Advertisement: Strong & Weak Theory Part 2

National Wedding Show

I believe that when looking at the national wedding show it would be more useful looking at the strong theory in advertising, similar to Sherlock Holmes. Unlike the sherlock holmes sequal that may have garnered loyalty with the audience that had watched the previous movie, the national wedding show may not have that kind of loyalty with previous attendee’s as this event is mainly a one-off for people, mainly because it attracts soon-to-be brides but once these women are married the need for attending this event is gone.

As Schultz et al in their Integrated Marketing Communications book the obvious and main communications objectives when advertising would be ‘to make the consumer aware’ and as a side objective ‘to inform the consumer’. They are trying to attract the recent brides-to-be to attend the event, similarly like the previous years that they try to attract these women. In the case of their advertising techniques using the strong theory, their advertisments try to show women what they would want for their wedding and not neccessarily need, targetting the women’s mind to make them think that the products in the advert is something that they need.

These print ad’s highlight the allure of the event, showcasing wedding dress, expert advice and the whole VIP experiance for the day. The magazines these ads will be advertised in are mainly women doing pre-wedding research, thus targetting their target audience directly. Even though we are currently still in recession and recently the Church of England have increased the wedding fees ‘The current plan, which will be introduced from January next year, will increase weddings fees by 40%, from £296 to £415’ (Source: nationalweddingshow.co.uk). This is further reason for the national wedding show to adopt the strong theory and why they have done so for many years in my opinion. People don’t generally come back to these events after their wedding but can get customers through word-of-mouth which these people are relaying the needs the adverts have instilled in their minds.

So with regards to the strong theory viewing consumers as rather intelligent or stupid in the case that they are easily manipulated that can seem to be the case. Women only want what they deem to be special or is given the aura of being something that not everyone can have, this trait in women is enhanced as it is for their wedding. So the national wedding show are relatively smart in using the strong theory in their advertisments and can even beat the increase in prices and the recession as society will always have people getting married and divorced then remarried.

It’s a sad reality but weddings are something every girl dreams to have whether it be once to the guy you love or many because you haven’t found Mr Right.

P.S

More articles about weddings can be found on the following link --> 

http://www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk/home/weddings-fees-to-increase-by-40/6507736.article

Advertisement: Strong & Weak Theory Part 1

Advertising definition: ‘Mass media communication where space is bought. Can be corporate, brand or product based’

(Source: Innovative Marketing Communications by Masterman & Wood, 2006, pg 76)

What is advertising and what contributions does it make to society? ‘It influences the individual manufacturer’s sales to some degree. Advertising lubricated the competitive system by telling consumers about the differences between competing brands’.

The study of the strong and weak forces of advertising are studied by many academics, Professor John Philip Jones goes into detail on both theories but mainly on the strong theory whilst Andrew Ehrenberg of the London Business School sees advertising as a weak force.

Strong theory – ‘sees advertising as a dynamic force operating as an engine for brand innovation and other types of change in the market-place’

The strong theory is basically in the interests of the capitalists society, advertising in terms of the strong theory is able to increase sales and can manipulate the consumer by using phychological techniques in its advertising. Thus persuading people to buy the items without them really needing the product or service. Sees’ its audience as stupid and easily manipulated.

Weak theory – ‘cannot act as a prime mover in the capitalist system, used defensively by most advertisers as a means of protecting the status quo’

Unlike the strong theory it does not believe adverising is strong enough to persuades a person’s original perceptions. Instead of using advertising to attract new customers, the use of it is to retain exisiting customers. See’s its audience as intelligent and not easily manipulated.

                                                (Source: ‘Advertising: strong force or weak force? Two views an ocean apart by Prof John Jones’, International Journal of Advertising)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – Strong Theory

Whilst I was unsure of which theory to use when looking at the advertising technique of Sherlock Holmes i believe that the strong theory is more applicable rather than the weak theory. The movie business has always been a shakey territory as there are many alternatives like pirate dvds, illegal downloads and online viewing from illegal recordings. So Sherlock Holmes in my opinion would use the strong theory to get people to spend money to watch it in the cinema and spend money, even if they have the opportunity to watch it for free without the need to waste money.

Trailers are a prime example of advertisers using psychological techniques to manipulate the person to watching the movie in general, using cliffhangers to intrigue people to find out ‘what happens?’

Another technique used is the sex appeal of the autors chosen to be in the movie. Women and men both like to watch people they deem to be attractive in the movies they watch, for example Robert Downey Jr has had a previous bad boy appeal can continues to give a mysterious effect on the viewers whereas Jude Law can attract women with his sex appeal
AND the accent that comes with being british (which I don’t personally understand, are british accents sexy? Maybe I don’t find it as attractive because I actually live in England and hear it regularly *shrugs*)

Within the 2 months of its release almost everywhere i looked i would see a promotional poster of the movie.

