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For most of the twentieth century, advertising was branding. It is still a critical tool for shaping how brands are perceived. James B.Twitchell, in Twenty Ads that Shook the World, describes the Absolut vodka campaign that began in the 1980s, and the effect those ads had on the world's ideas about vodka. The clear, almost flavorless spirit went from being an undistinguished, fairly generic form of alcohol to one of the most desirable, glamourous, and differentiated drink categories, practically overnight. Although he understates the role of product quality (Absolut is purer than other vodkas, and distilled by a slightly different process from most other brands), Twitchell rightly attributes the brand's success to its triumph in advertising and packaging. Print Brands that are advertised in print media (such as magazines and newspapers) can make certain assumptions about the people seeing the ads. With the long-term trend away from general-interest publications and toward niche titles, it is possible to focus an ad very carefully on a small group of people with a high degree of interest in one subject. For example, a maker of kayaks can place an ad in Sea Kayaker magazine (or one of several competing titles) to reach precisely the sort of people who might react to the ad by buying a kayak in the near future. What isn't necessarily known is how much time each reader spends looking at an ad, or whether seeing an ad results in the reader buying a product soon, or having a more favorable opinion of the brand in the future. For this reason, advertisers are constantly testing audiences to see if they have noticed particular ads, and if so, what their impression of the brand was. As well as trying to reach a particular market segment, each brand forms an association with the brand of the magazine or newspaper in which the ad appears: Canon advertises its cameras in National Geographic magazine; Jack Daniels advertises in Playboy; Macy's in The New York Times. The reputation of each title affects how readers perceive the brands in the ads too. Broadcast Once upon a time, advertising on TV was the best way to guarantee big success for your brand. It was expensive, but you could reach millions of potential customers in 30 seconds, with a powerfully persuasive message. The aura of the tube was such that any brand seen on TV gained instant cachet as a market leader. Those days are gone: for one thing, alternatives such as the web compete for attention, and for another, people don't watch TV like they used to. They watch cable or satellite "on demand." They record programs and skip the commercials. They click on streaming web videos. They buy their favorite shows on DVD. As TV has become more fractured, it has followed the trend in magazines toward niche audiences, allowing brands to focus on more specific groups of viewers. TV advertising—whether the classic 30-second spot or the 30-minute infomercial—is certainly not about to disappear. Outdoor There is something at once appalling and appealing about a large billboard. The billboard is a primitive medium, passive and indiscriminate, and yet these gigantic posters, aspiring on some level to public art, a space-age legacy of ancient cave paintings, inevitably inspire awe and command our attention. The cleverest billboards take into account the context of their placement. Whether in a London tube station or on a Californian freeway, they can make sly inferences about the people looking at them, and say something knowing about how the brands they hawk can fit into the lifestyles of their viewers. Direct mail Ever since David Ogilvy proved the efficacy of direct mail, with penny postcards advertising a local hotel, our mailboxes (and more recently our e-mail inboxes) have been flooded with junk mail. Direct mail takes advantage of the fact that most of us still think of our mailboxes as a personal space through which our friends and families communicate with us. We tend to be receptive to any message arriving there. Mailers and spammers consider even tiny response rates successful. Perhaps surprisingly, direct mail will work for almost any brand. Although most "junk mail" is perceived as common, if the item being mailed is fancy enough, and sent to the right people, it can succeed at selling luxury items. Some direct-mail pieces are elaborate and expensive, and very effective. Web Web advertising, which started out with simple banners, is now run by highly sophisticated software that conjures a miniature, full-featured website within the banner itself. Web advertising not only plays video and animation, interacts with viewers, provides customized content, and gathers information about viewers, it also bills advertisers based on such things as how many telephone inquiries or purchases result from the ad. Web advertising offers extraordinary opportunities for creating fuller brand experiences. The most effective come from combining the web with another medium— or the product itself—to drive viewers in a happy circle from web to store to product and back to web for follow-up that may include customer care or a better way to use the product. Wearable For some reason, people seem to enjoy wearing logos on their T-shirts, caps, and jackets. They act as free, walking billboards for the logos' owners, on top of generating sales revenue for them. Many writers have explored the sociology from the wearer's side, looking at how having a logo emblazoned on your chest/ back/head gives you a sense of belonging, an association with a glamourous brand, or a way to identify yourself through your own conspicuous consumption. What fewer people have looked at is how wearable advertising affects brands. Seeing an unwashed slob in an Emporio Armani shirt doesn't do much to raise the perception of that brand. Shouldn't Armani be more careful about who they sell their shirts to? In fact, fashion brands do take care by setting the retail price of the clothing item at a level that's meant to function selectively. Non-clothing brands, from Budweiser to T-Mobile to Caterpillar, have less control because they're more likely to be giving the items away.
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