PRODUCT: Gatorade

Gatorade is a popular sport drink that rehydrates athletes and quenches their thirst. With the growing competition against Gatorade, this company needs to provide information to increase customer traffic and uphold its position as a leader in this industry.

The target audience for Gatorade is athletic males and females from 15-30 years-old. Gatorade drinkers are competitive, strong, and motivated workers that train hard and love what they do. The best athletes are strong leaders that know what they want and how to go about reaching their goals. These individuals like to develop their craft, but also enjoy other activities that allow them to relax and take a break from their practices and games. When they are competing, these athletes are submerged in their sport, but their competitive nature does not subside outside of the game. Athletes are constantly striving to get better and find competition in the simplest of games. This group of individuals needs to be targeted in a way that is accessible to a hard working person that finds joy in competition and winning.

As a key way to market Gatorade, advertisements should convey the idea that this product is the best sport drink for athletes that want to go above and beyond their opponents. While opposing players are losing energy, Gatorade promises to refuel its drinker while maintaining their athletic performance as the competition runs out of steam. Toting the Gatorade brand as the “G Series,” advertisements should fit in with this idea that Gatorade is a cool brand for serious competitors. Showing victorious athletes poor a cooler of Gatorade all over their coach and excelling at their sport by using this product will connect emotionally with consumers and empower them to want to buy Gatorade. Through strong emotional advertisements that portray athletic achievement, Gatorade can successfully offer a strong product for a strong consumer that will help them achieve their goals.

As the best sport drink available, Gatorade is able to refresh an athlete not only with a cool beverage, but also with electrolytes and carbohydrates needed to sustain a high level of performance. Although it was originally designed for the Florida Gators in the 1960s, Gatorade has become synonymous with great athletes of practically all sports such as: Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Derek Jeter, Serena Williams, and Peyton Manning. In addition to these prominent athletes that support Gatorade, this sport drink also offers a variety of flavors and options that all people can enjoy to refuel and be a champion.

The constraints of Gatorade sport drinks are that this product must state all of its nutritional information and clarify that athletes are not immune to overworking their bodies in extreme game-play situations. Also, legal constraints such as the logo and trademarks of Gatorade will be placed in television and print advertisements that cannot be reproduced by other companies. Gatorade is a unique product that many sport drinks try to copy, but ultimately can never duplicate.

Exam #1 Questions

1. Nike is an example of what type of corporate name?
a) overt name
b) implied name
c) conceptual name
d) iconoclastic name
Answer: d (iconoclastic name)

2. When a consumer chooses to buys a product based on what they like best, or their emotional connection, they are making a purchase based on what?
a) pleasure pursuits
b) affect referral
c) the multiattribute approach
d) positive reaction
Answer: b (affect referral)

3. Which of the following is not part of the communication process between a company and a consumer?
a) sender
b) encoding
c) transference
d) decoding
Answer: c (transference)

Understanding "The Persuaders"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/
I’ve always believed that successful advertising is an extremely difficult challenge that requires marketers to submerge themselves completely into the minds of the consumer. A good ad agency has to understand the desires of people and effectively connect with them on a deeper level to enable them to not only remember an advertisement, but want to buy that specific product. After watching the PBS special, The Persuaders, I learned that people no longer respond to ads that claim their product is better or brighter than another one, but instead care about the overall idea of a company. Brands and products not only have to do what they claim they can do, but they also have to make an emotional connection with people to pull in new customers. They tug on our emotional heartstrings by showing us loveable images while using specific language that captivates us to buy. Some companies have done such an amazing job at affecting consumers that people have responded with extreme loyalty. Apple, Nike, and Coca-cola are a few of the companies that have this strong following, and by achieving this, these people don’t even consider another product for computers, shoes, or sodas. The “Super Brands” have love and loyalty from their consumers beyond reasoning, and they create a following from making a unique experience for customers instead of just selling a product to temporarily enjoy.

