Women are crazy..... It's been proven

Advertising is often fairly straight forward. Lets face it, often its over complicated but the end goal is as simple as you can get. Sell whatever product you've got to as many people as you can. Well yes...... but i'm afraid it does get slightly complicated when you add in something called gender. This is something that many of us will never understand and to be honest the advertisers struggle as well.




Advertising to a man is completely different to advertising to a women. It's not rocket science to figure that out. Men value different things to Women and advertising therefore reflects this. It is easy to figure out the adverts that are aimed at the different sexes.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU0eTv9sOfw



This advert is obviously aimed at Men as they usually like football and therefore it will get their attention. Combine this with the element of humour and Lucozade have got themselves a great advert. It's the sort of thing that guys will talk about down the pub and before you know it everyone is talking about that Lucozade advert with the old and fat guys.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbagBlbwCw



On the other hand this advert is clearly aimed at Women as women want to be informed as well as entertained whereas the majority of the time men want to be entertained by great humour or a hot woman. This advert manages to get across the relevant information about the calories that are in each Malteser as well as the humour element. This manages to subliminally stamp out the message that Maltesers are un-healthy as well as incorporating humour. What women doesn't find taking the piss out of their husband funny? Maltesers also sponsor Loose Women which is definately aimed at Women and is an hour of man bashing at its best. Women will be emptying the supermarket shelves of maltesers.

Melanie Yarborough of Neutral Corner completed some research where she posed the question 'do men and women see different things?'. Now if you ask most married women if their husbands see the pile of washing that needs to be done the answer would most definately be no. Just like if most husbands were asked if their wives see the fact that their car needs washing, again i think it will be a no. This article was headlined with the quote "There really are fundamental differences in the way men and women process information...Women tend to process more extensively more different pieces of information...Men tend to rely more on mental shortcuts..." This was concluded by National Public Radio's 'Talk of the Nation'. This is why in advertising there are such obvious differences between adverts aimed at men and women. Men like to keep it simple 'here's my product here's a sexy women selling it to you, now go buy it'. Whereas women like to see beyond the product. They like to see where this product will fit in with them and how it will improve their lives, they need to relate to a product before they purchase, if they can't see themselves using it then you've had it. Simply put women look at the bigger picture whereas men see it, if they like it they buy it.

Simple block colourings work well in adverts aimed at men because it's simple. Not too much to think about and does what it says on the tin and is perfectly functional. That is why the slogan for 'No more Nails' is actually 'Does what it says on the tin'. Guys like this; there's no jumped up sales twit selling them something they don't need or care about or some soppy back story, it's simple if you need something to stick use no more nails. Besides they've already got enough on their plate worrying about who should be the next man to take the poison chalice that is the England job and how West Ham are going to get themselves out of the drop zone.

Adverts aimed at women however are very different; there is colour; more colour and then.... you guessed it. More colour, there are flowers that have been arranged perfectly of course and picturesque beaches with Jamie Redknapp elequently narrating just how amazing his holiday is whilst hitting a golf ball for miles on a desserted island. Put simply a womens plate is never full, they want their adverts to be informative; look good; have personality; make them think; evoke emotion and feature some eye candy as well. Men would take the first and last one and be happy with it.

Women tend to worry a lot and as previously mentioned have a lot on there plate constantly. Men just dont need the bother. This video illustartes this perfectly.
http://www.guzer.com/videos/advertising-to-men-women.php

So what does the professional say? Well Brassinton points out that 'Knowing who you are talking to is the foundation of good communication'. You may think this sounds easy and obvious however trying to create a profile of your target consumer is often very difficult and it's the adverts that manage to do this that are the most successful.

So there you have it..... Women are crazy and have very full plates, men are well lazy and have small plates. Simple really isnt it. Getting adverts to adhere to this is not always as easy though.

Rocking around the christmas tree..... oh not that one again!

Now I will warn you I am listening to Christmas songs whilst writing this blog about nostalgia which thinking about it might actually help however I apologise now for a few dodgy festive references along the way.

