Paid Attention by Faris Yakob gives us an insight into the origins of advertising and how it is changing with the development of technology. Nowadays, consumers are surrounded by advertisements and different commercial content, which make them more reluctant to pay attention to them. Therefore, the main goal of today’s advertising is to capture the consumer’s attention, which is the most valuable resource. Faris Yakob states than it is becoming more difficult every time to complete that task since commercial content is constantly bombarding consumers and as a result, they choose to skip that content if they have the option.

He claims that the problem with traditional advertising models is that they focus on the transmission of messages to consumers. That’s the main reason why they no longer work. Consumers’ minds and their perception of advertising have changed within the years, as well as their reaction to brand content. The main message that Faris Yakob wants to give us with his book is that attention is now the most important resource and marketers should adjust to this change in order to create successful advertising. 

This book provides a guide on how to face those changes and become more efficient in the modern advertising industry. He discusses three main points that can be applied to an Integrated Marketing Campaign and they will help marketers make it better. 

1. Connect with your customers personally and make them happy

As it was said at the beginning of this blog post, it is becoming harder to catch the attention of the consumers since they are constantly seeing promotional content that they did not ask for. If you want to connect with your customers, you need to create an interaction with them, not only providing them with information about a certain product or service but also showing them that it is worthy and it is going to benefit them somehow. 

Faris Yakob makes clear that smaller actions that make real people happy in the real world can also be very effective at generating attention. He provided us with the example of Coca-Cola. The company wanted to give its customers something that would spread a bit of happiness and something that we would be able to share with their friends. To do so, they installed a vending machine on a college campus which would give the students surprise gifts every time they got a coke. Check the video below to see their reaction to this act of happiness:

With this campaign, the company not only made consumers happy but also their innovative idea was shared between the community. As the author of the book said, we must remember that consumers have better things to do than engage with brands, unless we give them a good reason to do so. 

2. Use emotion to reach consumers

In today’s media world consumers have too many choices to pay attention to and even if they try to be rational, they tend to pick a brand to which they are emotionally connected. Therefore, emotions play an important role in the selection process.  

Faris denominate them the “lubricants of reason” because we can’t think without them. This takes us to the conclusion that consumers are seeking emotional communion and emotion in general leads to transmission. Consequently, the brand content will be better shared by consumers if it requires mental accommodation, forcing them to view the world in a different way.

3. Offer value in exchange for consumer’s attention

In the first point, we talked about the importance of connecting with your consumers to understand their needs and problems, and maintaining good communication is the way to do so. Traditional approaches will give the consumer a few options to choose from and they will focus on the transmission of their marketing messages. However, we mentioned earlier in the second point, that our decision-making process is driven by emotion. This means that we cannot give consumers just marketing messages and let them decide about a product. If they are going to give up value in the form of time and cognition (attention), then we must give them something too. Otherwise, there would be an unbalanced value exchange.

In conclusion, communication in the connected age needs to deliver value as well as messaging. This balances out the value exchange, making the communicative interaction equitable. Since it is delivering value, consumers will not avoid it and it will engender empathy for the brand, not resentment.

Many brands have already begun to deliver value to their consumers and a great example of this is Red Bull. The company created several long-running platforms to foster and celebrate the creativity of others. One of them is the Art of Can exhibition, which is an art contest that has run every year for a decade. It asks people to create works of art using the Red Bull can as the medium. The winning entries are displayed at exhibitions all over the world and online.

Top takeaway from Paid Attention

In today’s media, authenticity and good content are crucial to the success of a brand. Regarding how hard it is for a brand to get the attention of consumers it is necessary that the marketing content they are offering is authentic and stands out among the rest of the options. The two examples I provided before, the Coca-Cola vending machine experience and the Red Bull Art of Can Exhibition, they are both authentic, creative, and value giving. That’s why the advertising of these brands is very successful. 

Another example that Faris Yakob mentioned in his book and that I found really interesting was Sony’s spot “Balls” announcing their Bravia TV. This was a small creative renaissance in their communication, which made Bravia the world’s bestselling TV and it pushed the company back to profit. Check the commercial below:

As you can see, during the whole commercial there are thousands of balls bouncing gently, in slow motion to an acoustic guitar cover. Researchers had previously found that:

“Televisions advertisements would be most effective if the visual display created repetitive vertical movements of the viewer’s heads.”

This has to do with the way our eyes track motion and for unknown reasons, our attention is more directed by curved emotion than rectilinear emotion.
In my opinion, this is a great example of thinking outside the box and being authentic, which was the main takeaway from the book. 

After reading this blog post about innovative advertising for a digital world, do you think you have the necessary tools to create successful advertising?

REFERENCES

• Yakob, F. (2015). Paid Attention: Innovative advertising for a digital world. London, UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Bass Pro Shop’s targeting strategy

Bass Pro Shop is an American retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor recreation merchandise. The store targets reclusive males outdoorsmen who are looking for great outdoors but they hate shopping. To satisfy this market, the stores are enormous and are packed to the rafters with overhead.

However, they also attract other customers by differentiating from other competitors. The stores are not simple outdoors stores, they have become natural history theme parks for outdoor enthusiasts, and therefore, a place that offers entertainment for everyone. In their stores, customers can find various representations of wildlife, museums, aquariums as well as restaurants with amazing dining experiences. They also have special events that offer demonstrations and activities to keep the customers engaged. Regarding all of these facts, Bass Pro Shop stores definitely provide a truly differentiated experience to the customers.

How did Bass Pro Shop become the nation’s leading outdoor retailer?