Movies aren’t something you generally HAVE to watch, it’s not like you have to watch a movie to survive, like food and water is to human and animals to survive. By using continuous reminders of the movie wherever you look is a constant reminder that this movie is coming out soon! It eventually becomes something interesting and turns into something you have to watch in order to become satisfied. (As I have been following the movie is has had a different effect on me because its become linked with work and something that because i’ve research it so much it has lost its appeal to me.But i’m just a weird case so don’t pay attention to my little rant ;p)

But in all honesty with regards to the strong theory seeing its consumers as unintelligent or stupid it may be the case depending on the circumstance. Some people may have watched the previous movie and because of this it turns into something they have to watch but only because they want to know what happens next. However we are in recession, money and jobs are hard to find so by using roughly £7 to buy a cinema ticket that could have bought a few items in tesco or even gloves or a scarf in this crazy weather. So yeah the strong theory does work in this case as people continue to watch movies in cinema’s even in this financial situation.

Ok this is just long soooooooo sorry if i've bored you :) Byyyyyyeeeeee

Evaluating their on-line presence

National Wedding Show

Websites: 'They are utilised as marketing communication tools to disseminate booking information as well as direct opportunities for ticket sales'

Innovative Marketing Communications, Masterman & Wood (2006)

‘The art of obtaining natural listings on search engines or search engine optimisation (SEO) has become a business in its own right with agencies specializing in web-site design that makes use of the various ways search engines search and generate results list.’

Innovative Marketing Communications, Masterman & Wood (2006)

Websites in general are part of what attracts people to these events. For the National Wedding Show when typed exactly so in the search engine it is the first within in the list which shows good search engine optimisation.

Another indication that the wedding show has good search engine optimisation is even if the wording has changed it is still first in the results list, for example simply typing in ‘wedding show’ or ‘wedding exhibition’ came with the national wedding shows official website.

Once clicking onto the website the first image that attracts the viewers attention is the national wedding show banner as well as the dates of these shows in both London and Birmingham, also showing that this exclusive event is only on for a selected amount of days in both places until again the following year. As well as this once the page has been opened a video on the page automatically plays talking about the wedding show and giving the audience a sneak peek into previous shows and what to expect on the day.

Another attraction to entice visitors is the announcement in the ‘Lastest News’ that tickets for the spring show are now on sale and the fact that you can save money when booking in advanced. This is especially attracting to their target audience who are mainly women as they can save money which is especially needed as weddings in general cost a lot and this money saved can be used at the event itself.

The website needs to be informative and easy to use as this is one of the first point of access for potential attendees to visit. The navigation on the website is straight forward and the main points are highlighted, an extra bonus the site provides is the chance to sign up to the newsletter for updates as well as an on-going blog. This shows that the website is interactive with its potential attendees and people interested in the event, with its interactive approach the website also has links to other social networking pages like facebook and twitter giving people more options on how to follow the progress of the event and maintaining the interest towards the event.

Not only is the website promoting the event, the website also encourages people to continually visit the page by adding advice, articles, online coaching, design ideas and cake ideas.

Evaluating their on-line presence continued:

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

Simply typing in ‘Sherlock Holmes’ into the search engine does not provide the official website for A Game Of Shadows movie or even the official movie for the first movie. Similarly with typing in ‘Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows’ or ‘Sherlock Holmes 2’  the official website is within the first page of the results but is always after wikipedia. Unlike the national wedding show the search engine optimisation of Sherlock Holmes is not as successful, however as both events are different the listing of the Sherlock Holmes website in the results is not much of an importance as it is for the wedding show.

A main objective for movie events is simply to get people to watch the movie, the official website is to continue getting people interested in watching the movie, providing extra footages from the movie, downloadable items, images, videos, soundtrack options and about the movie and it’s characters. Like the wedding show the website also contains links to social networking sites like facebook and twitter however it is not as interactive with its audience unlike the national wedding show. The link with the social networking sites is different from the ones used on the national wedding show, whilst the show is linked to the pages of these sites, Sherlock Holmes twitter link requires a log-in is only to tweet about the movie thus using the people who tweet as a promotional tool to attract further people and the person’s followers. The facebook option on the other hand links to the sherlock holmes page by giving you the option to ‘like’ the movie which then shows on your information page when people look at what your interested in.

Compared to the national wedding show the website is more boring with its content and colour scheme, the national wedding show contains light colouring and colours that is more attracting towards females, however the Sherlock Holmes website has a more mysterious vibe and is more focussed on making sure the audience watch the movie rather than the wedding show that tries to get people to continuously visit the website.

