Advertising and

Marketing
Communications
Report
B3096

26th March 2010

1. Select an organisation whose advertising/marketing communications appear
problematic, and outline aspects which you feel could be approved upon, giving reasons.

An organisation who currently has problematic marketing and advertising

communications is Nestle. The advertisement in question is the ‘ding dong/knitted by
nanas’ advertisement for Shreddies cereal. For further reference the advertisement can be
viewed on the website You Tube (You Tube 2010a). The expected target group for this
cereal is children. Nestle have not verbally expressed this but it can be concluded by it’s
previous advertising, the timing of these adverts which is usually in the morning when
children would be watching television before school an its position on supermarket
shelves which is next to other cereals aimed at children. In addition to this Nestle also
offers games for kids which is linked to the Shreddies adverts by including the nanas
(Shreddies 2010).

Although it has been concluded that the target group for this product is children, there is
no clear message on who the advertisement is targeted at. Some of the language used in
the advert like “scrumptious” and “yummy” and the use of nanas would all highlight that
it is aimed at children, but the there is conflicting imagery like the Marilyn Monroe poses
and dresses that is connected to the adult generation and the fact that there is no children
in the advert which may lead children to believe it is not an advert for them. Therefore
there is no distinction to whether this advert is aimed at adults for them to purchase the
product for their children, if it is aimed at children so they use their pester power the
convince their parents to buy the product, or if the advert was actually designed to look
like it was for adults but they were actually targeting children (Bridges and Briesch
2006). This will be problematic because if the decision makers for this particular product
do not believe the advert is for them then they may not have an interest in the advert
(Binns 2010) .

The most problematic area in this advertisement is the sexual imagery which is conveyed
onto the nanas. Sexual imagery is used to sell many different products as people feel that
if they buy and use the products they will become more sexually attractive, but these
products are mainly ones that are targeted at the adults, the youngest target group being
teenagers (Silerova 2004). This advert will be viewed by children younger than this who
the product is aimed at and therefore to young to recognise the sexual image as it will not
be understood as they are too young to grasp the full meanings. Considering the older
consumer that may be watching this advertisement this imagery may not work on them
either as it is disturbing to watch (Millward Brown 2008). Sexual imagery is mainly
represented by attractive young adults in advertisements and in this advert it is being
represented by grandmothers, or as they refer to them nanas (Millward Brown 2008).
Most people do not think about their grandparents in a sexual way like they are perceived
in the advert, making it disturbing to the viewer. This may be because they are part of
your family and because people have stronger perceptions, ideas and values of
grandparents that overrule any other ideas.

This is a form of weak communication as the encoded message that Nestle has tried to
create has been decoded by the viewers, potential consumers, in what is presumed to be
the wrong way (Harvey and Evans 2001). An encoded message can produce a variety of
different meanings to a product depending on how the viewer decodes it, but this has to
be controlled by the producer so that all the possible decoded messages are positive. This
advertisement did not achieve this as it has produced a decoded message which has
created negative feelings about grandmothers because they are being portrayed as sexual,
these thoughts and feelings may then be transferred over to the product concluding in the
consumers ideas of the brand being damaged (Leech and September 2004).
2. Through analysis of this marketing communication outline your estimation of the
intended communications strategy, and identify the communication elements that
informed your analysis.

Nestle would have spent a huge sum of money on this advertisement which is highlighted
by the fact that it is shown on television which is an expensive medium to use and will
target a mass market (Rogers 1995). They would not have intended to create a poor
advertisement so their marketing strategy must have been perceived to be strong but there
where certain elements in it that have been missed that caused it to be less successful. It
can be estimated that it was intended for semiotics to be used with the placement of old
women who are the nanas in the advert. This sign could trigger ideas of family, sweets,
knitting, kind, good food, old, small, happy, financial support, etc. These are all positive
thoughts that should be produced when the viewers see the images of grandmothers
which may then be related to Shreddies and cause the consumer to produce positive
values and beliefs towards the product (Herstein and Tifferet 2007).

Shreddies are advertised to have a new recipe so to express this they have given the nanas
a different image. This is another strategy they may have been intending as it could have
created humour in the advert which has become a very popular strategy to use in a wide
range of adverts (Toncar 2001). Humour has been created at the start by the nanas
knitting the Shreddies as this is an impossible scenario. This creates entertainment for the
viewer which may attract them to watch the advert and create an interest in the product
which would be the desirable outcome for Shreddies because this may lead to the
consumer purchasing the product. This is the traditional way of viewing advertising as it
uses the theory of A.I.D.A. Although this is nearly an obsolete theory it is a good target
to aim to reach because if every person that watched the advert would then act in buying
the product then this is a very desirable outcome for Nestle (Barnham 2008).

