Marketing Broken Down
Each market in the economy uses different techniques to engage its customers in buying the product at hand. Television shows must convince their audience to watch a new series by making the viewer invested in the program. In particular, the action television show Vampire Diaries engages its audience by evoking emotion with different senses. Marketers of the Vampire Diaries use characters, and battle references, colors, and music in order for the audience to feel attached to the series they are selling.
The way characters are represented in an ad contributes to the emotional intention of the ad. Humans read facial expressions in order to understand a person’s mood or feeling, so a television ad sets the tone of the text by using characters to personify a certain state of mind. The ad evokes viewer emotions that creates a connection between the ad and the audience. The Vampire Diaries have characters personify intensity, fear and confidence in their advertisements.
The emotions shown by the actors control the reaction of the audience and pulls the viewer deep into the story line. Understanding the emotion of a character is important in becoming invested in the television show. In some studies, it is proven that fear appeal in marketing is better in low intensities because consumers have low positivity of the ad after viewing the message (Rhodes, 12). This is because fear appeal messages are strong and, if there is no solution given, scare people; the viewer becomes negative about the ad and questions the ad to push aside their fears (Rhodes, 954). For Vampire Diaries, this is likely not likely because the audience is given a way to stop their fear, which is to watch the show. While there are documented studies indicating mixed results in studying emotions, recent studies show that there is a variety of factors when looking at emotions and the effectiveness of marketing (Rhodes, 967). Despite the controversy of message intensity and effectiveness, emotion must still be used to set the scene of the ad. Eyes are one way to communicate emotions; wide eyes or intense focus by the eyes is normally associated with heightened emotions. Vampire Diaries uses close ups of the characters’ faces in their advertisements, so the audience can see their eyes. The “in your face” emotions causes an audience to be drawn into the advertisement by the fear created. Marketers use this emotion to try and change behavior. According to Rhodes’s study on emotions and marketing, “The effect of the message on behavior intension was through emotional attitudes rather than through cognitive attitudes” (971). This means Rhodes found that emotions are the best way to change behavior proving marketers intentionally use these closeups to evoke intense audience feeling. Humans sympathize with the characters when emotions are shown in a way to promote empathy. Research proves that emotions are effective in getting viewers to watch a TV series. Sympathizing with a character will likely make you invested in their story and fear for their safety therefore you watch the program. The Vampire Diaries uses intense emotions and fear appeals to get the viewer addicted to the show.
Action television ads use symbolism to convey their message to consumers and one way this is done is by having battle references. When humans think action, we think of battles, so a television series will use references to indicate it is action filled; without this aspect the ad would not be fully effective. References to battle including weapons and blood are used when marketing Vampire Diaries. Action shows normally have weapons and blood because these attributes build suspense. Vampire Diaries uses symbolism in their ads to quickly convince the audience of an unseen struggle between humans and vampires.
In the case of Vampire Diaries, the weapons are the vampires, the advertisement shows their teeth and other abnormalities, so viewers realize their danger. The fate of the characters seems doomed when vampires are presented because of their unhuman abilities. When an advertisement is associated with death or tragedy it creates a bond between what is being promoted (Shelton, 2). Death anxiety is a term used to describe the unstructured feeling that comes into mind when humans contemplate death (Shelton, 2). To avoid death anxiety a safe environment is needed but there is so many unknowns it’s hard to be completely safe at all times. To eliminate most of the uncertainty, humans have tried to become superior to all other living beings. Humans will do anything to destroy what is making us feel unsafe. In this instance it is vampires that are dominating. Weapons are used to create uncertainty in the viewer because this indicates a battle, but the ad will not tell us who will be victorious. Humans want “our people” to live because our survival instincts. According to Shelton, “the underlying terror of death is what drives most of the human endeavor” (3). This means humans spend their lives trying to stop death at all costs. When watching a Vampire Diaries ad, we see that death is very close to some of the characters. Humans do not want to see evil prevail and take our spot on the top of the food chain; this gives us anxiety. To destroy the threat we feel the only option the advertisement gives the viewer is to watch the series. One-way humans reduce their fear is by materialism (Shelton, 6). When the tragedies of September 11, 2001 occurred, annual consumer spending went up 6% between October and December (Shelton, 6). Humans are more likely to get involved in a television show if death is presented because humans are easily persuaded by these ads. Humans want to prevent their own death, so they will watch the TV series. Weapons are used in marketing, so the viewer feels unsafe and watches the Vampire Diaries to ease the fear that is created.
In the Vampire Diaries advertisements, the goal is to make the viewers fear the vampires and watch the show to see if the humans are victorious. Blood is also used by marketers to create life versus death scenarios. Life or death scenarios used in marketing is called Neuromarketing. Neuromarketing stops sane and conscious thinking and affects customers on a basic level when evaluating brands (Shelton, 4). This makes humans more easily persuaded toward a brand or television program. Advertisements rarely show whether the injured dies or not and this gives us an unknown that we want resolved. Humans do not like this unknown of death because survival instincts will always push us to live, fight or flee. Marketers use this flight or fight instinct to bring us back to our comfort zone through products and services (Shelton, 6). When humans are unsure how to get back to their comfort zone, they follow a suggested path or product or turn to a brand in these times (Shelton, 6). Blood makes humans uncomfortable because its connection to fear and death. Blood is used in marketing to get the viewer invested in the wellbeing of the characters. Marketers use this fear to persuade viewers that the only way back to comfort and to get rid of all the uncertainty seen in the ad is by watching the show. Vampire Diaries was able to use battle like symbols to convince the audience they need to know the outcome of the show.