Sponsorship

Definition: ‘Contribution (financial or in-kind) to an activity (often a sport, music or arts event) by an organisation usually in exchange for name, brand or product exposure’

(Masterman & Wood, Innovative marketing communication (2006), pg 76)

‘The objective is to reach out to the local community that provides the organisation with its employees...it’s immediate operating environment represents a number of key local stakeholders and sponsorship can help to reach out to those groups’              

‘Event sponsorship is now used to drive sales as well as develop favourable brand associations and awareness, promote corporate awareness and develop internal and community relations’

3 key factors for sponsors in making sponsorship successful:

1.      The necessity to exploit event rights

2.      Role sponsorship needs to play in integrated marketing communications

3.      The need for sponsors to evaluate sponsorship in order to improve future performance.

Examples of sponsorship objectives:

-direct sales development (driving of sales)

-brand awareness

-external corporate awareness development (seeking to position or re-position themselves corporately)

-internal relations development (can create goodwill via an involvement with the employee’s community)

-competitive advantage

(Masterman & Wood, Innovative marketing communications (2006), Chapter 12)

National Wedding Show

From the website they don’t seem to have any official sponsors, I have currently emailed a section of the company to figure out who may sponsor the event but in all honesty I doubt they will get back to me in time.

As for them not seeming to have any sponsors I don’t believe they would need sponsors as they have income from people occupying the exhibition stalls. As for giveaways for the event it is assumed that these stalls will be giving away free items to promote their business which in turn provides incentives for people to receive free things. These exhibitors do play a similar role a sponsor would do, this includes trying to attract new customers, try to build a relationship with the national wedding show to get an exhibition space for the following year and an obvious objective would be to increase sales.

On their official website they do promote links to other website.

These links are for photography companies, a wedding magazine and a hotel company. All do link to the wedding aspects but they must at least get something from these organisations by advertising on their website as this would attract clients for the wedding show to visit these websites.

Sherlock Holmes

Unlike the national wedding show that the sponsors are not visibly seen, the official Sherlock Holmes page for A Game Of Shadows has a page dedicated to their partners. These partners include French Connection, English Tea Store, Hershey’s chocolate, Shuttle computer, DELTA and Hardee’s. Warner brothers play a big part in the development of the movie so they can be seen as the main sponsor of the movie, which is always displayed on any kind of advertisements and the credits at the end of the movies.

As a partner of Sherlock Holmes the website also provides links to visit the official pages of these partners, I personally did not know these companies were associated with the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

In terms of sponsorship techniques both events are completely different, movies rely on the income for organisations to actually fund the making of the movie and the national wedding show have people approach them to pay to be part of the event.

Phew I am finally done with all the postings to my blog. I’ll have blog another post that will be totally random so keep an eye out for that. I’ll make changes to some posts, like actually try to print screen the pages of the links on some posts so bare with me.....

Thanks for reading my analysis of the events. A bit boring but it had to be done....

Till next time lovely’s x

Likely Communication Objectives

Sherlock Holmes

For movies the main communications objectives would be to ensure awareness of movie to the general public, this in turn leads to the awareness of who is starring in the movie, its release date and knowledge of an up coming premier which includes celebrity appearances. As this is a sequel it is also communicating to fans that there is a continuation to the movie they had watched.

VS.

National Wedding Show

The name itself ‘National Wedding Show’ draws the attentions to brides. Its main communication objective would be awareness like Sherlock Holmes, to make brides aware that there is a show around to help make planning their weddings easier.

Whilst there are other wedding shows this wedding show is national. Only happening in selected areas for a specific amount of time. It shows exclusivity, which most brides would want to differentiate their special day from other people. In this case and in present society, people are striving to be different and this wedding show would provide more options rather than simply sticking to traditional flowers and buying their dressing from local wedding dress shops.

London National Wedding Show 2012 - Upcoming launch of 2012 website

With the recent turn in events when I was researching wedding shows I came across this National Wedding Show which has been cited as the the "UK's BIGGEST WEDDING EVENT" so I have instead decided to focus on this wedding event as it is more likely publicised and has a wider fan base.

The whole appeal of this event is emphasised by this screen shot of the upcoming website for there 2012 wedding show. (screen shot taken on Tuesday 29th November 2012)

Creating anticipation as well as giving them the opportunity to book in advanced to save money but it could also suggest that there is a likelihood that tickets will be sold out. Whilst thinking about money and brides there tends to be no expense to the amount they will spend their money on so by highlighting the fact that they can save money might encourage them to pre-book.

Whilst it does not state who their target audience is I am assuming by the colour and layout of the shot it is centred around attracting women, the pink colours and flowers all indicate this. However they do say "A visit to the National Wedding Show is an absolute for all those planning their perfect wedding." Women tend to be the ones planning the weddings however men might come to this event to accompany them, or even buy the tickets to surprise their fiancé and help ease the stress.