An evaluation of dramatised advertising as used in Lan Chocolate - Essay Example

AN EVALUATION OF DRAMATISED ADVERTISING AS USED IN LAN CHOCOLATE The Importance of Advertising The importance of consistency in brand image and messages in advertising is a basic tenet of Integrated Marketing Communication theory and practice. Advertising considers the customer's needs and wants, and works back to the brand (Belch, 1997). It is a paid, non-personal communication about an organization and its products or services transmitted to a target audience through mass media. Individuals and organizations in their purpose to promote goods, services, ideas, people, and issues use advertising (Johnson and Blair, 2006). In light of this, Coca-Cola used a public-relations driven campaign in relaunching its Sprite brand through a fifty-city sampling tour. This is an illustration of how important advertising is in reaching far places and peoples and integrating them into one consuming populace. The advertising function may be equated to the creation and management of product imagery, which is the establishment of the set of meanings and associations that serve to differentiate a product or service (Reynolds and Gutman, 1984). Hence, one must consider defining and operationalising image in order to move beyond the basic posture that brand images add value to products. Image, as employed in advertisements, may be described as general characteristics, feelings, or impressions, product perception, beliefs and attitudes, brand personality, and linkages between characteristics and feelings/emotions (Reynolds and Gutman, 1984). The importance of advertising is seen in the outcomes it produces for many products and organizations. It continues to be an indispensable necessity for product branding and marketing campaign. Effectiveness through consistency of the product and how far the advertising schemes have reached people and places determine the popularity of the product, usually resulting in good sales, good product perception, and consistent patronization. This is why all forms of mass media must be utilized by product owners in advertising their products. Different kinds of practical promotional plans must also be adopted in ensuring this. Dramatisation is one promotional plan that is proven both effective and attention grabbing. That is why many advertisers think of a sure-fire way to adopt a dramatised concept in their advertisements. This paper intends to evaluate this promotional strategy of the LAN chocolate. The purpose for such evaluation is to improve the advertisement in order that the chocolate will rake more sales, popularity, and profitability. An Evaluation of Dramatisation as Used in Advertising the LAN Chocolate Television ads are classified as either arguments or drama, or hybrids of these forms, influencing greatly how advertisements are processed (Deighton, et al., 1989). Appeal to objectivity is what is backed up by arguments, often evaluatively processed, while dramatisation appeals more to subjective criteria and is emphatically processed. When the drama is successful, the audience tends to be 'lost' in the story, emphatically experiencing the feelings and concerns of the characters (Deighton, et al., 1989). Dramatisation may serve as a transition between what the maker wants to say about his product and what the consumer intends to read about it (Sloan and Mooney, 2007). The focus of this form of advertising is to establish an identity and winning the public over to the product's point of view. Dramatisation s designed to create a favorable image for a certain product, which in this case is the LAN chocolate. The dramatization of the LAN chocolate is conceptualised this way: "Two men enter a grocery store for some shopping stuff. There were also two girls doing some shopping. One of the girls caught the attention of one of the guys, but she isn't interested. Just then, he looks at the chocolate LAN and thinks of giving it to her as a gift. She, out of coincidence, also buys the same chocolate. This reinforces the guy's confidence and gives the LAN chocolate to her. She smiles and they leave the supermarket together talking to each other. A background voice says, "If you like LAN, you can get to know the person you want to know about." Build-up is the method of dramatisation used in this advertisement, which consists in building up some ideas about a particular product in relation to the consumer (Rowse and Fish, 2005). The idea is built up to a climax with the product being figured in the solution or result, generally involving the use of suspense or curiosity, just like the curiosity implored in the LAN chocolate advertisement. The dramatisation used in the advertising of LAN chocolate tries to make the consumers accept the basic logic of brand positioning, in this case, how the chocolate may be utilized in a boy-girl acquaintanceship, which the promotional strategy reinforces. Providing tangible cues in enhancing the credibility of the product is likewise attempted to (Burnett, et al., 2005), which is demonstrated in a no-failure stance of the LAN chocolate. In the mentioned promotional strategy using dramatization, the advertisement is able to focus on the consumer, needed in ascertaining what he needs, wants, and enjoys. The situation involved between the guy and the girl