Although some brands have become hugely successful, a lot of brands can’t keep up with the competitive nature of the business and fall by the wayside. Advertisements today face an uphill battle in reaching the consumer because our culture is so inundated with ads that we have become immune to the constant clutter of products that bombard us every day. It is so easy for me to tune out a commercial or ignore that banner flashing on the sides of the webpage, that in order for an ad to get noticed it has to standout among the constant noise of persuasion. Contemporary ad agencies have to work twice as hard to get our attention because they have weaved messages and products into the threads of our daily lives, while we are gaining better ways to avoid them altogether. With TiVo and DVR recorders, I can fast forward through television commercials and totally bypass the messages that companies pay so much for me to see. People today want to be entertained, not be told what to buy to be trendy or what that new “must have” product is that will make you cool. As more companies are realizing this, they are joining forces with films and television shows to marry ads with entertainment by using product placement. Whether it’s Simon Cowell drinking from a big, red Coke cup during American Idol, or Tony Stark in Iron Man yearning for a Burger King cheeseburger, its undeniable that advertisements are seeping into the actual programs we are watching. If this is done seamlessly, consumers can have an inexplicable desire for whatever their favorite celebrity just advocated without even realizing it. However, the one question that consumer have to keep in mind is when does advertising go too far?

The scary trend for companies to successfully advertise to consumers is to learn nearly everything they can about who you are today, and who you’ll be tomorrow. With the Acxiom corporation, that’s exactly the information companies can and do buy about people. Acxiom provides advertisers with the solution to all the clutter by specifically targeting distinct groups of people based on their buying trends and their lifestyle choices. Buying this information about potential consumers, gives companies the ability to learn when you buy, how you buy, and ways to influence you to buy. This ethical concern allows ad agencies to create messages for the people they want to reach by dividing everyone into demographics and reeling people in by saying exactly what that specific group wants to hear. It’s troubling that Acxiom collects and sells all this personal data about people, and consumers must realize that they are not deciding what to buy, but instead are being convinced what they should buy. The bottom line for the consumer is, be aware and shop wisely.

My Researched Purchase

When I looked around my room for something that I put a lot of time and thought into before purchasing I was immediately drawn to my iPhone. Ever since its release in 2007, I’ve been very intrigued by this product, and I have always been very interested in the evolution of mobile technology. Upon originally seeing the iPhone, I recognized that this product was very different and more advanced than any other phone available at the time. The phone has gained a lot of popularity and success for Apple, and the phone’s carrier, AT&T, and as an iPhone user I can understand why the product is so successful. Some words that instantly come to my mind when I see an Apple product are: cool, innovative, sleek, reliable, fun, and quality. My perceptions were shaped by my own experiences with Apple products, but were further supported by the reputation that this brand has with the media and its growing number of loyal users. The appeal of Apple products are so broad that everyone from the middle class to celebrities and CEO’s use iPhones, iPods, and other Apple products. Social reinforcement adds to the image that Apple is a strong brand with a reliable reputation.

My views of Apple have also been molded by their different ad campaigns. Whether it is the Mac vs. PC advertisements, silhouettes dancing to Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” or the “There’s an App for that” commercials, every marketing tool is utilized to make Apple products appear to be hip, relaxed, and cutting edge. These commercials give the perception that Apple is a cool and functional brand. Each ad campaign has helped Apple become synonymous with being the smartest computer, the best music player, and the most advanced mobile phone on the shelves today. Lately, it seems like Apple can do no wrong, as it continues to churn out creative and innovate ideas such as the upcoming iPad, a cross between the iPhone and a laptop.

After viewing what other people think of Apple products on brandtags.net, my ideas of the brand were quite similar to many other consumers. The descriptive words that I used, cool, innovative, sleek, reliable, fun, and quality, were all popular on the list. This is easy to understand because anyone who uses one Apple product has experienced the ease of use that is associated with the brand, and is likely to be an avid supporter of multiple Apple products. Words that were less than favorable toward the brand like “lame” and “junk” were few and far between. I think my perception of the Apple brand was so similar to others because the company has created great advertisements and slogans to support the brand, and also because the people who are supporters of Apple products are very loyal to all the company’s endeavors.