Emotional appeal In advertising - Essay Example

? THE USE OF EMOTIONAL APPEAL IN ADVERTISING Introduction Advertising is the manner in which organizations, firms, and individual businesses create an awareness of the goods and services that they provide to the public and aims at making a sale to the target groups. Essentially, it is a paid non-personal communication by individuals or businesses organizations, which takes different forms of media, and who the message either directly or indirectly identifies. Definitely, these individuals hope to inform the public, persuading them to make purchases or consider the idea on sale. The ultimate goal for advertising is increasing a firm’s sales revenue by winning customer loyalty or attracting new customers to purchase the good.as advertisers seek to make sales through advertising, they establish a relationship between the organization and the target audience. The mode of advertising chosen to convey the message to the people, the target audience, and efficiency of the message contained in the advertisement determines the success of the advertisement. The various forms of advertising available for organizations to exploit when selling ideas and information about their commodities include the point and non-print media. Regardless of the method chosen in an advertisement, information contained in the advert determines the reaction of the people towards that particular advertisement. To capture the attention of the people, advertisers use different means such as creating an emotional appeal to the audience. Discussed in this essay are the various emotional appeals organizations use to capture the attention of the audience, convincing them to purchase their goods. The essay seeks to prove that the manner in which an advertiser creates an advert and the kind of information contained in the advertisements most cases determines the success of the advert. It also seeks to prove that emotional appeal plays a significant role in convincing people to purchase one product and not the other. Relationship between consumers and advertising A big relationship exists between advertisers and the target customers, points out Hansen & Christensen (2007, p. 117). The main relationship between the two is the main reason for the advertising either a product or a service. Whenever an advertising agency sends out an advert to the public, people get to watch, listen, or read about it. This starts the relationship between the two parties. However, it is the duty of the advertiser to maintain the relationship, by keeping an advert running in the selected media platforms. If the advertisement stops running in the various forms of media selected, this automatically ends the relationship between the advertiser and the customers. Thus, aggressive advertising solidifies the relationship between the advertiser and the customer. However, not all advertisements are appealing to the audience. While creating an advert, putting into consideration the audience targeted, the media used and the kind of information to send to the audience. Accordiong to Donthu et al. (2004, p. 6) any form of information communicated to the audience should possess a moral appeal to the target audience. Morality of the information, a significant factor to the success of any particular advert, hopes to capture positively target customers. As such, information contained in the advert should have a moral appeal to the audience. As such, it should have no offence whatsoever to the concerned parties and individuals. Age is yet another important element to consider while creating an advert. Demographic factors influence the impact of an advert to the target audience. Not all adverts have the same impact to all people, just as not all adverts target all people. What appeals most to children does not have a similar influence to the youth band the young adults. Similarly, it has a different effect to the old people. Therefore, spending a considerable amount of time determining the kind of information to use and the most effective method to reach to all the ages is very essential (Donthu et al. 2004, p. 6). The more appealing the information is to the target audience, the higher the likelihood of that particular audience considering the commodities and services. While designing an advert, choosing the most effective media as a tool for conveying the message is critical. The old people and the young prefer different methods of communication. While targeting a particular audience, knowing the kind of audience one target is very important in determining the communication channel chosen. While the old appear to prefer the print media, the young prefer use of the internet and television. Thus, an advertiser can reach to more old people by using the print media as an advertising medium for products targeting the old people. Likewise, using the internet to advertise any commodities targeting the young people has a higher likelihood of earning better results. The higher the number of times an advert runs in the target media, the stronger then relationship between the advertiser and the audience. Interestingly, products and brands that embark on an aggressive advertising campaign register increased sales within the advertising period. People tend to like experimenting, and when a new product hits the market, they want to know its effects as well as efficiency of its use. Thus, to win customer loyalty and trust is not an easy task. An organization needs to lay down a strategy on how to advertise its commodities. Not always do advertisements pay off with increased sales and subsequently revenues. Some cases, companies have incurred losses because of poor advertising strategies. Since the aim of an advert is to win the hearts of the people, convincing them to buy or consider a particular product, an advert that inadequately addresses these particular issues has no significant influences whatsoever to the people. Effects of advertising Advertising influences consumer behaviour in a significant way. Although people associate advertising in most cases with negative effects, it is important to understand that advertising has positive effects too. Simply because it focuses on convincing people to buy a product, people tend to believe that advertising unethically and at times immorally promotes negative behaviour all for the sole purpose of selling a brand. While this is true, it is open to debate. Arguments point out that most of the society’s positive messages have come from advertisements (Ham, Cho & Jun 2009, p. 47). Advertising helps people in making decisions on the most preferable products and services that suits them, either financially or utility wise. Not