Semiotic Analysis of the BMW We Built TV Ad

The Ad and Some Background Research
The quiet clarity of the guitar picking in BMW’s We Built commercial (Bimmer: We Built) immediately grabbed my attention when I saw it on MadMen. The elegant and attractive work is a .30 TV spot.

The guitar score is lifted from Jackson Browne’s These Days track from the mid-60s. These Days is emblematic of the pop music of that time (Amazon_30_sec) and it has “lasted for decades as a classic of [blue] introspection made even more remarkable by [Jackson] Browne having been only 16 years old when he wrote it.”

Music can stimulate creativity and is also a fundamental aspect of creative advertising. Dr. David Allan (2006, p 435) says the value of music in inspiration as well as its use in creative advertising campaigns is a heightened arousal. Arrangements similar to We Built would seem effective appeals to baby boomers of higher income and education levels. The demographics of this style pop music has a bias for higher income and education levels. Likewise for BMW’s demographics (for example see BNet).

Signifier, Signified and Signs
In this advert there are several signifiers: words and a series of video clips. BMW has captured a fundamental psychological mazeway, according to Zaltman and Zaltman (2008 ,p. 145), the deep metaphor of Resource for automobiles. Deep metaphors are seven unconscious lenses that “shape what people think, say, hear and do.” They are widely used in marketing and if you own a deep metaphor for a category, the way Budweiser owns Connection in the beer market, you have powerful advantages.

Griffiths (2006, p. 3) says that the effects of marketing are based on a reward from the product, and this can include “deeper psychological motivations.” A Resource is an enabler. It is the giver of many rewards.

Since the 1970s, BWM has beat this drum, and kept the same slogan “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” The signified is being enabled with this ultimate machine. There is a sequence of seven video clips that lead up to the presentation of the text, “The Ultimate Driving machine.” The words before each clip say “We did not start out to …” but the unspoken completion from each video sequence is “however, our cars enable it.” The seven sequences in the video are:

• Mastery (skilled driving)
• Artistic Expression
• Subculture inclusion
• Pop culture inclusion
• Mastery (racing)
• Social inclusion
• We provide the resource (we just make the car)
  

The sign for the first six video signifiers is an iconic contrast. The words “we did not start out to” form a contrast to the video conclusion. Griffiths (2006, p. 5) notes that contrast can accentuate a sign, in his case individuality, in our case Enabler-ing. The video clips are themselves semblances of various cultural touchstones. Stultz (2009, p. 1) informs us that with iconic signs “the signifier resembles the signified, e.g. a picture.”

The last, 8th scene is a presentation of the text “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” This is a symbolic sign: conventional English words. Stultz (2009, p. 1) again tells us that symbolic signs are culturally specific (like English words) and represent a conventional relationship between signifier and the signified. The BMW machine is our resource to fulfill our desires.

As a final thought, Stultz (2009a, p. 8) informs us that the application of Semiotics to marketing involves more than just signs and symbols. It must also consider social context. The ethos of our generation is different than previous generations. Wallace (1963, p 103) contrasted the Dionysian and Apollonian ethos and the transition he sensed to have occurred. For a quick overview see Dionysian/Apollonian. The desire for the Dionysian is personal experience, while that of the Apollonian is moderation. “The Ultimate Driving Machine” would not have appealed to an Apollonian culture, while it does to a Dionysian.

References
Allan, David (December 2006). Effects of popular music in advertising on attention and memory. http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/sound%20advertising.html.doc

Griffiths, M (2/16/06). A Semiotic Analysis Of Diesel Print Ads. Retrieved on October 26, 2009 from WVU IMC 625 Week One Readings.

Stultz, Larry (2009). Semiotic Terminology. Retrieved on October 26, 2009 from WVU IMC Week One Readings.

Stultz, Larry (2009a). Lesson 1: What Does Your Idea Look Like? Retrieved on October 26, 2009 from WVU IMC 625.

Wallace, AFC (1963). Culture and Personality. Random House

Zaltman, G and L Zaltman (2008). Marketing Metaphoria. Harvard Business Press.

