Pay Attention to the CommercialsDon’t go to work! Don’t go to school! Stay home tomorrow and watch some TV. Daytime television commercials can be classified into who they are being marketed to.
Businesses realize who will be watching TV between ten a. m. and two p. m. so they target their ads to these TV watchers. The majority of the viewers between these times are the stay at home moms, out of work people, and the people who stayed home from work sick.
The only reason that I pick up on such a minor detail as this is because my goal is to graduate from college with a major in marketing. I watch commercials and laugh when I see the approach used by some businesses to get the attention of their consumers. Women tend to watch talk shows and soap operas, so commercials during these programs are marketed to the stay at home mom. These commercials are for toiletries such as diapers, toilet paper, and paper towels. Cleaning supply commercials show happy women doing the dishes while using Dawn and mopping with Pinesol or Mr.
Clean. Another type of commercial aimed to stay at home moms is for snacks. Hoping that moms will buy these after school snacks, commercials show children being able to help themselves so the moms have more time for other things. The new commercial for microwave pasta does exactly that by showing how easily kids can make a meal that’s better for them than cookies and chips. Other types of products that moms may be more inclined to purchase are peanut butter, bread, juice drinks, and products that children want in their school lunches.
The commercials for these products try to show how much healthier they are for children than the competitor. Juice boxes always claim to be made with real fruit juice when they really only have about 5%, but moms are looking to give their children the very best. There are some commercials targeted just for the mom in mind though, such as: Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and cereals that are good for you like Special K. Moms who do not have much time on their hands need an easy way to lose weight, so when they see these commercials they may think it will get them a little thinner without the effort of committing to a gym. Lastly, there are commercials for hair color, shampoo, conditioner, and makeup. Herbal Essence chooses to show how using their product will take you away from all the hassles of the world when you use it.
What mom wouldn’t want that?The other audience watching shows such as Judge Judy and Moral Court are the out of work people. This audience is kind of a slacker who lays around the house all day not motivated to find a job or do much of anything except flip through the channels. These people aren’t interested in what they can buy so they need different advertising. This is where the chiropractors, lawyers, ideas/patents, and college commercials come in. Zero down! No credit, bad credit okay! If you’re an accident victim we’ll work for you! Discount fees, not discount service! There are some key words to grab the out of work viewer’s attention.
Commercials for this group have to be easy and catchy. Goldberg and Osborn show pictures of an eagle while talking about how they can help customers if they were wrongfully accused and then display an easy phone number to remember that ties in with the eagle, 1-800-THE EAGLE. DEVRY, ITTTech, and High Tech Institute want people to be motivated to get off the couch, stop watching TV, and go to school to get a better job. There is a new commercial that does just that with the no pass, no pay guarantee.
If someone get bad grades they will not even have to pay. An awesome deal like that will surely motivate someone to register for classes. Auto dealerships also target to this group sometimes. Offering zero down and no payments until 2002 makes it easy for someone without a job to feel like they have just as good of a chance as anyone to get a new car so they can drive to find a job. The audience of out of work people isn’t interested in buying so commercials targeted to them are for businesses that can help them. The final group or daytime television viewers are the people who stay home from work sick.
The viewers may have a cold or the flu or something more serious to keep them away from work. These consumers need products that will make them feel better and ease their pain. Commercials are for Excedrin, Advil, Tylenol, Bayer, and Motrin IB. Nyquil will help you sleep and Dayquil will keep you awake, but both will help relieve coughing, stuffy heads, runny noses, sneezing, and fevers. If you’re sick maybe Tylenol Cold and Flu will make your symptoms subside.
Kleenex and Puffs both offer tissue with soothing lotion or aloe vera for chapped noses due to constant blowing. TV now has an overwhelming amount of prescription commercials. Despite all the side effects and warnings, companies want you to go to your doctor and see if this medicine is right for you. If you’ve got asthma, heart-burn, diabetes, depression, herpes, or any other problem there is a new product to help you. Consult your doctor.
Businesses hope that marketing their products this way may make customers want to run to the store to try the new cold medicine to help runny roses. After watching these commercial TV viewers should know just what to take in any circumstance. The next time you stay home and watch a little TV think about these classifications. Most commercials could fall into one of the categories of being marketed towards the stay at home mom, the out of work, and someone who didn’t go to work, because of a sickness. Commercials at night in prime time television and late night TV do not use this same approach; the advertisements are classified to different consumers than the daytime viewers.
Even if you are not interested in marketing it is nice to know the category that you might fit into. Take a break and stay home tomorrow. Not just to watch TV shows, but to watch the commercials for a change.
