Edward Bernays - "the father of public relations"

Edward Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s.
-and yes, he is the reason that the public relations profession has come to dominate the world today.


He was the one who initially manipulated the masses into wanting things they didn't actually need.  HOW did he do this? -by linking mass produced goods to the unconscious desires of the public.  (-frustratingly clever really..)


Bernays successfully trained people into wanting things.  He lead people to believe that their desires should over shadow their needs.  By doing this, he successfully produced a new type of customer.


It's hard to believe that someone could help industry overcome one of the biggest social issues of all time; women smoking in public.  -But Bernays did it. Bernays purposefully made it his intention to stage a Easter Parade held in New York in 1929.  Through doing this, he successfully convinced industries that the best way to carry their message to the unsuspecting public was through the news and not through advertising.


He deliberately used young women to make a debut in society.  He sent a group of rich debutantes out during the Easter Parade in 1929 and after a signal from him, they were to pose whilst holding and smoking cigarettes.  When the story reached the news, the view on women smoking in public was changed forever.  The young women seen smoking in public acted as a symbol for freedom and independence.  This therefore suggested to women who believed in female freedom and independence (pretty much the majority of women at this time) that they too should smoke if they wanted to appear independent.


Bernays managed to make women smoking in public socially acceptable, with a single symbolic act.  Smoking didn't make women independent, smoking made women FEEL more independent.


It is through this example that we learn that irrelevant objects have the ability to become powerful and emotional symbols of how you want to be seen by others.


-oh and the conclusion of Bernays stunt? - Cigarette sales doubled. (well done Bernays...)

I wish I liked tea

Can I just say - you know an advert is good when the soundtrack is available to download on itunes AND it has almost a million views on youtube...

HISTORICAL TWINNINGS MOMENTS

1787: Twinings chooses its logo. Today, it is the oldest commercial logo that has been in continuous use since it was made

1837: Queen Victoria makes Twinings an official Royal Warrant holder (if it's good enough for a Queen, then it must be good stuff...)

1910: Twinings opens its first shop in France

1933: Twinings first blends its famous English Breakfast

1956: Twinings makes tea bags for the first time

1972: Twinings becomes the first company to win the Queen's Award for Export

300 years later, and the 'Twinnings - Gets you back to you' advert is released - and what a hit it has been!

I first watched the advert about 3 weeks ago.  Normally myself and my flat mates tend to complain about having to sit through ads when watching our favourite programmes.  I guess that's because we are students and can't afford the sky+ luxury of fast forward!  However, when we saw the advert, it captivated our attention.  We ended up competitively guessing what the ad was going to be for!

The combination of the song 'where you will go' covered by Charlene Soraia along with the fresh, effortless animation, makes this advert so loved.

The advert tells a story of a young female making a long journey to find herself...the fact that the metaphorical journey is unfolded through the art of illustration allows the female target audience to project themselves into the story.

For not even liking tea, this advert desperately makes me want to try one of the exciting teas twinnings has to offer.

The twinnings website (see www.twinings.co.uk/) has also taken a turn for 'getting you back to you'.

The website offers women the chance to find the perfect tea for the perfect situation.  Twinnings say they want to encourage women to take 10 minutes a day to do something for themselves.  This could involve having a cup of twinnings tea, reading a book or going for a relaxing walk.  They say doing something for yourself can have a positive impact on your well being.

The fact that Twinnings claim they care for their customers welfare is another reason the advert has been so successful.  We women want to feel like we are being looked after, and this product does just that.

the 24 hour brief- my review and experience

The 24 hour brief asked each group (of approximately 20 people) within the advertising and branding module to collectively plan, create and produce an advertising campaign that would successfully influence females to get males to visit the GP.

At the beginning of the day, we began by reading the brief together as a group, before dividing up into 3 separate focus groups.

The reason for dividing up was so each group could carry out different research techniques, that would be to their own personal strength. 

Group 1  - constructed a series of questions that would be targeted at different couples within the general public

Group 2 - researched the symptoms of serious illnesses that males could experience

Group 3 - conducted some general research online and took note of relevant statistics 

I decided to be part of group 1 because I really wanted to ask real life couples how they advise/persuade each other to do things within particular situations. 

We constructed a questionnaire with 6 questions and verbally carried out our research.

We approached men and women who were walking together.  It didn't matter if they were not romantically involved, because we also wanted to know how:

• brothers and sisters
• male and females housemates/friends
• male and female colleagues 

advise/persuade each other to do things.

The term 'couple' in this case refers to any male and female relationship.

Before asking the questions we made a point of recording an estimated age of the interviewees.  We then asked the 'couple' to specify what the relationship was between them.

The questions:

1: [directed to the male] How much do you value the advice of your girlfriend/wife/sister/friend?

2: [directed to the female] How would you get your boyfriend/husband/brother/friend to take your advice?

3: [directed to the male]  Tell us about a situation were your girlfriend/wife/sister/friend persuaded you to do something you didn't want to do?

