Moving Forward

Hopefully not the first female president, but I'd love to have your vote as one in a line of many strong females leading our country forward. Vote Murphy for United States President 2028!

Disclaimer: This is for a #manship2015 project. I have made no plans to run for President...yet.

Easy-Peezy

So Easy

As a granddaughter of a grandfather trying to keep up with the times, I know all-too-well the struggles of adults and technology. I taught my grandfather how to use the Mac computer, email, cameras and his cell phone among many others on a very long list. Now my grandfather wants to get an iPhone despite my protests.

Another piece of technology we have in my house is a Vizio television, which is why the latest Vizio commercial caught my eye. Vizio recently released the tagline, “So easy, even an adult can figure it out.” Immediately I knew that this brand was by far one of my favorites on the market today. It not only brought out a comical aspect of my life, but it also tied that comedy to a struggle in so many parents’ and childrens’ lives.

The commercial currently airing on television includes a young girl helping her father with all sorts of technology in his day-to-day life. At the end of the commercial, however, Dad helps his daughter with the Vizio television. The commercial is wonderful because it is heartwarming, but also because it pokes fun at the slowness and newness of technology to the older generation. It makes that older generation feel like they are not alone and that Vizio products can solve their aversion to technology. I think Vizio does a brilliant job of letting its audience know that its technology is user-friendly by making a joke that most families can relate to.

Props to you, Vizio.

Student Government: Doing more for you

Student Government is an organization at LSU that strives daily to improve the school, the community and the LSU experience. This ad campaign targets the LSU student body in advocating what Student Government has done in 2013 for the students. The print ad would run in the Reveille as well as Legacy Magazine so as to reach a wider audience of LSU students. The video would run as a commercial on Tiger TV and be posted to the student MyLSU portal, the Student Government website and the Student Government YouTube page.

Venti, please

In today’s digitally-growing world, both large and small brands must keep up with their consumers. People are shifting from physical advertising and consuming to online shopping, online branding and online interacting. Corporations are being forced to think innovatively to keep consumers’ attention in a world where so much is being thrown at them at once and avoiding the hustle and bustle is as easy as one click of a mouse.

Starbucks Coffee has digitally branded itself through a highly-interactive website, online advertisements, a Twitter account, a Foursquare page and hundreds of Facebook pages. Part of digital branding is knowing who your audience is. Starbucks pays many websites to have its ads run where its target audience shops  and socializes. The Starbucks website is easy to navigate and cohesive aesthetically, and it leads consumers easily and quickly to promotions. Starbucks brands itself through the colors green, yellow, brown and purple and modern typography and design. The Starbucks Twitter and Foursquare accounts allow for short and easy promotions to catch a reader’s eye, while the Facebook page allows for more information in a more leisurely environment. 

Through these things, Starbucks is making its brand known in the digital age. One suggestion I have for Starbucks is better utilization of QR codes; nothing says twenty-first century consumer like doing as little work as possible to gain or buy.

I live for the applause.

Within the past few months, Kia has rebranded the Soul as transformed. After years of trying to sell a car that did not receive the extraordinary feedback the creators so hoped, Kia decided to change the way it advertised for the Soul. Instead of changing the look of the car and risk admitting that they messed up, Kia changed the way they branded the item.

If you’re trying to make an item seem glamorous, you associate it with glamorous people and glamorous things. If you’re trying to make an item seem innovative, you use innovative language and place it in an innovative setting. Kia rebranded the Soul as “transformed” and wanted to sell an advertisement that portrayed that while appealing to something most people in today’s society have a strong need for.

In my opinion, Kia rebranded beautifully. The Soul did not change aesthetically very much in the rebrand, but the entire approach to the car changed. This advertisement for the Soul appeals to basic desires in people today—the need to look good, the need to be special and the need to be praised—while staying lighthearted and keeping the audience attached. Every time I see this commercial, I am instantly entranced by the television that plays idly in the background while I do my homework. Kia chose a song that is not only wildly popular right now but also ties strikingly to the underlying tone of the attention people desire. Kia successfully conveys the struggle of working toward transformation and the reward of applause and attention at the end while managing to keep levity in the atmosphere by using hamsters as people. The ending is a beautiful combination of the transformed, dashing hamsters, the climax of Lady Gaga’s “Applause” and the transformed Kia Soul. I believe Kia manages to "transform" the product in the eyes of the audience while sticking to the ingenuity of original design, which is exactly what they were going for.