-Ricola Cough Drops Advertisement-
1. Describe the advertisement in detail and how the business implemented the four P’s to add value and/or promote the product or service.
{ Scroll to bottom to see advertisement }
This advertisement for Ricola is a plain yellow background with the words, “She’s *cough* just a friend.” At the bottom it says, “Make sure good news sounds like good news,” and a little cough drop bag icon placed in the corner.
The four “P’s.” Price, Product, Place, and Promotion. PRICE: There really is not anything about price on the advertisement. PRODUCT: It shows a picture of Ricola’s product – the bag of cough drops – to give us an idea of what they look like and help us place what the brand “Ricola” is: a cough drop brand. PLACE: I saw the advertisement online, so that is where I saw it. However, you can buy these cough drops at just about any convenience or grocery store. PROMOTION: They promote their product really quite well for a cough drop company! They have the catchy phrase to get people’s attention in addition to a bright yellow background that also draws attention and matches the company brand color at the same time.
2. Describe the target market (ie. what segments are being targeted)? How do you know this is the target market? Did the company make good decisions to reach the target market?
The target market is adults. It is not very often that one would see a child going into the store and walking out with cough drops. That would be weird to see. More specifically, though, the target market also focuses on people that are sick or get sick frequently. Therefore, I agree with Ricola’s promotional decisions. For this advertisement, they made the slogan something that (usually) only adults would recognize or connect with.
3. Does it work? Why or why not? Any general observations?
The slogan they used was quite ingenious! It catches people’s attention because almost everybody has said that phrase at least once in their life and when it is being said, people often don’t believe it. So the idea that the person coughs in the middle of the already skeptical sentence makes it seem even more like a lie. Because of this, people see the phrase and want to see who is advertising it and why that common phrase is being used! Therefore, their promotion of their product was very successful!
Andrea Wollman's Marketing Blog 