Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

More documents

Recommendations

Info

"everyone" knows that a bee symbolizesindustriousness, a dove represents peace, and a fox embodies cunning (Robin 1932). It is likely that advertisers use animal characters because consumers understand the animals' cultural meanings and consequently can link these meanings to a product. Therefore, the cultural meaning of animals may lie at the core of the meanings of animal trade characters. This paper describes a method for eliciting character meanings, presents a qualitative analysis of the cultural meanings of four animal characters, and discusses the broader implications that these results have for advertising research and practice. This qualitative study of animal meanings is motivated by several issues: Understanding the cultural meanings that consumers assign to animal characters will assist in developing successful advertising campaigns; practitioners can create characters that embody desired brand meanings while avoiding characters with negative associations. In addition, by highlighting an underutilized research method by which the cultural meaning of characters can be elicited, this paper presents a way for practitioners, researchers, and regulators to understand what messages specific characters are communicating to their audiences. This method may be useful in other types of advertising research as well. Researchers have, in the past, asked for measures of cultural meaning for celebrity endorsers (McCracken 1989) and for symbolic advertising images (Scott 1994), as well. Finally, by showing that animal characters have common cultural meanings, this paper builds support for one of the first empirical explanations of how trade characters "work" in advertising, and creates a foundation for future trade character research. The next section of the paper will present the theories used to illuminate the research question: Do there exist shared meanings that consumers associate with specific animal characters? If so, how can these meanings be elicited, and what are their common themes? The third section will introduce a method by which the cultural meanings of characters can be elicited, and will present the procedures used in this research study. The fourth section will discuss the results of the study, and the last section will draw general conclusions. Conceptual Development of the Research Question It has been suggested that advertising functions, in general, by attempting to link a product with an image that elicits 10 desirable emotions and ideas (McCracken 1986). For example, the image of a child may invoke feelings of pleasure, nostalgia, and playfulness. By showing a product next to such an image, advertising encourages consumers to associate the product with the image. Through this association, the product acquires the image's cultural meaning. Trade characters may be one type of image that advertisers use because these characters possess learned cultural meanings. These meanings are similar to the personalities that consumers associate with characters from other sources such as movies, cartoons, and comic books. For example, Mickey Mouse is viewed as a "nice guy," while Bugs Bunny is seen as clever, but mischievous. Individuals do not invent their own meaning for cultural symbols; they must learn what each symbol means in their culture (Berger 1984) based on their experiences with the character. For example, consumers' ideas about the meaning of "elephant" are shaped by Dumbo movies and African safari TV programs, and are colored by news stories about a rampaging elephant that trampled its trainer. Consequently, although each individual brings his or her own experience to the meaning ascription process, consensus of character meaning across individuals is possible through common cultural experience. In advertising, trade characters' meanings are used to visually represent the product attributes (Zacher 1967) or the advertising message (Kleppner 1966). For example, Mr. Peanut embodies sophistication (Kapnick 1992), the Pillsbury Doughboy symbolizes fun (PR Newswire 1990), and the lonely Maytag repairman stands for reliability (Elliott 1992). However, the consumer must correctly decode the trade character's meaning before it can have an impact (McCracken 1986). Therefore, characters' meanings must be easily understood by consumers if they are to correctly interpret the character's message. As a result, advertisers frequently use animal trade characters (Callcott and Lee 1994) because consumers are thought to have learned the animals' cultural meanings, and consequently are likely to correctly decode the advertising message. The first step in examining the association between animal trade characters and the products they promote is to explore the symbolic meanings conveyed by the animals used in these advertisements. That is, if an advertiser places a bear (e.g., Snuggle) or a dog (e.g., Spuds McKenzie) next to his product, what do these