Now down to business, Nostalgia is defined by Solomon as 'A bittersweet emotion when the past is viewed with sadness and longing'. It goes on to say 'many 'classic' products appeal to consumers' memories of their younger days'. Now this basically is the way we feel when we look back at previous times and often the way we yearn for those times to come back. Now being Christmas in a few weeks the festive tunes are being played to death in shops and on radio. This has a nostalgic effect on most people as the majority view Christmas as a fun holiday with many fond memories of previous Christmases and how great they were 'back in the day'. This is why for me personally when I hear the opening bars of 'All I Want For Christmas' I get all nostalgic and happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ymlnxMZkXA


I have Nostalgic memories of fantastic big family christmases of years past and it makes me want to relive those moments. This is why the same christmas songs come back around every year as it makes those nostalgic memories re-surface and puts us in a reminiscent mood. Now obviously 'All I Want For Christmas' is the best christmas song in my opinion but some people like the Pogues; Wham and for some unknown reason even Noddy Holder. Whatever your favourite song is it doesn't really matter the one thing that all of these songs have in common is that they were recorded years ago. There's history to these songs and they can be associated in our minds with certain things that happened in the past. Christmas has so much tradition that a song like All I Want For Christmas which was recorded 16 years ago is considered a 'new' Christmas classic unlike Chris Rea and co who have been around for 'donkeys' as my nan would say.



So we know what Nostalgia is but the definition provided also mentioned the fact that 'classic' products are often bought back and sold again. Why are they successful? Because of Nostalgia of course. Let me explain..



When you hear your nan saying 'it was better in my day' this is not necessarily a fact; to be honest its probably complete rubbish but she's saying it because she feels nostalgic and comforted when she talks about when she was younger and care free. Companies are aware of this and tap into it by bringing back products that were popular when she was young and care free making her think about happy times when she see's her beloved sherbet lemons on the supermarket shelves, what does she then do? Buy them of course. Another example would be the Cadburys 'bring back Wispa' campaign where customers used social media to communicate with Cadbury's that there was a demand for the Wispa bar to be bought back. This is because of the happy memories that people had of the Wispa bar and therefore they wanted to relive those moments again. Sure enough Wispa bars were put back into production and they were a roaring success and are still on our shelves today all because of Nostalgia. Clever isn't it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLf8E9Hd4Dstube.com/watch?v=lLf8E9Hd4Ds

Now I work in Next and retro sweets are flying out of the door at the moment. Yes I know what your thinking 'I didn't know Next sell sweets now'. Well yes they do and they also sell chocolate which is far too nice but I'm digressing... Why is this though? I'll tell you why it's because Mr CEO of Next wants a piece of that delicious Nostalgia pie. The chocolate is not just chocolate but chocolate slabs with swirls and packaging that is suppose to resemble a home-made product. Now many moons ago on average more home cooking was done, that's therefore what the modern consumer is yearning for however they obviously haven't got the time so they pay poeple like Next to do it for them. The sweets are not just the latest flavour of the month but are white chocolate mice and strawberry bon bons complete with flying saucers. (Totally just ripped M&S off) I have personally walked past people in the shop as they look at the sweets and they say 'ooh I remeber those' then they turn to their husbands who are bored out of their skulls and say 'Mick look at these which ones should we buy'. They then can't decide and buy lots and lots. So who's the Winner? Mr CEO of Next obviously. Genius......

Nostalgia buying is a comfort to consumers and it is thought to be one of the leading sales areas during the recent recession. According to Laetherhead Food Research The classic products and 'retro' items that are available were big sellers during the tough economic times as these types of products comfort people. Ever wondered why when you pick up the latest edition of the Argos catalogue you question whether it is in fact the latest edition and not the 1970's version. Everywhere you look there's a 'retro' kettle or a 'retro' toaster or even 'retro' radio's. Of course these items aernt really retro at all. Oh no because back in the day kettles werent electric but this one is and dear old gran wouldn't dream of having a piece of wire mesh to put over her toaster so she could warm a croissant or two but obviously now it's part of the package. The 'retro' radio is obviously DAB digital allowing the modern consumer to listen to anything he or she likes from accross the country. I kind of miss the crackle when the little old wireless is trying desperately to find signal dont you? So really it's a load of old tosh that is just clever marketing that us Nostalgic fools are taken in by; the 'retro' effect is really all in the mind. Just like Nostalgia really.