contains a need to be introduced and know each other, for which the LAN chocolate is the medium. The dramatized promotion also depicts of an enjoyment - which consumers normally look for in a food product - and is able to associate this in a memorable meeting between a guy and a girl. Hence, making the product a picture perfect for this enjoyment certainly establishes the needed cue (Kleppner, 2007). It is important to ask, "What will he enjoy when he has dug out his money and taken home the product" Describing the experience in a vividly dramatic detail is a way to enable the effective dramatization of the LAN chocolate. It is apparent that advertising aims to sell goods and create a demand for it. The concept used in the dramatic advertising shows demand for the LAN chocolate, which says that were not for the chocolate, the guy would not have been able to meet the girl and might have been totally ignored by her. A shared interest is also promoted by the advertisement, implying that unless two people have the same interest, their relationship would hardly bloom. The shared interest here is the enjoyment of the LAN chocolate, which the guy finds the perfect gift to give to a new acquaintance who captures his interest, and which the girl takes from a stranger because of the already built trust on the product. Consumers must be able to feel a certain demand in order to purchase a particular product. A promotional strategy like dramatization is then expected to address the establishment of this demand. The dramatization as a promotional strategy of the LAN chocolate clearly shows this connection. The kind of dramatisation used in the LAN chocolate may be evaluated in terms of product presentation. The LAN chocolate is presented as an important product whose yummy and luscious taste is comparable to meeting an attractive person and doing anything to be acquainted to her. In this regard, it turns the dull and prosaic thing into something both colorful and interesting. An ordinary or uninteresting product and facts may be made interesting and effective through dramatization (Lascu and Clow, 2004), just like how the LAN chocolate is raised above it and is emphasized as an interesting product. Dramatization in advertising is that quality which raises the product above itself (Rowse and Fish, 2005). It presents an idea in a dramatised manner in order to arouse interest, greater attention, conviction, and response to the idea. When effectively used in advertising, it produces greater results than simply presenting facts as a direct method (Rowse and Fish, 2005). Thus, presenting the LAN chocolate by simply saying that it is enchantingly sweet may not appear well in the interest of the consumers who already know this fact very well. What must be done is to relive this 'sweetness' in a dramatized promotional strategy added with some embroidered and highlighted situation between the opposite sex, just like what is depicted in the LAN chocolate advertisement. Emphasizing grown men and women instead of children (who also love eating chocolates) is better, since the fattening ingredients of chocolates are overlooked when grown-ups are used as models of chocolate products. This would also connote moderation in indulging in chocolates, apparently shown in the slim build of the girl and the medium-sized build of the guy in the LAN advertisement - the same moderation that children do not generally possess yet. The sample advertisement is not harbored along the dangers of dramatization, particularly the danger of lessening the belief in the advertisement. By its very nature, dramatization raises the situation somewhat out of its normal position, indicating that the further it is removed from its normal position, the less likely people would tend to accept it. The advertisement sample of LAN chocolate in this paper does not seem to commit this danger, as the LAN chocolate is depicted along its lines of consumption - something to be indulged in, and something a guy would give to a girl that captures her heart and attention, which chocolates are usually used for. Improving the Advertisement of LAN Chocolate Even though the LAN chocolate advertisement is evaluated as an effective medium for capturing the interest and greater attention of consumers, particularly of young people, product above itself, a task normally employed in dramatisation. For purposes of this paper pertaining to improvement of the LAN chocolate advertisement, the improved sample advertisement is pictured this way: "A guy enters a grocery store for some shopping stuff. He sees a beautiful girl who is also there for some shopping. The guy eyes at her constantly but the girl is oblivious of him and is preoccupied by certain stuffs in the store. Just then, he looks at the chocolate LAN and thinks of giving it to her. She, out of coincidence, also takes the same chocolate in a chocolate rack and smiles while looking at it. This reinforces the guy's confidence, grabs a bunch of red roses in the flower stand, and gives it to the girl who was so surprised, followed by the LAN chocolate that made her smile even more. Both of them were sharing bites of the LAN chocolate while they were walking out of the grocery store, with her holding the beautiful flowers and his arm around her shoulder. A background voice says, "Get a good LANding