animals represent to the audience? Rather than examine individual animal characters, however, it is necessary to first study an animal's general cultural meaning. This is because the animal category (e.g., bear, dog, etc.) provides the primary, or core, meaning of an individual character. Although an advertiser can choose to highlight certain animal meanings over others (e.g., "softness" for Snuggle Bear and "wildness" for Smokey Bear), the core set of animal meanings dictate what is possible for that character to express. Snuggle fabric softener would not find it easy to use a porcupine, pig, or flamingo to express "softness." In addition, by studying the broad animal category to which the character belongs, it is possible to make generalizations that can help practitioners create and use animal characters effectively. For example, if advertisers know that the animal "cat" shares several positive core meanings, they can create cat characters that capitalize on those meanings. Alternatively, if "cat" meanings contain negative attributes that reflect badly on the associated product, advertisers may want to use a different character. Method It is difficult to explore the perceived meaning of a trade character by asking subjects directly, as their responses tend to be superficial and descriptive. "Smokey Bear? Oh, he's brown and wears a hat." Other qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviewing, tend to be time- and laborintensive C features that advertisers may want to avoid. As an alternative, word association is an easy and efficient method for exploring psychological meaning. It can be administered to a group and can elicit the meanings of more than one animal per session, yet provides rich information regarding cultural meaning. Szalay and Deese (1978) state that because a word association task does not require subjects to communicate their intentions, it decreases subjects' rationalizations, and it taps associations that are difficult to express or explain. Further, word association does not require thoughts to be expressed in a structural manner. Instead, this technique produces expressions of thought that are immediate and spontaneous, and this spontaneity, along with an imposed time constraint, is thought to reduce subjects' selfmonitoring and conscious editing of responses. Finally, the method reduces experimenter bias because no organization or categories are 11 imposed on subjects to limit their responses C a primary draw-back of quantitative research. The word association method is not new; other marketing and advertising researchers have used it to understand how consumers perceive products (Kleine and Kernan 1991) and to determine a product's attributes to aid in product positioning (Friedmann 1986). However, perhaps because it is "old hat," this method has been consistently overlooked and underutilized in consumer behavior research. In the present study, informants were asked to respond to verbal animal names during the word association task (e.g., "bear") rather than to visual images of the animal. Verbal animal names are thought to elicit broad responses that reflect much of the information that an individual has learned to associate with the category, "bear." In contrast, the way an animal is visually portrayed can narrow its meaning (Berger 1984). A realistic picture of a bear may elicit a different part of the core meaning of "bear" than a cartoon bear. Images of actual trade characters, such as Smokey Bear or Snuggle, may elicit even narrower meanings associated only with those characters. Therefore, verbal animal names were used to generate broad, complete responses. However, it is possible that advertisers could use both verbal and visual animals in a word association task when creating characters. Responses to the verbal animal name would provide core meanings, while responses to the visual character would provide a measure of how successfully the particular representation of an animal captured desired meanings. This possibility will be discussed further in the conclusion section of this paper. The informants for this study were 21 male and 15 female undergraduate students enrolled in an advertising management course