Advertising with Sense

Many advertisements nowadays importantly aim to capture the interest of their consumers.

Some advertisements are focused on cultivating brand identity (Pope, 2003), some exist to introduce a new product, or influence the audience to switch brands. Others make a political statement relating to moral issues, historical facts, etc. No matter how it goes, the same is true for all advertisements: the only purpose they have is to sell (Advertising Guidelines for Small Retailer Firms, 2006). The Red Bull advertisement is one particular example of an advertisement that captures the interest of the consumers.

However, its cunningness makes it deviate from its original purpose.In trying to be clever and humorous, the advert loses its objective of telling about what the product offers. Moreover, it tends to communicate negative concepts, which may bring about miscommunication with the consumers. The Red Bull advertisement features a superhero who is compelled to decide whether to help a woman screaming in the middle of the night. Before deciding to help the woman, he opened his refrigerator to look for some Red Bull.

When he found none, he decided not to rescue the woman anymore, while at the same time, the authorities have signaled their presence in the scene. The purpose of this advert is clear and simple: to capture the interest of the consumers and make them notice Red Bull through the use of a humorous character. On this aspect, the advertisers succeed in capturing the interest of the audience. However, apart from the first purpose it serves, other characteristics of an advert may have been neglected by the promoters. For instance, the message regarding what consumers can find or benefit from the product is not communicated.

Similarly, the message it implies could create miscommunication to the audience as it does not say directly what Red Bull can provide its consumers. Basically, to avoid miscommunication, advertisements should be guided by the acronym AIDCA. This means to attract Attention, develop Interest, Describe the product, Convince the reader and get Action (Advertising Guidelines for Small Retailer Firms, 2006). These five elements are found to help advertisers get their consumers to buy their product, and hit their target. In consideration of the five elements, the Red Bull advertisement adheres to only two.

First, it attracts attention by using a superhero as its model. We all know how superheroes appeal to people of all ages. The hit movies of Superman, Spiderman and Batman are only some examples of how people love superheroes. Therefore, by using a superhero, the advertisement has made a good introduction to the viewers. In addition, it also develops interest in the audience by creating a scene that challenges the strength of the superhero in the advertisement. However, it fails to adhere to the other elements, namely describing the product, convincing the audience, and getting action from them.

The Red Bull advertisement fails to do the three by making an anti-climactic scene. As mentioned above, the superhero failed to rescue the woman screaming for help, just because the superhero did not have enough Red Bull. This suggests a wrong example especially for children on the issue of helping other people. On the contrary, what the advertisers should have done to adhere to the three other elements was to allow the superhero to take the product and help the woman.

Notably, this is more apt than having him take second thoughts about helping.In the same manner, the advert also contains some negative ideas presented by the hero. By making it look as if the “superhero” is dependent on the product, the advert gives a similar notion of taking drugs. Moreover, the ending tends to communicate some negative ideas. By consuming a great amount of Red Bull, the advert could make people think that the character is addicted to the product. As such, he is not a real superhero, but someone who is pretending to be a superhero and dressing up like one.

In contrast with this advertisement, the advertisement of Lucozade water is by far, a better one. First, it describes the product by appealing to the senses, and does not allow miscommunication of concepts. It features Lucozade water taking body forms of athletic women. The idea it creates is that water is needed by the water to carry out its activities.

It clearly gives audience an idea of what the product does to the consumers, in an artistic way. The advertisers were able to capture the AIDCA in that this advertisement captures the interest of the audience by giving the water some human forms.Also, the bodily movements stimulate more interest, and further convince the audience of what the water can do to the body. It imbues a clear message that water is life, and our body needs it to creatively move and function. The Lucozade advertisement does not contain negative concepts.

In fact, it uses bodily forms of athletic women. Unlike some advertisements which use sex to instill some negative concepts, this advertisement employs art in its visual images. Pricing Strategy for Energy Drinks Advertisements of energy drinks do not usually contain prices.This may be due to the high prices of energy drinks in the market. Compared to sodas like Coke which is sold at USD1, energy drinks are a lot pricey.

From the name itself, we know that energy drinks are formulated to give people extra energy and strength, just like vitamins. However, unlike vitamins, energy drinks are said to offer even more. Energy drinks just like Red Bull are a hit among athletes and skilled workers nowadays. Those who would like to perform well in their jobs take it as energy boosters. Basically, its market includes those who are working, and wish to have extra strength for their jobs.Furthermore, those who buy these products “need” them in order to work for longer hours.

As such, we may say that consumers become somewhat dependent on these drinks. Worse, they are willing to pay even a high amount, just so they could get what they need. The demand curve for energy drinks does not only include the working group. It likewise includes students.

Students, especially athletes take this drink to score well in basketball games, soccer, etc. They also take these drinks to boost their energy during examination days, or months when they need to complete a course work.In line with this thought, the high market demand makes the price of energy drinks rise higher. A great demand implies a higher price. Another reason why energy drinks are highly priced is due to some legal considerations.

Rumors have it that Red Bull, in particular, is termed as a “legal cocaine” (Edwards, 2008). As cited by Edwards, the Irish prime minister once called for an inquiry into Red Bull after one student who drank the beverage at a sporting event suddenly died. Another instance reported some students sweating all around and feeling dizzy after taking the drink (Edwards, 2008).And so, whether Red Bull is a “legal cocaine” or not, drinks of this kind are not the same as juices or softdrinks in that they contain some ingredients like caffeine which can cause harm to health. This consideration likewise affects the way it is priced. Just like branded drugs, they are more pricey than over-the-counter drugs.

Another consideration in the pricing is the competition in the market. Setting a very low price is similar to waging war among other companies offering the same product line. Therefore, to protect its market value, energy drinks are similarly priced at a high cost.For instance, Red Bull is priced at USD1. 99-3.

5, while other drinks like Act and Rush is at USD1. 77-3. 0, XL Energy Drink at 1. 66-3. 0, 5-Hour is at USD 1.

65-2. 75, and Jones Soda Energy Booster is at USD1. 66-2. 8. This suggests that energy drink companies apply psychological pricing strategy.

This pertains to the pricing strategy that bases on the popular price level, customers’ view of the product, and the products’ marketability. In addition, energy drink companies also apply skim pricing. This strategy entails the company to set a high price and sell to customers who are not price conscious.This is done when it is difficult to predict the cost savings to be achieved at a high volume, or when the company cannot finance a large capital expenditure needed for large volume production especially when there are initially low profit margins. Although companies like Easy Energy (XL Energy Drink) and Red Bull GmbH have been well established worldwide, they are limited to producing energy drinks unlike other corporations like Altria Group, Inc.

which has a wide variety of products like tobacco, food, and beverages.