Theme & Appeal

Advertising include two parts :

Theme: It is the story which includes entire message that

convey one meaning.

Appeal: The way which message is presented.

 Advertising Appeals: Concept

Advertising appeals aim to influence the way consumers view

themselves and how buying certain products can prove to be
beneficial for them.

The message conveyed through advertising appeals influences the

purchasing decisions of consumers. Advertising uses appeals as a
way of persuading people to buy certain products.

Advertising appeals are designed in a way so as to create a positive

image of the individuals who use certain products.

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 Advertising Appeals: Concept
Thus, most advertisements appearing in national media can
be understood as having two orders of content .

The first is the appeal to deep-running drives in the minds

of consumers.

The second is information regarding the good or service

being sold : its name, its manufacturer, its picture, its
packaging, its objective attributes, its functions .

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 ADVERTISING APPEALS: NATURE
The most important types of advertising appeals include emotional and rational
appeals.
Emotional appeals are often effective for the youth while Rational appeals
work well for products directed towards the older generation.
An emotional appeal is related to an individual’s psychological and social needs
for purchasing certain products and services.

Types of Emotional Appeal

Emotional appeal is a type of advertising in which the copy is designed to stimulate one's emotions,
rather than one's sense of the practical or impractical.
Personal Appeal: Some personal emotions that can drive individuals to purchase products include
safety, fear, love, humor, joy, happiness, pride, comfort, ambition,

Social Appeal: Social factors cause people to make purchases and include such aspects as
recognition, respect, involvement, status etc

Fear Appeal: Fear is also an important factor that can have incredible influence on individuals. This
is applied in marketing campaigns of beauty/health products.

Humor Appeal: It is one of the excellent tools to grab viewer’s attention, It benefits the customers to
recollect the advertisement while they are shopping. CREATING HUMOUR IN AN ADV. AND 4
RECOLLECTING THE SAME
EMOTIONAL APPEALS: TYPES

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 RATIONAL APPEAL
Rational appeals aims to focus on the individual’s functional,
utilitarian or practical needs for particular products and services.

It encourages consumers to buy or to act on a cognitive rather than

emotional basis.
Such appeals emphasize the characteristics and features of the
product and the service and how it would be beneficial to own or
use the particular brand.

Print/ Visual media is particularly well suited for rational appeals

and is often used with good success.

The rational appeal is widely used by small businesses to fend off

competition.
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 ADVERTISING APPEALS: TYPES
Brand Appeal: This appeal is directed towards people who are
brand conscious and wish to choose particular products to make a
brand statement.

Adventure Appeal: This appeal is directed towards giving the

impression that purchasing a product will change the individual’s
life and fill it with fun, adventure and action.
 
Youth Appeal: Advertisements that reflect youth giving aspects or
ingredients of products use these types of appeals. Cosmetic
products in particular make use of these appeals.

Sex Appeal:
 Sex and nudity have always sold well.
 It can also result in the product appearing interesting.
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 ADVERTISING APPEALS: TYPES
 Music Appeal: The musical advertisement sounds melodious to
the ears. It easily captures the attention of viewers and increases
customer recall AND increases the persuasiveness of the
advertisement. It can also help capture attention and increase
customer recall.
• Hamara Bajaj
• Nirma Washing Powder

Bandwagon: This advertising appeal aims to persuade people to do

a certain thing because the masses are doing it.

Snob Appeal: 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. Attaching a
'sense of exclusivity' to such products. 8
 ADVERTISING APPEALS: OTHER VARIETIES
Card Stacking: This advertising appeal involves the display of a
comparative study between two competing products, to make the
reference product appear better than its competitors.

Feature Appeal: Advertisements based on such appeal are highly

informative, provides information of product attributes or features that
can be used as the basis for rational purchase decision.

Technical and high involvement product often uses this appeal.

Direct Order: When the advertisers appeal the masses by showing them
the steps to take, in order to opt for a particular product or service, they
are said to be using direct order.

E- Mail Advertising: This is a relatively new advertising appeal that

makes use of emails to advertise products. Advertisements are sent
through emails, thus bringing out communication with a wide range of
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audiences.
 ADVERTISING APPEALS: OTHER VARIETIES

Euphoria: The use of positive events characterizes this advertising

appeal. Declaration of a great discount or sale on a holiday and
making luxury items available at affordable prices
Very Common for boosting immediate sales

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 ADVERTISING APPEALS: OTHER VARIETIES
Interactive Advertising: This advertising appeal makes use of the
interactive media to reach out to the target audiences.

Advertisers often hold exhibitions or trade-shows and offer rewards

in the forms of discounts and free gifts to increase the sale of their
product.

Distribution of free samples of a newly launched product and

publicity of a product through interactive means are some examples
of interactive advertising.

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 ADVERTISING APPEALS: OTHER VARIETIES
Repetition Appeal: Building brand awareness and/or keeping the
brand name in front of consumers.
Products and services that have a seasonal pattern to their
consumption also use reminder advertising, particularly around the
appropriate period.
This 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 masses.
For example, marketers of candy products often increase their
media budgets and run reminder advertising around Valentine’s
Day, Diwali, Raksha Bandhan and Christmas.

