex because of bad breath is more persuasive among teens than the fear of getting lung cancer caused by smoking.

Fear appeals have probably been the most used and least effective tool in public health advertisements. Punam Keller made some really interesting conclusions in her research paper, Social Marketing and Healthy Behaviour. She suggests that the evidence shows that fear arousal had virtually zero effect when there is no or little information provided about coping response. As a matter of fact, in such cases, fear arousal will not only not help but will backfire and may even lead to unhealthy behaviour. It means that in the absence of a realistic and convenient solution to a health problem such as obesity, we're not going to respond to our fear, or better said, we're going to respond to it by doing nothing. Preparing healthy food can be difficult, time consuming and costly, so no matter what they say, you're not going to do what you don't know how to do. 

Fear might be a strong emotional response but so is greed. Fear tells us not to have an ice cream while greed tells us to have another one. Let me finish up by a picture of a belly over an ice cream cone. I have to admit that ever since I came across this ad about 9 months ago, I haven't had ice cream on a cone, only on a stick. J

French Ministry of Health ad against obesity

Blackberry #4: Media Planning

Past Approaches:

-     Blackberry’s first SuperBowl ad for Z10 in 2013: This ad was a manifestation of Blackberry’s under-developed positioning strategy and communication objectives. In this 30 second ad which was aired on Feb 3rd on Television, a 20 to 30 year old model in casual clothing is walking down the street and is playing music on his Z10 phone when he suddenly is on fire and grows elephant feet and then turns a truck into rubber ducks. The slogan in this ad is “30 seconds is quicker to show you what it can’t do”. 

With no proper demonstration of the phone’s functionality or the target market, this 4 million dollar ad flopped with only 4% recall rate. An average recall rate of the actual brands of SuperBowl commercials is 14% while 57% of viewers can recognize the ad. (Media Life, 2013)

In the previous report it was determined that Blackberry was suffering from low brand awareness. Advertising through mass media and especially in a marketing event such as SuperBowl with such huge coverage was the best chance for Blackberry to increase its’ brand awareness but Blackberry probably missed the ball. Overall, the idea of mass media advertising was clever but it turned out to be ineffective as it was not well-executed. 

- Movement towards a more product-oriented advertisement: Blackberry now spends fewer resources on celebrity endorsement and mass media brand advertisement and is more product-focused in its’ advertisements. This change in Blackberry’s advertising strategy is a result of the changes that they have made to their positioning strategy. 

When Blackberry used to target the entire market of smartphone users, their advertisements were less informative and more visual and brand-oriented. It was not until they narrowed down their target market to professionals when their ads were more about the functionality of their products than the fashionability and the brand. It was a natural move for Blackberry as their brand equity has dramatically decreased. 

- Decrease in their ad spending as a result of their fragile financial position: Competitors’ has been over-shadowing Blackberry in mass media. In 2012, BlackBerry spent $41.3 million on advertisement, while its’ main competitors, Apple and Samsung each spent more than $333.4 million and $400 million, respectively. (Cheng, 2013) 

While brands such as Apple and Samsung aggressively advertise their products on television, Blackberry does not have the financial resources to match their coverage. Instead, Blackberry’s presence has been more through print ads in magazines, social media and reliance on the support of the carriers. This will be further explored. 

Current Media Objectives:

-       Choosing the right media vehicle: Blackberry is targeting the niche market of powerful professionals who can afford and are willing to purchase a high-end smartphone like “Passport”. This market is very small, is busy and is proved to be more critical of the content of the ads they are exposed to (MillwardBrown, 2009) and because of their busy lifestyles, they do not have much time on their hands. 

We are aware that this target market includes hard-working professionals, who travel a lot and value productivity above anything. They probably do not watch a lot of daytime television. To them, time is money. Therefore, when advertising a specific product (rather than the brand), mass media such as television might not be the best media vehicle to target these customers, not to mention it is extremely costly. Blackberry has to select a media vehicle that this market is most exposed to first, before trying to communicate with them. This is when the consumer media consumption analysis and lifestyle analysis significantly influence the choice of media vehicles to be used. 

