Immigration: The New 'Wave' of Fiat Cars to America

Much like the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria did in 1492, the new wave of Fiat automobiles are making their way across the "ocean blue." The relatively new and small, yet "sporty" Italian cars are a product of the Chrysler Group. Fiats have been sold in the United States since March of 2011, but they are just now starting to make headlines due to a sex-driven commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl this past February. Since then there have been a few new commercials that have been aired, which use stars such as Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Lopez, and the most recent one that carries the theme of "immigration" as it pertains to these Italian-born cars making their way into the American markets. Here is the new commercial that the Richards Group from Dallas created for Fiat titled, "Immigrants."

The message that Fiat is trying to send is very clear:  "The next wave of Italians has come to America, and they've come to party." This commercial is the first one that showcases all three of the Fiat 500s that are available in the American market. Looking at the already exising "small" cars that are available, the Fiat is attempting to enter an exensive and established market here in the states. With competing cars such as the Mini Cooper, Honda Fit, or the new VW Beetle, the Fiats will need to find the segment that has not yet been captured by these existing alternatives.

The fact that the commercial verbally states that the Fiats are here to "party" shows that they are targeting the young, outgoing, risk-taking, and adventurous population. While cars like the Honda Fit and other small, energy-conscious cars on the market reach out to the environmental or "green" segment, the Fiats want their owners to rage and have a good time while behind the wheel. Fiat wants to firmly inject the Italian culture into the veins of American car buyers, especially those who are city dwellers and who want to feel sporty, practical, and who want value for their money. I think that Fiat has been bold with their string of commercials containing sex appeal and celebrities, but Fiat must be careful about what their commercials are really trying to relay to the consumers. Do the people that are not familiar with the Fiat brand going to purchase one simply because of its unique and somewhat seductive advertisements, or are they more concerned with performance and specifications of the car itself? This is the type of question that Fiat must investigate so that they keep a consistent brand image and do not lose customers because they are confused about what benefits that Fiat can provide them. Hopefully Fiat figures this out so that their "party" can rage on and tear the roof off of the American small car market.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/business/media/fiat-500-ads-portray-italian-cars-in-immigration-wave.html

Is iPhone 5 Just a New Name?

For the past month or two (or really since the iPhone 4S came out), all that I have heard from friends is how they cannot wait for the iPhone 5 to come out. "It's going to be the best one yet," they all say. Well, I would hope so! Don't we all expect the newest member of a product line to be better than the last? But will the iPhone 5 really be that much of an upgrade? Let's just say that I have my suspicions. I have done some research about the products and have compared them side by side just to see what's going to be so much better about the iPhone 5. It will be about a quarter of an inch longer than the iPhone 4S in height, slightly thinner and slightly lighter, which when you are dealing with fractions of ounces, is weight that much of a factor? Anyways, the screen on the iPhone 5 will be larger by half an inch and will have a better resolution, which in my opinion is an expected upgraded feature. I mean come on, it is Apple that we are talking about. The video capabilities are slightly upgraded with new features such as being able to take a picture while simultaneously taking a video, which is pretty cool, but not a selling point for most consumers. Add a different set of headphones, and different looking connector and a 25-minute addition to battery life and you have completed almost all of the differences. Doesn't seem like much to me...

Don't get me wrong, I am a loyal Apple user and have had the iPhone 3G and 3GS (which is the phone that I currently use). For me, my 3GS does everything that I need it to do and I am completely satisfied with being "behind the trend" if you will. The iPhone 5 is something new and exciting, which coming from Apple, makes headlines and makes consumers go crazy. Like any previous Apple product that has been launched, the iPhone 5 will have long lines if people waiting to bust down the doors to get it and it will be back ordered for months I am sure, but I just encourage people that are thinking about purchasing the iPhone 5 to do some research to see what you are actually gaining, other than the newest and most popular name in cellular devices.

Apple has some great commercials that highlight the superiority of their products. But recently I have seen a Samsung commercial that indirectly makes the iPhone and its current and potential users look pretty silly. Here is the commercial that Samsung put out promoting its Galaxy S 3 phone:

 





 

I thought that this was pretty clever on Samsung's part and you can't help but chuckle at some of the people's comments that are standing in line (meant to be the new iPhone 5 consumers). By their comments, you can pick up on the fact that they do not really know what benefits the iPhone 5 will give them, they just know that they want it! And if you are Apple, that really all that you are asking for.

