Introduction
The paper will provide a comprehensive discussion and analysis of the buyer behaviors and impacts of ads on influencing consumer decisions. The analysis of both Wal-Mart Inc and Starbucks companies is crucial in influencing the overall marketing and promotion of the company’s products and services. Wal-Mart 2015 Black Friday ad has been critical in providing the best deals and steals to the customers.
Wal-Mart Inc Ad Campaign Analysis
The 2015 Black Friday ad was recently established by Wal-Mart to ensure that the customers will be given offers and discounts during the fifth day of the week. The ad was keen to ensure that the customers will buy products at lower prices than the normal pricing of the products during other days of the week. Unlike Starbucks ads, Wal-Mart ad was critical to marketing and promote the company sales in the existing markets. The Black Friday ad targets the numerous customers in the market share through providing wide information and offers of the company’s products and services (Morrison, 2014). The advert is positioned at different internet and ecommerce sites to ensure that all target customers have access to the information related to the ad. The ad tries to expos the different product offerings by Wal-Mart are advertised once per week, as the offers are only valid on Friday every week. It is important towards ensuring that the consumers are aware of the best day to conduct shopping at the best deals and affordable prices as possible. Mainly, the black Friday ad of Wal-Mart focuses on selling as much products as possible.
Market Segmentation
Wal-Mart ad is targeting existing customers of the different age groups. The ad Black Friday ad is focused on ensuring that the customers receive discounts for the different product offerings. During Friday nightouts, the target customers are young couples and young person who regularly goes for outings. Thus, the ad is focused on ensuring that the target customers offer quality and affordable products, which meets their needs. It also seeks to improve the overall customer loyalty by giving additional offers to the existing customers and loyal customers of the different stores.
Perception
The target customers perceive that Wal-Mart is a strong retailer who provides quality and satisfactory products to the customers. Wal-Mart has the ability to offer quality products and services to the customers. Most importantly, the ad seeks to ensure that the existing customers have access to quality products and understands the ability of the company to offer quality products.
Consumer Buying Process
The customers of Wal-Mart Inc are at the post purchase behavior stage. At this process, the consumers are seeking satisfaction from the different products and services offered by Wal-Mart Inc. The target customers will provide their feedback on the nature and the level of satisfaction received from the product offerings at the company (Vivek, Sharon and Robert, 2012, p.123). During this stage, the consumers will rely on the customer service offered to ensure the products delivered and services are of high quality. This is important in ensuring that the customers retain the loyalty of the Wal-Mart brand after receiving quality services and products.
Marketing Mix
- Product
Wal-Mart provides a wide variety of products and services include food products, consumer electronics and fast foods among others. The advertisement seeks to indicate the offers available to the different products at the company. Some of the benefits of the Wal-Mart product offerings are to meet the diverse needs of the customers. The Black Friday is effective in communicating the discount offers to the customers through the snapshot idea.
- Pricing
The Black Friday advert does not contain any information about the pricing of the product offerings. The wording of the ad is large and does not intend to inform the consumers on the actual prices of the products. It only provides information on the discounts of the various product offerings at the company. As a result, the ad cannot be relied upon to obtain actual information about the pricing of the company’s brands and services.
- Place
The ad does not seem to provide any information about the distribution approaches of the company. It is because the ad was focused on improving the sales of the company, but not informing the customers of the nature and amount of products offered (Sheth, 2011, p.45). The Black Friday ad is mainly a social media or internet ad which does not contain much detail and information about the product offering and distribution process of the company.
Promotion
The advertisement on Black Friday sought to market the different products offers at its stores in the different locations. It entails informing the customers of the best offers available at their stores. The main promotional objective is to promote the marketing and sales of the Wal-Mart products and services (Oliver, 2014, p.34). Wal-Mart Inc is one of the most successful and well-established brand in the United States. Thus, it only focuses on expanding it sales within the current markets. The black Friday ad only focuses at providing a snapshot view of what the customers can expect from the stores of Wal-Mart (Solomon et al., 2014, p.234). Unlike Starbucks ads, the Wal-Mart ads aims at gaining increased sales in the markets and improving sales among the existing markets. The choice of the black Friday ad was focused at giving information on the sales offers at Wal-Mart Inc.
Motivation
The prospective customers of Wal-Mart Inc are at the physiological level of motivation of needs. This is because they are always focusing obtaining the quality foods to meet their basic needs. At this motivation level, the customers desire to gain foods to service their fundamental wants. The Black Friday ad seeks to offer better prices affordable to the customers for them to purchase clothing and foods stuffs. Most importantly, the ad is able to ensure that the customers have access to the diverse products and services to enhance achievement of the physiological needs.