Viral Advertising: It can take the form of word-of-mouth publicity

or of Internet advertising. The aim of the advertiser is to market the
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 ADVERTISING MESSAGE STRATEGY

Advertising Message Strategy

The advertising message strategy describes what is to be

communicated and how it is to be communicated.

It consists of
Message idea: Main theme, appeal, or benefit to be communicated
in the message.
Copy platform: a written statement that fully describes the
message idea.
Creative format: Broad creative approach to communicate the
message idea to the target audiences.

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 ADVERTISING MESSAGE STRATEGY

Message or Creative Formats

1. Testimonial
2. Association and symbolism.
3. Photography
4. Exaggerated situations.
5. Made-up phrases.
6. Honest Twist.
7. Fear.
8. Humour
9. Comparisons.

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 ADVERTISING MESSAGE STRUCTURE

Most advertising messages share common components within the

message including:

The Appeal – This refers to the underlying idea that captures the
attention of a message receiver. Appeals can fall into such
categories as emotional, fearful, humorous, Rational
Value Proposition – The advertising message often contains a
reason for customers to be interested in the product which means
the ad will emphasize the benefits obtained.
Slogan – To help position the product in a customer’s mind and
distinguish it from competitors’ offerings, advertisements will
contain a word or phrase that is repeated across several different
messages and different media outlets.

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 Theme & Appeal

Advertising include two parts :

Theme: It is story include entire message that

convey one meaning

Appeal: The way which message is presented

 Theme Definition
• An advertising theme is a central, repetitive message
that promotes brand awareness and is meant to provide
an impact beyond just individual or disconnected ads.
• A theme of advertising is a central idea intended to
trigger desired action from customers. It is the heart of
advertising copy
• The most important thing about an advertising theme is
that it creates an association with the brand nearly
immediately .
• Many companies use animals to do this, but others may
use celebrities, objects, or even certain types of jokes.
 Kind of themes
• Music
• Prestige
• Comfort
• Economy & Health
• Beauty & parental
• Fear
• Patriotism & Curiosity
• Is it time to change
Music
 Advertisers often use music to associate a message with a certain
product or brand.
 The music may be a well-known song, or a jingle that plays with
every, or almost every, ad that is broadcasted on television or radio.
 Bringing what would likely be a familiar song to mind. That could
lead to expanded thoughts about the product being offered.

Prestige
This theme of advertising is used to advertise luxury articles like
motorcars, refrigerator, jewellery, videos, etc. The possession of
such items provides a distinctive status and a sense of pride to their
holders.
• Comfort : Another popular advertising theme involves that of
being comforted. This is a favorite of those promoting things such
as bath products, household products, and certain types of foods.
Using this approach, advertisers hope to show how using the
product could make a person's life a little easier or more pleasant.

This theme of advertising is used in the advertisements of air

conditioners, fans also which help to make life comfortable.

• Economy : This is a common theme in clearance sale and bargain

offers. This theme of advertising is generally used to sale products
of low value.

• Health : Drugs and food products are often advertised with this
theme, e.g., 'For energy and vigor use i.e-Horlicks.'
• Beauty: Often used in the theme of advertising cosmetics,
toilet soaps and perfumes, this instinct appeals particularly to
young men and women. For instance 'Use Pears soap to keep the
school girl complexion'.

• Parental Affection: This theme of advertising is used to

advertise products meant for children, e.g. toys, baby foods,
baby dresses, tricycles, etc.

• Fear : Fear of death, accident, personal loss through fire,

burglary, etc., is used in the advertisements of insurance, safety
vaults, etc. The traffic police also make use of this theme to
caution people, e.g., 'Keep off the road; shun the anguish of an
accident‘.
• Achievement: Giant concerns use this theme in their
advertisements by emphasizing their contribution to the
national economy, e.g., 'H.M.T Time keepers to the Nation'.
There is a desire to imitate or emulate distinguished people,
e.g.', 'successful men all over the world.

• Patriotism: Native firms use this instinct to induce people

to buy their products in place of imported products.

• Curiosity : Human mind is basically inquisitive and variety

is the species of life. The eagerness for new things is so
strong that this theme can be used through advertisement of
new designs, styles, package, etc.
 Change the theme
 If you find out that humor isn’t working and you’re audience isn’t
connecting, you can change your message. There are costs associated
but you don’t have to continue telling a story that doesn’t connect.

 Drive Time used emotional.

 these past few years have been a little rough economically for lots of
families so Drive Time went worth were correct in changing their
theme.
 This company has switched to a different kind of appeal in their
message. They’re no longer using humor but instead are attempting to
connect on a different emotional level. The ads aim to connect to the
heart by telling compassionate stories and how each brand was able to
help families in tough situations. Consumers are then to make the leap
that these brands will help their family too because they identified
with the message.