Businesses don't try and hide the fact that they are using Nostalgia on consumers either. The retailer Past Times actually sells a book called 'Remember When' here's the best bit it is described as 'a nostalgic trip through the consumer era'. And people are seeing this and paying £9.99 of their hard earned cash to sit there and read about what they use to do, and what they use to like, then have telephone conversations about it to Mary down the street and Bill at the pub. The power of Nostalgia is quite astounding.

I might sound as though i'm having a go at people for this but I have to admit I am not immune. I am looking forward to Christmas so much that I can't stop talking about it. My flat mate and I were discussing our various rituals on christmas day in so much detail that on the day I shall look at my watch at 12.01 precisely and think 'Neils mum's basting the turkey'. Why do we have these conversations? Because it makes us feel good, reminiscing about what we or family members have done in the past - it just makes you feel good and comforted. That's why when I went down to Sainsbury's to buy some Christmas biscuits (it has to be done) I was bombarded with Nostalgia. The boxes werent just Sainsbury's biscuits but were 'j Sainsbury' biscuits. Now we all know that Sainsbury's hasn't been known as that for years however there is a history to that name which makes us think 'oh I remember that' and we buy the biscuits.

Nostalgia can be triggered by any one of our five senses so it's almost impossible to avoid it. Retailers are on to a winner with this as there is no limit to the amount of people that are affected by Nostalgia. There is no specific target market for Nostalgia as anybody can feel Nostalgic by anything or product on the supermarket shelf.

I was set a task in which I had to create a Mood Board full of things that make me feel Nostalgic. This was easy and of course I filled it with Food, (obviously extremely bad for you but oh so good) TV programmes (real kids TV from back in the day that did not feature someone dressed as an idiot whilst having a TV on their tummy). These were things that made me feel Nostalgic and are personal to me. They remind me of happy times when I was growing up and I must admit when I was carrying out this task I did have the biggest grin on my face imaginable. Here are some of the images I used in my Nostalgia Mood Board:

BN BN do dooo do doo doo BN BN........ No just me then

Simply the best Kids TV show of all time....

♫ 'Its the Circle of Life' ♫...... The best Disney soundtrack in the history of the world.

To illustrate the point that Nostalgic memories are individual I asked my Nan to come up with images that are Nostalgic to her. Here is what she came up with.

This came after a push. Apparently this is a nice film that puts my nan in a good mood. To be honest we were struggling to understand Nostalgia and this was followed by and i quote 'what about a gas mask'. Now I am aware that Nostalgia is personal however I'm not sure we've fully come to grips with the term Nostalgia. This is why I moved on to My Grandad where he came up with The War. He visited Cologne in Germany where he use to be based and he said that he felt very Nostalgic and lots of old memories came flooding back when he visited his old base.

These things mean nothing to me at all and I personally cannot think of anything worse than hearing about the War and it feels me with dread rather than happy memories but this just illistrates the point that Nostalgia is personal and whether you're old or young you have your own Nostalgic memories that are personal and apply only to you.

Now I'm nearly done and so is the christmas album I'm listening to but I think I've just run into another great example of Nostalgia. Now Mariah Carey has the best Chritmas songs right. So when she's getting old and we are bored with her dog squeals but she needs a hit album, what does she do? Release a Christmas Album. The album features a new version of All I Want For Chritsmas which is labelled 'extra festive' after a listen I can safely say that a few extra squeels does not mean 'extra festive' in my book and therefore I'll stick to the original however it's a brilliant idea from a marketing point of view as even if people don't like the new version it will remind people of the old version and therefore people will go onto i tunes and download it. Nostalgic feelings will be in abundance and everyones a winner. You feel great because you've listened to a great christmas song; I tunes does great and capitalises on the mad holiday that is Christmas and Mariah bags herself another hit.