This advertisement is not a one off, it has the same theme which has been used
continuously throughout five advertisements that Nestle has produced for Shreddies. It
has been produced like a storyline. These advertisements have been for Shreddies
original, honey, frosted, coco and the advertisement in question which is the latest one in
the series and is to advertise the new recipe. Since there has been a few adverts with the
same running theme of the nanas knitting the Shreddies then it must be concluded from
this that the previous advertisements were a success, otherwise the storyline would most
likely have been cut and a new advertisement produced instead. Therefore part of the
marketing strategy would have been to continue with the current storyline and theme.

The final part of the strategy may have been to be aware off their potential markets
advertising literacy levels. Children’s literacy to advertising has increased largely within
the current generation. This translates into facts like they expect advertising to fabricate
the truth so no longer believe everything advertising tells them. This literacy to
advertising is becoming more frequent in younger children as in today’s world they are
exposed to a mass of advertisements every day (Gunter et al. 2005). With this in mind
Shreddies would have had no worries about portraying the fact that all their individual
Shreddies were hand knitted by nanas as children now have an understanding that this is
not true. Instead it is just a fun play of scenarios as nanas usually knit and Shreddies look
like they are knitted together, therefore this image has been created to humour the
audience/customers.
3. Through analysis of that strategy state whether or not you see it as being in any way
apt, your reasons being expressed through market and competitor analysis.

Overall the intended strategy that was produced to market Nestle’s Shreddies was
appropriate to the product. The main ideas and theories in the strategy were relevant but
they did not work because of a mistake made in the use of sexual imagery. The main
ideas in the strategy were to aim the product at children, to use humour, a storyline and
semiotics. The factor that they failed on was to do with the semiotics. Aiming cereal
products at children is a strategy that Nestle and many of its competitors have taken in the
past. For example one of Nestle’s big competitors Kellogg’s aim their products Coco
Pops, Frosties and Rice Krispies at children (Kellogg’s 2010) The reason why certain
products are advertised towards child is because they are becoming very influential
decision makers within the family (Bandyopadhyay 2001). Figures from McNeal (1999,
pp.40-41) also show that 76% children’s first requests to purchase products are made in
supermarkets and 47% of the products requested by children is cereal. These figures
show that there is definitely a market present to direct cereal advertising at children.

Humour in this advertisement is very low but it is necessary as children enjoy being
entertained (Lindstrom and Seybold 2003). The use of humour in advertising cereal is a
strategy that Nestle’s competition Kellogg’s has used in the past and may be an aspect
that Nestle has decided to adopt to stay competitive within their advertising. Nestle’s
Shreddies is an established brand as they have been around for a long time, especially the
brand name Nestle. It is not a new product and people already know what it is, therefore
the advertisement does not need to tell the audience about the product but they still need
to advertise to remind consumers of the product and to stay competitive (Gelman 2008).
For Shreddies they have produced an advert which is completely abstract and inserted the
brand into it. This may also be why the humour was created as there was not much to
mention about the brand, just that they have a new recipe.

The storyline of the advertisement is a good strategy to undertake, but only if the
previous adverts in the story have been successful as this would prove that the previous
adverts had a positive effect on the viewers. By using the same themes it means the
advert creators do not need to create an advert from scratch again, therefore saving time
and money in the production process of the advert. These savings may also help them to
stay competitive as the time saving could mean that they get their adverts onto television
before their competition an secure a good positioning, time it is shown on television,
before their competitors can buy the media space. The financial savings that may occur
could help Nestle as this could be spent on further marketing communications which
would expand their strategy (Laroche et al. 2006). There is also evidence to show that
this strategy has been a success in the past for other companies which makes it a safer
decision to take (Cooper et al. 1990)

It can be believed that the use of nanas in the advertisement was potentially a clever
approach to take as most children and many adults have strong positive connections to
their grandparents. These positive feelings should be released when the imagery is
produced in the context of Shreddies advertising. As Shreddies triggered these feelings to
be remembered then a link should be produced in the viewers mind which relates these
feelings to the product Shreddies (Barnham 2008).
4. Outline your alternative marketing communications campaign, and emphasise the
manner whereby it improves upon the original as described in section 1.