According to Mark Wilson, senior vice president of Marketing, their target market for Passport only constitutes 6 to 7 percent of the smartphone users.(Cheng, 2014) Marty Beard, BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer, hoping to attract half of this market, stated that if “they target this market, they will be very profitable.” (Cheng, 2014) Blackberry executives showed concern about the lack of carrier support that they receive because of Blackberry’s struggles with low brand awareness, which brings us to the next point. (Cheng, 2014) 

- Brand Awareness: In the previous reports, it was revealed how Blackberry suffered from low brand awareness. Mass media, because of its huge coverage, can potentially be a good choice for Blackberry to show the world that they are back again. However, when using mass media, Blackberry must be fully aware that mass media is better to be used for brand awareness and that they probably will not reach the niche market of wealthy professionals to sell their high-end smartphones to, unless, it is smartly executed. 

- Brand Attitude: As discussed in previous sections, Blackberry deviated from its’ original overarching marketing strategy which was to target professionals only and moved towards targeting mainstream smartphone users in the past. This damaged the attitude customers had towards the brand. One of the current media objectives of the company is to regain its’ positive brand attitude. This can be achieved by focusing on productivity and functionality of devices in the advertisements and creating positive emotions towards the brand. 

- Brand Trial: Consumers can purchase “Passport” from Blackberry website and Amazon. The extent of carrier support that it will receive is not clear yet. In the previous report, it was determined that Blackberry’s over-arching marketing strategy is to attract smartphone users from other brands such as Apple and Samsung. In order to persuade consumers to try the brand, Blackberry has engaged in a very unique sales promotion called the “trade up” programme. 

Blackberry will pay $400 in cash and $150 in gift card to anyone in the US or Canada who trades in their iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, 5S or 6 for the new BlackBerry Passport handset. The programme will end in February 13, 2015. (Hansen, 2014) This approach is very unique in nature; I can only imagine how much an average iPhone user spends on smartphone in their lifetime that this promotion is deemed profitable for Blackberry to undertake. 

Going this far to steal customers from Apple in the daylight is very ambitious. Unlike Carl Simard of Medici, who called this “a desperate act” (NDTV gadgets, 2014), I believe this approach is not so inappropriate for Blackberry considering its fragile competitive position in the market. Had it been Samsung, I would have had a different outlook. This promotional offer has been so controversial and talked about on the internet that Blackberry did not need to do much advertising to communicate it with iPhone users. I am very eager to see the outcome. 

 The Media Mix:

Blackberry uses different media vehicles for different purposes. It has presence in most media classes, however it has particularly high presence in print media, newspapers and magazines and social media, and less presence in television and radio. In this section, two different media vehicles used by Blackberry are briefly discussed and recommendations are made on Blackberry’s future approaches to media planning. 

Recently, Blackberry has been having great presence in print media and specifically Canadian newspapers. (See the ad below)

Current Blackberry ad in Canadian newspapers

The ad reads: 

“At BlackBerry, we're proud of our Canadian heritage. It's what drives us to continuously push security and productivity boundaries, allowing those with unstoppable energy to work smarter, collaborate better and accomplish more. The soon-to-be-released BlackBerry Passport is further proof of our commitment to serious mobility for serious business.” 

The ad is made with the purpose of increasing brand awareness and brand recall, and preparing the Canadian market for the launch of Blackberry Passport. It evokes national pride and creates a positive brand attitude. The ad is very product-focused, a great portion of the information provided in the ad is dedicated to describing the product attributes. The incomplete picture of Passport in the ad along with the general information provided suggests to me that this is not a serious attempt to persuade the professional market to purchase the device and it is rather targeted at the public with the purpose of brand awareness. 

It was previously mentioned that high profile business people tend to travel a lot for business. Blackberry seems to have recognized that. It engaged in outdoor advertising by setting up large video walls in an airport in New Delhi. (Ali, 2014)

Passport video walls in New Delhi airport

Recommendations:

It is recommended that Blackberry carries out a thorough and detailed media consumption analysis of its target market and monitors their response, their recall rate and reach over time to evaluate the effectiveness of its media plan. 