The Kennedy Center Offer

I am a member of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and I received direct mail and direct Internet e-mail offers to renew and upgrade my membership (see Kennedy_Center_Upgrade). The Kennedy Center presents plays, ballet, National Symphony Orchestra performances, and various workshops. Additionally, it has the Gift Shop and restaurant. I have made it a focal point for entertainment with friends and family when in DC. Ticket sales do not cover the Centers 3,100 stage performances a year and its ambitious educational activities; hence the need for members (donors), and its annual tin-cupping.

The offer has the price, my annual renewal at the current donation, a time limit (my current membership expires every August), no express guarantee or breakdown of use, but as Haigh and Gilbert (2005, p 108) note:

“Brands provide a guarantee of origin and quality;”

So the Kennedy Center brand is my guarantee that the money will be used to support the activities, and provide the benefits suggested. My first contact with the membership office was a phone call from them during which they sold me my membership initially. Here they did give a guarantee. The Kennedy Center representative gave me his personal, direct line to answer any questions or smooth out any difficulties I had with any benefits.

In the Internet e-mail, they give me the option of renewing with a phone call, or on-line. For the postal mail they also provided a return envelop. In neither case are mobile form factors considered. They do give me an option of upgrading my membership. The benefits are for higher levels add new perks to the benefits at lower levels. Here is the roster:



The additional benefits are an incentive but so too is identity congruence, the trait that “consumers’ behavior is often affected by what others [do]” (see Shang, et al, 2008, pp 351-2). Social influence is particularly effective in the case where the benefits of a transaction are ambiguous. The Kennedy Center appears to be using such incentive here.

Simonson (2005, p33) relates that including options in the offer can result in up-selling. This depends on the stability of consumer preferences and their insight into those preferences. I believe that donors fall into Simonson’s Category 3, those having stable preferences but lacking insight into those preferences. This is how the Kennedy Center is presenting the offer. No customized recommendation, although they have substantial demographic data. Customized offers can backfire with Category 3, as Simonson notes:

“Consequently, these customers may mistakenly accept customized offers or choice criteria that do not really fit their preferences, which leads to dissatisfaction.”

To explain why I place donors in Simonson’s Category 3, an understanding of the audience needs to be developed.

The Audience
Spiller and Baier (2005, p 97) admonish us to do market research to “determine consumer needs and wants.” Included here then is a study of charitable behaviors published in the Journal of Marketing. Reed, Aquino, and Levy (2007, p 189) found that individuals with high organizational status, low moral identity contribute money to high moral value organizations. Individuals with high moral identity want to contribute time but are chinchy with money. Here is a chart of their findings:




High moral identity is associated with idealism and low moral identity with pragmatism. A money donor’s high organizational status drives their time pressure.

A Syracuse University study furthers our understanding about the nature of donors. McNesby (2007, pp1-2) cites Who Really Cares by Arthur C. Brooks about charitable contributions. His findings are that contributors tend to be religious and conservative. Additionally, this religious and politically conservative cohort is 24 times more likely to contribute to charity than secular idealists.

Although it is an organization of artists, the Kennedy Center has an intuitive understanding of their donor audience that is reflected in the pragmatic appeal for donations (see Kennedy Center, 2008, p1) that lacks both do-goodism and change-the-world slogans. Here is their appeal instead:

"Generous support from Members like you enables the Kennedy Center to bring the finest performances to Washington D.C. and maintain its presence as the nation’s leader in arts education. "

Why Category 3? Kennedy Center donors have well defined preferences but with work and a busy schedule they do not have the idle time to actually think about these preferences.

Improving the Offer
The Kennedy Center does not customize the offer it presents to me. Based on the audience characteristics of donors who donate money as opposed to time, I have argued that their donor profile is what Simonson (p 34) categorizes as Group 3. He informs us that this group is prone to misunderstand customized offerings leading to dissatisfaction. Therefore, I would not try to improve the response with customized appeals to upgrade.

The nature of the offer’s creative appeal also seems to be an effective balance for the audience. As Spiller and Baier (2005, p 92) tell us, an emotional appeal targets the member’s wants, in this case an appeal to the noblise oblige of social status. However, a maudlin tone does not emanate from the offer, a reflection of the conservative nature of the audience. Neither does the creative appeal present opportunities for improvement.