It has been identified that this advertisement needs to be altered as the sexual imagery in
it was classed as disturbing. The reasoning behind this has been established so this needs
to be extracted and changed so that the same message is given across to the viewers but
given in a way that produces positive emotions. The strategic ideas behind this
advertisement and generally all well thought out plans, therefore there is no need to
change the whole advert it will only be the problematic areas which were identified
earlier that need to be changed. The part of the advert that needs to be changed starts
about seventeen seconds in when the nanas start to act in a sexual way. The content in
the advertisement up until this point is adequate so there is no reason to change it.

The main message in this advertisement is that Shreddies now have a new recipe. To
emphasis this the advertisement could show the nanas in a family home kitchen testing
out different recipes. Showing them as thread like so that the nanas can then knit them
together, therefore the nanas could be tasting them like spaghetti. By doing this it will
change the sexual imagery with the ideas of cooking in a kitchen. This should erase the
parts in the advert which make it disturbing.

Another change that should be made to the advert is to add a child into it. It is proposed
that a child would be added to the end of the advert when the advert should go back to
showing the nanas knitting the Shreddies, which is where a small child the age of
someone at the top end of the target group nicks one of the Shreddies out of one of the
boxes they are filling up. A short piece of dialogue should also be added here to show the
nanas telling the child off, but this should be done in a humorous way which this time the
viewers will be able to grasp.

One aspect that was missed out from the original advert which could be introduced is the
fact that Nestlé’s Shreddies have a nutritional value which is shown on their website.
This would be an improvement on the original advertisement as it adds in important
information. Since it is advertising a new recipe this could reassure the consumer that the
nutritional values in the cereal have not been lost.
5. What outcomes do you envisage as a result of your reworked marketing
communications, and what reasons have you to anticipate a positive reaction.

The reason for adapting the advertisement is so that it becomes more successful than the
previous one, therefore there are a variety of different outcomes that are expected from
this advert which should create a positive reaction. These outcomes have been
researched so that the best scenarios could have been produced to avoid this being a poor
quality advert again.

The first outcome that is expected from the reworked advert is to produce ideas about
Shreddies which are about the brand instead of conflicting with it. This outcome should
be achieved by setting a part of the advert in a family kitchen. The ideas and values that
the kitchen reflects are values of home cooking and family life which should produce
ideas about the brand of it being a product for the family and that it is wholesome and
healthy from the connotations of home cooking. By using this imagery instead it is a
more safer approach as the messages that may be decoded from it will be reduced by
using a standard everyday almost clichéd image that the audience will be prone to seeing
from their home life (Ionita and Griffiths 2009). The setting of a family’s home kitchen
is also a set that has been used by Nestle Shreddies competition. For example the current
advert for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies is set the kitchen with the mother and daughter sitting
at the table (You Tube 2010b). As Nestlé’s competition has used this strategy in the past
and is still using it then they must have research and evidence to prove it is successful.

The second outcome for this new advertisement is to make clear, at least in the marketing
strategy, who this advertisement will be targeted at to clarify it more to the viewers. This
will be achieved through looking at the marketing theory of micro and macro audiences
because by segmenting the audience into groups these groups should contain the same
attitudes so should respond positively to an advert designed to satisfy this (Lieberman
2009). In this advertisement the micro audience is children because as was explained
earlier, they are mainly the decision makers of a family. As children are being targeted
they need a way to understand that the advert is for them. Research shows that children
pay attention to advertisements and know they are being targeted at when there is another
child in the advert, therefore a child has been added to encourage children to watch the
advert (White 2006). The macro audience in this advertisement is adults, specifically
parents, as they are the people who will actually be physically purchasing the product
(McNeal 1999). The nutritional information has been added into this advert to target
these adults to persuade them that this is a good product to buy for their children.

The advert will also be aimed at children by making it humorous. Children watch adverts
for entertainment purposes so by making it entertaining it will attract them to it. Figures
show that 86% of children voted that having fun was that most important element, so by
providing children with a humorous advert is consequently fulfilling their needs
(Lindstrom and Seybold 2003). Overall it is predicted that will all this evidence the new
advertisement should create a positive reaction from it’s viewers and therefore be
successful.
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