Saturday 26 January 2013

Abstract

Advertisement in general is considered to be quite poor in Malta. We often see that most companies advertise their products or services using traditional methods such as advertisement prints on newspapers, magazines and billboards. Some companies have moved away from traditional media and have turned to advertisement online; through websites (& social networks), however even this has now become a form of traditional media. Therefore, I feel that there is still a lack of creativity when it comes to alternative guerrilla methods, with the excuse for this being mainly expenses.

In my project I intend to look into alternative methods of automobile advertisement. My starting point will be researching theories about consumer buyer behaviour and investigate further what people look for when buying expensive products. I will also be researching a brief history of automobile consumer buyer behaviour and how it has changed throughout the years. This will help me to better understand how psychology od advertisement works. My research will continue on traditional automobile adverts including a look into their history to see how effective these are and what kind of impact they leave on people. Then, I shall put aside the traditional methods of advertisement, and focus on alternative ones. I will be looking at a range of interactive adverts, installations or events that automobile companies have set up and further investigate whether these were effective or not. 

As a final project I will be setting up an interactive installation to promote a company's product; a motorcycle. The installation shall be developed through the research itself; therefore I'll  be able to better understand what issues are to be addressed in the installation. I will be setting up the installation in a public space or a shopping complex in Malta to attract as much people as possible.

I intend to solve the problem mentioned through creativity and a combination of methods and media. Moreover, I also intend to prove that one does not need a huge budget to create something different and effective with regards to advertisement.

The foundation for my project will involve books, articles, interviews and questionnaires. The main theories that I will be looking at are "Automobile Consumer Buyer Behaviour", "Automobile Traditional Advertisement" and "Alternative Methods of Automobile Advertisement". I will back these up by comparing results from interviews that I will carry out with marketing managers of automobile companies in Malta, such as Mr.Ivan Grech for Mercedes, Symira Bianchi for Muscat Motors and Director, Carolyn Zammit for Gasan Zammit; to further strengthen my argument. I will balance this out by investigating arguments that point out that traditional methods are still relevant in advertising. I shall be looking into "Principles of Marketing" by Kotler and Armstrong to address the psychology behind advertisement and also automobile consumer buying behaviour theories. Moreover I am going to look into "Driving It Home - 100 years of car advertisement" by Judy Vaknin regarding the history of automobile traditional methods that were used over the past years. I will be using articles from various websites to research alternative methods for advertisement. I will be looking at different methods of automobile advertisements that international companies have set up, and investigate further through email interviews with the companies themselves. I shall also set up interviews with local automobile companies to better understand the advertisement methods they are currently using and the psychology of how people in Malta buy their cars.

At the end of the project I intend to produce a case study that involves questionnaires and observations to see if the advertising method I chose as my final project is effective or not.

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