ADVERTISING METHODS
There are many different methods to advertising your product at a target audience. Most advertisers are aiming to create something, quick, easily digestible, informative and, most importantly, memorable. This can be achieved through catchy slogans, adding humour, playing off peoples insecurities (being beautiful, wealthy, safe, popular etc.), and hard/soft selling.
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Nobody will use all these methods at once, its all dependant on the product. If I'm trying to sell a household item like kitchen roll, my target audience is middle aged women and men, most likely parents. in acknowledging that kitchen roll is a boring item, adding some humor in my advert may make it more memorable, and therefore more likely for someone to buy it.
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There's hard and soft selling, which is the difference between Cilit Bang and Perfume adverts. A hard selling advert would tell you you need the product and why, whereas a soft sell is more likely to sell you a lifestyle or feeling more than the actual facts of the product.
Targeted advertising is when online businesses, mainly social media sites, use your keystrokes, searches and browser cookies to see what things your interested outside of the app. Once they know that you're looking for something specific, they'll begin advertising similar products to you on their site, hoping you'll stay on the app longer or buy something through their affiliate link or something.
JUAN SHEET IS PLENTY
This advert is using an amusing demonstration to appeal to a Middle aged, mostly female, audience - more specifically parents. The play on words with 'Juan Sheet' being one sheet and Plenty being the name of the brand, paired with the humorous approach makes it a memorable advert. The all-too-relatable scenario of spilling something, only for the pater towel to disintegrate as soon as it makes contact with the spillage, is put on full display. This would appeal a lot to parents since kids are very messy and spills like this would be common. Parents, having kid and all, are usually on a tight budget, and nobody wants to buy a multipack of kitchen roll a week, so the proposal that "one sheet does plenty" with this brand is pretty appealing.
AUDIENCE
The audience is a large and undefined group that consumes the media that's put out. They receive and decode the messages presented in said media, and can react to them in different ways based on their individual psychographics/demographics.
GENERATIONS
Groups of people born around the same time, raised in and accustomed to certain traditions, ideas, culture, etc .
Silent Generation
Born 1928 - 1945
World War II and an economic downturn in the 30s resulted in declining birth rates, meaning this generation is particularly small. these people were children or young adults during the second world war, meaning they will have received less supervision than the average kid, less adequate education, experienced air raids and bombings, may have been carted off to the countryside and lived off rations. The British election study found that the silent generation are more likely to vote for conservatives.
Baby Boomers
Born 1946 - 1964
Often called boomers, they're named this way since a large majority were part of the mid-20th-century baby boom that came post WWII. this era became very politically unstable with the amount of youth swelling the population. This generation experienced massive social, economic and technological changes. Currently they're often viewed as the wealthiest generation due to high amounts of land ownership and pensions.
Generation X
Born 1965 - 1980
Sometimes referred to as "thatcher's children" since they grew up without free milk.
Gen Y/Millennials
Born 1981 - 1996
Gen Z
Born 1997 - 2012
Gen Alpha
Born 2013 - mid-2020's
PSYCOGRAPHICS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
Psychographics are individual traits like interests, values, opinions, class and lifestyle.
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Demographics are factual traits about a person, like their job, income, education, location, race, ethnicity and age.
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when advertising a product or service, finding your target audience and exploiting their psychographics and demographics is a great way to make sure you're reaching the right crowd. If I was a middle aged mum with 3 kids and a low income, I might be engaged by this Aldi advert. It's short, humorous and demonstrates a price comparison between Aldi and a leading competitor.
This is supported by the text at the end acknowledging that Which awarded Aldi best supermarket of 2012. These price compassions, paired with the subversive, yet comedic, comments the old lady makes about 'bits' ensure that this advert will stick in the memory of most people looking for a cheaper alternative. The endorsement from Which - a well known company that tests products and services, as well as raising overall consumer awareness - supports the claims in the advert and gives them some ground to stand on, so to speak.
On the other hand, i might also be interested by this Revelon Age Defying Makeup advert. Featuring a conventionally attractive model driving around in a fancy car, a voice over states that this new serum can rejuvenate your skin and relax unwanted wrinkles. They even use statistics like 95% of women saying it helped relax their skin instantly.
You can even see at the end that she's driving to pick up, what is presumably, her kid. Making her a mother helps the ad relate to the target audience of 35 - 50 year old women. it also plays on the want to be beautiful and the insecurities of an aging woman.
REGULATION
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are the people who regulate the advertising for the United Kingdom. Their job is to ensure advertisements shown across the UK follow The Advertising Codes written by their adjacent organisation The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP).
