The most viral Super Bowl commercial in 2018 was Amazon’s “Alexa loses her voice”. Alexa is a virtual assistant smart speaker developed by arguably one of the most prominent technological companies in the world, Amazon. The commercial featured influential personalities, ranging from musicians to movie stars. Some of the celebrities featured in the commercial include Cardi B, Australian Actress Rebel Wilson, Anthony Hopkins and Gordon Ramsay ( USA Today) . At the beginning, Alexa seems to be choking over something, as the device gives the temperatures of Houston to be about 60 degrees. The device stops working, and there is panic at the Amazon company. One of the personnel at the company had replacements on standby, and they turned out to be these influential individuals. However, as the owners of these devices ask questions, these influential individuals give absurd answers, and some of them even ridicule the customers. For example, as one of the customers asks about the recipe for making a sandwich, Gordon Ramsay wonders why the customer cannot make a mere sandwich when he was 32 years old. The main message from the commercial was that Alexa was irreplaceable; the device was more effective and efficient than humans.
Undoubtedly, the commercial attracted a lot of viewership especially from online platforms such as YouTube. However, Amazon needs to have incorporated more sustainability themes in the commercial to help differentiate the company’s brand. Currently, there are extensive efforts and concerns from environmental activists and organizations regarding the safety of the planet. Most of the time, corporates have always been accused of contributing significantly to climate change and environmental deterioration. Since the issue has attracted a lot of media attention, there is also a corresponding awareness among consumers of products and services from various companies ( SustainAbility, 2018) . People are now responding positively to the calls to conserve the environment, and will consequently develop certain perceptions towards corporates that contribute or are accused of deteriorating the environment.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Stoiber (2012) provides several C’s of sustainability branding. The first C is what he calls “Consumer-facing”. It means that companies need to read the mood of consumers especially in regard to environmental awareness. Corporates need to know what their customers of members of the public feel about them and the environment. Since from the recent past years most people are concerned about the environment, Amazon needs to have captured this awareness boldly in the commercial. Alexa seems to have choked because of the high temperatures in Houston, but the commercial did not present any efforts which were done to make Alexa recover her voice. Perhaps at the end of the commercial, Alexa ought to have recovered in a cooler environment. For example, someone ought to have asked about the temperatures of a cooler place, say, the Amazon Forest, and Alexa would have recovered at the same time. In such a scenario, the message which would have been communicated would be the need to conserve the environment because it sustains life, and that Amazon is at the forefront to support environmental conservation. Such a message would resonate well with the increasing numbers of people who are aware of climate change.
The second C is “Core”, which implies that brands need to embrace sustainability and make it part and parcel of their brand. In such a case, whenever the company creates new products or engages in any activity, they need to ensure that sustainability is evident. In Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial, they needed to ensure that no wastage was depicted. Wastage in this case refers to improper use of resources such as energy and water. Additionally, use of plastics or any other activity that contributes to environmental degradation needs to have been left out of the commercial. On the contrary, there were still some plastic items depicted in the commercial and a wardrobe showing excess clothes. In this case, the commercial does not promote sustainability; instead it encourages excessive consumption and use of plastics.
Another important C is what Stoiber calls “Conversational”. Stoiber states that the concept of sustainability can be more effective if it is two-way. In this case, there needs to be communication between the brand and the consumers rather than the brand appearing to be the only party providing instructions. In Amazon’s commercial, there ought to have been some scenes where personnel at Amazon ask about the cause of Alexa’s loss of voice. Subsequently, they would have tried different strategies to restore Alexa’s voice, and at last, identified that Alexa had been affected by Houston’s high temperatures. Consciously or unconsciously, the commercial would have been a conversation between Amazon as a brand and the consumers. When the first solutions to restore Alexa’s voice would have failed, most consumers would have already known the solution, and when the ‘consumers’ solution would be applied at last, the commercial would have been very effective. Even though the message was that Alexa cannot be replaced, it would have also communicated that Alexa cannot also operate in an unsustainable environment.
In conclusion, Amazon’s 2018 Super Bowl commercial would have been very effective in communicating that machines also need a sustainable environment to operate. Alexa choked probably after announcing the high temperatures, and it would also have been effective and interesting for Alexa to recover in a cooler environment. Amazon would have positioned its brand as environmental conscious. Although the brand is already relatively popular, more customer loyalty would have been achieved if the commercial was designed to show that sustainability was at the core of Amazon’s operations.
References
Stoiber, Marc. (2012). “ The 8 C's of Sustainability Branding”: The Green Market Oracle . http://www.thegreenmarketoracle.com/2012/10/the-8-cs-of-sustainability-branding-by.html
SustainAbility. (2018). “Can our society endure?” https://sustainability.com/sustainability/
USA Today. “Alexa Loses Her Voice”. https://admeter.usatoday.com/commercials/alexa-loses-her-voice/
