Blog 5

First word: RADIO

Radio is an entertainment object. It has everything from music to talk show segments to information commercials. The radio has been around longer than the television and has lost its popularity due to TV and recently iPods. There was originally just the AM band, whose signal could reach stretches of geographical lands but the trade-off was sound quality. The FM band was later discovered and this band had a great increase in sound quality and here the trade-off was range. Until recently those were the only two bands available on radio. The introduction of the new satellite radio combined both sound quality and vast range. With satellite radio there is the drawback that one has to pay a fee in order to listen to the radio. FM and AM bands would receive their funds through advertisements; satellite radio had no advertisements but still needs to produce revenue, hence the subscription fee. There is also the introduction of HD Radio, which claims to have found a hidden band beyond FM and has no subscription fee.

As far as the product itself, it has come a long way since its earlier product design. Radios are both portable and fixed these days. They are also much more than just radios, they have CD slots and iPod docks for further music enjoyment. They also serve as alarm clocks to start your day off. They have increased their practicality and user-friendly options with programmable settings and volume control and volume boosting functions.

Second word: MIRROR

A mirror is a reflective object. It is usually placed in a restroom, bedroom, or living space. People use it for its grooming attributes. I have also seen mirrors that have a built in television monitor in them so that you can keep up with the game or what have you. Mirrors can be small or big as well as fixed or mobile. Mirrors are found on transportation vehicles for safety.

List:

1)      Mirror with a built in radio. The mirror would have a side panel where you have the same buttons on any other radio. The buttons would be touch sensitive and water resistant, with built in speakers on all four corners.

2)      Compact mirror that doubles as a radio with headphone jacks.

3)      A radio with a reflective side panel that serves as a solar powered energy source.

4)      A mirror shaped as a radio, etched with knobs and colored in.

5)      A stain glass designed radio (not really a mirror).

6)      A radio with digital clock display, whose numbers are mirror pieces.

7)      A radio with a mirrored touch screen panel.

8)      A radio with wireless speakers that have mirrored faces.

9)      A shower mirror with built in radio.

10)  A mirror with built in radio with decorative design on the mirror, more for a living space location.

One viable product is the mirror with a touch panel and built in speakers. There is a product like that already exists in fact. The compact mirror with a built in radio could exist it’s very possible. A radio with a reflective side that serves a solar power energy source could exist, although it would need an alternative energy source because what if through the night it fails and one misses the alarm. The decorative stain glass radio and radio etched with design and color could very well already exist. The radio whose digital clock is made of mirror pieces could exist but it might be break with the movement of the analogs, make them shatter resistant. A radio with a mirrored touch screen panel is a real option. A radio with wireless speakers that act as mirrors also could work, they need to be plugged in to an electrical outlet. The shower mirror already exists. A decorative mirror with a built in radio could be done.

Blog 4

Axe: The Axe Effect

People buy products for various reasons. The most logical reason we buy products is to satisfy our most basic needs such as food, shelter, and health. The larger reason we buy products is to complete the missing gap in who we are and who want to be. We have been taught to believe that we are incomplete and unable to become that which we want to be without certain products. Now that being said, all advertising plays on this to a certain degree: you want to jump higher and run faster, buy Nike; you want to be envied and stand out from the others buy an Audi; you want to attract girls and make them uncontrollably attracted to you buy Axe.

Since hitting the US market in 2002, Axe has taken the anti-perspirant and deodorant market by storm. Axe has reinvented body spray with a refreshing and entertaining marketing campaign aimed at 18-24 year old males. With the help of ads that are aimed at men’s eagerness to attract women, Axe continuously refreshes their perspective on the mating game. (Business Wire)

The ads unveiled by Axe are, in all honesty, funny to some and offensive to others. They are funny to exactly who they are aimed towards: men. They do not have to appeal to everyone because Axe is not targeted to everyone. Certain women do find the advertisements to be offensive and crude. They do portray the male as the more coveted one while women are an item at his beckon call who have merely their sexuality to offer men and if he chooses to, he could go through women as quickly as he wants. However, another interesting point is that women do buy this product for their partners. Perhaps the advertising is not so crude and offensive and in fact when already in a stable relationship, the women do like to use their sexuality in a different way or perhaps they just like the way it leaves their partner smelling.

Axe has capitalized on the old advertising strategy – Sex Sells. But if this is a well known advertising strategy why didn’t Old Spice or Degree rush to market first with this marketing campaign. It could have been any number of reasons including:

-Different Target Market

-Set in marketing campaign

-Didn’t predict a market shift

Any of these could have been a reason why the competitors did not act while Axe did. Axe saw a new way to advertise body spray and deodorants and it paid off well for them as they became the industry leader in both categories. Axe has created something simple, general hygiene, and transformed it in to a channel with the potential for acquiring more female mates for men. Sex does sell and Axe has proven that with body spray and a good marketing campaign (let’s not forget that).

As I mentioned before, advertisements are aimed at helping consumers attain that certain aspiration that they long for, even if it is the advertisers who create that false sense of need. Axe saw that male users would associate scent with increased likelihood of sex and they focused their campaigns around it. These advertisements focused on the link between what males are and who they wish to become. The large population of males between 18-24 are constantly looking for a partner and wish they could chased by several females at any given time. In society, the more partners a male has the better it is and more of a man it makes him. Axe has given him the golden ticket to transform in to what he wants to be - irresistible to females. The axe effect has undeniably led 18-24 males think that Axe is the missing piece between who most men are and what most men are capable of becoming.

Link for Business Wire:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_April_18/ai_n27205464/?tag=content;col1