I love a good commercial. The Nike ads always inspire me, the Coke ads always make me happy, and who doesn’t love the adorable little Budweiser puppy? But recently, I’ve come to appreciate another campaign more, especially in the way it has illustrated one of the techniques we’ve been discussing in class. Mimicry comes to life, courtesy of Discover Card:
Even though these ads are funny, they show how effective mimicry can be. By using similar turns of phrase, mannerisms, and tone of voice, the Discover Card employees make their customers feel at home – and actually turn their calling experience into a comfortable, enjoyable occasion, which aren’t exactly adjectives most of us would associate with calling your credit card company.
In fact, just by using mimicry, Discover Card seems to have found a unique niche in the marketplace based off of this image. When you think of other major credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Chase, words like power and opportunity come to mind. Most of their advertisements are focused on how you can achieve your dreams by using their card. But Discover Card takes the opposite approach. Instead of focusing on what you can do for you, they show what they can do for you. And since they help you your way, you can’t help but be persuaded that Discover Card is the right fit.
Mimicry works, folks.
*Disclaimer: this post was entirely my little brother’s idea. And he let me have it for free. What a nice brother.
BoweryJE22
I had never even noticed the mimicry that Discover uses in their commercials. These commercials are great and really help the customer see that Discover is not like any other business. I think that these commercials really help to bring customers in and build trust among customers.