Other companies could benefit by following in the footsteps of John Lewis’s multi-million pound Christmas advertisement, featuring Monty the Penguin, according to an Oxford academic.
Professor Nancy Puccinelli, associate professor in consumer marketing at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, said that many big-budget Christmas advertisements produced by renowned retailers have missed the point by failing to understand their customers’ prevailing state of mind.
In a recent research paper, Ms Puccinelli and her co-authors said that at Christmas, it is more profitable to appeal to consumers with a ‘promotion mindset’ – those who respond to images of indulgence, and who will be open to switching to premium brands and to spending more.
She predicted that the £7m John Lewis commercial will attract customers to stores and encourage them to spend money, so long as the actual shopping experience matches the mood of the advert, while Boots, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and even Waitrose (owned by John Lewis) may struggle to draw the desired custom.
Ms Puccinelli said: “I think that the John Lewis ad, which doesn’t really focus on specific products but does present an idealised, rather upmarket picture of a family Christmas, will do very well.
“The current Sainsbury’s 1914 and Boots Boxing day ads are interesting because, while they both feature heart-warming stories, I don’t think they tap into the idea of indulgence, which is what will get consumers spending more in their stores – obviously the main aim of these promotions.”
IFA view:
David Gibson of Northern Ireland-based Gibson Financial Planning, said: “Advertising during Christmas time shouldn’t necessarily be hard because it is a time of excess, where people will actively seek to indulge in more premium goods.
“Retailers would do well to learn from John Lewis. Thousand of people flock to YouTube just to watch the ad again.”
