Tuesday 16 December 2014

Advertising Techniques

Repetition.
Repetition is a simple yet effective technique used to build identity awareness and customer memory. Even advertisements using other successful approaches mention the product or company name more than once, particularly in television because its combination of sight and sound, allows the advertiser to disguise the repetition by changing its delivery (from visual to audio). An ad first shown during a Super Bowl broadcast for a product called HeadOn remains the classic example of this advertising technique. Though the advertisement never explained what the product does, viewers remembered its name.

Claims.
Advertising that promotes specific features or makes claims about what a product or service can do for the potential customers provides successful results by informing, educating and developing expectations in the buyer. Claims can state facts or simply use hype, such as calling one brand of orange juice "the best" when nutritionally it is identical to other brands. Claims may mislead through omission or by using what some advertisers and political campaigners call "weasel words." These are subtle statement modifiers that render the claim meaningless if studied closely. Common weasel words include "helps," "fights" and "virtually."

Association.
Associating a product or company with a famous person, catchy jingle, desirable state of being or powerful emotion creates a strong psychological connection in the customer. Sporting equipment companies use successful athletes in their ads, automakers display their cars in front of mansions, brewers show their beer consumed by groups of friends having fun and cosmetic companies sign celebrities to represent their products. These ads encourage an emotional response in customers, which then is linked to the product being advertised, making it attractive through transference.

Bandwagon.
The bandwagon technique sells a product or service by convincing the customer that others are using it and they should join the crowd. Other bandwagon advertisements suggest that the customer will be left out if they do not buy what's being sold. These ads often employ "glittering generalities," words linked to highly valued ideas or concepts that evoke instant approval, which may or may not relate to the subject of the advertisement. "America loves..." connects patriotism with a product, creating an automatic positive response.

Promotions,
Coupons, sweepstakes, games with prizes and gifts with purchases create excitement, and participation encourages customers to build a relationship with the sponsoring product or service. The attraction of getting something "free" or earning "rewards" makes promotions successful. Limited-time offers and entry deadlines add urgency to this advertising technique's call to action.

Analyzing Persuasive
Techniques in Advertising Persuasive Technique
How It Is Used Intended Effect
Bandwagon
Uses the argument that a person should believe or do something because “everybody else” does
• Consumers buy the product because they want to fit in.
• Consumers assume that if others buy it, the product must be good.
Bait and Switch
Dishonest tactic in which a salesperson lures customers into a store with the promise of a bargain
• Consumers are persuaded to buy a more expensive item.
Celebrity Spokesperson
Uses a celebrity or famous person to endorse a product
• Consumers transfer admiration or respect for the celebrity to the product.
Emotional Appeals
Make viewers feel certain emotions, such as excitement, sadness, or fear
• Audience transfers that feeling to the product.
Glittering Generalities
Emphasizes highly valued beliefs, such as patriotism, peace, or freedom
• Consumers accept this information, often without enough real evidence to support the claim.
Humor
Used to make audiences laugh, but provides little information about the product or service
• Consumers remember the ad and associate positive feelings with the product.
Individuality
Appeals to consumers’ desire to be different from everyone else; the opposite of the bandwagon appeal
• Consumers celebrate their own style, or rebel against what others are doing.
• Consumers perceive the product as unique, stylish, or cool.
Loaded Language
Uses words with positive or negative connotations to describe a product or that of the competitor—such as purr, snarl, or weasel words
• The words appeal to consumers’ emotions, rather than their reason.
• Purr words, such as “fresh” or “juicy,” make a product seem more desirable.
Name-calling
Attacks people or groups to discredit their ideas
• Consumers focus on the attack rather than the issues.
Plain Folk
Shows ordinary people using or supporting a product or candidate
• Consumers trust the product because it’s good enough for regular “folks.”
Product Comparison
Compares a product with the “inferior” competition
• Consumers believe the feature product is.

