GEICO: Techniques of Advertising

Advertising techniques are tools. The tools you need to attract attention, engage minds, trigger emotions, and change what people think. All of which can lead to sales. Weather it’s for a political campaign, a product or a service. For instance, the GEICO commercial, it uses many different techniques to grab the attention of consumers. Like many advertisements, comedy is used to trigger emotion; they implement a brand character, inject drama, promise a benefit, and create a metaphor as a slogan.
The GEICO marketing team has developed a series of short comedic skits to attract consumers and trigger a sense of emotion. The emotional response from the consumer is an enjoyable one. As we all love a good comic relief therefore this commercial can hold our attention. Because of the enjoyable experience created by the advertisement it is unlikely that the commercial will be forgotten. It will be talked about in conversation and enjoyed over and over again. This is one of the many cleaver techniques used to create endless remembrance of the advertisement. But there is a flaw. That flaw is a lack of explanation and description of the company. The advertisers have gotten away from the importance of explaining what their product is about. But by creating a character or “mascot” as a representation of the company consumers can quickly relate the two.
The use of the caveman as a brand character helps advertisers spin off other ways of advertising. The caveman has become something like a mascot. A simple poster or billboard of a caveman with the word GEICO under it can trigger a consumer to remember their slogan “so easy a cave man can do it”. In the world we live in today that slogan is a very clever one. The world around us is so fast paced with so much to do and so little time to do it in this slogan represents what almost every American is looking for, simplicity.
“So easy a caveman can do it” is a metaphoric slogan used to create a symbolic representation of the key idea advertisers want to communicate. They have created this metaphor to represent an unforgettable characteristic of the brand which is simplicity. “So easy that a caveman can do it” symbolizes the fact that their service is so easy that the consumer is left thinking, “If it’s that simple maybe I should try it!” This slogan also provides a clever way for the advertisers to feature the benefit of using their services. And the benefit to their service is simplicity.
There is a broad target audience for GEICO. It would be anyone with a driver’s license. The comedy used for the commercials cover that market range well. It can be appreciated by a wide range of ages with the known exception of small children who aren’t very interested in car insurance. As for a young teenager about to get a license, they may see this commercial, enjoy the comedy, and become very fond of it. They may then try to pursue their parents into using GEICO’s services just because they liked the commercial.