4: How did you feel after you had been persuaded?

5: Why did you do it?

Out of the 5 questions, we directed 1 question at the female in the situation, but the majority of the questions towards the male.  Our objective was to find out how men react to the persuasion of females and why they take their advice in the end.

We managed to ask a variety of couples during the research.  These included:

1. 70 year old married couple
2. 40 year old married couple
3. 50/60 year old brother and sister
4. 21/23 year old boyfriend and girlfriend
5. 22 year old flat mates
6. 30 year old colleagues in the police

I concluded that most men take the advice of their girlfriend/wife/sister/friend to please her/show her that her advice means something to them.

Some men claimed to be so 'in love' with their girlfriend/wife that they would ALWAYS value their advice! (..a bit sickening really?)

Some men also confessed to having no courage to say 'no' to the advice of their girlfriend/wife/sister/friend...

One man confessed, ''as much as I hate to admit it, my wife is normally right...about most things.  I learn to honor her opinion because I know she cares about me...''

We met up with the entire research group at mid day so each focus group could share and discuss their findings.  After sharing our research with each other, some of us had thought up some potentially brilliant ideas.  We decided to 'work up' these ideas a little before narrowing the ideas down to a final 2.  We finally took a vote on what idea we should pursue.  When we came to an agreement, we decided on a tag line for the advertising campaign.

These were the 3 posters we produced:

Each advert shows a different type of 'couple' in a different situation, with the female overlooking and making excuses for symptoms of forgetfulness, man flu and lack of fitness for the male. 

Underneath each scenario, the tag line states - 'Or is he?' The tag line is in response to the females saying ''you're just a little forgetful today'', ''he's fine, he's just suffering from man flu'' and ''you're just unfit''.

The advert is designed to stop females dismissing males by making them ENGAGE with any continuous symptoms that their man might have.

We felt that by making the females out to be the one in 'wrong' within each scenario, this would hopefully grab their attention and force them to be more proactive about sending their man to the GP. 

The adverts intention is to purposefully make the female feel guilty, in an attempt to make her react.

Thoughts on the 24 hour brief:

I really enjoyed participating in the 24 hour brief particularly because I felt our group worked well as a team.  The organisation and motivation within the group meant that we were able to obtain accurate and appropriate research related to the topic.  We were able to focus on the strengths of each individual within the group, and therefore allocate jobs accordingly.

The 24 hour brief - Group Proposal

AIM: To encourage young adult men to visit their GPs through targeting women.

PROBLEM: The majority of men tend to ignore symptoms that could potentially lead to a serious illness. “Taking risks and thinking nothing will happen is seen as being part and parcel of being a man”

APPROACH: 

 - Background research

• stats
• other adverts
• articles about mens health

- Brainstorming

• risks men take
• how women view mens health

- Questionnaires

• interviewing couples
• what stage do men go to the GP

- Sketch up initial ideas before taking a vote

- Brainstorm ideas on the two most popular

- Vote for final idea

- The ad we chose targets women; it draws attention to the fact that men could have an underlying problem but ignore the symptoms and don’t go to the GP. By highlighting this we are hoping women can make a difference and not brush this issue aside. From our research we found that men tend to wait until the problem is unavoidable.

THE ADS:

Do I need to change? -Depends who you are.

In advertising, repositioning is taking place for a number of reasons:

• audiences are skipping TV spots with Sky+ and are learning how to ignore adverts on the web
• products need to change where they are in the market in order to target a specific audience

Some companies are trying to take the focus off their products and place more of a focus on the brand and what benefits the brand can bring to the lives of their consumers.

Crocs are an example of a brand that has repositioned itself in this way.  They have been focused on illustrating the brand benefits, rather than focusing on the product benefits.  They try to build themselves up as a stylish shoe choice, not by appearance, but by focusing on how comfortable the shoe is to wear.  I suppose you can say 'they are making comfort stylish'.

When watching the advert, it is obvious that their advert is targeted at women.  The advert shows the Crocs acting as a loyal friend, this in turn implies that they will take care of YOU (the consumer) by providing comfort and love as well as just being a shoe.

The tag line is 'feel the love' - focusing on the emotional aspect of the shoe, rather than it's physical form.

It is also important to notice what the shoes are actually doing in the television and the print adverts.  They are not acting as shoes, instead they are illustrating the practicality and the comfort that the consumer should/will experience when they finally accept that they NEED the shoe and not just want the shoe.  I think this is good advertising.  

However, it is not essential that all products reposition themselves.  For example, when Gap decided to reproduce themselves by launching a new logo, they soon realised that they had made a big mistake.  Messing with their identity was definitely not the the way forward.

They decided to go back to their solid blue box (image on the left) with 'GAP' written in a capitalised serif font, a look introduced 20 years ago. 

