L IFE
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B ACCARAT
Selling The American Dream
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Advertisers are force-feeding the image of the U.S., and Israelis are eating it up.
JAN JABEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
imberley-Clark
under-
stands the Israeli market-
place.
Introducing a new prod-
uct into the highly competitive
baby-supplies market in Israel,
the company declares that Hug-
gies diapers are the best-selling
brand in America. Ocean Spray
heralds its cranberry juice as 100
percent tasty, 100 percent healthy
and 100 percent American.
What's good for Americans
must be good for Israelis, at least
that's how Israeli consumers
seem to feel. And marketers are
taking HI advantage. Wherever
one looks — whether it's a TV
spot, billboard, bus-stop poster or
special promotion — red, white
and blue are used to get con-
sumers' attention, and shekels.
Even Israelis' love affair with U.S.
President Bill Clinton became fair
game when Chrysler used his
photo in a controversial billboard
campaign that succeeded in caus-
ing a local stir.
According to Moshe Teumim,
chairman and CEO of Gitam/
BBDO advertising agency,
there's "no limit to how much
America can be used in adver-
tising in Israel. America repre-
sents quality, sophistication and
wealth. Everything is becoming
more American here. We're im-
itating what we believe to be the
perception of America."
According to some marketing
observers, the love affair with
America — reflected not only in
advertising strategies, but also in
its popularity as a travel desti-
nation, and perhaps even in the
election of an American-educat-
ed prime minister in an Ameri-
can-style election — is due to two
main factors.
First, although the numbers
are in dispute, some estimate that
as many as one million Israelis
live or have lived in America. Sec-
ond, since the introduction of ca-
ble TV, Israelis have been
exposed to more American pro-
gramming and culture.
David Tamir, general manag-
er of Tamir Cohen Advertising,
also believes that Israelis' love af-
fair with America is unlimited.
He attributes the preference for
everything American to the same
thing that brought down the
Berlin Wall and the end of the So-
viet Union — "in one word, tele-
vision.' "
Israelis have become even
more enamored with American
entertainers, programs, sports
and products since the arrival of
commercial and cable TV, Tamir
says.
"Israelis are in the midst of an
Americanization process. We're
just at the height of it. Israeli ra-
dio plays American songs; Israeli
people like American TV pro-
grams. The top-rated shows on
Israeli Channel 2 are American
or are copies of American pro-
grams.
"There's an Israeli "Baywatch,"
called "Kahol Amok," or Deep
Blue. American brand names get
a lot of respect from Israelis just
by the fact that they come from
America," he says.
..!.10,„,
America to Israelis when it
launched its American Food Fes-
tival. The 1996 bi-annual festival
underlined that enchantment
with American products.
Supersol claims that sales rose
by 50 percent during the festival,
compared to the same period in
1995. Ya'acov Ginsburg, vice-pres-
ident of marketing for Supersol,
says that the festival enticed cus-
tomers from competitors and es-
timated that 5 percent were
retained after the festival was
over.
"We started the festival be-
cause we found that many Is-
raelis were traveling to the U.S.
and many were arriving from the
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According to Mr. Tamir, Burg-
er King is an example of an Amer-
ican company which has made
tremendous inroads into the Is-
raeli market, and kept its Amer-
ican identity and logo in doing so.
"Three years ago, the ham-
burger market was 20 percent of
the total fast-food market in Is-
rael; today it has a 45 percent
share. Three years ago, falafel
and shwarma had one-third of
the fast-food market; today it's
only 15 percent. Two-thirds of the
fast-food market is comprised of
pizza (dominated by Domino's
and Pizza Hut) and hamburgers
(McDonald's and Burger King)."
Tamir adds that 40 percent of
the cigarettes smoked in Israel
are American.
Ten years ago, the Supersol su-
permarket chain first realized the
attractiveness of marketing'
U.S. and they asked for the prod-
ucts," says Mr. Ginsburg.
"People think American things
are better." He points out that
even his wife shows an interest
when she sees Americans en-
thusing over a new U.S. import in
Israeli stores because "they must
know what they're talking about."
"Supersol was much smaller
when we first started the festi-
vals," he says. "Thday we have 100
stores and a turnover of $1 billion,
and we think the festivals have
helped."
More than 1,000 food products
were imported for last year's fes-
tival, valued at about twice that
of the previous festival. Many food
manufacturers use the festival to
test their products in Israel, and
this time New York Kosher Deli,
Pillsbury and Sara Lee introduced
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