Marketing Case

We are all consumers composed of different cultural, social, and economical backgrounds, the goal of marketing is to take differences and provide a common ground creating a sense of need, want and desire for a product, by engaging and evoking emotion in the consumer – as opposed to simply attracting our attention. Emotions are the way in which our brains encode things of value, for example examining this year Chrysler Super Bowl commercial; this commercial is a prime example of how marketing professionals can use storytelling to sell a product. In this commercial Clint Eastwood acts as narrator of the story triggering memories for their target market, because how many Americans above the age of 30 haven't seen a Clint Eastwood movie. In his narrative he speaks of the struggles facing many Americans, creating a common ground, he evokes emotion when speaking of a "brighter tomorrow" and by referring to "our next half" he creates a relationship between the consumer and the product.

No surprise that this was a Chrysler commercial. In 2002 Chrysler conducted research used brain wave imaging technology (fMRI)'s showing consumers images of a series of automobiles everything from Ferraris to the Mini Coopers. What researchers discovered was that while subjects were exposed to images of the Mini Cooper a region in the back of their brain that normally response to faces lit up. Chrysler continued their research by exposing men to 66 different images of automobiles, this time images of a sports car lit up the portion of their brain responsible with reward and reinforcement. These studies revealed that products are much more then the stuff but there are solid reason for purchasing products.

Product placement is becoming increasingly popular, with predictions of upwards of 75% of all network shows featuring products and plotlines that advertiser have paid for. A prime example of this is American Idol with products