 

 

 

http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

 

Facebook Can Leave You Face Down

Dictionary.com defines advertising as "the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc..." I am not going to crituque or vent about a particular advertisement or campaign in this post, instead I will rant about the blatant and devastating use of Facebook by today's "up and coming" business stars. Now, this is, like any other post, written out of my experiances and opinions so there is no need for anyone to defend themselves or get their undies in a bunch if you feel that you do not fall into this category.

So, "the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product..." Hmm, isn't that Facebook in a nutshell? You are your own product! And Facebook is your 24/7 commercial that you can use to advertise yourself to everyone that your heart desires. Sure this is a great tool and is a site that has many benefits. I am an active user of Facebook and am not arguing that Facebook is bad in any way, assuming that you use it for its intended purpose. As a 21 year old and a senior in college, I am seeing that Facebook is not just a tool to communicate with friends or to post ridiculous pictures of yourself so everyone can see how drunk or silly you were over the weekend. It can be a very effective networking tool that can help you find a job or a connection that will lead to a great career or future upon graduation. There have been many surveys and studies done about this and in my research, anywhere from 38-70 percent of today's employers will check an applicant's Facebook or other active social media site before making a hiring decision. That means that the person that is debating whether to hire you or not can see your drunken pictures and post, and any other offensive material that may be hidden on your site.

I continuously see friends' pages that have content that puts represents them in a very negative way. In some cases, even being their close friend, I would not even hire them based on some of their information on their social media sites. It is something that may come with maturity and age, which happens at different stages of everyone's life, but it is important to know what you are uploading, how you are "advertising" yourself, and more importantly, who can see your content. I read a story a while back about a girl (her identity was concealed) updating a Facebook status that talked bad about her boss and said some nasty things. Turned out that her boss was her "friend" on Facebook and could see the post and commented on the status telling her not to "bother coming in tomorrow" and fired her via Facebook.We need to learn from this girl and be more aware of how we are presenting ourselves to the public because you never really know who is looking.

Hello, I'm a Laptop

"Hello, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC." Ring a bell? Most of us can hear or read this simple quote and know exactly what it refers to. The seemingly never-ending debate between Mac and PC over who is the ruler of the virtual world is still at large. Both brands have seeded loyalists that will vigorously argue for their respective brands, while the majority of consumers, as it seems to me, have been on the fence. Here is a compilation of the 15 "Mac vs. PC" commercials that have since been discontinued, but were used to fuel the debate over the past few years:

 

 

Can you tell who ran these commercials? Yup, yuou guessed it:  Apple. These commercials always got my attention because they are so simple and so ordinary, but they make a huge statement. The characters are perfectly utilized to get the point across. PC is depicted by and older, more formal (and maybe less fun) man, while Mac is represented by a smoother talking, more personable, younger man. They simply stand there and rattle off all of the features that they have and somehow, the PC always gets shut down. Mac takes pride in marketing themselves and fun, energetic, and make it known that (as seen in the ads) they are perfect for anyone's "lifestyle," while PC performs more of a functional and business-related task.

 

During the time that these commercials aired, when it came to laptop and personal computer sales, Mac was getting destroyed by PC. Horace Dediu of Asymco recently stated that,"in 2011, Microsoft's PC desktops and laptops outsold Apple's Macs by a less-than 20-to-1 ratio." While this may seem like a huge margin still, it is significantly more narrow, however, than it has been since 1985 when Mac was released. The article that I read states that PC sales are still growing fairly rapidly, its just that Mac sales are growing faster. This statistic arises from Mac's ability to market their product more effectively and with more appeal to the target audience than PC does. Today's consumers want more concise, more portable, and more customizable products in their hands and Mac has been delivering just that. PC has been holding on the the throne but Mac is coming to, and will, knock them off. It is just a matter of time. And since the PC in the commercial said it has a clock, he can just sit there and watch it tick.

 

 

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-05/tech/tech_gaming-gadgets_mac-vs-pc-graph_1_microsoft-s-pc-windows-mobile-devices?_s=PM:TECH

Prices for Super Bowl Ads Have No Limits

According to Nielsen Company, over 111 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl in February, 2012. That is nearly one third of our entire country! As a big football and entertainment fan, I find it somewhat comical that most of those viewers are only watching the game for reasons other than the sport:  the commercials. Every year, people rant and rave about what new commercials companies like Coca-Cola, Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet will come up with. Then for weeks after the game's conclusion, like some wacky game show, everyone loves to play "rank the commercials." Personally, I have seen heated arguments and even physical altercations over which Super Bowl commercial was the best. Ridiculous? I'll let you be the judge of that. It seems to me that if I was a player in the Super Bowl and wanted the whole world to know my name, I'd almost rather be in one of the commercials than in the game itself. Okay, maybe that is a slight stretch of the truth, but how far of a stretch is it?

