aspire to enquire

What Jo Walters thinks about marketing and advertising

Your name: Jo Walters
Your location: Brighton
What you do for a living: Social media, webby geek things & research for a Students' Union
How you know me – if you do:  We got involved in the Students' Union as students then persuaded people to vote for us to become full-time elected officers

Q1: What do you think about advertising?
A1:  I'm not as sceptical/terrified/angry about it as some of the people I know who think advertising = bad. I've studied advertising (and more broadly, marketing) which I guess gives me a different way of looking at things sometimes (though I'm not always sure how entirely useful that is). It is something I use in my work, it's something I get value from in life.

Q2: Which ads have you liked recently? Why?
A2: Totally loved the Cravendale thumb cats ad (sent it to friends, blogged about it, 'liked' it on Facebook). It was a bit silly, well made and featured cats. It had good social media stuff in place to which extended its value and lifespan. Talking of things going 'viral', after hearing about it loads online I finally watched the Old Spice 'the man your man could smell like' ad recently which I thought was great and also the sort of ad you could watch a few times without getting bored of it.

Q3: Can you remember any ads from the past? Which?
A3: I always wanted to be the first female Milky Bar kid... I remember when the Levis ads were really popular and everyone waited to see what they'd come up with next. I liked the Mac vs PC ads (mostly because I'd love to have/be a Mac but have/am a PC!)

Q4: In a sentence, and without googling!, describe what you think a brand is.
A4: How people perceive something so a person/company/organisation can have a brand. People think they control what their brand is but they can't, e.g. an electricity company might thin their brand conveys friendly, down to earth values but bad customer service can create all sorts of other (negative) associations with their brand for a customer. That is two sentences, I'm a rebel. 

Q5: Which brands are you loyal to, or passionate about now? Why?
A5: Maybe it's not the exact question you asked but I'm really into handmade stuff and sites like Folksy & Etsy at the mo. Maybe it is more about being passionate about an approach and some sort of pseudo authenticity (and being a bit of a hipster). Generally I'm quite fickle and go for what I see as the best value but there are some that have a personality I like, most recently I've spotted Pieminister.

Q6: When was the last time you took advantage of an offer? Who and why?
A6: I sometimes use supermarket vouchers. My local Sainsburys prints vouchers after most transactions and I've noticed these are definitely more tailored to me than they used to be (linked to my Nectar card which tracks my previous purchases). In the past they've been rather random but the last three were for money off products I buy regularly. I also use vouchers from them and the Co-Operative for money off transactions over a particular amount though as I'm a frequent shopper but for low value transactions I don't often reach their thresholds 

Q7: Do you think advertising and marketing is good for society?
A7: I think it can do great things such as charity advertising. I find the examples given in the book Nudge (and accompanying blog) fascinating as they try to use advertising and marketing to influence behaviour (in what they see as positive ways). I think marketing, in terms of understanding your customer and trying to make them happy, is a good thing. I don't think they're inherently good or bad things, it depends on the context.

Q8: Do you think advertising helps sway your opinion on whether to buy something or not?
A8: Definitely. Sometimes consciously, I might remember an advert for a product I want to try, and I imagine sometimes unconsciously.

Q9: If you worked in advertising, how would you do things differently?
A9: This is quite an uninformed observation but it sometimes seems like 'advertising', in the big agency sort of sense, isn't particularly diverse in terms of the people within it, e.g. largely middle class, white folks. Considering the population of the UK is increasingly diverse I wonder how many different viewpoints are being considered when creating advertising strategies. I don't know how I'd fix that in a meaningful rather than tokenistic point of view.

Q10: Would you like to ask the advertising industry any questions? 
A10: How much of what you do do you think is art and how much is science? Also, please will you make more adverts with cats in

What my mum thinks about marketing and advertising

Your name:  Annabelle Harle 
Your age: 60
Your location: Cardiff
What you do for a living: I am retired but I am still a political campaigner
How you know me – if you do:  I am your mother

Q1: What do you think about advertising?

A1:  I guess it is necessary, but I don’t think it adds to a general sense of wellbeing. Good adverts however can be cheering.

Q2: Which ads have you liked recently? Why?
A2: I like the meerkats. They have joined the mainstream – there is a lorry parked near my house with a billboard saying  “ Ignore ordinary meerkats markets come to Splott Market every Sunday “. I liked the IKEA cat advert with the online competition where you guessed which bit of furniture a cat would choose. I liked the Honda ad with the dismembered car, and the car made out of cake – was that Skoda? There was another Honda one with pretty graphics I recall.

