Music & Lyrics

I don't understand why Expedia's jingle at the end of its TV commercials sings "dot com."

What isn't a dot com these days?  A generation of consumers has been trained to punch words into their computers, whether as search terms of possible web sites.  Those of us old enough to remember index cards and the Dewey Decimal System are doing it, too, however imperfectly.  The Internet is the default location for finding information, much the same way the library used to be.

Reminding us to look for Expedia online is like singing "at the grocery store" for breakfast cereal or soda pop, isn't it?

Consumers checking the Internet is somewhat unavoidable, and I'm sure there are more than a few businesses that wish people wouldn't discover all the fact and fiction thereby provided.  I wonder if there might be ways to use jingles to somehow focus, or limit what folks might choose to check.  Maybe a song telling consumers something like "Expedia isn't travel," to make sure the company doesn't underwrite comparison shopping.

That's probably too much reverse double secret psychology.

Perhaps singing "dot com" is a reminder that Expedia is a web service, and not the neighborhood travel agency.  The presumption would have to be that people might confuse the two, and I don't see that happening.  I guess it's possible that someone has called a travel agent and told them they'd like to be booked on Expedia.  I'm just not sure the jingle is obvious enough to stop that customer segment from doing it again..or that the company would care to try.

Maybe it's branding.

The concept of "the Internet" possesses a number of qualities that Expedia might want to attach to its brand: fast, efficient, convenient, cheap, futuristic, and uncluttered.  Singing a 2-second jingle might be a brilliant way to attach those attributes, a sort of abbreviated version of the song "we're a great Internet site with all of the great stuff you'd expect from a great Internet site."  Since the rest of the commercials talks about how and what the service is, though, these last few seconds just don't seem particularly relevant, let alone memorable.

Jingles can be a great marketing tool.  They're one of those tactics that are as relevant now as they were when consumers sang "wouldn't you really rather drive a Buick?" or "two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese..."  Music is part higher-thought and part-mnemonic device; you can't help remembering certain musical phrases and, in doing so, repeating the words that go with them.  So why isn't Expedia's jingle "better deals," or "check Expedia?"

Right now, it might as well sing "Inc." at the end of its spots.

Comments

[Jonathan]

Joe, I'm with you. I think I underestimated the utility of the jingle.

[twitter.com/moejurray]

I was just thinking about this jingle over the weekend. I agree it has no benefit reflective of the services offered, but a great neumonic device. And it does encapsulate all of the benefits of dot-com.

After reading the comments, I think it could migrate to "travel on" or something else with little trouble.

[MikeStan]

Many consumers are idiots needing a nudge, and most are not on the trailing edge of technology and social trends. My elderly mother now uses Expedia first when looking for airline tickets online, precisely because the jingle reminds her that Expedia does cheap travel online.

Almost a mnemonic for her, I assume it's the same for many others.

[Jonathan]

Good point. Another example of my US bias, I'm afraid; it never occurred to me that the spots are distributed beyond the glorious confines of the contiguous 48. :)

[Paul Copcutt]

It's probably been done so that we Canadians catching US tv feeds do not make the mistake of typing in .com when we should be entering .ca - the deals are definitely better on .com though, even though they try to re-direct you to the Canadian site.

Just my toonies worth

[WednesdayCincinnati]

I confess, I just kind of like the dot-com.

It's sort of like an audible period at the end of a sentence. Or maybe more like an audible exclamation point.

Man - don't you hate it when a business thinks they're being clever and they have a non dot-com address. All those others - .net, .biz, .whatever - they never really did take off, did they?

Dot-com is the gold standard there.
Dot-com!

[Jonathan]

Thanks, Carson. I'm not knocking the ad, which I think is just fine (and, to your point, may be attracting new customers). I still don't 'get' the need for the dot com at the end of the spot, though. If someone is expert enough to open a web browser, aren't they probably going to type the name into the address bar?

But you make a good point.

[Carson]

Expedia removed the .com logo branding from their site in the last redesign (last summer I think). Here's a screen shot of the site just before relaunch: http://www.currybet.net/images/blog2008/20080405_expedia.png
Check it out now and you'll see that it's gone.

TV ad has been played for a while and, I agree, could use an update. But maybe it is yielding results? My guess would be that TV ad may be successful at bringing in more traditional users who are not so web savvy. They need that .com hand-holding.

One thing I'm always looking at as a web analyst is where my traffic is coming from -- direct, search or referral. If I were at Expedia, I would want to know how much direct traffic that .com jingle brings in. Direct traffic is generally valued by marketers because it means people know your brand and are typing it into the URL box directly.