Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY ROSARIO

Brgy. Namunga, Rosario,Batangas

COLLEGE OF ACCOUNTANCY, BUSINESS, ECONOMICS AND

INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

MKT 102- CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

CASE ANALYSIS

Chapter 6 – Attitude Based on Low Effort

TAGGING ON SHOPPERS’ HEARTSTRING

J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart want shoppers to know how much they care. Good prices and good
selection are still important, but with so many choices on the street and on the Web, retailers
really have to fight for attention in today’s crowded marketplace. This reason explains why
Penney’s and Wal-Mart are using marketing communications to build an emotional connection
with consumers.
“Everybody out there is doing product-focused advertising,” explains J.C. Penney’s chief
marketing officer. “What we learned is that no matter how well you do that, it does not break
through the clutter.” So the department store’s advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, tried
something a little different. Its employees spent several days tagging along with more than 50
women to learn firsthand what these consumers were doing, thinking, and feeling as they went
about their daily lives.
What emerged from this research was a communications focus on consumers, exemplified by the
advertising slogan “Every day matters.” In line with this slogan, the agency created a series of
touching, dialogue-free commercials featuring brief but moving glimpses of moments from daily
life. Each commercial was set to a song with intriguing lyrics and unfolded without sponsor
identification until the final seconds.
The first commercial in the campaign showed a young couple and their two children getting
ready for the day, with a hint of gift-giving in the sparkle of diamond jewelry passing from
husband to wife. The commercial had no voice-over, a situation that freed viewers to focus their
attention on the heartwarming visuals and enjoy the catchy song, “So Say I.” In one of the
Christmas ads, parents and children walked along snow-covered streets (and a diamond gift
made a brief appearance) as the song “All That I Want” played in the background. Viewers could
not be sure what they were watching because Penney’s logo did not appear until the very end of
the commercial—and then only briefly. The entire campaign was acclaimed for its creativity and
use of music, many of the commercials wound up with thousands of viewers on YouTube, and
many of the songs became instant iTunes hits. Penney’s also posted a series of online episodes
on its website, hoping that teenagers would find the content amusing and pass the word to their
friends and classmates.
When this unusual campaign began, not everyone in the Penney’s organization was sure that it
would work. “Sometimes we run ads that we don’t totally understand, and they have been home
runs with the customer,” notes the chief marketing officer. In his view, “if you are doing the
same old warmed-over product-based stuff that everyone else is doing, you are wasting your
money.”
Wal-Mart, best known for its discount prices, is also seeking more emotional bonds with its
customers. The yellow smiley-face that appeared in Wal-Mart’s communications for so many
years is now gone. Instead, the Martin Agency, which handles the retail giant’s advertising, is
using communications to drive home the benefit of what consumers can do with the money they
save by shopping at Wal-Mart, with this theme reflected in the retailer’s new slogan, “Save
Money. Live Better.”
For instance, the company’s Christmas commercials portrayed Wal-Mart shoppers enjoying the
feeling of being able to give brand-name gifts to loved ones because of the store’s low prices.
“It’s great to save money, but the feeling you get giving the bike the kid wants is the payoff,”
says Wal-Mart’s chief marketing officer. In the end, he says moving away from a simple low-
price message has been important because the company has been “trying to make sure there is an
emotional connection and not just an empty promise of ‘Save, save, save.’
Case Questions
1. How is J.C. Penney using mood to influence consumers’ affective attitudes?
2. By withholding the sponsor’s name until the end of its commercials, J.C. Penney adds a sense
of mystery to its ads. Do you think this is a good approach for a retailer to take? Explain your
answer by using consumer behavior concepts from this chapter.
3. How is Wal-Mart seeking to influence consumers’ cognitive and affective attitudes with its
new ads and new slogan “Save Money. Live Better”?