Introduction
In this assignment, two different brand-related marketing communications campaigns are selected and evaluated. These campaigns include different main tools that comprise a TV and social media. The two marketing campaigns selected for this assignment are “Tesco’s Christmas ad: Do not stop this woman from having a real good time” conducted on TV and Debenham’s social media ad on “If Cinderella had Snapchat…”. These ads are related to a cultural event known as Christmas and in this assignment, the main task is to examine the effectiveness and aims of the campaign. Moreover, for supporting analysis, two of the most relevant theories can be applied in this assignment. The assessment of the effectiveness of the campaign must comprise of discussion on the customers’ type to which the campaign aims and understanding the techniques of market segmentation. Additionally, it must take a critical approach by assessing the advantages and disadvantages and comparing media channels.
Aims and effectiveness of campaigns
Tesco’s campaign aims to have a common theme, which helps to run through different unique and latest ads of Christmas. The ad follows a woman who is dogged not to let anything in the manner of relishing Christmas despite travel restrictions during Covid-19. The journey of a woman is filled with awkward moments and bumps and even Santa experiencing quarantine, however, she is getting some kind of help from Tesco along the way. The ad sustains a humorous and light-hearted tone as the woman jumps on challenges to place on her family’s much-expected celebration (Adweek, 2022). The ad has been very effective because people know that Christmas is indeed a special occasion for many customers and after the global pandemic, it has become truly effective. This ad has helped people to look forward to the expressive get-togethers with their loved ones and provided the background of cancelled plans of the previous year and they do not want to miss proper celebration on this Christmas occasion. As the UK has faced pressures because of crises of pandemic and supply chain, there are some brands like Tesco, which is transforming the focus to escapism and fun in their advertising campaign during the important period of sales (Adweek, 2022).
The other ad campaign is conducted on social media and it is also effective because Cinderella is used by Debenhams as an inspiration for the department store as a Christmas campaign having a classic fairytale, which is ending considering a contemporary shopping spin. #YouShall is about a female who loses her shoe from her bag and a man on the train tries to identify her and return it. Social media and hashtags are used in the discovery journey, however, it gives a chance to re-encounter that seals the fate. However, there is a prospect that all kinds of brands, and particularly retailers form a content of storytelling to reward and entertain. This campaign helps build insights that help to identify it but puts an additional layer of enchantment and magic. As a result, this campaign becomes very effective for the customers of Debenhams (Arthur, 2017).
Relevant Theories
According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 2020), the attitudes, social pressures, beliefs, and capability to act amalgamate to shape the intentions of consumers to buy and that influence consumer behaviour. This theory is very relevant because each of the customers has an individualized mindset and process of decision-making, however, every experience of consumers in similar phases of the process of thought as a process as they make the decisions of purchasing (Durham University, 2022, Slide 28). As marketers, the brands try to strive to assess the process of decision-making of customers, which drive them to buy the products. As a result, this theory is very relevant and associated with the communication of marketing. Just like in this case, Tesco used a TV commercial portraying women to spend a good time, which attracts more women to purchase from Tesco as all the women are facing the same problem during COVID-19.
Source: Ajzen, 2020
This theory includes some of the key elements like attitudes, intentions, behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour control. The TPB is used by marketers to understand and predict consumer behaviour. It is based on the argument that the behaviours are determined singly on the intentions of behaviour, which are determined by the above-mentioned variables. Moreover, these types of factors help predict the intentions of customers to conduct a particular behaviour that forecasts an actual behaviour of the consumer. Additionally, the TPB is helpful for the marketers to forecast the intentions of consumers, which transform into actions, and how much control a customer has on the particular intentions, which turn into actions. It is deeper as compared to it needs a customer to assess the attitude towards a particular behaviour, get encouragement from those people who they value and consider that they conduct the behaviour.
The other theory, which is related to the marketing communication campaign is the diffusion of innovation theory (DIT). This theory classifies the customers into different groups of people who impact others to purchase new services and products, resulting in trends for these diffusing innovations in the entire population (Rogers, 2014).
Source: (Rogers, 2014)
Based on this theory, it is identified that the marketers evaluate where the customers fit into the model who tends to impact them. The opinion leaders who set different novel trends are considered as ‘innovators’. The other group of people are the early adopters who are very influential at a domestic level. The ‘early majority’ implement innovations at a minimum after the early adopters. The ‘late majority’ wait till the novel service or products are broadly socially acknowledged financing in them. Moreover, the laggards are those people who tend to take more time in adopting the practices of innovations because they fall in the brackets of older age and lower level income groups (Durham University, 2022, Slide 39). According to Rogers (2014), this theory is developed in communication that describes how, with time, a product or an idea achieves diffuses and momentum with the help of a particular social system and population. The prospective result of this diffusion is based on people who are a portion of a social system, develop a novel idea, product or behaviour. This theory can be applied in the ad campaign of Debenhams, which was developed through hashtags and on social media, so the people who are social media users grab the attention through this ad particularly females who are referred to as Cinderella. This ad attracts particularly innovators and early adopters.
Assessment of media channels
For the above two ads selected, two different channels are selected that comprise a TV and social media. Both the channels have different advantages and disadvantages. As Tesco used TV channels to advertise so the advantages are that TV reaches more audiences and another advantage is that the viewers spend more time with TV and it attracts loyal viewers. Moreover, another advantage of the TV commercial is that it is affordable (Sama, 2019). Due to these benefits, the advertisement of Tesco reached more people and they gave reaction promptly. The disadvantages of TV advertising include the fact that TV ads are brief, expensive, do not necessarily portray the product or service in the best light, and take a lot of effort to develop. TV advertising can be expensive to make, and adverts are sometimes too brief to portray the product in the best or clearest light (Sama, 2019).
On the other hand, Debenhams used social media channels to advertise and this channel also has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this channel are that it is used to enhance brand awareness, more inbound traffic, improve the rankings of a search engine, the rates of higher conversion, better satisfaction of customers, enhance the loyalty of brand, more authority of brand, and more cost-effectiveness (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). On the other hand, advertisements through social media expose business risks and negative feedback. It has a lower level of investment return, risk of breach of security, and vulnerability to misinformation. The information about the products can be perceived negatively and these are some of the disadvantages of advertisement through social media (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014).
Conclusion
It is concluded from the above analysis that different brands use different kinds of channels for marketing. Moreover, marketing techniques are essential to promote the products. Additionally, each of the advertisement channels has some advantages and disadvantages. Both the advertisements, which are selected had different objectives and each of the advertisements was effective in their respective settings and target audience.
References
(2022) Adweek.com. Available at: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/in-tescos-christmas-ad-dont-stop-this-woman-from-having-a-real-good-time/ (Accessed: 17 March 2022).
Ajzen, I., 2020. The theory of planned behavior: Frequently asked questions. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(4), pp.314-324.
Arthur, V. (2017) Debenhams hits a fairytale homerun with #YouShall Christmas campaign, Current Daily. Available at: https://thecurrentdaily.com/2017/11/11/debenhams-fairytale-youshall-campaign/ (Accessed: 17 March 2022).
Durham University, 2022. Marketing Communications Theory and Practice. Power Point Presentation. Date Accessed: 17th March 2022.
Rogers, E.M., Singhal, A. and Quinlan, M.M., 2014. Diffusion of innovations (pp. 432-448). Routledge.
Sama, R., 2019. Impact of media advertisements on consumer behaviour. Journal of Creative Communications, 14(1), pp.54-68.
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
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