Blog post number three.

Joe Bassi
HUM101
Blog Post Number Three

For blog three I shall examine the phenomenon of “lovemarks”, the creation of advertising and retailers that commands loyalty from consumers. For the reader’s benefit I will retype the instructors question here, it asks “ In “The Persuaders”, marketer Kevin Roberts uses the term “lovemarks” to identify brands to which people are loyal even when devotion is not logical. Are there brands to which you are devoted? When you stop to think about it, is your loyalty to any particular logical or a “lovemark”? If purchasing a particular brand is not logical, why would you ( or other people) do it?

In the Frontline episode “ The Persuaders” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/view/
Ad-man Kevin Roberts has identified brands people “love”. In “ The Persuaders” second segment he is interviewed by Frontline and describes a “lovemark is a brand that has created loyalty beyond reason” and “you.. recognize immediately as having some kind of iconic place in your heart”. Also in “The Persuaders” they talk about “emotional bonding” with products, “cult brands”, and even a “meaning system” which is associated with certain brands “fulfilling peoples’ needs”. ( All quotes are from the hyperlink, “The Persuaders”). I only had time to watch the first half-hour of “The Persuaders” and I thought it was great. I watch a lot of t.v. and while I don’t like all the commercials I am still influenced by them evidently.

The first question asked in the assignment says” are there brands to which you are devoted?” The answer is yes I am. The second question posed is “When you stop to think about it, is your loyalty any particular brand logical or a “lovemark”? this is more complicated than yes or no. To answer I am going to examine two brands that come to mind, Levis jeans and The Oakland Raiders of the NFL. I will go in order and talk about Levis jeans first.

Levis jeans are really expensive, and before I continue writing I have to tell you that I was raised to be a frugal shopper. I buy clothes at Ross or the Levis outlet. When I buy work clothes at Goodwill and The Disabled Veterans thrift store, the Salvation Army is too expensive. Levis website http://us.levi.com/home/index.jsp advertises pants for as much as $70.00 ( people should be ashamed of themselves). I bought a pair of Levis at Sears last year for $ 35.00 because I was invited to an awards banquet where I recieved an award for most improved student. I felt really guilty about spending $ 35.00 on a pair of pants, but for some reason I feel like a slob if I am not wearing Levis pants at a social gathering, and I guess that is because of advertising. Now, Levis are more comfortable than other jeans but really I pay for a name – Levis. An American icon.

The second “lovemark” brand name I’ll tackle is the Oakland Raiders of the NFL. http://www.raiders.com/. They’re my team, they stink. I remember an exchange I had in our Humanities 101 class about the new scrubbing luffas or sponge thingies that retailers are peddling to get people cleaner. There was an advertisement we watched in class ( from the super bowl) for Dove:Men+Care, and I was making fun of it. One of my class mates pointed out to me that I would use it if it said RAIDERS on it, and I laughed. I had to think critically about the joke.

The Raiders moved from Oakland to L.A. ( I’m from SoCal) and then bailed on me ( so did the Rams) back to Oakland, they never got a stadium in either town. Anyway, in 2002 the Raiders won the AFC Championship and went to Super Bowl XXXVII and were beat badly by Tampa Bay. Since then they have had the 2nd worst record in the pro’s. Also since then I have moved from SoCal and I have no desire to back. Why do I still get excited about the Raiders? What logical reason is their? I typed “ why do fans still support the Oakland Raiders”? into google I surfed around some of the sites and got a few laughs but no worthwhile material for an opposing view point. I guess I will always like the teams I liked when I was a kid.

Then I typed “ Why do fans follow a team”? into google and found videojug http://www.videojug.com/interview/footballs-social-impact-2
It discusses footballs social impact and one of the questions they attempt to answer is “ Why does football grow in popularity”? It says” …football is kind of like a microcosm of our society…when you get knocked down get back up again”. ( quotes from videojug, the previous hyperlink). I guess that’s why the Raiders still appeal to me.