Routes to the Consumer

In todays world the way we as the consumer are targeted by brands has no boundaries. Gone are the days where a simple poster in the streets would entice you, telling you about that new fantastic product that has been released and you know you don't need but it makes you want it instantly. Today we are are exposed to countless advertisements on a daily basis through all media forms digital and physical.

StartFragment‘It's not clear how many advertisements we are exposed to every day. ………...common estimates range from around 250 per day on the conservative side, to 3000 and above’.

(ABDU-SAUD, HUFFINGTON POST 2013)

EndFragment

We are targeted in all aspects of are lives whether it is sitting in your favourite cafe or popping down to your local shop, at times it may not even seem like an advertise because they have evolved so drastically that quite often you don't even realise that its an advertisement until you've watched the whole thing much like the Burberry adverts which seem more like a short films, that always leave you wanting more; but I must say the Burberry adverts are always a pleasure to watch carefully thought out, I often find myself watching them on repeat much like their new advert 'A Tale of Thomas Burberry'.

There are so many different types of a media from the obvious to the not so obvious....

Social media (Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook), App notifications, The News, Magazines, Newspapers, Interactive advertisement or videos in stores, Brands creating their own fragrances that they use in stores, radio, posters these are only a few the list really is endless and new types of media are being created all the time.

One of the media forms that is starting to be noticed more is 'retargeted marketing', more brands are adopting this as a form of advertising. The concept is based on your recent search history and then targets you through social media, such as Facebook with suggestions of the products you looked at or similar products. This is really quite an attractive form that I personally find quite effective, it's based on your interests and is unique to you. (though some may say it is an invasion of privacy)

Looking at all these different types of medias they have both features and benefits that are combined together to achieve the best results for example; Radio a feature for the radio is that there are no images a benefit of it having no image is that it allows each person to use their imagination and think about the message in context to their own life. Now some of these medias rely on the consumer actually being proactive, such a subscriber emails you have to sign yourself up to the brand/ company (you opt in) in order to receive communications this is the feature, but the actual benefit of this is what they include within the email; quite often they will personalise it making you feel more special as if you are the only person they are writing to.

The whole point of these medias is how each brand uses them to target their consumer, I mean most brands now have an Instagram account but this media form is used in so many ways, it is a platform where a brand can really go to town and express themselves as not everything has to relate to their products; within certain guideline they can post what they want. Whether it be something that has caught their eye while walking to work that inspires the brand or if they use it to promote the launch of a new product, there are endless possibilities to the use of Instagram which has only been added to with the addition of 'Insta stories'. For the everyday person like me or you, we will probably just use it in a similar way to snapchat adding to it randomly with little thought behind it but brands put a little more, shall I say thought into it.

Tart Cosmetics for example often use their story to show how to create specific make-up looks, in a step-by-step guide whether it's how to create the perfect smoky eye for that big night out or how to achieve the best of glitter looks. This formate is easily accessible for people who aren't necessarily good at make-up like me or even trained make-up artists it has allowed us all to have access to the same information in a fun, modernised way; rather than having to pay to have are make up done professionally you can learn how to do it yourself, which is ideal if your on a very tight student budget like me.

Below are some examples of how different brands use Instagram;

#consumer #media