Q3: Can you remember any ads from the past? Which?
A3:   I remember the Esso Tiger in the Tank campaign when you could get tigertails to put on your pencilcase, and the Esso man too, and Flat Eric – but the meerkats have taken it further, with their backstory – having the website makes it easier of course. I can also remember “we’re going well, we’re going Shell”, “you’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent”,  Also Murraymints, murraymints the too good to hurry mints … Ferrero Rocher – Ambassdador you are spoiling us etc and Cointreau – the ice melts. Cinzano with Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins . For mash get Smash with the martians.  Renault – Papa and Nicole. That’s probably enough …

Q4: In a sentence, and without googling!, describe what you think a brand is.
A4: an identifying tag linking a product to its producer, and imbuing it with qualities or characteristics known to be associated with that producer.
 
Q5: Which brands are you loyal to, or passionate about now? Why?
A5:  Lush – good quality ethically-produced “smellies”. I love the stuff and I admire the people behind it. Marks and Spencer – undies that can be relied on to last. Innocent – despite their topple from purity their heart is in the right place and their products excellent. Bosch – good quality products, good customer service. The Co-operative – ethical services and profit shared. John Lewis – never knowingly undersold, and a partnership. McVities – best biscuits out. Dulux paint – love the colour mix potential and it lasts. Boots – reliable and good value skincare.

Q6: When was the last time you took advantage of an offer? Who and why?
A6: two packs of mince for £5 in Tesco’s as against £3 each, last week – easy to put one in the freezer 

Q7: Do you think advertising and marketing is good for society?
A7: No, but it’s unavoidable. People need information about products, and manufacturers want people to buyl their products rather than others. It’s the aspirational part that I don’t like – that you aren’t  a proper family if you don’t have what’s being advertised for example.

Q8: Do you think advertising helps sway your opinion on whether to buy something or not?
A8:   Probably, though I try to stop it doing so.

Q9: If you worked in advertising, how would you do things differently?
A9:   I don’t know if I would – advertising is what it is. I think the legislation governing it in Britain is pretty sound, in terms of being legal decent honest and truthful, not tending to corrupt etc . However, I would not counsel BOGOFs or any special offers on alcohol – it is costing too much in illness and misery.

Q10: Would you like to ask the advertising industry any questions?
A10: No thanks ...

 

What Christina Jolliffe thinks about marketing and advertising

The next in the series:

Your name: Christina Jolliffe
Your age: 28
Your location: Cardiff
What you do for a living: Procurement and grants assessor
How you know me – if you do: From school

Q1: What do you think about advertising?
A1: I think it is creative and often entertaining but sometimes deliberately misleading.

Q2: Which ads have you liked recently? Why?
A2: Specsavers. They have good humour but also address their product / service. (Unlike the Cadbury adverts which are fun but have really nothing to do with chocolate).

Q3: Can you remember any ads from the past? Which?
A3: The Scotch vhs tape advert from the 80s, with the skeleton and parrot. ‘Re-record – not fade away’.

Q4: In a sentence, and without googling!, describe what you think a brand is.
A4: I think a brand is the combination of a name, an image, a responsibility and a reputation.

Q5: Which brands are you loyal to, or passionate about now? Why?
A5: Riedell. They make products which are hard wearing and built for purpose. I would expect anything with a Riedell brand to be reliable.

Q6: When was the last time you took advantage of an offer? Who and why?
A6: I quite frequently make use of restaurant food offers (e.g. 2 4 1, 50% off) and am on the mailing list for those that I like, such as Las Iguanas and Belini’s.

Q7: Do you think advertising and marketing is good for society?
A7: It depends upon the object of the advertisement. Consumerist marketing can lead to less careful people being misled, but marketing things such as help and advice will obviously benefit those who don’t know where or how to look.

Q8: Do you think advertising helps sway your opinion on whether to buy something or not?
A8: I don’t think I have ever seen an advert and thought ‘I must buy that now’. However, advertising that has included samples which you can try before you buy, has led to me adopting a few brands, such as Paul Mitchell products.

Q9: If you worked in advertising, how would you do things differently?
A9: I have no idea. I guess that’s why I don’t work in advertising! Ideally, I would only want to promote products or services that I believed in but that doesn’t work in the real world.

Q10: Would you like to ask the advertising industry any questions?
A10: No.

What Alison Czajkowskyj thinks about marketing and advertising

Inspired by Mark Hadfield's series on 'what people think of advertising', I'm going to start asking a few people I know about how they view the industry. Mark's introduction to the series is here.

I've always been really passionate about audience-centred work, but it's quite refreshing to just be able to gather potential insight like this for no immediate commercial purpose.

I think over the long term it will be good to see if we can tease out things like 'what people think of being advertised to' and 'what people think of brands' from these resposnses.

Definitely have a look over at the responses Mark's already collected.

Your name: Alison Czajkowskyj
Your age: 23
Your location: Currently London
What you do for a living: Good question...by trade I am a mixed media textile artist, but to pay the rent, I teach textiles in the OT department of a hospital and also work in a lovely creative shop and gallery in Chelsea.
How you know me – if you do: We met at university where we were both studying creative subjects.