American Express is a global, diversified financial services company headquartered in New York. The company is over 150 years old, founded in 1850. It is best known for its credit card, charge card, and travelers check business, but has numerous ancillary operations that are profit centers. On of the key factors in the improvement of American Express in the market is the continual thrust of its brand. Beginning in the 1960s American Express distinguished itself for two decades with several highly acclaimed campaigns. Advertising Age included two 1970s American Express campaigns (‘‘Do You Know Me?’’ and ‘‘Don’t Leave Home without It’’ featuring Karl Malden) on its list of the ‘‘50 Best Commercials.’’ The 1988 print campaign featuring photos of famous card members by Annie Leibovitz was a finalist for the book Advertising’s Ten Best of the Decade 1980—1990. But in 1990 AT&T Corp. disrupted the general purpose credit card market Continue reading
Advertising Case Studies
Case Study: Citibank “Live Richly” Ad Campaign
Founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, this urban merchant’s bank continued to expand and diversify its services over the next century. The bank changed its name to Citibank, N.A. (National Association), in 1976, following its parent holding company’s change to Citicorp. In 1998 Citicorp and the Travelers Group completed a $76 billion merger to form Citigroup, Inc. Citicorp was at the time the second-largest commercial bank, and Travelers Group was a leading international insurance/investment banking firm. The Citicorp-Travelers merger thus represented a new era of horizontal expansion. Citigroup then began an acquisition spree that included acquiring in 2002 Golden State Bancorp (the parent company of First Nationwide Mortgage and California Federal Bank), a move that added 352 branches and approximately 1.5 million new customers to Citigroup. By then the company was well on its way to having 3,000 bank branches and consumer-finance offices in the United Continue reading
Case Study: Apple iPod Silhouette Ad Campaign
Released by Apple Computer, Inc., in November 2001, the iPod rapidly grew in sales and by 2005 had become the world’s top-selling MP3 player. With a 1,000-song capacity, the first iPod worked only with Apple computers and retailed at $400. From 2003 to 2005, however, Apple ferociously promoted five new Windows-compatible iPod models, along with the company’s digital music store, iTunes. In an attempt to define the fun associated with the iPod brand and to steer advertising away from the Apple computer, the company released its ‘‘Silhouette’’ campaign. In October 2003 ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day (TBWA\C\D) introduced outdoor ‘‘Silhouette’’ ads in Los Angeles, followed by a nationwide print and television launch. All ads displayed black silhouettes of people listening to white iPods and dancing in front of radiant green, yellow, fuchsia, and pink backgrounds. The television spots were accompanied by upbeat music from bands like N.E.R.D. and the Black Eye Peas. Continue reading
Case Study: Airbnb’s Growth Strategy Using Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is a way of promoting and selling products and services by leveraging online marketing strategies such as search marketing, social media marketing or even email marketing. Digital Marketing is known as one of the best ways to help businesses to send their message in front of their best prospects and customers. The idea is to send the right and best offer at the right place and time. Today, customers are found online, on social media, staying updated on news sites or blogs, searching online if there is a need. Digital Marketing is no different than traditional marketing, both seek to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with leads, customers and prospects. But, digital marketing had to change tactics because it’s designed to reach today’s consumers. For example, think about the last purchase you made, regardless of what it was, you probably began by searching the internet to learn more Continue reading
Case Study: Doritos Chips “The Loudest Taste on Earth” Ad Campaign
The Frito Company began operations in San Antonio, Texas, in 1932 and merged with H. W. Lay & Company to form Frito-Lay in 1961. Four years later, Frito-Lay merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company to form PepsiCo, and during the 1990s the snack food division became known as the Frito-Lay Company. In 1997 Frito-Lay expanded its product lines in Europe, Australia, and South America by purchasing salty snack brands in countries there, and in the United States it acquired the Cracker Jack brand of candy-coated popcorn and peanuts. Frito-Lay made nine of the 10 top-selling brands of snack chips in the United States, including Lay’s and Ruffles potato chips, Cheetos cheese puffs, Rold Gold pretzels, and Tostitos and Doritos tortilla chips. The company’s first product had been Fritos corn chips, which were promoted for years by a character called the Frito Kid and later with the tag line ‘‘Munch a Bunch! Continue reading
Case Study: Cisco “Self-Defending Network” Ad Campaign
Besides being one of the NASDAQ’s fastest-growing stocks during the late 1990s, Cisco was also the world’s leading producer of switches and routers that directed traffic across the Internet. In 1998 Cisco released advertising that encouraged Internet usage, which in turn increased the demand for Cisco’s hardware. Two years later Cisco’s ad agency, Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc., introduced a $43.8 million campaign with the tagline ‘‘Empowering the Internet generation.’’ The campaign’s television spots, including one titled ‘‘Factory,’’ featured Cisco’s hardware increasing businesses internet usage, which indirectly boosted the businesses profits. After the technology sector plummeted in late 2000, Cisco did not release a campaign for almost three years. In June 2002 Cisco awarded its advertising account to DarkGrey, the technology unit of Grey Global Group. For its first few months doing business with Cisco, DarkGrey developed a campaign with the tagline ‘‘Advancing the human network.’’ None of the DarkGrey Continue reading