So there you have it now I'm done but I've got to finish my christmas shopping and I'm off to Morrisons to buy myself some Chocolate coins. I use to love those as a kid, apparently they've bought the white ones back..... I'm going to buy loads.

I'm rare.... apparently

So for this weeks blog I will be talking about personality and self concept. Every person is an individual and values different things. There are different types of personality that can be measured by completing a personality test. Questions and real life situations are put to the individual and then there answers are measured to conclude their personality and therefore personality type.







I have just taken a personality test and I can reveal that I am an INFJ personality type. Which is a visionary apparently. It is also one of the rarest personality types as only 1.7% of the UK population have this personality type. which I guess is why no one laughs at my jokes. That makes me feel better, there was me thinking I was just a little bit crazy but there are people out there like me. Well a few people anyway. When comparing my results to a Simpson's character I have the same personality type as Lisa. This is a good and bad thing, am i organised and caring well yes but am I also a pedantic worrier who occasionally get's right on people's nerves? unfortunately that ones a yes as well.





The most common type of personality in the UK is ISTJ. These people are protectors and they honour their commitments and take criticism well however they do sometimes think that they are always right. Don't you just hate those people!



According to Kotler there are various factors that influence our behaviour including our culture and Social Class. This then leads to our status and role socially as well as our Family. Personal factors then come into the equation such as our age and what stage we are at in our lifecycle. After this comes our personality and motivation and our behavior. So your personality can change according to these factors. This means that if I was to move to Australia that my personality may well change because of the environment that i'll be in. So I may well go from Lisa Simpson to Homer Simpson, I'm not sure which one I would prefer.



Having a certain personality type is not a good or bad thing and doesn't represent any intellectual or social class of a person, it merely explains what type of person you are and how you work. Employers will often use this to understand what their employee values and what type of worker they may be. This is called the Miles Briggs type indicator and is based on the theory of Carl Jung.

Companies often look at this and create products for different personalities. This is coming into effect more and more nowadays as the public is becoming irritated by the perfect image that is put accross in many advertising campigns. I mean lets face it are there going to be many guys who will look like Christiano Ronaldo or David Beckham in their Armani briefs?.... Exactly. Do you think that all women's hair is going to look like Cheryl Cole's? No whether their worth it or not the fact is unless they have their own personal stylist it's not going to happen. That's why campaigns such as Dove that use 'real women' with real curves who don't look like twigs was so successful. This type of campaign gave people that don't have that much confidence in their figure more confidence because in the adverts they were seeing people that they could relate to therefore they would feel empowered by the advertisement and buy the product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4umCDmKDxc

Companies also create personlities for themselves as a brand or for individual products. This is so the consumer can relate to the product and form a relationship with a brand. An example of this would be Calvin Klein, now if you were thinking about a person from the Calvin Klein ad's for arguments sake i'll call him 'Mr K' you would think he would be uber cool, in his mid 20's or early 30's; wear aviator sunglasses; enjoy long work outs; shop at Urban Outfitters; have a high flying job in the City; enjoy long weekends in the country with his siizzling bit on the side whilst driving the new Audi R8. What i have just done is profile the personality of 'Mr K'. He is the target market that Calvin Klein would be aiming at. Because 'Mr K' does actually exist. Not in person of course but the type of person that 'Mr K' is are out there waiting for their next delivery of CK's and they can relate to 'Mr K' which is probably why they buy CK undies and also why they have just ordered the latest CK fragrance.

Soloman defines perception as 'a person's make up which consistently influences the way the person responds to his or her environment'.