Colors are used by humans to detect the intended mood of a text. Humans associate different colors with different emotions and if the text is effective, humans can feel the emotion that is being represented. Behavior and physiology of humans can both be affected by color (Madden, 3). Marketers want to convince the costumer they need to know what happens in the story and change viewer behavior, so they watch the television show they are promoting. The Vampire Diaries used the colors black and red almost solely in their ads to set the dark, mysterious mood so intense it grabs the viewers’ attention.
The Vampire Diaries used red in marketing for this series to represent blood, so the audience is forced to feel a struggle to hold onto life. The color red is unlike other colors because it invokes feelings that other colors don’t give us (Madden, 9). Red is associated with exciting stimuli, emotions, and sharpness (Madden, 9). When we think of vampires, we think of blood which is an exciting stimulus in itself let alone the color red contributes to the heightened emotions we feel. Emotions in this situation can cause anticipation because we wonder who will be injured, killed, or hurt due to the connection of blood and vampires with these actions. When watching an ad with bloodshed, humans become over loaded with emotion because it is normally uncertain what happened to the character, giving the audience a lot of questions or anxiety. When humans see actors, they know this curiosity becomes more intense because we feel something for them. According to Budacia, actors need to have solid reputations, so consumers can identify with the actor’s qualities (7). In addition, many young people try to imitate the people they see on TV, so stations try and put people on air with “flawless” behavior (Budacia, 8). This means if a viewer recognizes the actors in a Vampire Diaries ad they are more likely to watch and feel the struggle when they see this bloodshed because they look up to them. The combination of the color red and blood shown is what makes the emotion of the text intense and will connect the audience with the television show emotionally, so they have to watch to get the stability we crave as humans. The Vampire Diaries use the color red sparks interest, attention and excites us in ways other colors can’t.
This angst we have inside of us when black is used to represent the unknown is what marketers of the Vampire Diaries play on the most in order to draw the viewer in. The color black is primarily used to represent uncertainty throughout the advertisement. In studies light colors have had calming effects on the people buying a particular product (Hagtvedt, 2). Reversed this means darker colors create angst in customers. This contributes to the emotion’s humans associate with black which are sad, strong, and powerful emotions (Madden, 9). The angst that darker colors have on our emotions is strong when black is shown because when the color is presented right, we understand this emotion to such an extent we can feel it ourselves. Angst brought by the color black creates unpredictability in the ad which only gives us questions, but we want answers. Marketers want you to believe the characters fate is unclear when they surround them by darkness because this will create the questions in our minds. In order to get answers the marketers want us to watch the show. In addition, black has also been found to represent masterful, so it can also be used to represent something evil within the character (Madden, 3). Evil characters make the fate of good individuals we see in the story seem doomed creating more angst. According to Madden the color black is similar in meaning across most cultures, so the color black has a definitive meaning making the associations stronger than one without the cross cultural similarity (4). The color black is used to create uncertainty within the viewers mind and this emotion when strong enough can change our behavior just due to the color shown in the advertisement. In Vampire Diaries, marketers use colors to create unpredictable scenes, so the audience has to watch the show to get answers.
The combination of black and red was a strategic move of the marketers of Vampire Diaries. In the United States 22% of the time these colors were matched together by people, even when these colors have very different meaning (Madden, 11). Both colors are considered to be the most potent (Madden, 3). These colors are similar in some senses in that them both represent sadness and tend to describe strength (Madden, 9). So, when put together this seems to progress the message in this sense creating a mood that is hard to ignore by consumers. Humans seem to like these two colors together because of the strong emotions they carry with them and so when put together we as humans like the overload of emotions we feel and become interested in the content. Black and red create a color contrast that US citizens like because the mood created by these colors can’t be ignored in Vampire Diaries advertisements.
Marketers for television use music in the background to grab the observer’s attention. Humans do not always pay attention to ads that play on the television, but music can help bring the attention back to the TV. Music has different effects depending on what time is being listened to. In this sense music is like colors were various types of music portray diverse feelings. In Vampire Diaries music is used to grab the attention of the viewer so they become interested in the preview they are showing.
The advertisement uses music effectively by creating excitement in the audience, so it is hard to take their eyes off the advertisement. The problem most marketers have is first getting your attention to the screen. According to Shelton, “Consumers are exposed to approximately 360 persuasive messages, yet only 150 advertisements get customers attention” (2). This is the number of ads we are exposed to everyday and yet we don’t pay attention or can recall half of these we see (Shelton, 2). Music helps play a part in getting the viewer to pay attention. Correlating color to sound so that the viewer turns their focus to the television is one way to do this. In a study it was found when a dark object is paired with low sound frequency it improves attention to the ad, recall of the ad, and purchase behavior (Hagtvedt, 9). When vehicles were shown with a low frequency tone in the background fix fixations with dark vehicles happened 69% of the time (Hagtvedt, 6). Even when told to not look at a certain color that collated to that frequency it still happened 60% of the time (Hagtvedt, 7). It was found that this happens automatically without our knowledge (Hagtvedt, 7). Low frequency sounds are similar to rumbling sounds which can be heard in the background of these advertisements. These sounds with the color black are used in the Vampire Diaries ads to quickly get the audience’s attention without them even consciously knowing. This technique also improves recall of the ad and is why Vampire Diaries uses this as a marketing strategy. Pairing sound and color are one-way Vampire Diaries gets viewers to pay attention and remember the ad so they gain costumers.
In Vampire Diaries ads, marketers use characters, battle references, colors, and music to convince viewers to watch the show. Characters presented in the ad must foster an emotional response from the audience. Battle references throughout the advertisement creates tension forcing you to become invested in the outcome of the show and using primarily black and red colors, a sense of darkness and blood fosters suspenseful images while the combination of music and color draws awareness to Vampire Diaries’ ads. These are all tactics that marketers use to create and present an intriguing ad product to their target market so as to gain audience following.