With the tight economy, advertising budgets aren’t the only thing getting un-supersized: houses featured in TV commercials are starting to look like houses you and me live in, rather than millionaires. Advertisers have realized that people that see commercials shot in fancy neighborhoods with electronically gated communities like you see in the MTV show “Cribs” aren’t what people want to see – most people don’t see themselves in that kind of scene. And therefore, they don’t see themselves as being able to afford whatever product is being sold.
So, advertisers have shifted their focus from making their products look exciting and indulgent to sensible and affordable. Most people don’t have the “indulgent” money to spend, so the advertisers’ messages that include the huge mansions and fancy cars are falling on deaf ears.
Right now, those that do have the money to spend don’t want to. They don’t want to flaunt their wares to others who don’t have that luxury. It seems crude when they do. “At times like this, you don’t want to be as conspicuous. It’s really rude,” says Stephen Hoch, professor of marketing and director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Many advertisers are touting value and price over quality these days. Kia Motors, which has always touted value with their cheaply priced new vehicles, claims in recent commercials that their new SUV, the Borrego, is “a new kind of luxury SUV” that’s priced under $27,000.
And Target is including prices for their products in TV ads as well as magazine ads. One ad shows a couple reading the newspaper and enjoying espresso – not in a café – but in their own home, using the espresso maker that only costs $24.99. The words “the new coffee spot” flash across the screen, followed by the espresso maker price. A song proclaiming “This is a brand new day. And it’s getting better every single day” nails in the idea that this is a new consumer era – where people need to cut back on coffee shop trips and pricey hair salon treatments. The commercial shows a woman with gorgeous red hair looking in the mirror at her new color, and the words “the new salon trip” flash across the screen, showing bottled hair color that cost $8.49 – a bargain for any salon trip.
The low-priced brands and the high-priced brands are still doing well in this economy, says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “The brands that will struggle are the brands that ask people to step up, because people are not inspired to do that right now.” The brands in the middle of the pack are losing more customers who decide to take it down a level to more affordable than spend the extra dough to kick up the quality a notch. Macy’s and Target fall into the middle range (although, to me Macy’s is way more expensive than Target, unless something’s on clearance, but I’m cheap anyway!).
I hate to say that advertisers and business owners need to follow suit because I hate to be a copycat, but this is one idea that everyone is flocking to. If you aren’t showing your value these days, you’re just going to lose out to the brand that does.
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