After an 8 hour, almost all night journey, my bus had finally reached its destination: New York City. It was around 4 am in the morning, and I could no longer wait to get off the bus. As I excitedly left the bus station, I started walking up 8th Avenue. My excitement, did not permit me to realize the potential dangers of the situation, as I was walking alone in what was almost a complete dark avenue. As I glanced to look at my phone, which had Google Maps opened with the direction of my hotel, I started hearing the noise of crowds moving, and could see a very bright light coming from around 3 blocks away. The situation seemed a bit extraneous, as the empty street began to start filling up with people, and the darkness of the night started fading away illuminated by this intense light. Soon, I was to discover why New York City was called "The City That Never Sleeps".
After walking two more blocks, I was overwhelmed with what I saw: flashing lights, moving signs, huge billboards, an astonishing amount of led lights and crowds of people which you could not even move. I was in Times Square. It was 4:30 am in the morning and the few blocks that encompass the attraction were crowded as if it was rush hour. I could not even describe what my immediate sensations were at the moment, as I was captured in the cloud of advertisements. My attention diverged from one advertisement to the other, and then I saw that a group of people were standing in front of a Forever 21 advertisement, and my curiosity won over me. The advertisement consisted of an immense led screen in which you could stand and wave at it, and you immediately appeared as a hologram within the store. That was amazing. As I looked around I could only see more action, stock valuations flying on led screens from buildings, news anchors performing live news in the screens, beer signs, digital camera led televisions, there was light from top to bottom. It was advertisement heaven.
After that, I noticed something that was more interesting, which was, all the stores were open 24-hours and people were still shopping at that time. As I had time to waste, as my Hotel check - In was not until 12 pm that same day, I decided to wonder into the stores. There was one that particularly won my attention, and as I entered I was amazed. The Toys' R US store was a four story high building, fully illuminated, and in which the store it had a Ferris wheel, a real size dinosaur, and all the toys every kid ever wanted. It was unbelievable.
A sensation can be defined as an immediate response of our sensory receptors to basic stimuli such as light, colour, and sound (SWD, p.35). Within this experience, sensations started as soon as I started to see the light at the end of the street, and start experiencing crowds of people moving around me. When I first got to times square, sensations were overwhelming as for light I had hundreds of flashing led lights illuminating the darkness, in sound I had car honking, the sound of crowds talking and moving, as well as sensation of thousands of colors being displayed within the led lights. Perception can be defined as the process by which sensations are selected, organized and interpreted (SWD, p.35). Within this experience my perception abilities needed to be quick, and agile, as it was difficult to focus in which sensations to focus.
For some sublime reason, my sensory receptors decided to focus on that one store: Toys R US. Maybe the store was chosen from all the sensations available because my sensory inputs created associations that brought back memories: happy colorful memories from when I was a kid. The bright colors in the store (as it can be seen in the picture above) transmitted a sense of happiness, playfulness, and tremendous activity which for some reason just made my joyful. The colors from the store, combined with the experience of seeing a Ferris wheel within the store, frenetic shopping, all of the toys I had ever dreamed off induced me emotions, emotions that can only be compared when I was a child and my mom took me to a toy store for me to pick a toy. Those selective perceptions of the store had made me believe that I was not in a store, but I was in an attraction were all the people seemed happy, the environment was relaxed and playful.
Toys'R Us had captured my attention for more than two hours, and I was still enjoying myself looking at all the different toys, the joy of children's faces (which were pretty excited to be 7 in the morning), and the constant looping of the Ferris wheel going around and around. Attention can be defined as the extent to which processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus, and even though there was an overwhelming amount of competition in times square, the sight, sound, even candy scent, of the Times Square Toy' R US had won all of my attention. This perceptions of the store even made me buy something (because I would not leave empty handed from such a great experience, right?). All of the emotions that Toys R US was able to bring back to me, made me purchase a stuffed peanut (yes, like a teddy bear but its a peanut), which I proudly call Mr. Nut. Toys R' US was able to break from the clutter that overwhelming advertisements can bring (specially in a place like Times Square) and made me go and purchase in their store. Until today, as I look at Mr. Nut laying in my bed, I remember one of the best sunrises I have ever had: The time I spent 4 hours in the Toy's R US store in Times Square.
As a prospective marketer, I am amazed on how lighting, decoration, and sound can be used to attract customers. Times Square is a great example on how led lighted billboards, colorful signs, and especial store displays can be used to attract customers and how these affect sensations and perceptions. I think there is a very important lesson for every person that want to sell their products or service in Times Square: If you want people to buy your product first you need to capture their attention (and that is why marketing is so important). As advertisement increases, and we are cluttered with a thousand pieces of information every day, marketers need to think on novel, creative, and different ways to promote their product. The future of outdoor advertisement, no doubt, relies on interactive, led lighted, advertisements, as well as personalized, individual advertisements. As a consumer, I believe this is important because people like things that are tailored to them. For example, the digital out-of-home advertisement for the Despicable Me 2 movie which "invites viewers to control the on-screen action, personalize the message, and share the content with their friends using their smartphones. The campaign’s creative features an animation of Gru’s mischievous Minions tapping their feet impatiently on-screen with a call-to-action prompting shoppers to text a command using their smartphone to direct the characters to dance, wrestle, play, build or boogie."
The focus of what I am saying, is that the future of promotions relies on interactive, personalized, animated, led lighted advertisement and that companies that are trying to promote products should take note of that. It has been proven that humans respond to light stimulus and that are respond better to advertisement that is tailored specifically to them as they see it as less intrusive. With technology peaking there is a huge opportunity for companies to create creative and novel advertisement that will attract customers better because myself as a consumer (and I am sure most of you can relate) am tired and tend to ignore old-fashioned, newspaper, billboard, and print media ads which do not display anything especial. In todays world, the consumer has been exposed to so many advertisement, that it has learned to ignore it, and this is why marketers should think on the future and how they can break through the clutter.
Solomon, M. R., Zaichkowsky, J. L. and
Polegato, R. (2013) Consumer Behaviour:
Buying, Having, and Being, Sixth Canadian Edition. Toronto: Prentice Hall
Canada.
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