My question for the panel is: Do the Budweiser Lizards actually cause anymore Budwieser to be purchased? Is it effective as an ad campaign in terms of increasing Anheiser-Busch’s sales, or is it just a little semi-humorous piece of drivel?
Don’t know. But Eddie and Frank are pissers. I think their radio spots are better than their TV fare, though.
Does any advertising really cause anyone to buy more of any particular product? Some things I concede, sure…but beer, just as cigarettes or maybe cheese or milk or bacon (or whatever) we choose because it’s “our brand”, we like it, and we’re loyal to it. Most people I know, myself included, don’t go to buy smokes and wonder to themselves, “hmmm, should I try that brand that promised I’d be a better water skiier?”
I am fiercely loyal to some certain things, as most people are to their chosen poison. Not being a beer drinker, I couldn’t tell you what goes through the minds of most budweiser consumers, but I happen to get a kick out of their ads.
I was watching a college football game with hubby thismorning (hey, there’s a first for everything) and saw a new bud ad with 2 dalmations separated as pups, one went to the local firehall, the other to the Bud brewery. 2 years later (sorry, 14 in dog years) they pass one other on the road, the fire truck-riding dalmation happily recognizing the more aloof brewery wagon-riding one. As they pass, fire dog gets all happy at seeing its litter mate while the brewery dog quietly sticks out his tongue at the fire dog. Funny as hell, but would it make me buy a case of bud? Not likely.
I guess it’s mostly a guy thing of associated loyalty, Budweiser being associated with pro sports to the extent it is; Football! Arrrgh! Beer! Arrrgh! More power! Arrrgh! Whoo Whoo Whoo.
In the words of the brilliantly overblown Shania Twain…“whatever!”
You can’t save your face and your ass at the same time.
Sometimes the purpose of a commercial is not to convince you to buy a product. It’s to help you remember the brand when you’re shopping. Budwiser commercials have been doing this for a long time. They already dominate the market in the US, so all they have to do is to keep reminding you of the name.
For instance, I prefer imports, but on occasion I’ve been talking with someone at a bar and didn’t know what brand I wanted. So to my complete horror, I find myself ordering a Bud. (The problem is that each bar carries different imports, and sometimes I don’t feel like playing the guessing game to find out which ones they have.)
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In this case look at the product. It’s not beer. It’s Budweiser beer. They are already the top selling product in their field. They aren’t hyping a superior taste, or a better way of aging (like they did years ago when they went head to head against Miller). These warm/fuzzy ads are more into “reinforcement” of the product.
Well, it’s the age old advertising question about if it sells more product. Like anything else, there is no right or wrong answer. On one hand, you have Pepsi and Coke spending billions of dollars each on advertising, and what does it get them? About the same percentage of sales every year.
Then again, Apple’s Superbowl advertisement during the Superbowl in 1984 jump-started their sales immesurably and arguably helped the home personal computer become more accepted by the mainstream.
Ultimately though, this OP might be asking is recurring characters and pitch-lines help a company. If anyone has copies of Ad Age, a leading advertising trade publication, I know they did a story on this within the last couple of years. TV Guide recently expounded on the top 50 commercials of all time, and it commented on how these commercials helped sales of the product advertised.
Ultimately, catchy phrases like “Where’s The Beef?” and and characters such as Mr. Whipple have noticably increased sales for the companies they shilled for.
That said, sometimes a catchy character can only bring controversy… Joe Camel, anyone?
Yer pal,
Satan
TO some extent, I think advertising has become a business unto itself, and the major commercial makers are more interested in amusing themselves, or winning acclaim in the ad industry, than they are in increasing their clients’ sales.
In terms of sheer effectiveness at increasing sales, the most effective TV ads of all time were those by Arm & Hammer, about 25 years ago, suggesting that people should keep a box of baking soda in the fridge to cut down on odors.
Now, THAT ad sure didn’t win any Clio awards, and wasn’t an artisitic masterpiece. It wasn’t “cutting edge,” and didn’t appeal to any particular demographic. But it boosted sales of Arm & Hammer ENORMOUSLY… which I USED to think was the real object of advertising.
astorian: Kinda like the old stand-by shooting bullet through the padlock, eh?
That was also a highly effective, relatively no frills ad that ran for years during the Superbowl amongst the big-budget fare, and always did well in consumer grading.
But the question you should ask yourself is why one particular brand is “your brand”. I doubt you read a Consumer’s Report guide to cigarettes before deciding what brand to smoke. You picked one based on their advertising campaigns, which is the same way most people (including myself) decide their purchases from beer to soup to cars.
Mike, that’s not always the case…I smoke a particular brand of cigarette, not because it makes me feel like a big 'ol cowboy, stomping around Manhattan in my ten-gallon boots, but because it is a sufficiently popular brand that I know I’ll get fairly fresh tobacco…when I was younger I smoked weird off-brands, and every other pack was stale.
For the record, it looks like the Taco Bell dog is about to get the heave-ho. The chihuahua made its national debut at the end of 1997. Since the ads aired, Taco Bell’s same-store sales have increased a modest 3% in 1998. Most recent figures show a same-store sales increase of 1%.
People at Tricon say the dog will no longer be the focus and the food will again take center stage.
Look for “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” to be dropped by the end of the year and replaced with “Grande Taste, Loco Price. Only at Taco Bell.”
So much for warm/fuzzy there.
Thank GOD! I hate that dog. Never liked it. And the fact that the dog would probably taste better in one of their tacos than the “meat” they use now has nothing to do with it, I swear…