Source
 
Today every company needs to advertise its product to inform the customers about the product, increase the sales, acquire market value, and gain reputation and name in the industry. Every business spends lot of money for advertising their products but the money spent will lead to success only when the best techniques of advertising are used for the product. So here are some very common and most used techniques used by the advertisers to get desired results.
  1. Emotional Appeal
    This technique of advertising is done with help of two factors - needs of consumers and fear factor. Most common appeals under need are:
    • need for something new
    • need for getting acceptance
    • need for not being ignored
    • need for change of old things
    • need for security
    • need to become attractive, etc.
    Most common appeals under fear are:
    • fear of accident
    • fear of death
    • fear of being avoided
    • fear of getting sick
    • fear of getting old, etc.
  1. Promotional Advertising
    This technique involves giving away samples of the product for free to the consumers. The items are offered in the trade fairs, promotional events, and ad campaigns in order to gain the attention of the customers.
  2. Bandwagon Advertising
    This type of technique involves convincing the customers to join the group of people who have bought this product and be on the winning side. For e.g. recent Pantene shampoo ad which says “15crores women trusted Pantene, and you?”
  3. Facts and Statistics
    Here, advertisers use numbers, proofs, and real examples to show how good their product works. For e.g. “Lizol floor cleaner cleans 99.99% germs” or “Colgate is recommended by 70% of the dentists of the world” or Eno - just 6 seconds.
  4. Unfinished Ads
    The advertisers here just play with words by saying that their product works better but don’t answer how much more than the competitor. For e.g. Lays - no one can eat just one or Horlicks - more nutrition daily. The ads don’t say who can eat more or how much more nutrition.
  5. Weasel Words
    In this technique, the advertisers don’t say that they are the best from the rest, but don’t also deny. E.g. Sunsilk Hairfall Solution - reduces hairfall. The ad doesn’t say stops hairfall.
  6. Endorsements
    The advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. The celebrities or star endorse the product by telling their own experiences with the product. Recently a diamond jewellery ad had superstar Amitabh Bacchan and his wife Jaya advertising the product. The ad showed how he impressed his wife by making a smart choice of buying this brand. Again, Sachin tendulkar, a cricket star, endorsed for a shoe brand.
  7. Complementing the Customers
    Here, the advertisers used punch lines which complement the consumers who buy their products. E.g. Revlon says “Because you are worth it.”
  8. Ideal Family and Ideal Kids
    The advertisers using this technique show that the families or kids using their product are a happy go lucky family. The ad always has a neat and well furnished home, well mannered kids and the family is a simple and sweet kind of family. E.g. a dettol soap ad shows everyone in the family using that soap and so is always protected from germs. They show a florescent color line covering whole body of each family member when compared to other people who don’t use this soap.
  9. Patriotic Advertisements
    These ads show how one can support their country while he uses their product or service. For e. g some products together formed a union and claimed in their ad that if you buy any one of these products, you are going to help a child to go to school. One more cellular company ad had a celebrity showing that if the customers use this company’s sim card, then they can help control population of the country.
  10. Questioning the Customers
    The advertisers using this technique ask questions to the consumers to get response for their products. E.g. Amway advertisement keeps on asking questions like who has so many farms completely organic in nature, who gives the strength to climb up the stairs at the age of 70, who makes the kids grow in a proper and nutritious ways, is there anyone who is listening to these entire questions. And then at last the answer comes - “Amway : We are Listening.”
  11. Bribe
    This technique is used to bribe the customers with some thing extra if they buy the product using lines like “buy one shirt and get one free”, or “be the member for the club for two years and get 20% off on all services.”
  12. Surrogate Advertising
    This technique is generally used by the companies which cannot advertise their products directly. The advertisers use indirect advertisements to advertise their product so that the customers know about the actual product. The biggest example of this technique is liquor ads. These ads never show anyone drinking actual liquor and in place of that they are shown drinking some mineral water, soft drink or soda.
These are the major techniques used by the advertisers to advertise their product. There are some different techniques used for online advertising such as web banner advertising in which a banner is placed on web pages, content advertising using content to advertise the product online, link advertising giving links on different sites to directly visit the product website, etc.

Loaded Words
Words with strong associations like "family," "home," "dishonest" and "wasteful".
Transference
Attempts to make the audience associate positive words, images and ideas with a product and its users.
Name Calling
Comparing one product to another and saying it is weaker or inferior in quality or taste.
Testimonial
A product endorsed by a celebrity or by an expert
Bandwagon
The advertiser tries to make you feel like everyone else has the product and if you don't, you will be left out.
Snob Appeal
The opposite of bandwagon, this appeal makes the case that using the product means the consumer is better, smarter, richer and so on...than anyone else.
Repetition
This technique repeats the product's catchphrase, name or logo over and over so that it "sticks" in the consumer's mind.
Flattery
The advertiser appeals to the consumer's vanity by implying that smart, rich, popular people buy the product.
Plain Folks
The advertiser says or implies (either by text or pictures) that "people just like you" use the product. (This could be in the form of a testimonial)
Emotional Appeals
The advertiser appeals to the consumer's fears, joys, sense of nostalgia and so on.
Facts and Figures
The advertiser uses statistics, research or other data to make the product appear to be better than its competitors.
Special Offer
The advertiser offers a discount, coupon, free gift or other enticement to get people to buy a product
Urgency
The advertiser makes you feel like you need the product right away.
Ethos
This persuasive strategy appeals to credibility or character - to show that the company is more honest, reliable or credible so you should buy the product.
Pathos
This persuasive strategy attempts to evoke an emotional response in the consumer.
Logos
This persuasive strategy appeals to logic or reason. Ads using this strategy will often have evidence and statistics.
Persuasive Advertising Strategies
Ethos, pathos and logos are advertising strategies/techniques used by advertisers to get consumers to purchase products.


