Gesult & Experiments 17-10-08

Experiments
In a group of three, we decided to create a taste test using Coke as our starting point. Coke has many different brands but we wanted to know if consumers could actually tell the difference between each of them. Using Coke, Coke Zero and Diet Coke, we asked three different people to try and see what they thought was what. In Cup 1 was Coke, Cup 2 Zero and Cup 3 Diet. Two of the three people got them all correct and the other only got the Zero and Diet mixed up. These are the two which I thought would be mixed up due to them both being the healthier option of Coke. Once completing this experiment I could see what we should have done better to make the experiment more complicated and have different stages. If I was to continue with this idea I would develop it by using visual aids to see if they would make a difference to what Coke they preferred. Using Pepsi compared to Coke, could have been much more of a difficult challenge to determine the difference as most people say they prefer Coke but in blind tests they actually choose Pepsi.




Another group looked at sense of smell as a test using perfumes to determine if they could tell the difference between brands and different sex perfumes. Using two expensive brands of perfume both men and women, Dior and Channel are two well known brands which also have huge advert campaign running alongside. These brands are well known so would have their loyal customers rather than choosing their favourite. When undertaking the test we found that no-one could tell the difference between the male and females perfumes. To develop this test, the group could get the participants to choose there favourite by looking at the brand campaigns and choose what smell went with what brand. This way the group see how influenced they would be by the advert campaigns and the brands status.

Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt psychology looks at the way in which humans think. Relating to advertisements Gestalt looks at the suggestion that there is a rule book in the way an audience will structure their perceptions.
Gestalt has four primary approaches;

• Figure and ground
  The figure is the element that captures attention, background is largely undifferentiated.
  Below in an image of an old lady and a lady with her back to the audience. Can you see them both? Once they have been noticed it becomes easily recognisable but first they can be tricky to find.
  



• Grouping (Proximity and Similarity)
  Genially objects with similar physical characteristics are places together.
  Beauty products and health brands stick to certain colours and shaped bottles.
  


• Closure
  When the brain sees an incomplete picture it will automatically fill in the gaps.
  When a few notes are played, the audience can remember the whole jingle. Theme tunes for well known Television programs and songs are often remembered.

• Stimulus Ambiguity
  When a stimulus does not correspond to an immediately recognisable shape or form.
  In the 1970s, Saatchi and Saatchi created an advert using Stimulus ambiguity. This was able to be affective as it would make audience members look twice at the pregnant man.

Perception is important for advertisers as it makes a deeper understanding of how the audience may react to an image/campaign and what limits can be pushed to get the brand known. Marketers look at perception and it is important for them to know how audience members would react and where it would get the most out of the audience members.

At the end of each blog I will be posting an advert, as this is the area I want to go into. The advert will range from over the past decade and may have been banned. They are just a few that I have found and wanted to share as I think they have used different advertising techniques extremely well. To start is an advert created by Pepsi. I found this advert funny due to the way in which Pepsi down graded Coke making them look like an awful brand. This advert was banned.

Perception 10-10-08

‘Perception is the process of sensing, selecting and interpreting consumer stimuli in the external world.’ (Wilkie, 1994)
Using all of the 5 human senses we, as humans, automatically perceive something when it is first noticed or identified. Sight is the most commonly used sense as by looking at an object many different aspects can be seen. When consumers use more than one sense more of an interaction can be made developing a relationship. An example of this involves customers at a department store. Clothes are now regularly place on a shelf where the customer now, not only sees the object, but touches it, interacting with the product and developing a relationship. Now they have touched it they may not like the colour but they could enjoy the texture of the product allowing them to look at it in a different colour.
Adverts need to have a specific target audience as different types of people want different things. The main difference is between the two sexes. Men prefer simpler and easy to understand adverts, these adverts will not have much detail within them but use mainly dark colours and images to get the point across. Guinness is a perfect example as the product is easily visible with dark colours to make it look more manly.
Women are the complete opposite; their adverts consist of detailed images and copy. This makes them read what the advert is about as they benefit from the complicity.
Sound can play a huge part within an advert, either making or breaking it. Different pieces of music can make an advert more appealing to a target audience but then a different piece of music can persuade a different target audience. The music/sound needs to make the audience want to buy the product and different pieces of music will make the audience think a certain way. An example of this is Sam Sparrow's 'Black and Gold,' the introduction of this makes me feel energetic and want to move. I found that this could be used on an energy drink advert to show energy, making audience member think of memories that they had to this song, often in a club or with friends. Herbal essences uses sound within advert campaigns so that people can remember their adverts. The following advert uses 3 different senses. Visual as the audience can see her using the shampoo, Sound as the audience can hear her enjoying the experience and touch as it is visible she is touching her hair.

Advertisers can use the sense touch for their clients campaign. When men look at roughness they value it as positive where as women have a posivite reactions to smoothness. This Dove advert demonstrates this enabling the audience to see the soft bubbles and the models hands touching her face.

To incorporate smell into still images, photos of objects that have a strong scents are photographed. To the left, is an example of a perfume which has a lily holding it giving the impression that the perfume has a strong scent like a Lily. By using smell it enables the audience to relate and this enables viewers to relate to the smell.

The final sense is taste, this can be shown by actress/actors eating the actually chocolate. Galaxy have been using this technique when adverting. The following video shows the way Galaxy makes the actress eat the chocolate giving the impression that she is getting a sensation from it and it wont make you fat.

During today’s lecture I have seen how different aspects of our own lives can decide how we think and how these adverts can use our senses to involve the audience with the product.

Impressions - 3.10.08

Impressions are an important part of our everyday assumptions. By a way of acting and fashion, an individual gives off a different vibe to each passer-by. These first initial moments can be crucial depending on who you are trying to impress. Employers will judge an interviewee within the first 7 seconds of them walking into the room. We judge people on the way they look by not even realising it. When walking down the road of a dark night and young group of teenagers walk by, the instant reaction is worry. This is due to stereotypical views given through the media.

Impressions are made on a face to face basis but ideas of people personalities can be investigated by different possessions that they own. Belk’s theory believed that our possessions give detail into our personalities. 'We are what we have.' This can be experimented by a group bringing in a personal possession, not seeing each others object, choosing and discussing what they think the person is like. After doing this in the Lecture, this enabled me to see the way in which stereotypes and personal experiences come into place. If a teddy is brought in, it is automatically thought to be a female owner and a toy car a male. These typical stereotypes then develop either into the correct personality or the wrong one. An example of personal experience, a belt was brought in and due to having a younger brother who would have worn this belt and is quite into fashion I assumed the person would also be, this not being the case.

I am expecting the course to give me greater detail of why customers think a certain way when a certain image is shown to them. This would then allow me to develop in my advertising skills to show them what I want them to think.

Right, so this was my first blog ever and I’m sure to be updating it every week about the fun lectures I will be attending over the next year.