Regarding the offer price, I think there is an opportunity to expand the revenue structure by extending the price segments to include a $60 donor level to either lapsed members or as a reach to potential donors. Spiller and Baier (p 95) instruct us that price elasticity is a critical aspect of offer pricing. Interested parties might be more inclined to become new members if it were easier to give and also a little easier on the wallet. Such a special offer can be made to them without undermining existing donations by using an emerging technology and exploiting our database.

Demographics of mobile phone SMS text users is younger and better educated. New technical venues may extend the reach of the Kennedy Center appeal for donations. Given the pragmatic and conservative nature of donors, my gut feeling is that a simple text message would have good effect. This hunch is supported by a web site mGive.com, and an article on the Everyday Giving Blog. As Carr (2008, p 1) concludes “Making a donation by sending a simple text message is convenient. This convenience is available to the 250 million mobile phone users in the United States alone.”

This is an avenue for the Kennedy Center to economically extend its reach for donations to candidates with mobile technology. The donation is added as a charge to the cell phone monthly bill. The campaign is then to select appropriate audience of conservative, religious pragmatists from organizations like AllMedia.Com, and send them a simple text message much like the Center Generous Support statement above through a service like mGive.com.

In addition, QR Codes can be used to integrate Kennedy Center print materials with its online assets. QR Codes are a special type of barcode that is optimized for use by mobile devices. Smith (2008, p 1) echoes the view of many. He observes that QR Codes and mobile form factors link print media with the Internet. By strategically locating QR Codes, mobile readers of Center print media can link to the Center Web site, getting pod-casts, steaming audio and video, Mobile Web pages, and other entertaining or informative communications.

Center print materials for the gift store will have QR Code to link to always up-to-date reference materials on the music, play, dance, or on the artists. By also forwarding users from the Center Web site to associated blogs, and community sites further information becomes available and communities of interest can be accessed from print materials.

By using a QR Reader, possibly a mobile phone, one can jump from the print world to the online world. This is unprecedented value for the customers of the store.

Say and Southwell (2006, p 262) notes that one key success factor with text messaging direct marketing is to guide actions with testing and evaluation. They take baby steps with an idea in a test, and through a comprehensive evaluation decide how to implement it. Permission is another critical success factor. They have devised a series of techniques for garnering permission (p 263). They caution against the temptation to treat mobile marketing as a “silo” or isolated channel. Integrated channel planning unleashes the full potential of mobile marketing.

Their article explains how First Direct was able to gain permission for extensive mobile marketing activity. Initial usage of text-messaging was to provide a convenience to customers, at the banks expense. This created a foundation of trust and a new point of view by the customer. They can use their mobile phone to increase their control over their money (p 263).

The same could be done at the Center. An initial benefit of notifications of new shows, ticket availability, specific seating availability for those on wait lists and so on. The advantage of subscribing to the text messaging is first notification and right to good seats when they come open, to get tickets to popular shows on popular nights, and other conveniences. Once we have a database of subscribers, we can start the mGive.com campaign for collecting donations.

References
Buchanan, Mark (2002). Nexus. Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Network. W.W. Norton, New York.

Carr, Roger (May 17, 2008). Will You Text Message Your Next Charitable Donation? Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.everydaygivingblog.com/2008/05/mobile-giving.html

Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Haigh, D. and S. Gilbert (May 2005). Valuing not-for-profit and charity brands — real insight or just smoke and mirrors. Int J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mar. Retrieved on September 6, 2008) from EBSCOHOST.

McNesby, Mick (January 13, 2007).Charitable Giving In America: Is Advocacy Of Government Programs A True Form Of Charity? Ezines. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from http://www.yoursdaily.com/culture_media/books/charitable_giving_in_america_is_advocacy_of_government_programs_a_true_form_of_charity

Reed II, Americus and Karl Aquino, & Eric Levy (January 2007). Moral Identity and Judgments of Charitable Behaviors. Journal of Marketing. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.si.umich.edu/ICOS/Reed,Aquino,&Levy.pdf

Say, P. and J. Southwell (Jan-Mar 2006). Beep, beep, beep, beep, that’ll be the bank then – Driving sales through mobile marketing. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice. Retrieved March 14, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Shang, Jen and Americus Reed, and Rachel Croson (June 2008). Identity Congruency Effects on Donations. Journal of Marketing Research. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Smith, Shawn (April 8, 2008). How QR codes could save newspapers from obsolescence. Mlive.com. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.newmediabytes.com/2008/04/06/will-qr-codes-turn-newspapers-into-cash-cows/

Spiller, L and M Baier (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Creativity: A Visitation of Sorcerers or a Process?