Blackberry’s main competitors, Apple and Samsung, as mentioned have a large presence in mass media, particularly television. Considering Blackberry’s niche target market and financial position, it is highly recommended that Blackberry avoids going head to head with its rivals in mass media advertisement and rather invests in other media vehicles that its’ competitors have less share in. For instance, Apple has 66% share of voice in network television and 71% of its’ media mix is made up of network television. (Smith, et al, 2013) 

For Blackberry to try to send its message across to its “niche market” through media vehicles that are dominated by powerful market leaders is too risky if not impossible. First of all, Blackberry will not have the adequate financial resources to have nearly as much presence in television in the near future. Second of all, even if it could afford to, these media vehicles are way too cluttered for Blackberry to reach its target market. The only way for it to do that is to compensate for the clutter by increasing frequency and wait a while to see the results. Lastly, this media vehicle might not be the best option for Blackberry’s target market. This target market is very selective on what they watch. It might include the news, popular sport matches, etc. (Smith, et al, 2013) I believe secondary media such as newspapers, magazines, posters and direct mails are better ways to reach them. 

Blackberry’s target market is expected to read newspapers and magazines (like The Economist, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, New York Times, etc) on a daily basis. They are expected to drive through high-traffic areas (such as Times Square) and are therefore exposed to outdoor advertising (such as billboards). Overall, it is recommended that Blackberry to reduce its advertising on television and rather spends its budget on print media and outdoor advertisement. These media vehicles are proved to be more effective in targeting professionals. (Smith, et al, 2013 and MillwardBrown. 2009)

References:

Ali, Shahzoor. 2014. Huge Blackberry Passport Advertisement At New Delhi Airport. India’s best Blackberry community. Retrieved from: http://www.bbin.in/2014/10/huge-blackberry-passport-advertisement-new-delhi-airport/ 

Cheng, Roger. 2014. Blackberry hopes love it or hate it Passport earns it a second chance. Cnet. Retrieved from: http://www.cnet.com/news/blackberry-hopes-love-it-or-hate-it-passport-earns-it-a-second-chance/ 

Cheng. 2013. How BlackBerry is fixing its once 'broken' brand. Cnet. Retrieved from: http://www.cnet.com/news/how-blackberry-is-fixing-its-once-broken-brand/ 

Hansen, Matt. 2014. Blackberry is paying iPhone users to switch to the Passport. TechRadar Phones. Retrieved from: http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/blackberry-is-paying-iphone-users-to-switch-to-the-passport-1274490 

Media Life Magazine. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/study-few-recall-super-bowl-ad-brands/ 

MillwardBrown. 2009. How best to market to business professionals? Retrived from: http://www.millwardbrown.com/docs/default-source/insight-documents/knowledge-points/MillwardBrown_KnowledgePoint_MarketToBusinessProfessionals.pdf 

NDTV gadgets. 2014. BlackBerry Courts iPhone Users With Hefty Cash Offers. Retrieved from: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/blackberry-courts-iphone-users-with-hefty-cash-offers-626006 

Smith. Lee. Jorge. Blackberry 10 Media Plan 2013-2014. Retrieved from:http://www.isamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Media-Plan-Final-Spreads.pdf

Blackberry #3: Creative Strategy

Creative Strategy Alternatives

Blackberry’s current positioning strategy is focusing on end benefits, product attributes, use and application such as functionality which includes big screen, physical keyboard and therefore easy typing experience. Blackberry’s advertisements are usually focused on these attributes. According to reviews, “Passport” scored high on functionality attributes and moderately on design and other factors (such as brand equity). Here, we briefly review the company’s alternatives for its’ creative strategy.

Smartphone market is a mature market and competition is intense. Therefore, generic strategy would not work as Blackberry cannot adequately differentiate its products from competitors'.

Pre-emptive strategy would not work either as smartphone market is a well-developed and growing market and products can be differentiated from each other in many different ways, such as physical attributes, user experience, functionality, etc. 

