While I was in London for the Olympic Opening Celebration Concert in Hyde Park, I stumbled across this sign when I was waiting for much needed caffeine. It reminded me what Sue Unerman was talking about when she told us about the "association" advertising with Twix and tea, where the company began to associate eating Twix with a cup of tea in the afternoon. Like tea, coffee is often an integral part of someone's life and so I found it interesting and pretty intelligent of this newspaper to capitalize on the routine people get into when they buy coffee by trying to associate it with buying a newspaper. That being said, do you think it's easier for a product like Twix to make use of this type of advertising? I know I get coffee almost every morning back in the States and even though there are newspapers at the Starbucks I frequent, I never feel the urge to buy one. Maybe that's because I can get The New York Times for free on UGA's campus, but once I graduate I still can't see myself paying for something I can find online for free. I guess maybe if you're buying coffee every morning instead of making it, the idea is that you might be willing to pay for a product you can get for free or cheaper online? Is this association between picking up the paper and your coffee a good idea? I know traditionally speaking people used to read the paper over their morning cup of coffee so maybe it's just me being cheap. Newspapers have to do whatever they can to boost their circulation as far as I'm concerned. Would you be more willing to impulse buy a newspaper whilst waiting for your coffee, more willing to subscribe or more likely to avoid the purchase of a physical paper entirely?
Personally, I think I would be more likely to avoid the purchase of a physical paper entirely. After I purchase coffee or tea at Starbucks I am more likely to sit at a table and study or work on homework than purchase and read the newspaper. I probably should read the newspaper more often; however, I always have so much to do because of all the activities I am involved in, I often find myself multitasking just to get all of it done. I am much more likely to read news articles online or in a magazine where it feels like the reading is more like a form of entertainment. Maybe it is because of our generation and our heavy use of computers, but it suits me more to read about current events online, whether it is through my homepage, on a website such as The NY Times, or on a link from Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI think I am more likely to skim over the front page of a newspaper while I wait for a coffee, much in the same way I look over the trashy magazines while I wait in line at the grocery store. The association is an interesting idea and a nice effort, but I'm not sure it will work. I think the idea of Twix with tea was an easier leap to make because most people already eat some sort of snack while they drink tea. The association with Twix was just telling people to switch which snack they ate rather than starting a new routine. I do not think this ad would be very successful because people who do buy newspapers probably already have the routine of when and where they get it and someone who doesn't buy newspapers most likely isn't going to start now just to have some activity to do while drinking coffee.
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