In 2012, the average price for one of these ads was 3.5 million dollars. For those of you that have trouble with division, that is roughly 117,000 dollars per second. Chris Smith, a writer for Forbes Magazine, wrote an article that stated that the rates for a 30-second Super Bowl ad could as much as double in the next decade. The return on investment for these companies that are spending that kind of money for a Super Bowl advertisement must me incredible. Now, I am aware that for a company such as Coca-Cola, 3.5 million dollars means absolutely nothing to them in the broad spectrum of their annual earnings. That is not what amazes me. It just seems to me that no matter how high the prices soar for a Super Bowl commercial, there will always be the powerhouse companies that are there waiting to pay it. So where is it going to stop?

With the number of Super Bowl viewers expected to increase each year, it only makes sense that the prices for advertising will also increase. Even a marketing major at Virginia Tech can make that connection. And within the next few years, the Super Bowl will also be streamed online for the first time, therefore increasing the audience and yes, you guessed it, further increasing the cost of advertising. It's an fast-paced, ongoing cycle that shows no sign of pacing itself in the near future. So prepare the chips and dip, chill the beer, enjoy the game, enjoy the commercials, and be glad that you aren't the one signing the checks to advertise your company during the Super Bowl.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/02/01/super-bowl-ad-rates-can-double-within-ten-years/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703507804576130502068719070.html

Should Progressive Change the 'Flo' of Their Ads?

        Over the past few weeks I have been watching television and have been sucked into many commercials that, well, sucked. It is the same thing over and over again. Each set of commercials typically features the same companies and concepts:  Geico, some irrelevant law firm with cheesy stories about how they can get you millions, video games, upcoming movies, etc. The company that I am most annoyed with, however, is Progressive and their "Flo" campaign. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am at the end of the road with these commercials. When they first came out, they were silly and had simple and humerous dialogue but lately they have just gone over the edge. Take a look at their newest commercial, for example, and see what your reaction is:

 





        Hmmmm. That's a rough one. If you were left sitting there scratching your head with a look of confusion, you're not alone. Sure it starts off great when Flo is naming all of the possible discounts that a Progressive customer could but then it quickly takes a turn in a different and altogether weird direction. She then starts rambling about chipmunks and squirrels, which in my opinion, throws the whole commercial down the drain. I lost complete ability to recall what she had said about the actual service of the company. The idea of a commercial is to provide entertainment but also for the consumer to be able to recall it and use the product or service. Right? It is not just this commercial that turned me away from Progressive, it has been a long process of bad commercials mixed with the somewhat annoying personality of Flo that makes me change the channel when any of these commercials come on. I personally think, if you cannot already tell, that Progressive needs to start going in a different direction with their ads. Flo had a good run, but the wearout of this concept is rapidly approaching, if it's not in fact already here.

 

Beware: Fine Print Ahead

Reading glasses? Check. Sitting one foot from the TV screen? Check. Being able to read 100 words per minute? Check. These are just a few things that you will need and need to do in order to obtain all of the necessary information in today's commercials. To the untrained eye of the majority of consumers, all commercials that are selling us new and improved products seem genuine and straightforward. Really? I beg to differ.

 

This is one ad in a series of commercials that Ally Bank launched a few years ago. It uses kids to represent the bank's customers and the man is meant to represent most other banks that may have hidden fees or other important information that it keeps from its prospective customers. The art of using fine print is more popular than ever before it seems. Chances are that we have all seen a commercial or ad with this fine print hidden at the bottom of the screen and some of this print can be as long as a paragraph or two:  impossible for any human to read and comprehend in the short seconds that it is shown on the screen. There is also the situation in which someone in the reads the fine print and details to you but they sound like a spanish soccer (or futbol) play by play announcer! By the time the commercial ends, you are left dumbfounded and trying to recall a single word that was said.

Humor and imagery seem to be what people remember most about commercials but is that what we really need to be paying attention to? In the Ally Bank case above, the kid just simply wanted to play with the real truck (the product that was probably in the commercial that HE saw). But instead, the man so kindly reminded him of the small print that the boy's truck was just a limited time offer, something that the advertisement strategically left out. What I am trying to say through all of this is that we as consumers, in my opinion, tend to get carried away with what is directly advertised to us, whether is be fancy commercials or print ads that have a strong aesthetic appeal. Instead, we need to be more responsible and intelligent consumers and just simply keep in mind that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is. Go the extra mile to uncover the details before you so helplessly get consumed by an ad or offer.




* If you are reading this, good job! You passed your first test in being a better consumer