Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA21080 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 10 May 2000 15:00:09 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB16F@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: a memetic experiment- an eIe opener Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 14:58:13 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Sorry, have I understood you correctly, that an advert for beer was aimed at
children? Why? I hope I'm not being too naive here, how does targeting kids
help a beer sell? I mean, OK, as with tobacco advertising, you're possibly
building a future market, but what about immediate sales?
I'd like to know exactly what study you're referring to, because what
interests me is the extent of non-attention to advertisments, and how that
is perceived as being related to purchasing. In several famous political
studies between the 1940s and 1960s (From Berelson et al, 1944, to Blumler &
McQuail, 1968), the largest sign of effects of political coverage of
election campaigns occured amongst the least interested and highest avoiders
of media coverage. The problem is that taking this argument to its logical
extreme is ridiculous, becuase it suggests that those who hid down a mine
not reading a paper, listening to a radio or watch TV were those most likely
to be influenced by the media. [Incidentally for everyone else who did pay
attention to the media coverage, study after study has shown that prior
partisanship, education, occupation etc. have statistically significant
influences on voting behaviour whereas the media have none]. The study
you're citing seems to me, without being able to closely asess the exact
content, the same basic flaw. Were the people who took least in from the
adverts the ones who bought most? What about the people who could remember
everything from the ads- did they buy more? If advertising "works" then
they should. Why did people buy the products, or rather what reasons did
they give?
Of course advertisers are going to argue that it doesn't matter if the
particular slogan the client has spent hundreds of thousands on isn't
remembered by target audiences, or mis-remembered as belonging to another
brand because people will still buy the product. Well, people will still
buy the product out of your favourite motive- utility. Branding is
important, because you don't want someone seeing your ad, it making them
want to buy a beer or whatever, but then on their way to the bar they forget
whihc brand and buy a competitor's brand.
The daughter of a colleague of mine works in the marketing/PR section for
Coca-Cola. Apparently (you is the US may have heard about this more than
those in the UK), there was a recent scandal in Latin America over apparent
plans for 'smart' drinks machines, which would monitor the temperature, and
alter the price of the cans dispensed, relative to the heat outside. The
furore in Latin America was, of course, that it's frequently hotter in parts
of Central and Southern America than in North America, or Europe, so Coke
would cost them more. Yet the principle is a smart one, because people are
more likely to want a cold drink, even one from that coroprate monster that
is Coca-Cola, when it's very hot.
Availabilty and price are undoubtedly significantly more important factors
in product purchasing than advertising. My view is that advertising, and
the amounts of money spent on it are very clear memes- reproduce me they
"say", and we do it- we remember slogans of product we don't need, we can't
afford, and will never buy. It's the slogans that get passed on, the memes.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Chuck Palson
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 9:04 am
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: a memetic experiment- an eIe opener
>
>
>
> Vincent Campbell wrote:
>
> > recognising jingles has got absolutely nothing to do with buying
> products,
> > and everything to do with recognising jingles!
>
> All joking aside, don't forget that I didn't remember the jingles after
> 20-30
> years, and I am not a smoker. But more important, you are ignoring the
> main
> point of the study on the relationship of buying habits to advertisements:
> advertising DID lead to buying - it was just that people could not
> VERBALLY
> associate the advertising with it. In other words, it wasn't important to
> do
> this, so they didn't. The brain, after all, is separated into modules (as
> studies in psycholinguistics shows), and there would not necessarily be a
> reason to have to tell someone else about the product you have decided to
> buy
> due to some advertising.
>
> > A more recent example would be the Budweiser ad with the frogs- Very
> > memorable, but did it really make people buy more Budweiser? Or, more
> > specifically, did it make people who don't drink, indeed have never
> drunk,
> > Budweiser, drink it?
> >
>
> Again - there is no way to know without following people around. But given
> that
> the frogs were aimed at children, and the children got a big kick out of
> them, I
> would guess that it did indeed have an effect. REmember that kids were far
> more
> likely to remember Joe Camel than Ronald Macdonald -- which was the
> original
> impetus for attacking cigarette companies. (in this case, you can use
> their
> ability to remember as a comparative measure).
>
> >
> > > ----------
> > > From: Bruce Jones
> > > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2000 10:52 pm
> > > To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> > > Subject: RE: a memetic experiment- an eIe opener
> > >
> > > Could be .... but:
> > >
> > > Name that product:
> > >
> > > " ......... Tastes good like a .......... should"
> > > "See the USA in your ................"
> > > "Fresh from the valley of the Jolly 'Ho! Ho! Ho!
> ....................."
> > > "I'd like to give the world a ......... To keep it Company"
> > > "Listening to the voice of their master."
> > > "I like ....."
> > >
> > > And so on and so forth ... each is product specific.
> > >
> > > Bruce
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Wade T.Smith [SMTP:wade_smith@harvard.edu]
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 3:37 PM
> > > > To: memetics list
> > > > Subject: Re: a memetic experiment- an eIe opener
> > > >
> > > > On 05/09/00 11:04, Chuck Palson said this-
> > > >
> > > > >But perhaps they were blind people just listening to TV.
> > > >
> > > > I thought, _almost_ an assumption, that jingles and stuff, while
> > > > memorable in their own right, had nevertheless only a mild to
> > > > non-existent brand identification.
> > > >
> > > > - Wade
> > > >
> > > > ===============================================================
> > > > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> > > > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information
> Transmission
> > > > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> > > > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
> > >
> > > ===============================================================
> > > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> > > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> > > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> > > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
> > >
> >
> > ===============================================================
> > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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