at a major state university. Students participated in the study during their regular class time. Of these respondents, 92% were between the ages of 20 and 25. The use of this student sample precludes concluding that the results of this study reflect the "true" cultural meaning of each animal. However, this sample is useful to show that a common cultural meaning for each animal exists in a homogeneous population and can be elicited through research, whether that population is composed of undergraduate students or other target markets of interest to advertisers. Each informant received a package containing a cover page, an instruction page, and five word association sheets. The instructions for the word association task were read aloud and informants' questions
Page 1 and 2: Antennae Issue 23 - Winter 2012 ISS
Page 3 and 4: EDITORIAL ANTENNAE ISSUE 23 T his i
Page 5 and 6: 83 Jumbo: A Capitalist Creation Sto
Page 7 and 8: actually ethical, juridical and pol
Page 9: A merican popular culture has quiet
Page 13 and 14: Fig. 1. including sources such as t
Page 15 and 16: This lack of human/penguin interact
Page 17 and 18: gorillas were associated directly w
Page 19 and 20: References Anderson, John R. (1990)
Page 21 and 22: Regione Lombardia L’Agricoltura C
Page 23 and 24: Concern about the impact of livesto
Page 25 and 26: Ed Edwards and Dave Masterman The G
Page 27 and 28: translates into context for the bov
Page 29 and 30: T here seems to be some confusion r
Page 31 and 32: P revious academic research looking
Page 33 and 34: Leo Burnett France 500 Black Jack,
Page 35 and 36: DDB Berlin The Golf GTI Edition 30,
Page 37 and 38: David&Goliath Fast and Fuel Efficie
Page 39 and 40: Kessanlv Bovril by Electrocution fr
Page 41 and 42: progress and humanitarianism. It wa
Page 43 and 44: Fig 1. VCCP Muller “Thank You Cow
Page 45 and 46: Fig. 3 TBWA/Chiat/Day New York Sad
Page 47 and 48: (Lerner and Kalof 1999), the four a
Page 49 and 50: I often wonder what the meetings at
Page 51 and 52: Representations of animals in adver
Page 53 and 54: In the second section of the Wester
Page 55 and 56: number of animal species, because i
Page 57 and 58: 2006. Image showing advertisement f
Page 59 and 60: Morrisjones & Company Unique Partne
Page 61 and 62:
he same issue of the monthly magazi
Page 63 and 64:
alleged Nazi dietary habits. The ma
Page 65 and 66:
Fig.2. Stonyfield yogurt carton fro
Page 67 and 68:
Fig. 4. & 5. The Miracle of Milk an
Page 69 and 70:
Fig. 6. Down to Earth, Stonyfield F
Page 71 and 72:
Fig. 8. Michael Mercil The Virtual
Page 73 and 74:
Fig. 10. Michael Mercil The Virtual
Page 75 and 76:
Fig. 12. Michael Mercil Michael Mer
Page 77 and 78:
farming, the animals have disappear
Page 79 and 80:
incorporated subsumption of Stonyfi
Page 81 and 82:
Brooke’s Soap Monkey Brand Wont W
Page 83 and 84:
It is tempting to take for granted
Page 85 and 86:
Fig. 1. The iconic Jumbo broadside,
Page 87 and 88:
Fig. 2. Funny Folks, 1882. McCaddon
Page 89 and 90:
Fig. 3. Clark’s O.N.T. Spool Cott
Page 91 and 92:
and claw” movies and other cultur
Page 93 and 94:
(and thus all the more persuasive b
Page 95 and 96:
T his ad for Armstrong tires depict
Page 97 and 98:
Referring to real rhinos might have
Page 99 and 100:
perpetuation of the self image of t
Page 101 and 102:
The Human Portrait Portraiture is d
Page 103 and 104:
Fig. 7. Joe Zammit-Lucia Hunted, ph
Page 105 and 106:
Fig. 9. Animal Portraiture Exhibit
Page 107 and 108:
Fig. 10. Animal farmed for his fur
Page 109 and 110:
particularly highly disturbing imag
Page 111 and 112:
Pope-Hennessy, John. 1979. The Port
Page 113 and 114:
Thinkbox Harvey, 2010 Thinkbox ent
Page 115 and 116:
Y&R Chicago Welcome to the Saddest
Page 117 and 118:
Y&R Chicago Welcome to the Saddest
Page 119 and 120:
Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson hav
Page 121 and 122:
Campagne Per Gli Animali Buona Pasq
Page 123 and 124:
A lready very early on in the histo
Page 125 and 126:
Schwarzer Kater Garantie für gute
Page 127 and 128:
Laboratories Ed. Mottier Colle M El
Page 129 and 130:
PKZ Burgher, Kehl & Co, 1913 PKZ L
Page 131 and 132:
Télévision Ducastel Satisfaction
Page 133 and 134:
WPA Brookfield Zoo WPA ads edit ou
Page 135 and 136:
displays as a modern entertainment
Page 137 and 138:
into the home pest removal also con
Page 139 and 140:
Fig.2 Advertisement for Mortein Plu
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
centre of a large social media camp
Page 147 and 148:
construct subject positions that co
Page 149:
Antennae.org.uk Issue twenty-four w
show all

Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?