Case Study Advertising and Public Relations

Case Study Questions:

1. What is the difference between a pull and a push strategy? Which of these strategies did the Fred Astaire Super Bowl campaign exemplify?

According to Week 6 lecture notes:

“Consumer Sales Promotions use Pull Strategies, which means "The use of incentives to motivate end users to purchase a brand and thus pressure retailers to stock that brand." This consumer demand then pulls the product through the distribution channel.

Trade Promotions use Push Strategies, which means "The use of incentives to motivate the buying and reselling of products." These strategies push the product through the distribution channel.”

The case study clips actually state that “The Astaire campaign was designed to pull Dirt Devil products through traditional indirect distribution channels.” Not only did it have the 45 seconds of air time that was memorable to create the buzz about the product but it gained added publicity through the “200 television stories and a 1100 printed articles, giving Dirt Devil an estimated $5 million worth of total publicity from the Superbowl campaign.” This was a definite positive use of MC to create brand recognition and motivate the end user to purchase the product.

b) In your opinion, why was this successful campaign?

It was a successful campaign for two reasons:

1) Dirt Devil used the power of the media to create the buzz about its new product. By having air time during the Superbowl you are actually connecting with a large target audience of both female and male consumers. The commercials as stated by the Case Study

“The greatest thing about the Superbowl television audience is they want to view the commercials. It’s almost a part of the game. People do not leave the couch at the end of a quarter to get a coke or a hamburger. They wanna see the ads.”

The add publicity also helped to increase consumer awareness of the product.

2) They continued to use the...