Starbucks Ad Campaign Analysis
In 2014, Starbucks was able to launch global ad commonly known as “meet me at Starbucks”. The ad does not seem to be focused at marketing specific product brands, but promoting the overall brand of the company in the international scene. Unlike Wal-Mart’s ad, Starbucks focused on marketing of its products and brand name in the international markets. This is very important towards improving the overall growth and expansion of Starbucks products to new foreign markets (Sashi, 2012, p.263). The Starbucks ad targets the foreign markets and new customers who are not already using the Starbucks brands and services. It is usually informative and appealing to any new customers. The advert is positioned in the internet and wider global platforms, which are important in ensuring that the brand of Starbucks grows into new markets. The Starbucks advert is performed every day at various platforms including the TV commercials and internal sites. The regularly advertisements helps to continuously inform the customers on the nature and ability to expand the product portfolio at Starbucks.
Segmentation
The starbucks ad is targeting international customers of different age groups. The ad “meet me at Starbucks” is aimed at informing the customer nature of the product. The regional ads are crucial in enhancing the success of the coffee brand at Starbucks. Most importantly, the young people in the international and emerging markets would be targeted to expand the Starbucks brand to different markets.
Perception
The target customers perceive the Starbucks coffee as to be of the highest quality and standard. It is because Starbucks has been able to maintain quality standards and market its brands across the international markets. It also uses different colorful celebrity endorsements to enhance success of the company’s brand in the emerging markets.
Consumer Buying Process
The customers of Starbucks are at the information search stage. At this stage, the consumers are always seeking to obtain information about the products and services to meet their needs. The target customers will rely on both internal and external information to understand the brand received about the Starbucks products. During this stage of decision-making, the consumers pay more attention and efforts to the internal information and referral from friends. Such actions judged to be objective than the adverts themselves. As a result, the Starbucks ad focused on providing internal information and explanations on the nature of the products and services offered to make the customers aware of the different product brands.
Marketing Mix
- Product
The coffee brand of Starbucks is of high quality and meets all the requirements of the customers. It also advertises the locations of Starbucks, which offers a huge opportunity for people to meet in their shops. Some of the benefits of Starbucks shops and coffee are to provide an opportunity to perform their meetings without any interruptions (Bonoma, and Gerald, 2011, p.231). “Meet me at Starbucks” ad is able to communicate the brand to the customers effectively through its documentary style. The documentary style gives the different accounts of the people within the various markets.
- Pricing
The “Meet me at Starbucks” contains adequate information about the pricing of the products in the company. The documentary provides an account for the various products and the respective prices. The pricing information is relevant to the customers, as it makes them aware of the budget needed to purchase the Starbucks products. Therefore, the ad is important in revealing the prices of the different brands and wide products offered at Starbucks.
- Place
The advert explains the various distribution strategies, which are used by the company to ensure that the consumers have access to the products at the different locations and the right time. Some of the common distribution strategies involve the online shipping approaches, use of trucks, suppliers and local distributors. The local distributors and wholesalers are tasked with the role of transporting the coffee brands to the different retailers in the markets. Thus, the documentary ad explains clearly how the company distribution its products.
Promotion
The advertisement is sought to create awareness and inform the customers about the Starbucks brands and products. The promotional objective will be achieved by enhance the advertisement in the different markets. Starbucks products have not be able to reach a wider market share compared it competitors due to the lack of promotional tools. Thus, the Starbucks campaign is focused on creating awareness of the different product brands in the international markets. The selection of the documentary video media tool indicates that the company’s promotion strategy is to provide detailed information and description of the company’s brand to the different consumers at the various regions. Therefore, “Meet me at Starbucks” ad is aimed at expanding the marketing and knowledge of the starbucks brand at the different markets and target customers.
Motivation
The customers of Starbucks at the esteem stage of the Maslow pyramid. At the stage of esteem of the hierarchy, the customer’s needs not feel respected and accepted by other persons. Thus, Starbucks provides a suitable climate and environment for the discussion between the various persons in the community (Davenport, 2013, p.102). The meetings held at Starbucks helps to overcome psychological problems including depression, which hinders individuals to higher level of self-esteem. It also involves promoting a sense of competence and freedom among the prospective customers. Therefore, the adverts’ connect targeted customers at the self-esteem level of motivation.
Critique & Recommendations
The ad “A Food for Work Advert, 2003” by Benetton focused on indicating the hunger problems across the world. It is clear that humanitarian emergencies like hunger are still existence. However, the ad by Benetton was extreme and stereotyping a certain community which is not appropriate. The Food for Work Advert does not indicate clear the expected goals. However, it includes wording, which could explain the audience further the implications of the ads. In the comparison of Wal-Mart and Starbucks, they are useful in promoting the marketing of the products and offerings of the both companies (Harbison, 2015). Wal-Mart’s ad does not have adequate information to market to the various products and services at the company. In spite of all, Starbucks documentary campaign is crucial well detailed to explain the various product offerings at the company. The differences between the two ads come up from the diverse promotional objectives of the two companies. It is recommendable for the two companies to understand the motivation, consumer behavior, and the needs of the target customers. It would help to market their product offerings appropriately. {t_essay_1}