Blackberry has widely used Unique Selling Proposition strategy in the past. For instance, it has focused on the benefit of the products such as fast browsing and connectivity in its’ advertisements. Using USP makes sense as smartphone is a well developed product category with high technological level.

An example of Blackberry using USP

Another example of Blackberry using USP

Brand Image strategy was particularly used by Blackberry in its heydays when Blackberry was treated as a trademark. The “Be Bold” campaign is a good example. Not much information is provided in the ad and the Blackberry’s logo is very pronounced in the black background. The focus is on the psychological benefits that customers will receive by following the fashion trend and buying a then-stylish Blackberry. This strategy is not viable today as Blackberry has ever-since lost its brand equity. 

An example of Blackberry using Brand Image strategy in its’ heydays

Later on we will see that Blackberry’s current creative strategy is Positioning Strategy which is believed to be the best strategy to attack a market leader through direct comparison advertisement.

Current Creative Strategy

Upon launching Passport, Blackberry has adopted a different creative strategy compare to its previous strategies. The ads are unique in their nature, and effectively communicate the message with the target market in a matter of seconds. 

Blackberry has managed to address its marketing communication issues- such as its’ unfocused target market, its’ focus on functionality or style dilemma, it’s dilemma regarding the orientation of the advertisements and whether they should be "informative" or create a positive “feeling”, etc- all by clearly demonstrating which target market they are aiming for. As mentioned in the last part, they are currently targeting the professional sector who value functionality above anything else. The ads score high on the relevance. They capture the target audience’s attention instantly through the pictures, and generate critical brand associations through specific cognitive response (rather than emotional response). Blackberry ads’ relevance is aligned with and support the brand positioning strategy. (See the below picture) 

The novel characteristic of the ads is the comparison it makes between a smaller smartphone and Blackberry’s new smartphone, Passport. In an amusing and memorable way, they demonstrate the limitations of the smaller device. The ads are highly visual; however, they are simultaneously informative too. No other smartphone brand has ever differentiated itself on having a bigger size and the visual benefits that come with it. In the past, this desired product attribute has been usually associated with the tablet market and smartphone manufacturers were often focused on offering thinner and more delicate devices than competitors'.

Blackberry’s current ads for “Passport” 

Passport is one of the largest smartphones in the market. The message that “seeing the bigger picture is beneficial” is easy to digest and specific to the target market. The ads keep a balance between visual creativity and message delivery and because of that, the message easily breaks through the clutter. The idea behind the ads is novel but yet does not require long consumer processing time. It engages the audience by inviting them to make a comparison between the two devices and make a decision on which one is better.

Massage Appeals:

In the last report, it was established that Blackberry’s target market constitutes mostly enterprise users and that the consumers can be categorized as favourable brand switchers. For Blackberry to encourage these smartphone users to try the device, it needs to be clear on how and why consumers would be wanting to purchase the product. It needs to either satisfy users’ current needs or create a need that can be satisfied by the product attributes. The main consumers’ need that is addressed by Blackberry Passport include: 

- Seeing the bigger picture: Blackberry’s current slogan is “see the bigger picture”. It cleverly indicates the key benefit of the product- the wide screen- and differentiates the product from smaller smartphones on the productivity level and therefore, evokes positive feeling towards the brand. For instance, a one minute video ad of Blackberry shows some serious looking 30 to 50 year old professionals that use Passport to make business decisions and a healthcare professional that diagnoses a serious disease of a patient in an emergency situation by seeing the full x-ray picture on his Passport.[1]

The creative theme for Blackberry, as mentioned before, has not always been consistent across all parts of the promotional program. Slogans that the company have used in the past include “Get closer, get smarter”, “Now, fashion and function play nice” and “Some customers will need more than just one”. This inconsistency reflects the lack of clarity in brand positioning strategy that Blackberry struggled with in the past. 