Should Creativity Follow a Process?
It should follow a process. The complexity in Marketing Communications with the advent of interactive, addressable Internet media now requires technical deftness. It is no longer art, or copy in isolation. It now integrates art and copy and also technology: cross cutting skill sets. The goal is not just art but a meaningful product. As Jaffe (2008, p 1) says:

"Creativity is just way too important to be left to a single person, a dynamic duo or a department anymore."

He warns us to know ourselves (p 2):

• "how much time is wasted by slowing down the process”
• “how little time is actually spent collaborating with insiders and outsiders”
• “how many different platforms or approaches [technologies] were taken into account”

Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 6) imply that creativity is already subject to an implicit process “imposed by strategic considerations.” They go on to say that the strategy brief provides a framework that “gives [creatives] latitude to define the opportunity, like a canvas for a painting. “

An expressly defined process from Graham Wallas (see Stultz, 2009, p 1), or James Webb Young (see Drewniany, 2008, pp 129-30) gives us the framework to focus and orchestrate work from various contributors to meet the needs of the client. Creativity becomes less arcane so well heeled account professionals can fit it into their business routine. Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 5) observe that creatives are most likely to step back and let account execs control the creative dialog. With a well known creative process, the competitive account team knows when to take a back seat and let the less aggressive right brainers have a say.

Kracauer (1926/1963/2005, p 78) takes the opposite viewpoint. Kracauer was a cultural analyst and member of the applied social sciences group at Columbia University. His work laid the foundation for modern film criticism. He argues that an artist is too big and will appear out of place in a “mechanistic” process. His analogy was for Weimar Germany but an equivalent modern American example is that the exquisite Suzanne Farrell could never be just a line dancer for the Rockettes, not that there is anything wrong with them. She is too creative and their routine too mechanical.

However, Stultz (2009, p 2) points out, the purpose of creative advertising is not patrician art but sales so we need to produce what is appropriate for the target market. Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 6) are more harsh and note that even if creatives think of themselves as artists they haven’t left their day jobs. They may want to be artists but are not big enough. So they apply their less certain creativity to further the aims of their patrons, and those banal brands.

Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 2) provide a working definition of creativity as a combination of originality and appropriateness. Originality is easy to spot but conversely, appropriateness is difficult to assay (ibid, pp 2-3). Appropriateness is the basis of our paycheck from the client. The creative strategy is the roadmap to appropriateness. A well known creative process helps to ensure that everyone is singing from the same page so we avoid a mismatch between creative team and the account exec: one providing artistry and originality while the other is expecting strategy fulfillment and originality (see Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003, p 9).

Can Creativity Follow a Process?
Yes, creativity can be made into a process and the proof is that successful agencies like J. Walter Thompson (see Drewniany and Jewler, 2008, p 129) have defined and incorporated a creative model into their work. Yes, it can because certain techniques create an atmosphere of creativity so we can hot up the copy or visuals (for example see Stultz, 2009, p 3). Finally, yes because if a definitive process like the mind-numbing tedium of American public schools took our creativity from us (see Stultz, 2009, p 3), it is safe to assume a reverse process can help us to regain at least some of it.

Karl Weick, the noted psychologist believes that creativity follows a process and says (1979, pp 252-4) that “creativity is putting old things into new combinations or new things into old combinations. “ He describes techniques to cut through the overpowering tangle of words and images to arrive at a salient idea. Crovitz's Relational Algorithm is one of them.

To generate creative ideas, Crovitz uses a basic sentence structure: "Take one thing in relation to another thing." For us, the things are the key brand values, customer characteristics or market conditions. They can also be symbols or colors. The [in relation to] is a set of 42 relational English words. A substitution is iteratively applied: brand values into [one thing], customer attributes or market conditions into [another thing], and for each pair a rotation of the 42 relational English words into [in relation to]. Each sentence is then evaluated. For more information see Crovitz Relational Algorithm.

