Every time I see an Empire Today commercial on TV with someone, my friend never fails to mention how annoying Empire Today’s commercials are. Yet, when we bring up the company at some random point in the future, they can always remember the phone number for the company. No matter what the current promotion is, an Empire Today commercial always ends with their memorable telephone number jingle. So in the end, no matter how much you might hate the commercials, if it get you to remember the jingle and therefore the phone number, the commercial has done its job. If the commercial gets you thinking about the company when you need flooring, it has gone above and beyond what it aimed to accomplish.
I recently saw an Empire Today commercial on HGTV (because home remodels are life) and I thought, well that’s genius. Even though I may not be looking to update the look of my house, the viewers of HGTV are clearly interested in home remodeling. They may not be spending the thousands of dollars that the participants of the show are spending to gut their whole house but viewers will likely get inspired by the show to change a small feature of the home, such as the stained carpet in the dinning room.
Empire Today’s Target Market
When a company targets one specific TV channel, it is not assuming that everyone on that channel is in their target market. For example, there might also be college students like me who have no real estate to their name but just enjoy those shows. Similarly, a company realizes that their entire target market will not be on one channel. There might be people who watch the Discovery Channel currently in the middle of remodeling their home and looking for a flooring company. It will always be a trade-off between targeting all channels and incurring high costs or targeting specific channels and potentially missing out on some sales. A company is generally interested in the highest ROI. Between the Discovery Channel and HGTV, HGTV seems like the more likely place to find Empire Today’s target market.
Moreover, big-ticket TV commercial products are unlikely to get someone to pick up the phone right after they’ve seen the commercial because those items are an investment and are thus not likely to be impulse buys. Having a jingle to remind the viewer of the phone number and the company name is very smart when it comes to an item that will most likely have to be discussed with your significant other for example.
Last week we talked about the effectiveness of Super Bowl ads. While this add may look a bit cheap and may not be the most entertaining ad out there, it is most likely more successful in achieving its purpose. Would you think of Empire Today when you have household flooring needs? Would you buy from them?