Blackberry's ads practice rational appeal and more specifically, comparative appeal. The smartphone next to Passport in the ads resembles an average smartphone in the market, but “coincidentally” it also looks almost identical to iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, two of Blackberry’s biggest competitors. The comparative message is quit literal. Studies show that recall rate is higher for comparative than non-comparative messages. The ad engages iPhone and other smartphone users as they try to figure out why there is a picture of their phone in a Blackberry ad. iPhone’s size was an easy attribute to attack. No counter-argument can be made against Blackberry Passport being bigger than iPhone. Had Blackberry attacked other features of Apple’s products (such as security, stylishness and design, brand, etc), iPhone-users would have taken the advertiser’s claims with a pinch of salt. This would have lessened the credibility and therefore likability of the ad. 

I noticed a connection between this ad and Blackberry’s current promotional efforts to sell Passport. Blackberry is offering iPhone users $400 cash prize and $150 gift card in exchange of them giving up their beloved iPhone and switch to Blackberry Passport. (Hansen, 2014) This might be over the top but it can be justified as Passport is in the introduction stage of the product life cycle and needs help to penetrate the market -unlike Apple which has reached maturity to my opinion.

Copywriting Highlights:

Blackberry's new ads have a relatively consistent layout. The headline of the ads- “Examine Wide”, “Go Wide”, “Work Wide”- however short, is strong enough to give clues about the main theme, appeal and proposition of the ad. The comparative ads are highly visual rather than verbal. Very few words are used in these ads with basically no body copy. However, in non-comparative ads for Passport, more information is provided about the product and the brand is typed in a much larger font-size. The small font-size of the brand in the comparative ads reinforce the fact that Blackberry is a recovering brand and rather position itself by the end benefits of its product than by its’ brand name. Blackberry’s brand has been damaged in the past few years; it has lost its brand recognition to some extent. The last thing that Blackberry should do is to try to differentiate itself based on its' brand in comparative-style ads.

The layout of Passport’s current print ads in magazines and newspapers

Blackberry’s choice of colour, font type, font size and position of the logo was different prior to the launch of Passport and has evolved throughout the years. 

Blackberry ads used to have a different layout prior to Passport

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnzLBn0TzBg

References:

Hansen, Matt. 2014. Blackberry is paying iPhone users to switch to the Passport. TechRadar Phones. Retrieved from: http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/blackberry-is-paying-iphone-users-to-switch-to-the-passport-1274490

Blackberry #2: Communication Objectives

Consumer Behaviour Analysis

Generally, buying a phone requires a high level of consumer involvement in the decision making process, as consumers already have some knowledge of the brands. Especially, smartphone users are very knowledgeable of the apps, features and the specification of the products. Therefore, the brand differences are high in the mind of consumers. 

The functionality of the product is not the only factor consumers are concerned about, cell-phones, like fashion items, are purchased for their design and are used for different purposes (professional and personal). Another significant change in the market is that people in medium income level are spending a bigger portion of their discretionary income on electronic gadgets and smartphones. 

In terms of frequency of the purchase and the cost, although the buyer often doesn't need to pay for the phone upfront, the long term contracts with the service provider (usually 2 year long contracts), make the purchase a long term investment. A study in 2011 revealed that Americans (Blackberry’s main market) change their cell-phones the most often, compare to other nationalities, with 21.7 months intervals. (Phone Arena, 2011) Therefore, although cell-phones are not purchased very frequently, there is a huge benefit in retaining customers (first time users) of the products. 

As it was mentioned in the last report, Blackberry has two main target market, Consumer market and Business market. I would describe Blackberry’s consumer market as “favourable brand switchers”, who purchase a Blackberry but also purchase other brands (i.e. iPhone, Android) as well.  

On the other hand, I would describe the business buyers as more brand loyal and less price sensitive. They purchase the product less frequently but in larger scale, therefore are very profitable. As it was mentioned in the last report, security and ease of use were the two most valuable attributes of the product in the eyes of business users. This market sees better security, a better typing experience and better battery life in Blackberry and these qualities appeal to them. (The Globe and Mail, 2013)

Past Communication Objectives

Business buyers and consumer market have different values, wants and needs. While enterprise users desire a reliable, secure, easy to use device with email functionality, the young consumer market are looking for a fashionable, funky device with cool apps. These differences between the two resulted in an inconsistency in Blackberry’s marketing communication objectives. 