Weick also advises (1979, p 44) that creativity requires think "ing." By this he means that we should attempt to use verbs rather than nouns. Verbs anticipate objects and events, and apply meaning to them more so than nouns. Also, studies show that future perfect tense rather than simple future tense is more conducive to creativity (p 199).

Simple Future thinking is starting in the present and working to the future. Future perfect tense starts in the future, assuming the event occurred and works backwards to the present. Simple future is difficult because any possible outcome is considered in our thinking, including those not on the path to the desired result. One creative technique he suggests is to write yourself a congratulatory letter from the future that explains in detail how well your creative strategy worked.

The Risk of Bounding Creativity with a Process.
A fundamental risk is that we use yesterday’s vocabulary to understand today’s problem and to generate tomorrow’s solution. Furthermore, we risk reapplying a comfortable but characteristic design and so become predictable. What’s more, keeping in a “comfort zone” may be dangerous because we may lose the exuberant intensity that comes from being in an uncomfortable spot.

Another concern is that it is questionable how well a mechanical process understands meaning and so incorporates it into the solution. Hope is another part of the creative process. Again, it’s uncertain how well a mechanical process understands hope. Hope cushions the shock of setback so it may be that a non-process creativity is more persistent, especially after mechanical tricks don’t give a desirable solution.

Finally, in Kracauer’s view (1926, p 70), bounding creativity with a process is simple minded.

References
Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Strategy in Advertising. Wadsworth

Duncan, T (2005). Principles of Advertising & IMC. McGrawHill/Irwin.

Jaffe, Joseph (April 14, 2008 ). “Is it time to phase out the creative function?” AdWeek. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i8302b5a754f42f182d4e5721245d5619

Koslow, S, Sasser, S and E Riordan (March 2003). What Is Creative to Whom and Why? Perceptions in Advertising Agencies. Journal of Advertising Research.

Kracauer, S and T. Levin (2005) The Mass Ornament. Harvard.

Stultz, L (2009). In Search of the Big Idea. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from WVU.

Weick, Karl (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill.

The Unlearning Organization

Creativity is a way of thinking that can be learned. Sherwood (2000, p 31-40) describes an organizational climate that will encourage and reward the necessary risk-taking behavior required for creativity. He calls it an Unlearning Organization and relates the key characteristics:

1. They make time for thinking, exploration, and innovation.
2. They are always searching for better ways of doing things.
3. Rules are made to be broken.
4. "Negligence" (the deliberate departure from an agreed policy) is considered failure but "learning (what happens when an outcome differs from expectations) is not and is not penalized.
5. They listen, internally and externally. Everyone uses their ears more than their mouths.
6. They share – information, resources and Risk. Nothing is mine, everything is ours.
7. They say "yes" more than they say "no"
8. They only evaluate ideas when there is a full and well-balanced view.
9. They do not shoot from the hip, or jerk from the knee.
10. They recognize that innovation is all about managing risk.
11. They don't expect every innovation to succeed, nor do they place any foolhardy bets.
12. Their performance measures support innovation, rather than discourage it, such ass measuring inputs (like hours spent on idea generation) rather than outputs (number of ideas put into the suggestion box).
13. Managing the line and managing projects exist easily side-by-side; being assigned to an innovation project is symbol of regard; and risk-taking is rewarded.
14. They don't force closure on innovative, open-ended and exploratory tasks.

Unpleasant surprises are the penalty and cost of creative ideas that do not work as expected or intended. Salerno (2003, p 1) says that “When possible, getting buy-in from employees on the front line is a great approach. When [gurus] keep their creative under lock and key they risk leaving employees feeling resentful, confused or disassociated from their [work].”

References

Salerno, Robert (Septemer 8, 2003). 'We Try Harder:' An Ad Creates a Brand. BrandWeek. Retrieved on September 3, 2008 from EBSCOHOST.

Sherwood, Dennis (2000). The Unlearning Organization. Business Strategy Review, 2000, Volume 11 Issue 3.