Description of the Commercial
The Get Rid of Cable Commercial Compilation Direct TV is a short television commercial that promotes a satellite television company known as Direct TV. As it starts, we see a man who is trying to watch news, but there is a problem with the television. The pictures are not clear and it seems he is unable to change from one channel to another. He is apparently vexed. He goes to work with the negative attitude. As a lawyer, he is expected to listen attentively to the client to find ways of assisting him. However, he is bored and fails to develop a compelling argument that would help free his innocent client. His indifference towards the case that morning results into the imprisonment of his client, who happens to be innocent.
The client is not happy with the manner in which the lawyer handled the case. As he goes to prison, he thinks a lot about how he can revenge against the lawyer for messing up the case. When he comes out of prison after serving the sentence, he executes his revenge plan by detonating an explosive into the lawyer’s house, destroying everything inside. The commercial ends by telling the audience to get rid of cables television and upgrade to Direct TV that assures them of uninterrupted flow of various programs (Pnmamn, 2016). A unique characteristic of this commercial is how it explains the cause and effects of various related factors.
Analysis of the Commercial from the Perspective of the Psychological Core Principles
When developing a television commercial, it is important to have a clear goal in mind that should be realized. Some commercials are meant to inform customers about the availability of given products while others are meant to pursuade them to embrace a given product over others (Baglieri & Karmarkar, 2014). The choice of words, images used, and the flow-pattern of the message presented define the overall success of a commercial. In this section, the focus is to analyze the Get Rid of Cable Commercial Compilation Direct TV from the perspective of the psychological core principles.
Theories and Principles Relevant for the Analysis
Various theories and principles can help in understanding why a company chooses to develop a commercial in a given manner. Direct TV is one of the leading providers of cable television services in the country (Jham & Puri, 2014). It spends a significant amount of money when developing each commercial. Care is always taken to ensure that every commercial achieves the targeted goal. In this case, the aim is to convince customers to move from Cable TV to Direct TV. Using the principle of MOA (motivation, ability, and opportunity), it is possible to analyze this commercial to understand its effectiveness at achieving the intended goal.
Motivation, opportunity, and ability
The first aspect of this principle is the motivation. It is important to understand needs, desires, wants, and drives that motivate a customer to purchase a given product (Kaufmann, 2015). As such, one needs to classify them as physiological, psychological, or environmental motivators. One cannot ignore physiological needs. They are the basics that one must realize to lead a normal life. The psychological and environmental needs may vary. Some may only be achieved by a few who are successful and satisfied with their achievements, while others are critical to everyone irrespective of the level of socio-economic success. Using Maslow’s Theory of Needs may help in classification of these motivating factors.
At the base of the pyramid are basic needs that one cannot live without at any given time. They are often referred to as the physiological needs and they include food and water. Once these basic needs are met, safety needs will arise. When one feels safe, then the social needs such as friendship will be the next motivation of one’s actions. Esteem needs, also known as egoistic needs, will emerge after one meets the social needs. At the apex is self-actualization. These people feel that they have achieved everything they desired to have in life. One’s motivation in life is often affected directly by their needs as defined in the hierarchy above.
Opportunity is the second aspect of this principle. When trying to realize specific needs, one must be conscious of the constraints that may limit the opportunity to achieve the desired goals. According to Kumar and Shah (2015), majority of Americans have the desire of owning a limousine. However, only a few can realize this desire because of the financial constraints. Others may be limited by time. A student may have the desire to spend more time at home playing video games.
However, the fact that he or she has to go to school five days a week limits the ability to achieve the desire. Whenever one has the opportunity to realize a given goal, there will be a deliberate effort to ensure that the outcome of the activity helps in achieving the best goal. When time and resources are made available, the ultimate goal of the individual would be to take full advantage of the opportunity to realize one’s dream.
The ability is the last component of this principle. According to Lu, Marek, and Chen (2015), abilities refer to the financial, physical, emotional, cognitive, or social resources that a person can use to achieve a given goal. The capacity that one has depends on different factors. One person may have the financial capacity to purchase a given item that he or she desires but lack the emotional capacity to achieve another. Understanding one’s capacity is critical towards achieving happiness. Pride and Ferrell (2014) explain that it is important to understand one’s limitations. It makes it easy to avoid goals that would only lead to pain and discomfort. The principle helps in determining the pattern of behavior of a customer. It is possible to determine specific factors that would define consumers’ buying behavior when promoting a given product.
