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Essay: Importance of advertising

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  • Subject area(s): Marketing essays
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  • Published: 16 June 2012*
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  • Words: 1,288 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 6 (approx)

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Advertising is a very important tool that businesses/companies use to connect with their consumers to generate product awareness in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Sony currently devotes five billion dollars to their global advertising budget to achieve these goals (Blecken). If effective, advertising has very large persuasive potential to be able to persuade potential consumers to purchase products that the consumer neither needs or desires.

In Sony’s E500 series walkman player print advertisement the visual and textual elements are highly persuasive in creating the illusion of female glamour. By using strategic placement and choice of visual and textual elements the advertisement is able to rely on the exploitation of the female form to create interest in its product very effectively, as will be discussed.

Sony’s E500 print ad contains many visual elements that are used to draw in the viewer and cause them to probe the ad further. The use of color matching in the image of both the woman and product cause the viewers eye to focus on three main components of the image. Due to the very similar shades of purple used the eye notices the mp3 player, the model’s eyes and her lips initially. By coordinating the colour scheme in these three areas and making these the focal points for the consumer’s eye the advertisement is calling attention to the glamour of the model and thereby, drawing a psychological correspondence to the product. These parts of the photograph are intentionally brought to the foreground of the photograph not only by the obvious attention given to them but also by the flat colors of the other areas of the advertisement.

The use of non-vibrant and rather flat colors in the remaining areas of the ad help to further highlight these three features. The background of the advertisement which only shows on the right side of the page is a very plain grey color which helps to ensure the viewer focuses on the model’s face and the product. The model’s skin is also very smooth and non-distracting. Thechoice could have been made to add strong colors to the models cheeks but that would have taken away from the eyes, mouth, and mp3 player, the areas of focus.

The placement of the mp3 player in the advertisement is near the center of the photograph and is given almost a three dimensional enhancement. The product is the central focus of the image and is accented by the beauty and glamour of the model. The mp3 player is literally attached to the model by having the wire of the headphones fed through the models earring. Having the display of the mp3 player reflect on the models face also helps connect the two entities to have the viewer notice both main elements of the photograph. It’s almost as if the ad is saying if you have this mp3 player you too can be this glamorous.

John Berger states “Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell. The image then makes him envious of himself as he might be” (Berger 132). Berger is speaking of how advertisements try to create a strong feeling of envy amongst the viewer by showing how having the advertised product can make one be more glamorous. This advertisement is doing exactly that by having the models presence overwhelmingly dominating the advertisement. The creator of this ad could have chosen to have a larger focus on just the mp3 player but by implementing the beautiful model it is affecting the viewers emotions and creating envy by showing how having this mp3 player creates a look of glamour. Berger goes on further to say “To be able to buy is the same thing as being sexually desirable…If you are able to buy this product you will be lovable” (John Berger, 144). This advertisement is exploiting this thought process by showing how this mp3 player can make a person more attractive and thus more sexually desirable.

But why would the designer of this advertisement choose to use persuasion? John O’Shaughnessy and Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy advise “Persuasion is becoming more important in advertising. A major reason is that competition is finding it easier to erode any functional or price advantage attached to a product” (O’Shaughnessy, and O’Shaughnessy 1). The scholar states that no matter how good or competitively priced a product may be there are ways for competitors to destroy these advantages thus the use of persuasion is needed to gain an advantage in the market. These visual elements are further aided in the persuasiveness of the advertisement by strong textual elements.

The textual elements of this Sony mp3 player advertisement have strong persuasive affects as well. There are three main textual components of this advertisement, the tagline in the bottom right, the description of the product and the song-track information both on the player itself and below it.

The description of the product lists in short sentences the unique features of the product, ultra-sleek, brilliant, lit from within, built in fm-tuner. It quickly shows its defining features and then talks about how it is not only functional, with 1 gigabyte of storage and 50 hours of playback, but it also visually appealing. Finally it challenges the viewer to enlighten themselves by going to the products website. By saying ‘see the light’ the ad is stating that the website contains information that the viewer does not know which pushes them to discover it.

The mp3 player is shown dangling from the models ear with the words right below ‘admit it, u know u want me’. This further helps to reinforce the sexual connotation and create a desire for the product, and perhaps the glamour of the model, if the viewer finds her attractive. The headline at the bottom right reading ‘like no other’ further solidifies the products uniqueness. By creating emotions of envy, desire to be unique, and mixing sexual desire into the ad, the textual elements hold great persuasive power to the viewer of the advertisement to create desire for the product even if they do not want or need it. Torben Vestergaard and Kim Schroder state that the tasks of the creator of an advertisement are to attract attention, arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction, and get action (Vestergaard, and Schroder 49). The visual and textual elements combine to achieve all these tasks. The beauty of the model in the photo and brightly colored and three dimensional looking mp3 player immediately draw the viewer in. The advertisement arouses interest with the textual content of ‘like no other’ and ‘u know u want me’. The ad then stimulates desire both with the attractive model and highlighting the uniqueness of the product by stating it is ‘like no other’. It creates conviction by speaking of the features of the product (1GB of memory and 50 hours of playback) which at the time of print was surely impressive. Lastly the ad contains a call to action to the audience by telling them to ‘see the light’ by visiting their website. By challenging the reader to discover something they don’t know it creates a greater desire to learn more about the product.

The visual and textual elements of this Sony advertisement come together to create a very effective form of consumer persuasion. By accomplishing all of the tasks outlined by Vestergaard and Scroder the advertisement is successful in its ability to create both desirability and envy. Even if the viewer is not in the market for an mp3 player an advertisement with such great persuasiveness is sure to stimulate the consumer and get them interested in Sony’s product.

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