Expert opinion: the opinions offered by a professional or leader in the field, eg Oral B toothbrush. Note that the Oral B toothbrush advertisement is displayed viaYouTube; there may be user-generated comments that are inappropriate.
Evidence: includes the use of statistics, university research results, government inquiries, overseas evidence and the opinions of experts, eg Garnier UK.
Emotional appeal: to arouse a strong feeling or emotion in the consumer; targets a specific area of concern/interest to produce an emotional response, eg McDonald’s Family website.
Compelling offers: something better than any other company, or freebies (‘two for the price of one’), hyperbole (eg ‘the best ever’, ‘unique’, ‘outstanding value’), eg Cindy Crawford Meaningful Beauty.
Association: images are used in the hope that you’ll transfer your good feelings about that particular image/idea to the product being advertised (eg favourite cartoon character, appeal to patriotism such as the Australian flag, etc), eg Weetbix.
Must-have: you must have the particular product to be happy, satisfied, or popular, eg Being bronzed is beautiful.
Fear: the product will solve something you worry about, like pimples, bad breath, body odour, eg Vaseline skin whitener. Source


Advertising techniques are tools used to attract attention, spark interest, to explain ideas, trigger emotion, create desire, initiate action and influence what people think, feel or remember. Here follow some techniques:

1. Celebrity Testimonial: Commonly called "testimonials," or "celebrity endorsements," this technique of persuasion says that consumers relate to the person(s) appearing in the ad: if the celebrity/athlete/star uses the product, then it must be good, so I will purchase/use it too.


Be careful testimonial is different from testimony. Take a quick look at both definitions.
Testimonial: Using a well-known person to *endorse a product.
 *to endorse: to express support for someone or something, especially in       public.                                                 

Testimony: a formal statement about something that you saw, know, or experienced.

2. Emotional appeal:  type of advertising designed to stimulate one's psychological, social, or emotional needs, rather than one's sense of the practical or impractical. It can arouse fear, love, hate, greed, sexual desire, or humor, or otherwise create psychological tension that can best be resolved by purchase of the product or service. For example, a security alarm company might show a scenario where the home of a mother and her children is burglarized. Advertisers also appeal to sentiment, often through images like babies, cute animals, and touching parent-child interactions

   3.Bandwagon appeal is an advertising technique that aims to persuade people to do a certain thing because the masses are doing it. A bandwagon commercial can actually convince a consumer to do or buy something they don't actually need, just to do or have what others have. It encourages the consumer to “jump on the bandwagon."

  4. Snob appeal is an exact reverse of the bandwagon technique. In this advertising appeal, people are induced to buy a certain product so that they can stand out of the crowd. It is often indicated that buying the product will make them look different from the rest. It is often indicated that the product is not affordable for the common masses by attaching a 'sense of exclusivity' to such products.

5.  Scientific Evidence: This technique attempts to appeal the masses to use the advertised product, by providing the audiences with survey results. The advertisers often use statistical evidences and market surveys to publicize their product. Take a look at this well done advertising: 

This commercial might contain more statistics than several reports or articles.

  6. Feel-good Factor: A majority of viewers opt for purchasing the product, not because they need it, but simply because the advertisement makes them feel good and think differently. This is one of the most common advertising techniques used in marketing.
   
    7. The Association Principle: Association is an advertising technique that involves drawing a mental link between a product and desirable qualities of various kinds that may include attractiveness, wealth, success, family, patriotism, security, happiness, youthfulness, health, adventure, independence, love, romance, sex, etc. If the ad contains:
   
ü  a visual of a handsome man offering the ring to a beautiful woman
ü  a luxuriously furnished apartment
ü  a table set with wine and candles; and
ü  a text which reads "Love has no price"

      Then the ad would be associating the purchase of the diamond ring to wealth.   Depending on the positioning of the male & female, for example, a close embrace, the association may extend to love and romance.