How the Principles and Theories Were Used in the Commercial
The commercial by Direct TV employs various aspects of the psychological core principle discussed above. According to Thompson (2015), when developing a television commercial, it is important to understand factors that would define consumers’ buying behavior. Such factors as their need, emotional and financial capacity, and opportunities they have should be understood. In this commercial, specific factors define the customer segment targeted, the class of their needs as defined in the Maslow Theory of Needs.
The commercial also defines why the product meets that need in a superior way compared with what the local competitors offer in the market. It is necessary to analyze this commercial based on each of the three components of the MOA principle.
Motivation
The commercial understand the motivation of customers when purchasing pay television services. One thing that comes out clearly, as the commercial begins is the segment of the market targeted by this product. Direct TV targets the middle working class. As the commercial begins, we meet a middle-aged lawyer who is smartly dressed, ready to go to work. He wants to watch news before proceeding to work. He can afford the best pay television services but he is keen on quality. What he is using now may be cheap, but offers substandard services. Cost is not a major issue to this client who has esteem needs as defined in the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. In fact, having a cheap product may have devastating emotional consequences if the needs are not met.
The primary motivation of this commercial is that when this client uses Direct TV services, all the needs will be met. The client will be happy when going to work and the outcome will be that he will have satisfied customers. He will avoid all the negative events that a colleague using cable television network has to endure. Quality is a factor that customers in this market segment cannot compromise. They cannot afford to have their day ruined because of ‘frozen pictures’ in cable television because the consequences may be dire.
Opportunity
The message in this commercial is that Direct TV offers its opportunity to have the best television network at affordable prices to ensure that they can start their days in the best mood possible. The advert presents a series of events that the working class often tries to avoid. Having a cable television with freezing pictures makes the lawyer irritable, which directly affects his work. As a result, the client goes to prison for a crime he did not commit.
The anger of going to prison makes the client to plan revenge as soon as he leaves prison. He detonates an explosive in the house of the lawyer, leading to an immense loss. The only way of eliminating such a loss is to get rid of cables and upgrade to Direct TV. The product offers them the best opportunity to get early morning news without interruption early morning before going to work. They end up having successful days because they can concentrate on their work without being distracted.
Ability
It is evident that the developer of this commercial understands the financial and emotional ability of the targeted clients. The middle class in the United States such as a lawyer do not have problems paying a $ 29.99 subscription fee a month (Vryoni, Bakirtzoglou, & Ioannou, 2017). It is within their means. However, they cannot afford to start a day when in low spirit. As such, they need to avoid anything that may make them irritable. One such source of irritation is a cable TV that offers sub-standard services. It can be devastating when one wants to watch news in the morning before going to work only to find that there is an issue with connectivity. Direct TV offers the best solution to these clients by ensuring that they can stream news channels and other entertainment sites effectively at only $ 30 a month.
Evaluation of What Was Good and Bad About the Commercial
The commercial has both good and bad aspects, which are worth analyzing. As Thompson (2015) notes, it is always important to look at strengths and weaknesses of commercial in order to identify specific areas of improvement that is needed. One of the main strengths of this commercial is that it is very specific with its target audience. It is meant for the working class. These busy individuals often try to avoid inconveniences. Direct TV offers them the service they need at reasonable cost. The other strength is that it provides a sequence of activities that make it more reasonable to the target audience. Having a frozen picture may not be a big deal.
However, it has a multiplier effect that would finally result into a bigger loss. It is able to shape consumers’ attitude towards the use of pay television services. They are reminded that the quality of services they receive affects their daily activities.
The commercial has a few weaknesses. The main weakness of this commercial is that it uses coercion to convince its customer to purchase the company’s products. Instead of emphasizing the superiority of Direct TV, it outlines dangers of using the alternative product. Although the threat is presented in a comical manner, some people do not like such approach of promoting a product (Zia & Kumar, 2016). They view it as some form of blackmail. As such, it uses a threat to influence the perception of customers towards the product they offer. It is also evident that the commercial does not outline the numerous benefits that Direct TV offers. Clients are not adequately informed about this product besides the fact that using alternative products may be dangerous.
References
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Kumar, V., & Shah, D. (2015). Handbook of research on customer equity in marketing. London, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Pnmamn, P. (2016). Get rid of cable commercial compilation Direct TV [Video file]. Web.
Pride, W., & Ferrell, O. (2014). Marketing. New York, NY: South-Western Cengage Learning.
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