Self Concept on the other hand is defined by Soloman as 'the beliefs that a person holds about his or her attributes and how he or she evaluates those qualities'



So someone's personality is the way in which they are and someone's self concept is the way in which they think they are. For example I thought that I wasn't that nice however according to the test I am caring and nice. And by the way you can look that up it's true I promise.



Often people try and adapt their own self concept by portraying a certain persona as they are aware that if they wear certain things it will enhance their external status. For example when I make the occasional trip to dare I say it to Primark (which by the way is only to be whispered) I dont like to be spotted as my self concept is of a classier persuasion than Primark (or so I like to let evryone else think) On the other hand when I make a trip into Hollister I parrade out of their with the paper bag feeling happy as I am aware that others will see this and will think of me in a better light. You may be thinking that this is all very shallow and surely not true but i'm afraid it is. We like to build what we as individuals consider a good self concept as we would like others to think of us as highly as possible. To be honest i'm so bad for this I refuse to even refer to Primark by it's real name and I now prefer Primarni. It just sounds better don't you think?



This is also partly the reason why we are obsessed with celebrity culture and why for days after the X Factor we are still discussing Simon's botox; Cheryl's hair; Danni's dresses and er well maybe not Louis but the reason for this is because it is a fantasy and nothing like the majority of peoples day to day lives. We pit the ideal against the actual, this is why Danni Minogues new fashion line is doing so well because she has worn some of the dresses on the show and it is seen as an escape as ordinary girls want to emulate their idol and the perception that she gives off as being a style queen. Its also why red hair colouring will go through the roof as Chezza is now rocking the look. Simon Cowell may get mocked for his brilliant white nashers but I bet you would have yours done as well and Louis...... well I guess that's why Ireland is in trouble.



Cooley (1902) saw self concept as the 'looking glass self' and says that feedback from others plays a huge part in our self concept. We adapt our self concept to try and make us out to be the best we possibly can. Ever wondered why girls hit the town with 5 lots of foundation slapped accross their face? No it's not to look like a tangerine but to create a self image that they are happy with and one that they believe others will approve of.



so there you have it. Our personalities are the way we are and can be affected by many different things, basically it's our make up and the way we are as a person naturally and our self concept is the way that we think we are. Often these two things are poles apart.

Coke with no Cups.....

So this week we were suppose to showcase our experiments in front of the class in order to show how people's perception of certain products is effected by what they are lead to believe. Unfortunately our experiment never quite went ahead because of a particularly prominant case of Freshers flu which I have to say does sound rather nasty and surprisingly contageous even though i am yet to come down with the virus myself. As other members of my group were suppose to provide plastic cups our experiment wouldn't have worked. I don't think me pouring cola into people's mouth's would have been appropriate do you? I guess i'll have to carry two very large and very heavy bottles of Cola back to the halls of residence where i shall give it out for free. Something tells me that a full two litre bottle of 17p cola will not go down as well as the trusted brand of Coca Cola but it's free and all students like free stuff don't they? Well if not you can always just add Vodka - trust me it works every time.



Now onto the boring bit; that's theory of course. Today we were informed about the intergeral theory when it comes to packaging which every ad man or woman knows they have to complete to gain a sale. This is the Perceptual Process, this put simply is Sensation followed by Attention and finally Interpretation. Now in my previous posts i have mentioned the constant barrage of advertisements that are thrust upon us on a daily basis. I can now confirm that there are in fact roughly 5000 forms of media vying for our attention every day. This is just crazy and impossible to compute every single one surely. No wonder headaches are part and parcel of everyday life, that really is a lot to take in. Well in fact we only take in 10% of this as on average 500 of that 5000 we see everyday are actually noticed by us. This is where the second stage of the process comes in as our attention has been caught by the adverts that we've seen. This however doesnt mean that it will stay in our minds, i mean i get told my till pin number in work at the start of my shift every week and yes i may remember it for that four hours but as soon as i leave those doors and enter back into the world of sanity do i remember it for next week? Of course not! It's exactly the same with adverts, the things you particularly care or that strike a chord with you are the ones that your going to actually remember whereas the things that you see that are ok but nothing special are going to fly out of your head as soon as you look away from the poster and start thinking about what your going to put with those chips for tea. This is why many adverts now use Stimulus Ambiguity as this will catch the consumers attention which already gets them to second base. Now they've just got to make a strong enough impression for the consumer to take action. The NHS for example have to make sure that the picture of a smoking baby grabs the readers attention so much that when they get off of the tube escalators they will start interpreting this information and looking at it in their own personal lives and how by them smoking their children are also. If this happens they are more likely to quit and hey presto the advert has reached the holy grail and has been successful.

