Best Buy
Over the last few weeks, I've been watching a little TV and an advert for a store called Best Buy has caught my eye. Not because of any clever marketing ideas, but simply because it appears to be guilty of Alan Sugar's main beef with advertisers - to paraphrase him: "it doesn't show the bloody product." In case you're not immediately familiar with the ad, it shows a man waking up, getting ready for the day, and then walking to work (at a Best Buy store). The guy is extremely happy and bouncy and there's some chirpy 70s style American song playing in the background. On his journey, everyone is congratulating him, as part of the 'we love what you do' theme. At the end of the ad, we are told that Best Buy is an American store that sells technology and is now in the UK.
So what's my big issue with this ad? Well, in my opinion, it fails in a major point - it doesn't really hit home that Best Buy is a technology store. If anything, the advert just makes me think that Best Buy might just be a nice place to work. I had to watch the advert several times (and by watch, I mean sit through paying a small amount of attention) before I really understood what Best Buy do. Why didn't they show some technology in the ad?
I just find the advert bizarre. As someone who buys a lot of technology (I don't drink or smoke - got to spend my money somewhere!), I want to know what sort of stuff they sell, how cheap they sell it for, what sort of service I can expect, what offers they might have, and where I can find one of their shops. The advert doesn't really tell me any of these things. Okay, it tells me they sell technology, but they don't really say what type of technology? We can all presume they sell TVs, Microwaves, white goods, etc. but who knows? Maybe they sell bionic arms and Bond gadgets.
I guess the whole purpose of the ad was to let us all know that Best Buy are a big US company and that they are now in the UK. Fair enough, but we're not familiar with what Best Buy actually is - so TELL US!! Make it immediately obvious that Best Buy sell technology, and tell us what sort of prices etc. are on offer. We already have technology stores in the UK, so what are Best Buy offering us that is better?
We love what you do? We might do if we actually knew what you do!