Bass Pro Shops have more than 90 retail stores throughout the United States and Canada, and the company reeled in $4.3 billion in revenues last year, making it the nation’s leading outdoor retailer. This growth had been possible thanks to the company’s marketing strategy.

Unlike other retail stores, Bass Pro Shop stores are enormous and they guarantee a product assortment as wide as the Mississippi River and as deep as the Mariana Trench. Since its beginnings, the company has been offering a catalog to the customers. A very important factor that contributed to the company expansion was the development of their own brand called Bass Tracker. Including their own brand in the portfolio of store brands, was beneficial for the company and its customers, since it meant huge savings for these, and the company was able to compete on price with any of its competitors.

Another important growth factor was creating history theme parks in its stores. By offering entertainment services in addition to their actual products, the company has expanded its target market and it has made shopping outdoors goods an enjoyable experience for the whole family. This explains the fact that customers are willing to drive an average than of more than 50 miles to get to a Bass Pro Shop store, despite their often remote locations.

What type of retailer is Bass Pro Shops?

In terms of the major types of retailers, Bass Pro Shops could be classified as specialty store since it carries a narrow product line with a deep assortment (citation book). These stores are focused on specific products, in this case, Bass Pro Shops is specialised in outdoor-related products, including fishing, hunting, camping, outdoor cooking gear, outdoor footwear and apparel, and nature-themed gifts. This type of retailer able to offer a high level of customer service.

Why is Bass Pro Shops succeeding while Cabela’s is floundering?

Cabela is another retailer of outdoor recreation merchandise, which was bought by Bass Pro Shops due to bankruptcy. Cabela had almost as many stores and revenue as Bass Pro Shops, however, the company’s sales and losses declined through the years. This was due to the intense competition from online vendors. Moreover, the company was ranked as number one “Most Troubled Retail Store” by Forbes in February 2015. http:// https://www.forbes.com/sites/liyanchen/2015/02/10/next-radioshack-here-are-the-most-troubled-retail-stocks/#6e03fc926cec

The difference between Bass Pro Shops and Cabela is that Bass Pro Shops knows how to manage those online competitors by offering captative and enjoyable experiences for customers. This makes customers, not only, want to buy their product, but also admire the atmosphere around them!

Was it a good idea for Bass Pro Shops to acquire Cabela’s in 2017?

I believe buying Cabela’s was a good idea, mostly because before Cabela’s was acquired by Bass Pro Shops, the Nebraska-based company was a direct competitor in the outdoor retailer’s industry. Now, Bass Pro Shops combined its 95 stores in the U.S. and Canada, with the Cabela’s 85 stores, creating a giant outdoor retailing store that sells fishing, hunting, camping and boating gear. This means that Bass Pro Shops have added a stronger U.S. Northwest presence to their 100 locations concentrated in the U.S. Southeast. https:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cabela-s-m-a-basspro-idUSKBN17J1QT//www.reuters.com/article/us-cabela-s-m-a-basspro-idUSKBN17J1QT

With Cabela’s acquisition, Bass Pro Shops not only have eliminated their number one competitor but also it has resulted in significant cost savings as well as greater leverage with product suppliers. http:// https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/business/2016/05/05/what-happens-if-bass-pro-acquires-cabelas-these-areas-could-affected/83250908/

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Needs are the state of feeling deprivation and are a basic part of human nature. In this case, the customer’s needs are eating and drinking. They have several options to satisfy their needs, but they choose Chick-fil-A. This is a want. ´Wants´are shaped by one’s society and personality. When customers are ordering a chicken sandwich, it means that they have the power to buy what they want, this is called a demand.

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Chick-fil-A founders have said that the best way to run a business is providing good customer service and that is their main value. Their objective is to make sure their customers have the best eating experience they have ever had and this philosophy works. They always greet their customers and treat them in a very friendly way. They introduced new strategies to make the ordering process much faster so that customers do not need to wait for a long period of time to get their food. They also limited the menu, focusing on the famous chicken sandwich that represents them, which allowed them to ensure high-quality products.

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In my opinion, Chick-fil-A’s performance meets all customer expectations. They not only offer high-quality products, but also provide a great serving experience. The company is constantly improving and introducing new tactics to keep the customers engaged with the brand. For example, they take orders at the drive-thru while the customers are waiting in line and then when they get inside the restaurant, their order is ready. Thanks to this strategy, the ordering and serving process is incredibly fast and that is an important factor to get a pleasant experience. Also, the staff is very attentive and always trying to satisfy all the customers´ needs. Therefore, Chick-fil-A has made it clear that if customers choose them, they will have a great experience.

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The five marketing orientations include production concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept and the social marketing concept. I think the orientation that applies the best to Chick-fil-A is the product concept. Consumers will favor products that offer the best in quality, performance, and innovative features (Kotler & Armstrong, 2018). This company does just that. They discovered a more effective way to make their products in the least amount of time, and by limiting the menu, they were able to focus on those products and aim for the best quality possible. They also used innovative strategies such as using the cow to promote their chicken products. This move helped them increase their sales and became part of their brand.

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I think they will be able to keep providing exceptional customer service and sustain the level of growth because that’s their goal and it is what they have been doing since the beginning. Chick-fil-A has grown a lot over the years. They opened in the late 1960s and since then, the main focus of the company has been the customers and their needs. They have been constantly improving every aspect of the company to have a positive impact on their customers. They introduced innovative ways of attracting customers and keeping them engaged, and if they continue using these strategies they will continue growing in more effective and efficient ways.

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References

• Kotler, P.T. & Armstrong, G. (2018) Principles of marketing. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Higher Education.