So don't worry too much guys it's not that much of a big deal really, 10 Ad's a day - Bring it on!

Have you seen that advert?

Our senses are a fundamental part of the way we interpret things and they have a detrimental effect on how we go about our lives and what decisions we make. When i think about it brands are being barraged towards us every day and to keep battering them away time after time is exhausting. Unfortunately for us consumers out there companies know this. They know that whilst we might be able to turn a blind eye to a fat bloke singing opera about a comparison website once the second and third time we simply cannot and whilst our backs are turned we are penetrated with the advert and before you know it all you can think about is Go Compare. It's a bloody nightmare!

I will now illustrate my point that you simply cannot escape the minefield of advertising by taking examples of companies using each one of our five main senses just to get their product somehow into our psyche.

Sight

If i was to ask the majority of people what the profile of a typical Gin drinker would be I'm sure it would come back as an older member of society. At least that's what the stereotype is. If you look closely at the advertising campaign to the left by Bombay Sapphire Gin you can see that they haven't taken a blind bit of notice of this and have created a visually majestic and thoroughly modern advertisement for their product. The visual effect it has on you is quite startling, if the typical 70 something saw this they would be forgiven if they thought it was a bubblegum flavoured soft drink advert. There is very limited text and everything is one colour. Blue is the least gender specific colour so to choose this colour and to advertise your product with it is a smart move. It is clear that Bombay Sapphire wants to appeal to a younger audience and make there product relate to the new generation. There are subtle hints that they were aiming towards the female market because of the typically more feminine lighter blue colour and if you look closely the stem of the glass is actually in the shape of a female dress. The whole idea from Bombay Sapphire's point of view is for them to get their target market to identify this modern colour and sleek design with their brand and their Gin. It will certainly stand out on the local Tesco shelf as Gin bottles are usually clear and unimaginative. Yes older drinkers may shudder at the mere thought of a blue Gin bottle but the simple fact is old people tend to die and therefore the drink Gin has to move on and find a new audience, this is a great example of this and i know personally if i saw this bright and eye catching product on the shelf amongst the same old dreary products i would certainly buy it.

Touch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Awwb-eXlc8

Now stimulating someones vision may be easy when using TV or large posters however when Mr Marketer has to evoke other senses things get difficult. An example that i will use is the Bachelor's Cuppa Soup campaign from 2004. This is great at evoking the sense of touch as there is a huge fluffy bear like creature which hugs the lady (supposedly us consumers) when she drinks the soup. Now this campaign is very effective as it is set in a snow covered winter resort which we know can be very unforgiving and freezing cold, then the lead demurely sips away at the soup and what do you know a huge fluffy huggy monster arrives giving a warming and comforting embrace. This is definitely aimed at women because of the female lead character and because giving hugs is definitly a more female orientated activity as men are of course far too butch and assertive to want a hug, which by the way is a lie but advertising companies don't ever want to offend anyone in case it causes them to abort buying their product. You may be thinking that this is very far fetched and well to be honest it is but that is why in my opinion it is so brilliant because lets face it who doesn't want a hug every now and then? Especially in those cold winter months where money tends to be tight and a big fluffy huggy monster really would come in handy once in a while to take your troubles away and to take us out of reality. When you see the hug you imagine how that would feel. Bachelors are trying to get us consumers to buy into the 'hug in a mug' idea and when you look at the supermarket shelves instead of buying regular boring soup like Heinz you will buy a 'hug in a mug' that will make all your troubles fly away.

Taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaQISZO37B8&feature=related

When you think Fosters you think young larger lout, now this may be a stereotypical view however judging by the advert to the left that may actually be the demographic that Fosters are aiming at. The brand seems to focus their advertising on the outsiders view of Australia and it's people which is a typically laid back and blaze approach to all things life. If you've ever seen a Fosters advert you will definitely know that it is an Australian brand as they never seem to fail to mention it. This type of attitude is a popular one amongst the younger generation, it has been proven that anxiety tends to effect people more when they get older and i guess that's where the saying young and care free comes from because generally when people are young they don't care about many things and tend to possess a take it as it comes attitude. The particular example that i have chosen shows a twenty/thirty something immersed in a what seems like a summer bbq with people all around suddenly taking a sip of his Fosters, he then looks up and see's a stunning blonde beauty staring back at him. Now lets face it that is every straight red blooded guys dream, Chilled beer in one hand and hot girl on another. This would engage their target market brilliantly as they would be instantly interested in this. Fosters then add an unexpected twist of humour which again young men would typically find funny as the male lead uses the girl's hieght as a shade as he takes yet another sip of his beer. Whilst watching this you would be imagining the taste of that beer as he takes the sips. I personally think that the added humour at the end is a brilliant way of making the advert stick in peoples minds as your average joe would have a ball telling his mates down at his local boozer how 'the guy in the advert uses the woman for shade'. I'm sure they would all be falling about laughing right before they all ask for a pint of Fosters.

Sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-9QFvhQWo

Now when it comes to sound there is really only one advert that i can mention simply because i cannot turn the TV on without seeing it at the moment, it is of course the Go Compare advert. I know i mentioned it above but i'm going to have to talk about it again in more detail. It is without doubt the most annoying TV advert the world has ever seen and in my opinion should be banned for crimes against the ears, the effect however that it has had on people is brilliant from Go Compare's point of view as it gets people talking. Weather they love it or hate it really isnt the point as long as they are talking about it and have an opinion on it means that they are aware of the advert and therefore are also aware of the product or in this case service that it is advertising. The reaction to this campaign has been so strong that it was voted the most annoying advert of 2009 by The Telegraph. Now you may think well surely this should be stopped and another campaign started but this campaign has single handidly turned the fortunes of Go compare around as they reported 4 Million pound losses in 2008 and after introducing the Opera singing twit they reported a 12 Million pound profit at the end of 2009. The song which is sung is irritatingly catchy and most people will find it stuck in their heads time and time again after seeing the hideous performance on the advert. Now every time you think of a comparison website you will think of Go Compare, it's sad but true so brace yourselves for a lot more of the Pavarotti wannabe in the future. Now where are those earplugs?

Smell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MRh7N8si_Y&feature=related

The Airwick advert (follow the link above) really uses the consumers sense of smell and is without doubt aimed at women. The majority of household items are bought by women and there is a common theory among women - which i don't agree with by the way that women are better than men at well everything and this advert shows a man struggling to plug a regular electric air freshner in and then his wife comes up with a very practical solution which happens to be the new airwick cordless air freshner. This not only will make it's target market laugh but also highlights the products USP and illistrates a problem with it's competitors products and the fact that they now offer a product which solves the problem. It is a simple advert that will leave the consumer imagining how the product smells like as there is clearly an odour coming from the product which seemingly fills the room with vibrant ccolour and leaves the room smelling fresh. It is a great advert as it shows a common family with a common problem and an easy way to fix it. It really is that simple but it gives the consumer an example that the mass market can relate to and solves it with this new product. This in turn will create a desire for the product and when the weekly shop is being done the real head of the family will purchase the product as the brand has seemingly solved a problem that they would have with this new product.