I guess the lesson learnt is to understand what your company is all about and if repositioning is really necessary in order to increase profits/improve the company.  In Gaps case -they tackled an issue that wasn't even a problem to them in the first place.

Another brand that has repositioned itself is Starbucks.  They have gone WORDLESS -by ditching the word 'coffee' from their logo.  I think it's a good idea considering they want to produce products other than coffee... As the brand has become more and more popular, they can comfortably go 'wordless' -without it being a problem.  They still will be highly recognisable.  Who knows what we might see Starbucks do in the future...

SELLING SMASH

During the 60's, dehydrated mashed potato, otherwise known as 'SMASH' was the perfect and popular substitute for potato.

In the 1970's Cadburys used alien robots who would laugh at footage of Earth women peeling potatoes as their television advertising campaign.  The campaign was so successful that it was voted the '20th century's best' by 'Campaign Magazine'.

Taking on board the 'research before getting creative' strategy, our task this week was to carry out reactive research with the public that could potentially help us reintroduce the product by creating a dynamic and successful advertising campaign for 'Smash'.

The questions we asked members of the public were:

- what makes you happy?

- what was your favourite childhood meal?

- do you make a point of purchasing healthy food?

- do you read the nutritional information on food packaging?

- do you/have you ever bought instant meals?

- do you like potatoes? why?

- what is your favourite meal at the moment?

While we were asking these questions, we also asked the public to draw their favourite meal on an ipad.  We felt that this would make the whole experience more interesting and more creative!  Turned out, introducing the ipad to the conversation actually caused people to panic mid conversation as they had no idea what to do with the ipad..maybe they were just afraid to draw, who knows..

We surveyed about 20 people altogether, however the majority were either students (aged 17-24) or the elderly (aged 60+).  I felt that we were in the wrong location to interview those of 25-59, however we fortunately managed to talk with a 27 year old young uni professional.  It was really useful to receive information from all 3 age groups.

With the information we collected, we created 3 personas:

After creating these personas, I had some ideas for a potential advertising campaign that could target both the male and female student population.  The advert would show a male student attempting to make 'smash' -however he messes up every attempt.  Just before he decides to give up, a group of 5 attractive female students enter the kitchen (obviously friends of another flat mate) they obviously notice the failure of the young male and begin to  laugh!  The young male is embarrassed, however he then takes the opportunity to get to know the group of girls by using his 'puppy dog eyes' to ask them for their help.  The final scene will show the male grinning, eating his smash, surrounded by the 5 girls.  

The tag line could be, ''the perfect way to meet your match- SMASH!''

who knows...-it could be a hit. haha.

RESEARCH before getting CREATIVE

In week 3 of this module we focused on how crucial it is to carry out investigative research before getting creative.

I realised that if we don't make a point of researching what products are currently available within the market for each market segment, we are actually making it harder for ourselves to identify potential gaps in the market.

The type of research we must carry out must be a combination of internal and external research.

In a recent the lecture, the history of Sainsbury's television advertisement campaigns proved to be a perfect example of not 'researching before getting creative.'  The case study highlights how essential it is to 'get to know' the audience you want to target.

In 1999, Sainsbury's endorsed John Cleese to become the face of their television campaign. The result: SALES DROPPED.  The slogan for the advert was ''Value to shout about'' -with Cleese seen shouting at a Sainsbury's employee. 

What had gone wrong!? -The problem didn't lie with John Cleese, as he played his character perfectly, the PROBLEM was that Sainsbury's hadn't thought thoroughly about how they wanted their segment to view Sainsbury's as a supermarket.

In my opinion, Sainbury's mocked themselves as a supermarket in the advertisement.  They didn't focus on the benefits of shopping in their supermarket, instead they portrayed their staff as inexperienced and unintelligent.  John Cleese is seen being incredibly rude to the young naive employee.  He takes complete control of the advertisement and take the spotlight off Sainsbury's completely.

However in 2000, Jamie Oliver became the face of Sainsburies through an endorsement deal worth £2 million/year!

The adverts with Jamie Oliver brought Sainsburies back to life with the slogan ''making life taste better''.  The main difference between the advert featuring Cleese and the adverts featuring Oliver are that Oliver highlights the great taste and focuses on the quality of the food from Sainsbury's.  The adverts tend to show family dinnertimes/BBQS (depending on the season) with Oliver and Sainsbury's produce taking centre stage.

Spending a lot on advertising does not guarantee success, as proved by the advertisement featuring John Cleese.  The clarity of the advertising message is key.  The advertising message needs to have thought, in order to impact the desired target audience.  The advertisements featuring Oliver are meaningful, distinctive and believable.  These factors are why they are a success.

After 11 years, the partnership between Oliver and Sainsbury's will come to and end, the final advert will be for Christmas 2011.

This case study really stuck out for me.  It proved that things can go wrong if you do not have the correct research.  I have realised that it's important to understand that advertising is a communication task.  Adverts need to effectively inform their target audience about their product AND persuade them to switch to their specific brand.