The concept of transformational advertising.

Answer

Transformational Advertising

Transformational advertising is an emerging marketing tool that shifts attention from the selling approach traditionally followed to the features of marketing that appeal to desirable identity feelings. Transformational ads associate use of a product with certain meanings, images, or feelings which in turn transform its usage (Belch, 2018). Transformation advertisement has created a unique opportunity for business differentiation from similar products. This paper seeks to evaluate the concept of transformation marketing using Jack Daniel’s “Draws the Crowd” image ad.

Transformational Advertising

Transformational advertisement links the consumer experience with the brand usage to a unique psychological characteristics set which if not exposed to the advertisement cannot be closely associated with the brand experience (Belch, 2018). This implies that this category of advertisements endows the brand use with a particular experience and hence transforms the brand usage experience from that derived through using similar brands. Thus, the unique transformative characteristics of the advertisement itself are responsible for providing the consumer with a different experience from that would be expected to occur normally if the consumer had not been exposed to the ad.

Transformational advertisements have two unique characteristics that differentiate them from other forms of ads. First, a transformational advertisement must make the product usage experience more enjoyable, more exciting, warmer, and/or richer than what a common objective advertised brand description can obtain (Belch, 2018). Unlike other psychological descriptors such as image, feeling, emotional, and mood advertisements often incorporated in ads, transformational advertisement is cognitive based instead of affect based. However, although these descriptors feature in transformational ads, they are not sufficient conditions. Actual transformation happens when consumers can explicitly relate the descriptors to the owning experience or consumption of the brand. The second characteristic of a transformational advertisement is that it must create a tight connection between the advertisement experience and brand usage experience such that any time consumers think of the brand, they envision the experience the ad generated (Belch, 2018). This implies that the experience evoked by transformational advertisement is presumed as the true description of what the consumers undergo when they use the brand.

Jack Daniel’s advertisement ‘Draws a Crowd’ shown in figure 1 below is one of the best transformational advertisements in history. Although one cannot tell if it serves the goal of increasing their sales and revenue figures, the great presentation can be associated with an outstanding top-shelf advertising. ‘Draws a Crowd’ is a minimalistic commercial with perfectly paired with its images. The advertisement persuades people without using too little or too many words to create a piece of art. Focusing on direct and short messages, it precisely conveys a clear message of the product, target market, and expected experience. The advertisement does not present obvious sales pitch by discussing product benefits and features. ‘Draws a Crowd’ image displays the Jack Daniel’s brand name only twice which can be easily used to label the advertisement as lousy. However, the ad appeals to identity which is the deepest persuasion level (Belch, 2018). As a result, it evokes almost every enjoyable human feelings including pride in skill, humility in success, tradition, loyalty, duty, individuality, and community. Thus, although the message is not stated in words, it is transformative in nature and clear in presentation

Figure 1: Jack Daniel’s ‘Draws a Crowd’ Transformational Advertisement (Source: Pinterest)

In conclusion, transformational advertisement creates a truly exceptional aura to the brand. The campaign content associates the brand with positive feelings design to induce transformed user experiences. The feelings then influence the interpretation of the buyer in regard of the brand usage experience.