“Do you need to slow down and enjoy more taco?”This was not the question I expected to hear on my Spotify but here’s a rough transcript of what I managed to record before the ad finished playing: “Do you need to slow down and enjoy more taco? It’s 2021 and apparently taco wellness is a thing. Intrigued, I went to Taco Well and was greeted with a unique experience that shouted taco at me with literally every opportunity. Let’s start with the visual aspect: Something that resembles a screensaver; a silhouette of a taco with the Taco bell logo on it bouncing around the screen on a 90s-esque tie dye psychedelic background. I scrolled further down the page and was greeted with “Mmmmodules” and I listened to the first one: A Moment of Taco Wellness. It starts with a greeting and then a disturbingly loud inhale. Here are a few direct quotes from the around 8-minute session: “Today we are focusing on releasing negativity and inhaling taco.” So there’s a lot to unpack here. At one point in the “A Moment of Taco Wellness” they describe the taco as shell, meat, and cheese. So we’ll be using that recipe to break this taco wellness moment down. The Shell - What's holding this together?Radio - Why so rarely done? Radio is daunting for marketers since there's no visual to hide behind; the copy, the text of an ad, has to shine. The copywriter must catch the consumer's attention and build a story through words and sound effects alone. So, it’s time for the Taco Well copywriter to get their Bob Ross on and create that peaceful scene for the consumer. Creativity is an undervalued asset and secret weapon for businesses – it’s what actually gets your ads and content to the eyes or ears of consumers. The key to a successful radio ad then? Being creative. Tastefully creative. Let’s break down the thought process behind Taco Well. Segmenting - Dividing the Market Whenever a marketer creates a campaign the first step is to divide or segment the market according to some factor to narrow down their target market to a target consumer. There are multiple segmentation bases but the main four are geographic, behavioural, psychographic, and demographic. Once the market has been segmented, marketers create a customer persona, basically a profile of the target consumer to better envision and understand who they're marketing to. So what persona was this marketer aiming for with Taco Wellness? In brief: -The professional millennial on a budget trying to save for property or to pay student loans -The student who is doing further education to try to get ahead or is just feeling overwhelmed with all the work they have to do Why millenials? Realistically millenials, students, and young families are Taco Bell's customers, but this ad is definitely more targeted to millenials. No family is going to be able to have their children sit for a family meditation session with tacos. The ad also seems slightly self-aware of how ridiculous the idea of Taco Wellness sounds, as part of the radio copy is "Yes, for real". This implies that they considered the skepticism of the millennial consumer. The Meat - Diving into theoryNow that we’ve established the shell, let’s dive into the meat – more theory on how exactly this marketer planned to connect with the consumer. I see two strategies at work here – the lifestyle positioning and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Lifestyle Positioning – Achieving Taco Wellness Positioning is the selling concept a marketer uses of trying to create a certain brand image in the mind of the consumer. There are multiple types of positioning that can be used but in this case it looks like lifestyle positioning was used. Lifestyle positioning is ideal when products are fairly similar so marketers have to differentiate on intangible aspects. Psychographics are used to illustrate the ideal lifestyle the product is supposed to create. Psychographics looks at activities, interests, opinions, the target consumer’s lifestyle. In this case, the marketer aims to position Taco Bell as achieving a higher level of satisfaction than ordinary food; consuming Taco Bell achieves Taco Wellness, a supposedly higher state of being. Considering the pandemic and how mental health became more important during this time, targeting wellness is a clever move. Satisfying Hunger – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a pyramid of needs created by psychologist Abraham Maslow, has basic physiological needs at the bottom and self-actualization needs at the top. According to Maslow, one can’t progress to the next level of the pyramid without satisfying the need of the prior level. Taco Well seems to be positioning themselves both at the base of the pyramid by meeting hunger and also at the top of the pyramid by meeting wellness needs. This is a very interesting assertion that goes against Maslow’s principles, but, perhaps they’re positioning themselves as once the basic hunger need is satisfied the consumer shoots up to their self-actualization need. Or that all other needs are satisfied and taco well is for the self-actualization need considering hunger was not really emphasized in the meditation. The Cheese – The best parts The wellness idea is a timely and interesting approach to approach the millennial market considering how the pandemic brought more attention to mental health with many millennials being strong wellness advocates. From a creativity perspective, food for some is an experience and actually turning that eating experience into a meditation experience is an interesting way to take advantage of this trend. The RoastImpractical consumer experience Practically it doesn’t make sense as guided meditation. A consumer is not going to sit there and stare at their taco while following this routine as the guided meditation instructs. When a consumer buys fast food they intend to scarf it down in the privacy of their car or house away from judgmental eyes. Chewing sounds also tend to be loud, so a consumer will not be able to hear most of this meditation while enjoying their taco, especially if these taco shells are as crunchy as advertised. Taco MMMmooddules Considering the target consumers are young adults and students, MMMModules is not a good title for their meditation. The word module elicits negative emotions. For students, modules are something you have to do for school and for young workers one of those yearly HR things. As a student reading "modules" triggered the negative association. Not what you want when you want your customer to associate your product with relaxation and positive feelings. Taco Wellness I’m not a person who meditates but after sitting through one module I can say that for those who seriously meditate, Taco Well has the potential to come off as offensive. The whole session was a comically exaggerated version of meditation with the overly loud deep inhales and exhales and tacos being described in weird ways. The Sauce - How do we fix this?A better execution of this idea? Maybe play off the term "Taco Tuesday" and say that tacos are not just for Tuesdays. Any day cane be a taco day, or a taco well day. For the visual aspect, show consumers in the target market finding peace and contentment from their Taco Bell in different relatable settings. Stressed student surrounded by papers, someone working overtime from home, finding their moment of taco well. For the radio, play audio of someone's daily busy day with a voiceover asking if the consumer ever feels the need to slow down. Then offer the solution in two alternate endings with peaceful music and ambience- enjoying Taco Bell with friends or *ding dong* there's the delivery - from the comfort and safety of your home. References: O’Reilly, T (Host). (2021, March 25). Air Quotes: Creative Radio 2021. (S10E12) [Audio podcast episode].In Under the Influence. CBC Radio. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/how-a-toronto-music-school-attracted-taylor-swift-1.5963438 O’Reilly, T. (Host). (2020, June 4). Bookmarks 2020. (S9E23) [Audio podcast episode]. In Under the Influence. CBC Radio. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/why-sometimes-the-best-way-to-sell-a-product-is-to-increase-its-price-1.5598109 Taco Bell Corp. (2021). Taco Well. Taco Bell Corp. https://tacowell.ca/ Tuckwell, K. 180 day subscription: Canadian advertising in action, (subscription). Pearson Education Canada. IMAGE REFS Chung, A. (2020). Close-Up Photo of Tacos. [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-tacos-4508965/ cottonbro. (2020). Black Car Stereo turned on at 7. [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-car-stereo-turned-on-at-7-4480527/ Kaboompics .com (2015). Customers & Users / Colour Wheel. [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/customers-users-color-wheel-6231/ Taco Bell Corp. (2021). Taco Well. Taco Bell Corp. https://tacowell.ca/
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AuthorWelcome to The Ad Diet! My name is Jane and I'm a Marketing student who also loves food. In brief, this is a blog about food marketing and ads from my perspective. If you want more details, check out the intro post What's on the menu? ArchivesCategories
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