Blog #3: Customer Experiences

Some commercials have the power to grasp our attention and keep hold of it. One specific campaign that has this power over me is the Propel Fitness Water campaign. Bottled water is a strange phenomenon in that it has to be one of the hardest products to market since it is very difficult to differentiate your product from your competitors’. Propel has done a great job at differentiating themselves through creating a total experience for its customers. Propel is not just bottled water; it is the “fitness water.”
I’m sure you can easily remember at least one of the most recent Propel commercials. The most memorable commercial I have seen from Propel features a woman power-walking through the streets of a high profile town. Everybody is staring at her including many different celebrities. The paparazzi even begins photographing her instead of John Stamos, the actor. Music is playing in the background that makes you want to get up and get moving. A voiceover comes in saying “Fit has a feeling, and a water… Propel Fitness Water.” Then the women is snapped back to reality and she is shown walking through the nice quiet little neighborhood with a big smile on her face. To me, it is obvious that this commercial conveys the SEM of Feel. This is a commercial intended to make you feel good about yourself. The message it is sending is drinking Propel Fitness Water can put you into great shape.
Another memorable commercial is one in which a giant robot is racing through the streets of New York City or some other large city. As the giant runs, you can hear statements and people yelling about the stresses of everyday life. The music is very appropriate as the lyrics sing about being “Under Pressure.” The giant robot is letting go of some of his stress as he runs and eventually he sheds all of the “stress” and a human man is revealed. Then the voiceover comes on and states the same logo as before, “Fit has a feeling and a water… Propel Fitness Water.” I think this is such a great example of the SEM relate. I think most everyone can relate to a commercial that addresses the everyday stresses of life. Propel is trying to portray the message that exercising can help eliminate some of this stress and that Propel Fitness Water is the way to help you get fit. This is a good example of the Relate SEM also because many people have the desire for self-improvement which this commercial is promoting. Drinking Propel can help you achieve your fitness goals.
These commercials are also a great example of the SEM Act. The best example of this SEM is a commercial that shows a woman riding her bike through the city streets. As she rides, the street begins to split and starts going uphill very quickly. She continues to ride as she dodges cars and exploding pot holes. She reaches the top of the hill as the song in the backgrounds sings “I am extraordinary,” and then the drops from the hill onto the ground where she is suddenly back in the gym on her stationary bike. Once again, the motto is stated by a voiceover: “Fit has a feeling and a water… Propel Fitness Water.” This commercial makes me want to get up and exercise. It is very motivating because it shows what a woman can do if she has goals to achieve. Again, Propel Fitness Water seems to be the way to achieve any fitness goals a customer may have.
Propel does a great job differentiating itself from other bottled waters through these commercials. One area I think they need to improve on though is relaying more of the Sense SEM to the customers. I don’t think the commercials really explain what it is like to drink the fitness water. I know what customers can do after drinking the water, but I would like to be able to get a feeling of what the fitness water tastes like through their advertising. This would be a great differentiator for them especially against other sports drinks such as Gatorade or Powerade.
This has definitely been the hardest assignment for me so far in this class. I spent a couple of days paying close attention to commercials and trying to think of a good example of a customer experience that had at least 3 of the 5 SEMS from the article “A Framework for Managing Customer Experiences.” Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks that Propel would be a great example. Although, it was still hard for me to analyze the commercials and figure out which separate SEMs would be applying to each commercials. I really don’t think I had any biases toward this company. I never even drink Propel Fitness Water. Although, I do find the commercials appealing because two of them were very empowering for women. It just showed that women can be athletic like men and achieve their fitness goals too. I guess maybe that is a little bias that I bring to this analysis of Propel Fitness Water. Just make sure to remember… “Fit has a feeling… and a water.”