Past and Present Company Strategies

After discussing the nature of business this week in American Studies, as well as magazine and commercial ads, I have noticed myself become much more aware of various companies’ marketing strategies. For example, this week while I watched CSI with Taylor Swift as the guest star, I noticed several commercials regarding her future performances at concert arenas and award shows. Also, when I watched a televised college basketball game, I observed several alcoholic beverages being advertised. In both scenarios, the companies seem to attempt to appeal to an audience that they believe is watching. This is something that I was never aware of before. Playing certain commercials on particular stations seems to be a key strategy to cause privileged Americans to believe that they need more than they already have. However, one company that I kept seeing reoccurring ads for, regardless of the station, was Geico, the car insurance company that has forever embedded the line, “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance”, into my mind.

I completed some research to discover the reasons that this company to receives so much airtime and discovered that it is because car-insurance appeals to a mass amount of people…almost everyone who drives a car. An article entitled, “The Best Ad on Television”, states that Geico appeals to, “Pretty much everyone—man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, hip or hick. If you drive a car, they want your business” (Stevenson). However, I also noticed that these ads are very diversified. They range from understandable tame ads for serious drivers, to comedic ads that younger people may like.
Various ads, such as Geico, have made me more aware of the strategic plans of the advertisers. These companies realize that people may, for instance, already have car insurance, so they place multiple commercials on a variety of stations to convince people that their insurance is somehow better. This is similar to several magazine ads we discussed at in class such as the Verizon Wireless ads that appeal to both teens who desire to become popular, and older customers, who may desire a simpler styled phone.
All of these ads ultimately reminded me of the story of the car company General Motors. A company that caused people to yearn for their product by changing the style and color of cars, and convincing people that what they have is not quite good enough, and that they need to have something better. Whether it is a humorous car-insurance advertisement, or a different paint color on a car, it seems that the base of advertising has not changed a lot since the 1920’s. Companies still use similar strategies in order to persuade customers to buy their product.