   8. Repetition: T vhis advertising appeal uses the technique of repeating the product name several times during an advertisement. Jingles are often used in this advertising technique to linger the product name in the minds of the masses. Advertisers also create repetition by running an ad frequently. When it comes time to make a purchase, and the name of one of the products on the shelf has been repeated to the consumer many times, that product might just stand out enough for the consumer to choose it.

     9. Humor Appeal: Of course, one of the most effective ways to get the audience's attention is to be funny. Humor is one of the best ways to break through the "noise" of all the competition advertising messages out there and get people to pay attention to the sales pitch.

   10. Shockvertising: This advertising appeal makes use of shocking images or scenes to impact the message. The name is derived as a combination of the two words, ‘shocking’ and ‘advertising’.
            
   11. Slogans are memorable, striking phrases used to convey important information of the product to be advertised in an interesting manner. The video below is a speech made up just of 3. I’m sure you know some of them. Take a look at it.

    12.  Music Effects: Music is also one of the most common advertising techniques used in commercials for latest gadgets. Good music in the TV commercial in fact serves as an indirect advertiser for the product.

    13. Eye Candy: This advertising technique creates a visual image so striking, so original, and so appealing that it simply leaps off the page or out of the screen. It makes the viewer think I've never seen such a thing before. This advertising technique will usually make strong use of vibrant color or contrast brilliant colors to set the image.

   From the commercials below which one have you liked the most? Post a comment voting in it and saying what kind of advertising technique you thought effective on the commercial. You’re free to say what you want or even to post other commercials. We’re eager to hear from you. Source
 
Advertisement is a technique used by society for a long time and represents the propagation, the spread or transmission of any subject for a specific purpose. This technique can be used to attempt to influence the buying behavior of society, to spread a political ideology, to guide the population on matters of public health, to generate awareness for important causes, among other uses. Thus, we conclude that advertising may have positive or negative connotations according to their use.

Registers of advertisements were already observed in ancient societies, such as the Egyptian society that using papyrus to make sales massages and wall posters and in ancient civilizations such as Roman, in which the Roman Catholic Church used ads to convey their ideology and to achieve the faithful.

The advertisements were also used in World War I, in the form of posters as a means to justify the participation of the population and secure the resources to sustain the military campaign, in World War II the use of advertising was even more important and cruel, and reached the level highest in the history of dissemination of an ideology until then. During this period the ads were not used only by the Germany but for all countries involved in war such as the United States, the British Empire, Italy, Japan, among others, that used the advertisements as a way of motivating people and convince them that war was inevitable and necessary.

To achieve their objectives, the advertisements were created with the same techniques currently used by vehicles of mass communication, but the ''purposes'' are others. On the topic 2 related to ''Emotional appeal'' for example, we observe the use of a stimulus psychological, social or emotional to create a psychological tension that tries to persuade its audience to accomplish some action. In this topic, the Kellogg's commercial is a good example, he begins saying several features that are important for growing children: ‘’…we need families, friends, heroes, we need inspiration, freedom, disappoint, we need to make a mistake ….. We need NOURISHMENT!!!''. In the end, the ad compares these characteristics with the importance of Kellogg for children: ''Kellogg is the impart of children breakfast, that’s something we believe they need everyday …’’.
In this same way, the United States used this same technique of advertisement to achieve their interests in World War II. In an attempt to reach the imagination of the population, the U.S. government used posters with kids (Patriots) under Nazi symbols, which generated a strong motivation in the population to help the government ''to save the children and the freedom of America'' from imminent totalitarianism.

During that same period, the German government were also used the ads for convince the German people about the necessity of war. In Germany it was common use of pamphlets, books, posters, magazines, banners, speeches and especially the radio to broadcast the base of his ideals ("One people, one Reich, one leader"). This shows to us that German ads were extremely important in the course of World War II and through it, was possible to influence the behavior of large numbers of people. Thus, we conclude that the use of different vehicles of mass communication and different advertising techniques such as: 2 - Emotional appeal, 3 - Bandwagon appeal, 7 - The Association Principle, 8 - Repetition, 10 - Shockvertising, 11 – Slogans, among others, were determining to the course of human history.

Although the ads may have positive and negative connotations, today is almost impossible to separate the negative factors related to advertising. Thus, it is necessary that we understand the implications that advertisements have on our lives lest we not become a mere object of manipulation.

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