only do adverts encourage people to purchase commodities by a particular brand, advertising, especially in highly democratic nations allow people to learn about a wide variety of lifestyles and political choices available for them. They also equip people with adequate knowledge on how to choose people or products they best feel suit their needs. Thus, advertising allows the people to compare various commodities available for them and decide on the best way of making those choices (Ham, Cho & Jun 2009, p. 47). While discussing positive effects of advertising to people, the first element to put into consideration is public service advertisements, argues Sciull & Bebko (2005, p. 17). These advertisements seek to make public a particular social concept. Many of them run messages about health, safety, and national security. Some corporations run such advertisements as a form of corporate social investment, while the public sector, especially the health and the public sector (Sciulli & Bebko 2005, p. 18). Other advertisements, especially the traditional forms of advertisements seek to offer social benefits to the people. Some experts argue that advertising, being a form of a free speech, promotes the use of free speech in the society. Advertising in most cases, when used to communicate to the people freely and send important information, encourages free speech among the people. Economically, advertising provides the people with a number of choices to choose from among a variety of choices. It allows for freedom of competition among various companies operating in the same industry. Seeking to sell an idea of a commodity or product to the people, advertising encourages more consumers to purchase a particular product. Therefore, it focuses on selling the qualities of the product to the people. The use of emotional appeal in advertisements According to Williams & Drolet (2005, p. 345), many advertisements try to create an emotional appeal to the target audience. The creativity with which an organization or advertiser tries to incorporate emotional appeal in an advertisement determines buying patterns of the target audiences. There are two main types of emotional appeals used in advertisements, rational and emotional appeals. Emotional appeals is a type of advertising, designed to stimulate a person’s emotions (mostly the audience), rather than the sense of practical or impractical sense of the audience (Williams & Drolet 2005, p. 344). When advertisers decide to use emotional appeal when creating an advert, their main target is the customer’s psychological, social, and emotional needs. The main design of the advert targets at arousing fear, love, hate, greed, sexual desire, or humour. Additionally, Srivastava & Sharma (2008, p. 38) argue that they target at creating physiological tension to the target audience, which leads to consideration on purchasing the product. Rational appeals mainly base their argument on the logic and the main reason for buying the product. Advertisers weave the two appeals in an advert to give positive results to an ad campaign. However, advertisers prefer to use emotional appeal at the expense of rational appeal due to its immediate results. Emotional appeal heavily relies on subconscious mind to while handling chores that involve receiving, processing, and information evaluation in the decision making process (Srivastava & Sharma 2008, p. 30). However, the subconscious mind has no information on the decisions making process involving the use of conscious thoughts. Thus, in the subconscious state of mind of an individual, emotions take over the decision making process. Thus, people do not consciously make decisions in an emotional situation; rather, their subconscious mind is in action. Close to 95 per cent of time, the human brain is always idle. In an idle state, the brain works in a subconscious state. Thus, advertisers and marketers take advantage of this time to win the hearts of the people by using emotional advertisements. This is the main reason why there is a high likelihood of emotional advertisements succeeding. Due to the high number of adverts exposed to an average person in a day, arguably 3000, there is no particular chance that the brain could consciously synthesise that information consciously. Every advert, harbouring an emotional appeal to the audience in most cases will have a significant impact on the individual. Thus, any advertiser who wishes to have an emotional appeal to the audience, needs to excite a singular thought, belief, hope, dream, or expectation, thus gaining the target’s attention. As research on the methods of advertising intensifies, different authors have proposed on the means and methods to use in winning the emotions of the audience (Sciulli & Bebko 2005, p. 31). Different researchers have sought on the most essential ways of making an appeal to the audience and capturing their attentions adequately. With the understanding of the main reason for advertising, which is selling a product, both large and small business organizations need invest heavily on advertisements. Failure of investment leads to poor outcomes, thus the advert having little or negligible impact on the audience. The most effective method of winning customers is creating a mental picture in the mind of a target audience (Sciulli & Bebko 2005, p. 28) Fantasies in most cases work best as people want to have that experience them in reality. This, argues advertisement experts, is the only way of ensuring people make purchases. Personal appeal aims at driving individuals to purchase products. Fear is one of the most powerful personal emotions to include in an advert to win the customers into making purchases for their goods. This form of emotional appeal is used when selling products such as nutritional supplements, excursive equipment, among other products. However, i8stilling a real fear among the audience is the best way to win their hearts. Social appeal that would make an individual make a purchase include the need for recognition , respect, involvement and affiliation, rejection, acceptance, among others. Socially, people want to feel appreciated and loved, as well as having a sense of belonging. Everybody conforms to a particular group or community. Such people, in order to feel recognized by their peers, purchase commodities that look alike or meet the characteristics of the group (Sciulli & Bebko 2005, p. 32). Others, due to their social status and class, opt for commodities that set them as unique and different. This helps in winning respect among other people. Focusing an advertisement bon these elements, the likelihood of people purchasing that particular commodity is relatively high. Humour