So there you have it. Everywhere we turn there is a new challenge we face and a new product vying for our attention and investment, it really is a battlefield out there. OH NO you may be thinking but before you lock yourself away for eternity don't panic! The vast majority of these messages find there way into your head without you even knowing. Well they should do if the advert is clever enough!

Beautiful.... or is it?

so, i find myself sitting at my computer having been asked to write about perception what exactly is it? What do other people think? what's the true definition? and what do i think? According to the Oxford Dictionary perception is defined as 'The ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the senses'. Just to clarify the traditional five senses are vision; hearing; touch; smell and taste. This put in laymans terms means anything basically and how we compute it. One of the most common perceptions that differ from person to person would be the way we look. I for example wake up some mornings after a heavy night and look in the mirror and wonder if i'm looking at a monster or in fact myself and the best thing for me to do is go back to bed, unfortunately it is always me but this is my personal perception and not necessarily a fact. Somebody else could look at the same thing and think it looks good, at least that's what i keep telling myself anyway. Just like some people will fancy Cheryl Cole from Girls Aloud and their friend might fancy the ginger one. This is their own perception of what looks good and is personal to them.

As we are on the subject of the way people look i will show you a video that i found whilst researching this, it has been put together by 'Dove' who have been very active in their efforts to change the public's perception of beauty and boast about the fact that they use 'everyday' people in their marketing rather than the perceived idea that the majority of people have that beauty means 'perfect' just like the celebrities commonly seen in the weekly glossy's.

The link below will direct you to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v_azJv50KQ&feature=related

The video highlight's the fact that the current perception of beauty is artificial as in order for someone to look as good as the model does she has to be edited and poked and prodded using various technology before the photo is released. This is the way that the majority of people percieve beauty because they have seen adapted posters like the one shown in the video and because of this it is no wonder that this is how they view beauty.

A quote that i personally agree with is from Schiffman and Kanuk that says "how we see the world around us". I personally agree with this and i think that everything is individual depending on the person. I also think that perception can be affected by the environment in which we live and the perceptions of people close to us. For example if your mum buys a certain brand of washing powder, when you go to University like myself you are likely to buy the same brand because you have been told by your mum that it is the best. This is not actually true however this is the perception that your mum has of a brand and therefore you are liklely to gain a similar perception and start buying 'persil' to wash your undies rather than bold.

So to conclude my personal idea of perception is the way that every person individually see's the things around them. I think they can be adapted and in some cases completely changed depending on how they are bought up and how other influences that they face effect them.

Hi Wycombe Hi Crazy nice people

So, i rock up to High Wycombe on the 19th September with a mixture of nerves excitement and a whole heap of apprehenshion. This after all will be my home for the next three years and if i dont like it; well i have to like it, that is the point and thats why i had been experiencing many a sleepless night prior to my arrival. Thoughts included 'what if they all hate me' 'will i live with loonatics' and most importantly 'will my liver survive'. Once i actually got there i had the mammoth task of unloading the car which to any normal person would be rather straight forward however when you have got enough appliances to kit out Jamie Olivers kitchen and enough clothes to stage a fashion show it is not so simple. Throw in a fridge and i seriously have problems. I decide on this occasion to let my parents do the lifting and all thats left for me to do is something that i had been telling myself i had to do for weeks. Talk, and so i did everyone i saw i had a chat with and then i talked some more and well you get the point.

So now we move on about an hour and people in my flat start arriving, the parents dissapear and i am faced with a red haired geordie who i couldnt understand at all, the bubbliest girl in the world who heralds from the isle of man and a long haired rocker from Hertford. Little old me from Essex was going to have his work cut out. Over the last 2 weeks i have learnt that 1st impressions really dont always ring true and the phrase 'don't judge a book by it's cover' really is relevant here. I have now got to know my flat mates really well and they are all actually really nice and believe it or not are sort of normal. There has been some akward moments as well as deep debates but the most prominant moment so far was the toaster blowing up in the kitchen, now that i dont think i'll forget in a long time. I guess you can stock your cupboards like Jamie Oliver but you might not always be blessed with his cullenary skills.