Through its ads and campaigns, in an attempt to communicate with both target segments, Blackberry sent two different messages across (or a combination of two), focusing on different attributes of the product that were appealing to each market. For example, the following ad (mainly for Blackberry accessories) aims at the already brand users to make a repeat purchase. It states “some customers will need more than just one”, attempting to create a positive attitude towards the brand with focus on the variety in colours and its stylishness. 

Another example would be the ad below. The ad states “Be bold. Accept no substitutes. Power the passions you pursue with a smart phone that expresses your style and simplifies your life.” 

Again, it is aiming at the current customers to increase the repeat purchase rate. It also encourages other brand switchers for trial by sending a comparative message (“Be bold”) and focusing on the stylishness and ease of use. In this ad, however, Blackberry makes a brief and indirect reference to the professionals by emphasizing the usefulness of the devise in pursuing their careers. 

In the next ad, Blackberry almost only talks to the enterprise users with no reference to the stylishness of the product. It focuses on the connectivity and user-friendliness of the device with a list of its features. The ad reads: “Join the conversation. Get closer, get smarter. Accessible, slim, Easy-t-use.” The ad encourages trial. 

In this ad, Blackberry makes an attempt to communicate with both of their target market by stating: “Now, fashion and function play nice.” with a list of features and functionality of the product. It looks as if they are targeting new category users as the ad has more content, is informative and is trying to expand the brand knowledge that the target customers have of Blackberry. 

Overall, because of the complexity in its segmentation, Blackberry had too many behavioural and communication objectives which resulted in an inconsistency in their messages. While some ads create awareness and brand knowledge, most ads attempt to create a liking or preference. Some Blackberry ads attempted to emotionally engage the users/ex-users. For example, in a video ad for Blackberry Z10, which was a failed comeback attempt for Blackberry to target consumer market, the device was used to connect and facilitate the communication between two generations of older professional parents and their teenage (or twenty something year olds) kids representing Blackberry’s past and present users. [1]

Blackberry invested heavily in a Super Bowl ad to promote Z10 in 2013.[2] The next year, however, Blackberry’s revenue went down by 38%. (Wasserman, 2014) The ad was specifically targeting young people (20 to 30 year olds) and focused on personal uses of the phone (personal phone calls, personal uses of the phone’s camera, playing games, etc). This, I believe, was the main reason that resulted in the failure. They failed to target the business market, they rather targeted the consumer market. Robert Glen, BlackBerry's senior director of global brand marketing, admitted that: 

“I think we tried to bite off too much. We tried to attack the full market, and a good military commander would say choose best area for competing, look for a beachhead” (Wasserman, 2014) 

Also, Blackberry's ads target the Blackberry users or ex-users rather than new category users or favourable brand switchers which suggests that Blackberry is looking to retain its users or win back its previous consumers from competitors. According to Forbes, a survey revealed that during the first two months of 2013, 34% of BlackBerry owners who plan to purchase a new phone in the next six months say they will stay with BlackBerry rather than switch to another brand (compare to 17% for Apple). (Forbes, 2013) 

With emergence of smart phones, Blackberry's main mission was to convince Smartphone users that their products are not only limited to PDAs and that they are capable of making a decent smartphone. Their “Best of both worlds” ads tried to attract the first time Blackberry smartphone users. However, low market share, Buzz score and purchase consideration in the smart phone market shows that the users were not exactly convinced. (Wasserman, 2014) 

Current Communication Objectives:

Blackberry has been experiencing some new highs recently. Blackberry’s new phone (Passport) became a success and sold out in just six hours on BlackBerry’s website and within 10 hours on Amazon.com. John Chen (current CEO) has proudly announced that they are having inventory issues. (Business Report, 2014) Though I have been very skeptical about John Chen’s strategy to pursue the enterprise market and “return to the company’s core strength in enterprise and security”,with current information on the market response, it  has proven to be a smart move. 

