Now listen to part of a lecture in a marketing class.
You know, there are lots of different companies out there that make and sell cookies or biscuits. But there is one company, Big Bear Cookies, that has used this technique to sell more cookies than all its competitors. How? Well, the company has this animal character called Big Bear that it uses in all the advertising. The picture of the bear on its cookie boxes and the character of the bear also appears in its TV commercials. Oh, and of course, the cookies themselves are shaped like big bear. Now most people who eat big bear cookies are children and well they enjoy the bear and think it’s really entertaining and fun. In the TV commercials, for example, he’s always saying funny things and dancing around in a lively, comical way. So big bear makes children feel good about the companies’ cookies, makes children want to get them. And you know, the real interesting thing is that the figure of big bear stays in people’s minds and makes them think of cookies even though bears usually don’t have anything to do with cookies. I mean bears certainly don’t make or eat cookies, right? Yet, big bear is a character that people, particularly children, don’t seem to forget because year after year Big Bear Cookies sells more cookies than any other company.
Using the example from the lecture, explain the use of image advertising to sell products.
In the reading, the article talks about image advertising, which means a company may advertise a product by using an image even though it may not be closely linked with the company’s brand. In the listening, the professor gives out one example to illustrate this. Many companies want to sell their cookies and biscuits to their customers but the one that truly stands out is the Big Bear Cookies. This company put this image on its biscuits boxes and in its TV commercials. Since whenever it shows up on TV, the bears are always singing or dancing around, the customers always regard it funny and entertaining. Over time, this character stays in people’s mind and whenever they think of cookies, the bear would always pop out at the first thought. Therefore, by giving this example, the professor explains what is meant by image advertising.
