john lewis

Advertisement in John Lewis

王璐09级英语国商班Y090135 138******** Every corporation in the world will make advertisements for their goods or services, since advertisement plays an important role in marketing in the company, but they do not illustrate in the same way, not to say the meaning they want to express. However, no matter what the advertisement tells to the customers, the core of it is the reputation, or the brand of the product and the company itself. Advertisement is a bridge for customers to get to the products and services, so, whether the advertisement is attractive or not, it will impact directly on the products and services. In this pape, I would like to say something about advertisement in John Lewis.

Ⅰ. Brief Introduction of John Lewis

As we all know, John Lewis is the biggest and most comprehensive shopping mall in London, UK. It was founded in 1864, with a history of 138 years, during which had great performance. By now, John Lewis has opened 25 brenches from the northeast part of Scotland to the southwest part of England. There are 40,000 employees and 500,000 kinds of goods for sale in John Lewis, whose revenue gets almost 4,000,000,000 pounds, that is more than 6,000,000,000 dollars. Among most of the goods, John Lewis is quite special in fashion, cosmetics, children’s clothes and furniture. One exampleof that is the curtain cloth, which is typical in England. Besides the good quality ot their goods, one of the other reasons why their goods are so popular is perhaps they can give a feeling of “home”.

Ⅱ. Advertisement in John Lewis

In John Lewis, it is Marketing’s task to persuade people to spend all their money and time in the shopping mall. Traditionally, John Lewis did not use any marketing strategy, they just open the door and welcome their customers to have a visit. However, the reality is that it is not the case. John Lewis does very competitive markets, which can diffierentiate itself from their competitiors. John Lewis will provide campaigns according to the festivals and the local customs. Here is an example of the Christmas campaign.

Last year was a recession year for John Lewis . In the recession, the annual budget for marketing has been cut by 25%, so Goose, the leader of the marketing department, decided to gamble on a new advertisement company called Adam & Eve, which is run by James Mercy.

On their first meeting, James expressed his idea of the advertisement, which is called “the dreamed Christmas”. People will look for presents to their loved ones with less money but really special. So he let a woman who is sleeping bed dream about the presents she wants, and whatever presents occurs in the dream, people can find them in John Lewis. After explanation, Goose was quite interested in the idea of “dream”, but not the way James executed.

So, after months of hard work, James came up with another way of expression of the Christmas campaign. When people give the great gift, they also want to give someone great feelings. So James designed series of beautiful portraits for children. Each child holds a product which is really designed for grown-ups. For instance, one girl is wearing a colourful necklace which might belongs to her mother, and one boy is using a laptop in his father’s study and another is playing with a digital camera.

The theme of the new advertisement for Christmas is also about dream. Different from the first proposal from Adam & Eve, the second one focuses on the eternal quality and services of John Lewis that can offer to customers. They want to let customers feel joy and comfort when they watch the advertisement. Goose was quite satisfied with the second proposal, and they have got started for Christmas.

Writing hers, another advertisement that John Lewis made this year hit my mind. It is the latest advertisement of John Lewis by now, with 90 seconds long. Using a red garment as its clue, the short advertisement displays a woman’s whole life cleverly, from the time when she was baby, the moment when she started to walk, then going to school, got grown-up and married, and she had her own child and last when she turned old. The advertisement is short, but has proved the good service and quality that John Lewis can provide to customers, no matter they are newly-borned babies or the old people with white hair, their products and services will not change, thus when they go to John Lewis, they can feel warm and comfortable whenever and whereever.

Ⅲ. Conclusion

Both of the advertisements we discussed above are marketing strategy, but more than it. Most people believe that advertisement is one way of marketing, and corporations make advertisement on the purpose of attracting more customers and get their products more popular. However, after watching advertisement of John Lewis, I think I k now why John Lewis wins so much customers’ hearts.

Firstly, their attitude toward work. As it is shown in the video clip, James, the owner of Adam & Eve, has been working for 14 months to design John Lewis’s Christmas campaign. They tried many times to exp ress John Lewis’s brand value. Although the first proposal was failed by Goose, they do not give up, instead, they immediately started the second trial. From the pictures they drew, the advertising message they wrote, to the actress they chose, they show us their spirit of teamwork and profession. On the other side, Goose, the new comer of John Lewis, is also a careful man. When they filmed the test commercials for Christmas, Goose stayed with the agency and gave suggestions all the time.

Secondly, their fantastic and moving idea about human nature. It is smart for company to show the functions or unique features of their goods, but it is smarter to show their intangible ideas related to their goods and services. Take the red-garment advertisement as an example, John Lewis puts more attention on the good services and eternal quality, rather than one certain product in the shopping mall. So any female who watches this advertisement will feel warm and sweet, and it is easier for them to remember their name--- John Lewis.

Thirdly, their smart creations of the advertisement. When we watch TV or listen to the radio, we can find advertisements everywhere. However, most of us do not like watch them, one reason I think, is the advertisements are boring, maybe they can attract customers’ eyes, they can not catch their hearts. The best advertisement is like a chololate, before you see it, you will smell it; when you taste it, your heart will get soft, you will forget all the evils and wrongs; after enjoying it, you will still remember the feeling when you tasting it, and your heart will get stronger and stronger, since in your eyes, everything is good and naive. The advertisement of John Lewis is such a

kind of chocolate, they do not persuade you to buy their products, but you would like to, because once you taste it, you will never forget that feeling.

Sometimes, making advertisements with high quality and beautiful ideas means to let people who wacthing them enjoy life and have a better look of human nature, which is Jo hn Lewis’s insistance on the advertisement, and such advertisement has brought huge profit to John Lewis, no matter in the turnover, or in the brand of John Lewis itself.