McDonald's Communication Marketing Analysis

          I've always viewed McDonald's as a company that really gets the kids' attention. This is an obvious statement when thinking about McDonald's marketing strategy, but is there a demographic that they could touch on that is linked to the kids' love of McDonald's and is there a completely different demographic that they could reach?

          Being a child, you are under your parents control which means that the parents have to want to take their kids there for the child to even be able to go. So as much as McDonald's is trying to reach out to kids, they should be trying to reach out to parents and make them want to take their kids there. So in this case,  i think the best strategy for them to take is to have a marketing campaign that is completely based on family. If McDonald's can reach out to viewers and give them a sense of family fun and togetherness as well as comfortability, then they could cause parents want to bring their family there which is now getting the service of the adults as well as the children. As McDonald's builds as a family oriented company people will feel comfortable spending time there with their own family and will want to continue spending time there more regularly with there family so they can keep having that moment and ritual.

            I feel like this marketing strategy is very important to sales and a large portion of the advertising budget could be used to carry out this new strategy.  Communication of images of family fun and time together would need to get out to the public which would be what the budget is used for.

            If Hardees or Carl's Jr. wanted to compete with McDonald's they would have to find an item that McDonald's has not touched on which would compete well with the family idea. What is a emotion that people some people have that they like better than the idea of family and how can we use it to advertise our company in  a positive and effective way? If they asked themselves this question then they could do the proper research to figure out which method would serve them most appropriately.

Persuaders Video

What are some things that you learned about advertising after watching this video? 

           In this video i learned that advertising is everywhere and is cluttered in a way that causes a constant battle involving the problem of - the more a company advertises it's name, the more its going to have to keep advertising even more. 

            I also learned that a brand needs to touch the viewer emotionally.  If a company can touch the viewer in a way that reaches their heart rather than their head, it could be a better solution, but also is another marketing risk.

           Marketing risks became very evident to me as i was watching this video. Where one idea could seem like it could work really well, it could fail in other areas which makes it a big risk to try and pull off.  Like in the segment about Song, their approach at touching the emotional side of the viewer is a risk because they could lose some of their credibility as an airline by not showing the information and facts about the airline in general. Although, if it does work it could be a great marketing decision and serve them well. So this is the risk in marketing and advertising decisions.

           The segment about advertising in television shows was interesting because it didn't occur to me how much this can affect the viewer.  If a company can play a role in a movie or television show the viewer is being turned on to a product, company, or label without even really noticing. 

What are some of the main problems that plagues contemporary advertising? 

           One of the problems in contemporary advertising is clutter. Like i mentioned before, the more advertising there is, the more need there is for continuing advertising to stay in the viewers attention. Another problem, that i mentioned before is the risk of advertising decisions that we make. A good idea could also be a risky idea when  looking at it in a different area. The method that is chosen to advertise the product must be researched and studied a great deal before making the decision final. 

What are some of the ethical concerns about advertising that we need to be aware off?

            We have to worry about the morality of what we are putting out there. The term "sex sells" is very popular these days, and is also a perfect example of what we need to watch out for. Looking at the ethics as a philosophy of morality is very important in advertising to know how to reach people's emotions and reach them in a tasteful way. Viewer's are all different and have different ways of viewing a product and this exactly what we need to be aware of. What is a way that we can reach the viewer's emotions in a general way that can reach out to everyone and please them all rather than reach only one demographic. 

Homework 2 - Product Description

CLEAR AMERICAN

When i think about this product i instantly think of:

• Text Quality
• Clean
• Natural
• Monochromatic
• Transparent

Being a graphic designer myself, i know how much of an impact that the kind of text one uses for there product design has on the consumer's outlook on the product.  When i saw the text on this product i instantly thought of the word "clean." Since the font is very basic and simple it has a clean, non-messy feel to the label. When sticking to this clean, simple feel it is also good to stick to one or two colors or go transparent just like this product did.  The monochromatic design on these bottles is a good way to stay simple and distinguish the flavors from each other by color. Also, with the transparency of the bottle and the label it allows you to see into the liquid in the bottle which is also clear and just gives the consumer that overall feeling of "clean." With the image of the fruit related to the flavor of each bottle on the front of the bottle it gives you a "natural" feel which goes well with the "clean" feel. I think that overall Clear American does a great job of getting their clean, natural, simple message across and definitely convinced me to buy their product.