appeal is yet another form of emotional appeals that when included in an advertisement yields great fruits. In fact, close to 30% of all adverts in circulation currently incorporates a humorous aspect (Alden, et al., 2000, p. 6). It is an excellent tool used in capturing the attention of the audience. Additionally, fear leads to instant results, as people remember People want to feel loved and appreciated, Shields & Heinecken (2002, p. 98) point out. At least every person loves somebody. The emotional feeling s associated with love has led to great results on advertisers who chose love vas an emotional tool. The main reason why card manufactures make a lot of money is out of love. Just on Valentine’s Day alone, most of the companies specializing in relationships make a lot of money. Cake manufacturers and flower sellers too make a lot of money as people buy gifts for their loved ones. Inculcating love message in an advert increases the likelihood of a person buying the product for their partner. By addressing the consumer’s needs, a bandwagon effect aims at making consumers feel that they miss out Shields & Heinecken (2002, p. 4). This form of appeal makes people feel left out in the group, partners or friends. People want to be part of the group that they all conform to at any particular time. Everybody wants to take part in the fun and joy, together with his or her partners and friends. Food and drinks adverts use this appeal to lure the young people into purchasing their commodities. Purposively, such adverts show happy and excited young adults enjoying a particular brand, with individuals staring at them with ecstasy. However, since they do not share the same brand with the group, they do not qualify to join them. Thus, they stare at the rest as they have fun as they enjoy a less popular brand. Medical products on the other hand show consensus by the number of medical experts supporting the brand. To show the effectiveness of a product, observes Shields & Heinecken (2002, p. 48), most of the adverts will point out that a high number of experts in a particular field recommend that particular product. Automobile dealers and cell phone manufacturers use statistics to show the popularity of their products against other products. The biggest concern for the bandwagon effect is that it insists people should buy the product simply because other people are buying. If carried out well, bandwagon effect convinces people to purchase products, thus increasing the sales volume of a company. The creativity with which advertisers create advertisements transforms negative emotions into positive emotions. Despite capturing the mind and attention of the audience, emotional appeals affect the behaviour of the target audience. Since emotional appeal is the appeal associated with a particular product, it helps in arousing and directing the behaviour of an individual. Every individual has certain hopes and dreams, working consciously or subconsciously, and thus giving a pleasant feeling in the individual’s psyche. As such, emotional appeal in an advert helps in arousing an individual’s behaviour through these advertisements. Not only do emotions affect the emotions of an individual, they also affect the consumer’s memory. An excited or agitated state of mind prompts an individual to buy the product. Therefore, emotional appeals are transformational appeals since they aim at transforming there customer’s feelings towards a product or a service. Related to the psychological attribute of the consumer, emotional appeals give gives positive moods to the consumers. However, despite their influence on the behaviour of the market, emotional appeals do not work for all markets in a similar way. They are more effective to the older generation than to the young generation. According to Mishra (2009, p. 24), emotional appeals also make the consumption of a product more enjoyable. For instance, the use of sex in soap advertising evokes the feelings of the people, attracting the audience towards the products and services. Since sex evokes the desire among the target audience, the use of the sex in an advert attracts more people to use the product, improving the sales volumes of the product. In most cases, sex appeal attracts people of the opposite gender (masculine or feminine). However, some cultures may refer to this as an offensive form of information depending on the beliefs and practices of the people. Highly moral countries and societies would consider an advert with a sex appeal as rather offensive than in countries that regard sex as a normality and a topic openly discussed. However, its acceptance is depended on how obscene the advert is. Conclusion Advertisers use different methods in promoting their products through advertisements. While deciding in the most effective method of advertising, advertiser sand organization need to put into consideration a number of factors. Among these factors, include demographic factors, the media used, and the kind of information used. While demographics determine the kind of media to use in the target audience, information determines the kind of emotions to send in the advertisement. Emotional appeal however, is the most successful means of advertising used by advertisers in reaching out to the target audience. Not only do emotional appeals convince people to purchase a commodity, they also help in winning customer loyalty to the product. The various forms of emotional appeals used in advertisements include social appeal, personal appeal, bandwagon appeal, love, greed, hate, humour, fear, sex, and music among others. Emotional appeal focuses at the various forms that people have, and manipulating their minds into purchasing a commodity out of emotional drive. In most cases, emotions act on the subconscious mind, a reason why this form of advertising is very successful. People need to make choices about the best commodities satisfying their needs, and which fit their financial capability. Advertising provides people with the necessary information to make the moist informed decisions about the various products available. Works Cited Alden, D, Mukherjee, A, & Hoyer, W 2000, 'The Effects of Incongruity, Surprise and Positive Moderators on Perceived Humour in Television Advertising', Journal Of Advertising, 29, 2, pp. 1-15, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 October 2013. Donthu, N, Lohtia, R, & Osmonbekov, T 2004, 'Emotional Appeal and Incentive Offering in Banner Advertisements',Journal Of Interactive Advertising, 4, 2, p. 6, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 October 2013. Ham, C, Cho, C, & Jun, J 2009, 'positive Vs. 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