According to Chen, the consumer market is not a space that they can afford to be in. On the other hand, the new phone that they launched was a success in the enterprise market. The passport-size smart phone is designed for business users who write e-mails, study spreadsheets and read documents on their phones. The physical keyboard on the phone made the typing experience a lot easier. BlackBerry is once again, but this time solely and more aggressively, focused on the 30 percent of the market “that sees their phones as a tool, not as an entertainment portal.” According to John Chen, Blackberry is not trying to be “sexy” anymore. (Business Report, 2014) 

The followings are the ads for Blackberry’s latest smart phone, Passport. The ads focus on the capabilities of the phone, targeting professionals in healthcare and other industries. They aim at new users as well as brand switchers by sending a comparative message that Passport is easier and more efficient to use compare to competitors' products and focus on professional uses more than personal uses. They create a belief that the wide screen of the phone is a differentiating factor that makes the product superior to competitors’.

The new marketing communication objectives of Blackberry can be summarized as: 

- Leaving the consumer market to focus on the business market. 

- Focusing on what differentiates the product from competitors’ which is the productivity, ease of use and practicality of the device by design, this is aligned with business market’s needs and wants. 

- Targeting new users as well as brand switchers. 

- Creating a positive attitude towards the brand and increasing brand awareness and consumers knowledge of the brand, through informative advertisement. 

Surveys show that Blackberry’s Buzz score and purchase consideration fell every time Apple introduced a new iPhone (Wisserman, 2014), therefore, it is suggested that Blackberry advertises more aggressively at the time of the launch of Apple’s products.

Rationale for their current objectives:

Blackberry, originally, served the business segment, but with recognizing the potential that the younger segment (< 25 years old) had, they expanded their marketing strategy to appeal to this segment too. However, they failed in keeping this segment interested for different reasons. Firstly, Apple took the consumer market by storm in 2007 by offering an iconic design and entertaining apps. Google Android phone also, took the second position in the market share in smartphones market. Blackberry made inadequate effort to secure a position in smartphones market and rather decided to rely on the PDA market which was appealing to the business users. 

Over time, business users’ needs shifted from PDA to smartphone. As a result, Blackberry lost a major portion of their business market to competitors who were more successful in the smartphone market. In the meanwhile, Blackberry brand has a corporate stigma associated with it as it originally was very popular among business users for its security, connectivity, reliability and ease of use. The company, however, can benefit from this reputation and win back the business market, their most loyal users, by offering a smart phone which is specifically tailored to their needs. There is no other smart phone manufacturer that is specifically and only targeting the business market. 

Blackberry’s major competitor is Apple in this segment. Therefore, by differentiating itself from Apple through offering product attributes that are valued more in the business market, Blackberry can win the game. This is what John Chen is trying to accomplish through launching Passport and advertising it smartly. 

Blackberry’s new strategy in terms of communication objectives is right on point. Buying a smart phone is a relatively complex decision making process as individuals are very knowledgeable about the brands and their offerings. Therefore, Blackberry has to create a belief that their product is superior to competitors’ to get potential users to buy their product.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLRXUARm3kA 

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1ecfWT3GQ 

References:

Victor, H. 2011. Phone Arena. Retrieved from: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Americans-replace-their-cell-phones-every-2-years-Finns--every-six-a-study-claims_id20255

Business Report, 2014. BlackBerry: Passport phone beats forecasts. Retrieved from: http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/blackberry-passport-phone-beats-forecasts-1.1766994#.VExIRbDF9IF

Forbes. 2013. BlackBerry Gaining Back Ground on Ad Awareness while iPhone Purchase Intent Slips. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brandindex/2013/03/13/blackberry-gaining-back-ground-on-ad-awareness-while-iphone-purchase-intent-slips/

The Globe and Mail, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/strategy-lab/growth-investing/observing-consumer-behaviour-can-be-key-to-savvy-stock-picking/article13704092/

Wasserman, Tod. 2014. Mashable. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/2014/10/19/blackberrys-turnaround-plan/