Super Bowl Ads as Michman,

Super Bowl Ads As Michman, Mazze, & Greco (2003) point out in Lifestyle Marketing: Reaching the New American Consumer, shifts in values and lifestyles impact marketing strategies. Pervasive social concerns such as gender, social class, and the pursuit of personal power are reflected in advertising. Products are sold on the basis of what consumers imagine they will do -- not just on what those products are designed to do. For example, a car is a vehicle engineered for transportation.

Marketing a car almost never depicts the mundane aspects of car ownership, though. Rather, car commercials are selling lifestyle. The textbook chapter on consumer behavior underscores the importance of lifestyle to a marketing strategy. Perner (2010) points out that consumer behavior impacts marketing strategies and even public policy. Because of the broad, massive audience garnered by the Super Bowl, marketers take the opportunity very seriously. The Super Bowl is a benchmark for marketing methods for several reasons. For one, market researchers can investigate the ways marketing messages have changed over time.

Marketing research experts can also examine the changes that take place within an organization. For example, one company might decide to become more socially conscious and begin presenting its brand as "green" or "socially responsible." Another way the Super Bowl is a cornerstone of marketing research is that it can be used to reflect trends in consumer behavior. The results of Super Bowl ads may be measured using absolute sales numbers over the next year. Furthermore, Super Bowl advertisements work on the principle of the target audience.

As the textbook points out, the target market "consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve," (Kotler & Armstrong 2009, p. 225). Super Bowl advertisements reflect the skillful use of two distinct but inter-related marketing principles: target market and consumer behavior. Advertising campaigns, such as the flashy and expensive ones used during the Super Bowl, reflect the ways organizations capitalize on market research.

Having determined that a large number of the Super Bowl target audience -- at least the audience tuning in enough to pay attention to the commercials -- are males. Last year's Super Bowl reflects what might have been many months if not years of consumer demographics research to yield behavioral trends among American males who watch sports. The result of such marketing research includes advertisements like the Chrysler-Dodge Charger advertisement from the 2010 Super Bowl.

The Chrysler-Dodge ad for the Charger edition car comes across as being incredibly sexist and demeaning to both males and females. As such, the advertisement seems outmoded just one year after its release. In the commercial, men bemoan their imagined emasculation. The target market -- white men based on the actors depicted in the ad -- are shown unsmiling. A voice over speaks of the drudgery that infects their lives, from having to clean the sink after shaving to having to put their underwear in the laundry hamper.

At first, the advertisement seems perfectly normal as the men seem only to begrudge their tedious work lives. Yet suddenly about halfway through the commercial the tone shifts. The men are directing their anger, and their fear of sexual impotence, on their female friends. Ultimately the message of the advertisement is: "We men sacrifice so much, do so much for anyone but ourselves, and bend over backwards to serve females, that we finally deserve a car that we like to drive." The message of the Chrysler-Dodge Charger is ridiculous.

After all, the car is not in the luxury category and does not represent a splurge to begin with. Yet the advertisement does reflect the marketing strategies being used by Chrysler-Dodge in 2010. The target market is clear: white men who have steady jobs and committed heterosexual relationships. The consumer behavior is plainly insinuated in the tone and theme of the advertisement. Men in this target market group are concerned about their masculinity and therefore more prone to buy objects that make them feel manlier.

If a car promises to mitigate the feminizing effect of being in a committed relationship or in any job that does not involve the demolition derby, then that car might be worth buying. An advertisement like the 2010 Chrysler-Dodge Charger one therefore illustrates well the concepts of target market and predicting consumer behavior. It is interesting to compare the 2010 Chrysler-Dodge advertisement with the 2011 Chrysler advertisement that aired during the Super Bowl. Although the 2011 advertisement is not for a specific brand of automobile like the Charger, it is nevertheless the same company.

In 2011, the advertisement shifts from being puerile as it was in 2010 to being highly sophisticated and well directed. A celebrity endorsement is used, again one that appeals to the target market of white males. Eminem is shown driving one of the luxury models of the Chrysler. At the beginning of the advertisement, the voice over uses keywords and catch phrases that signify luxury, upward social mobility, and the achievement of the American Dream.

Anyone familiar with Eminem's biography knows that this Motor City musician did in fact rise from the trailer park into stardom. Eminem does represent the fulfillment of the American Dream. Thus, the use of Eminem in the advertisement appeals to all the working class men who aspire to something greater. This message is more inspiring than the one presented in 2010's advertisement for the same car company. Furthermore, in the 2011 advertisement, Eminem and the voice over extol the virtues of Detroit.

The advertisement is as much an endorsement of the Detroit lifestyle and commemoration of the city's history as it is a sales pitch for the car. The last line of the commercial, printed plainly on the screen, reads: "Imported…from Detroit." The idea is that most Americans have begun buying foreign cars. It is an ethical and patriotic choice to buy a car made in the United States.

Consumers impacted by a message emphasizing upward social mobility, the American Dream, and patriotism will surely be moved to purchase an automobile made by Chrysler.