Day 047 - 07 Nov 94 - Page 06
1 A. I think the words I would use would be: lively,
2 entertaining, sometimes amusing, certainly warm -- a
3 selection of adjectives of that kind.
4
5 Q. Do you see, in that, any danger so far as the child's
6 susceptibility to the power of the advertising is
7 concerned?
8 A. No, I do not see any danger. I am not an expert on
9 child psychology but, as I understand it, a little fantasy,
10 some fun, some enjoyment, some imagination, these are
11 things which are good for children; and it seems to me that
12 the McDonald's commercials certainly draw on those elements
13 in a positive way.
14
15 Q. I am coming back in a moment to children specifically, but
16 before I do that perhaps you could help us with this. This
17 may seem a very banal question, and I apologise, but,
18 broadly speaking, what is the purpose of advertising, so
19 far as you are concerned?
20 A. It is to encourage customers and potential customers to
21 have a positive view of the product, or service or company
22 involved, and to stimulate them to buy it the first time,
23 more frequently, and so on. It is a selling purpose,
24 though its objective may be a long term selling purpose,
25 rather than a short term purpose.
26
27 Q. If a product is a new product or, indeed, a new category of
28 product -- say, for example, what is nowadays called a
29 camcorder, which is a recent invention -- one can see that
30 the advertising puts that particular thing before the
31 public for the first time. What I want to ask you about it
32 is this: what if you are a manufacturer or a retailer of
33 what one might call an old product, or an old brand; what
34 is the point, then, of the advertising?
35 A. It is to compete as effectively as possible with the
36 wide range of competitors. One should not look -- if I may
37 go off at a slight tangent -- one should not just look at
38 the immediate market which may have three or four
39 competitors in; one should also look at other areas of
40 discretionary spending because, in a sense, all
41 discretionary spending competes with all other. So going
42 to a fast food restaurant may compete with going to the
43 cinema.
44
45 Q. To the cinema?
46 A. Yes. It is an alternative way of spending two or three
47 hours in an enjoyable and attractive way. So all
48 discretionary spendings competes with other forms.
49
50 Q. Can I ask you this: is there any sense in which somebody
51 who is a single product or single brand advertiser will
52 react to the advertising or the publicity of his rivals,
53 his competitors in the field?
54 A. I think all advertisers react to their competitors to a
55 greater or lesser extent. They may change their tactics;
56 they may even change their strategy; they may increase
57 their spending; they may change it in different parts of
58 the country; they may direct it towards different
59 objectives.
60