The ASA banned multiple adverts in the past, including the Pot Noodle "Slag of snacks" ads - deemed offensive due to the language - and the Sanex shower gel ad - deemed racially insensitive and stereotyping of black skin.
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THEORIES RESEARCH
Stuart Hall: Reception Theory
Reception theory is the idea that producers, when creating media, encode certain messages for the audience to decode. the audience can then react to the messages in one of 3 ways:
Dominant Reading: this is exactly what the producers wanted you to think when consuming their media - you've decoded the message and interpreted it as intended.
Negotiated Reading: this is if you somewhat agree with the message trying to be conveyed, though you still maintain some beliefs that disagree with the media.
Oppositional Reading: this is if you entirely and outright reject the message trying to be told, as it contrasts with your already held beliefs.
Roland Barthes: Semiotics, Connotations & Denotations
Semiotics is the study of signs and signals, and that anything can be interpreted to have a certain meaning. A Denotation is literally what it says on the tin - if I held up a Red Rose, the denotation would be that it's a rose.
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Connotation is the deeper meaning - if I held up a Red Rose the connotations would be love, romance etc.
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Denotations are often called the signifier while connotations are the signified.
Blumler & Katz: Uses and Gratifications
Uses and Gratifications states that we seek out and consume media for a plethora of different reasons, such as Information, Personal identity, Social Interaction and Escapism.
This ad was released in 1992 to promote Tango. Its clearly aimed at a younger audience, specifically young men and teenage boys. This is shown in a few aspects, like the "protagonist" of the advert being a young man himself, stood in a group of his friends as is typical of teenage boys. they're also all dressed rather casually, suggesting this ad might be trying to relate to its target audience and doesn't want to come across too out of touch. You could argue that this is an example of Uses and Gratifications in advertisements - since young men may see this and feel some representation of their personal identity.
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The voice over is reminiscent of football commentators, especially the contrast between the two voices, one loud and emotional, the other more steady and analytical. This is significant because not only would the loud Geordie voice catch many peoples attention, but a significant amount of British teen boys/young men are interested in watching football, and therefore would appreciate the parody in this advertisement. this connects tango further with their target audience.
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Finally, the bizarre circumstances of the ad and the concept of an orange man giving you a smack when you drink tango is undeniably humorous. The younger generation here is more likely to be entertained and swayed by this advert. this campaign was very popular, especially amongst young boys, who would mimic the tango man and smack each other in playgrounds across the country.
This is a print advert to promote Lindt Chocolate. Just from the font and colours alone I can discern this is a 'fancy' or expensive band, being marketed like a luxury item. The Script text has connotations of high status or grandeur, paired with the golden colour this gives the impression of Lindt being a lavish treat for only those with the best of the best.
Lindt IS and expensive chocolate, you wouldn't expect to see a struggling family eating these, but they aren't the most expensive. Lindt, although pricey, is still very affordable to people with lower income. Its trying to give off this idea that its more lush and fancy than it is, so that less-well-off people can indulge and find themselves using Lindt as an escapism from their everyday struggles.
Young and rubicam
Young & Rubicam, or Y&R, are a marketing and communications company that specialize in brand identity, sales promotion, social media advertising and brand strategy.
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They are most well known for creating a way to categorize people using psychometrics, specifically for advertising and audience research. There are 7 types of people defined by Young & Rubicam:
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The Aspirer: These people are willing to buy luxury or expensive brands to show their place in society. They might consider themselves fashionable or current. may be swayed by endorsements from celebrities or figures from pop culture. They seek status and aim to make others aware of theirs.
The Explorer: These people are looking for new, innovative products or brands. They seek discovery and enjoy new experiences.
The Mainstreamer: These people are the majority - they make up 40% of the population. They don't like taking risks and instead opt for well known, well liked, tried and trusted brands. They seek security, and find comfort in the fact that they are part of a larger group of like-minded strangers.
The Reformer: These people are not impressed by status or celebrity endorsements. instead, they go for brands that have a positive impact on them, the world and the environment. They seek enlightenment, are perceptive and socially conscious.
The Resigned: These people are often older and don't really care what brands or sponsorships claim in advertisements, they instead make decisions based on what they have come to know, believe and trust through years of tradition and experience. They seek merely to survive.
The Struggler: These people are likely on a lower income and focuses more on the day to day than their future. They struggle to survive and seek to escape.
The Succeeder: These people are successful and have a high social status. They want the best and believe they deserve the best due to their status and need for control. they'll spend a lot of money on more expensive brands to ensure they receive a higher quality product.
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