Analysis of Barclays' Bank Advertisement

Analysis of Barclays' Bank Advertisement

Introduction

As well as being the latest Hollywood star to work for the bank, Jackson is the second actor from the film 'Pulp Fiction' to star in its ads. He follows in the footsteps of British actor Tim Roth, who starred in a spot for Barclays in 2000 and appeared alongside Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 movie.

One result of the deregulation of financial markets in the English-speaking world is that banks are increasingly turning to marketing to achieve competitive advantage. Within marketing, banks are emphasizing promotion, particularly advertising, to impart their message to current and potential customers. There are many communications strategies available to banks that advertise. Cheese et al. (1988) have stressed the importance of banks selecting appropriate communications strategies.

They have identified the "hierarchy of effects" model as useful in developing a strategy and selecting from among alternative advertising messages. Other advertising specialists have argued that various types of messages (strategies) result in different consumer reactions. Communications strategy has been identified as a factor in the success of new consumer financial products.

Missing from this literature is a framework for conceptualizing the strategic options available to banks in their advertising. Virtually no empirical work has been reported on the relative effectiveness of alternatives. The purpose of this article is to provide:

(1) A conceptual framework that facilitates strategic advertising decisions by bankers (2) Preliminary data on the effectiveness of the alternatives available.

The framework focuses on what to say and how to say it to gain maximum effect in the marketplace. We employ the notion of a "main message strategy" (the "what" of an advertisement) and we present a typology of these main messages. We also employ the notion of "structure" to refer to the "how" of an advertisement--i.e. its overall method of presentation. Our research investigates the function of strategy and structure in the development of effective bank advertising.

Barclay's Bank Advertising

Our review of the literature indicates a paucity of published research dealing with the "effectiveness" of bank advertising. The published literature tends to be descriptive, with minimal attempt at establishing a cause and effect relationship. However, there appears to be a growing awareness of the differences between "attribute-based" and "image-based" advertising (ABA Banking Journal, 1987; Colby, 1990; Crosier and Watt, 1985; Schindler, 1989). Similarly, there is increasing interest in alternative methods for communicating particular selling points to a target audience. These include advertisements where the focus is on individuals, such as celebrity endorsements, company spokespeople, and typical person endorsements (Matteson, 1991). Other options include story orientations and animation. In this article, each of these options is subsumed under the general rubric of "strategy and structure".

Strategy And Structure

Main messages in the video of Barclay's Bank in which Samuel Jackson has performed are usefully conceptualized as either "informational" or "transformational"--terms that were first proposed by Puto and Wells.

Experts have elaborated upon the fundamental distinction between informational and transformational advertising to develop a typology consisting of seven alternative ...