Considering my readership is made up almost entirely of the individuals in my LA101H group, I thought I would pay tribute to our successful presentation with a little more Kindle fun. Since I absolutely love quality advertisements, I have to hand it to Amazon for its marketing campaign of their popular ereader. Whilst perusing Kindle’s Youtube page, there was not a bad ad in the bunch, but my favorites were surely the original commercials.
Today’s technology seems to be most successful when the complexity only comes from the number of features it allows a consumer to discover. Otherwise, the goal for marketers is to make their products seem simple in order to give them character. Kindle understands that the consumers they truly need to win over are those who love the simplicity of books and are wary about the coldness of an electronic device as opposed to the nostalgic warmth of a book.
This commercial surely delivers the desired appeal with a creative and stripped-down stop animation approach; Amazon makes it perfectly clear from the start that with the Kindle they hope to preserve the simple artistic pleasure a book brings with their new gadget. The music lacks complexity as well, as it is only a piano and a woman singing. Nothing about it sounds or looks "electronic" in any way; on the contrary, everything has a home-made warmth to it. Meanwhile, Kindle literally answers the question it poses in the song: “Will you fly me away?” as if they are answering the inquiries of skeptical potential buyers who are not sold on whether or not kindle will give them the escape into the stories that they find in the pages of a book.
Colorful, creative, and simple; Amazon portrays its kindle in a light that is contrary to the perceptions of those clinging onto the traditional book. The commercial mirrors a product that has character, not the cold, calculative feel that resembles an image model such as Apple’s . While Steve Jobs and company embrace the seemingly sterile yet streamlined design of their electronics, Amazon hopes to maintain a sense of charm that is palatable to book readers who are fearful of the potential tech domination of ereaders.