in LAN chocolate." This connotes that if you like LAN, you can get to know the person you want to know about. The change of the number of persons from the original conceptualization is pursued by an 'exclusivity concept,' suggesting that LAN is not an ordinary product, but is a special one definitely shared by special people like the guy and the girl in the improved advertisement. Aside from this, the other two people in the original story (the guy's friend and the girl's friend) have not even a significant role in the advertisement aside from simply being sidekicks of the pair, thus, they were removed in the enhanced advertisement. Their removal from the story line is seen not to affect the portrayal of the LAN chocolate as a special chocolate, neither in the effectiveness of how the advertisement would catch the curiosity and interest of the consumers. The advertisement also indicates the dependability of the LAN chocolate, implying that it will not fail you in any way, perhaps by its taste and appeal, and depicting the sure-fire way of making a girl respond as a show of this dependability. This dependability is seen in making the chocolate play as a winning methodology to win the heart of a girl, who enjoys the simple but the best things in life such as the LAN chocolate. The flowers denote of an old-as-tale tradition of pursuing a decent girl, matched with the LAN chocolate, which when they go together, is suggestive of a sweet gesture form an infatuated guy. The advertisement suggests that this conception is a guaranteed method to capture the heart of a girl. It also suggests that the guy already knows the dependability of the LAN chocolate that he eyed it as a channel to approach the girl, and this knowledge is reinforced by seeing her taking a bar of the same chocolate. When he grabbed a bunch of flowers, it is almost synonymous to "I know it! She'll surely love these flowers because she likes the LAN chocolate." It connotes that in the initial romantic acquaintance between the opposite sex, flowers and (LAN) chocolates are a never-dying twosome. She bites on the LAN chocolate, he bites as well. This is in order to show the visual appearance of the chocolate, inviting consumers to come and take a bite as well - in other words, to buy. Dramatization as an advertisement, just as the one portrayed in the promotional sample of this paper, often appeals to emotions, and includes the use of reason or suggestion. As what is seen in the advertisement sample, dramatisation is employed to enliven situations, facts, and ideas (Rowse and Fish, 2005). The improved advertisement employs dramatization to call attention to the fact that flowers and chocolates go together, imploring that dramatisation can be tied down to that which is both definite and specific (Rowse and Fish, 2005). Moreover, the suggested improvement of the LAN chocolate advertisement does not commit a dangerous pitfall of dramatisation. As dramatisation's nature is to raise the situation out of its normal position, the suggested improvement does not take the situation farther. Perhaps, the raised situation is grabbing a bunch of flowers and a bar of chocolate in a grocery store to be given to a girl. Normally, one would have to pay them first, before keeping and consuming them, and biting on a bar of chocolate does not happen during a first meeting. However, such raised situation in the advertisement is not far from normal and would still be considered within the normalcy of a dramatised advertising. It is but natural to look for catches when the advertiser becomes dramatic. Drama, magic, card tricks, and brain teasers are things that most people would be interested about, but at the same time, they also want to see through the drama in learning how results are accomplished. It is said that "whenever dramatisation in an advertisement is noticeable as dramatisation and not as proof of the point being discussed (in this case, catching the attention of a girl through a chocolate she loves), the dramatisation has failed (Rowse and Fish, 2005). The improvement of the advertisement is one that highlights some catches that most people would be interested about - even more interested and curious than the previous advertisement sample. The addition of flowers is one curious and amusing part of the advertisement, surely meant to capture the attention of viewers, make the advertisement stick in their minds, and buy the product when they see it in grocery stores. References Belch, G. (1997) An integrated marketing communications perspective. Irwin/McGraw Hill. Burnett, J., Moriarty, S., and Well, W. D. (2005) Advertising principles practice. Prentice Hall. Deighton, J., Romer, D., and McQueen, J. (1989) Using drama to persuade. Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. Vol. 16, December. Johnson, R. H. and Blair, A. (2006) Logical self-defense. Language Arts and Disciplines. Kleppner, O. (2007) Advertising procedure. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Lascu, D. and Clow, K. E. (2004) Marketing frontiers: an introduction to marketing. Atomic Dog Publishing. Reynolds, T. J. and Gutman, J. (1984) Understanding is image management. Journal of Advertising Research. Vol. 24, No. 1. Rowse, E. J. and Fish, L. J. (2005) Fundamentals of advertising. Kessinger Publishing. Sloan, C. A. and Mooney, J. D. (2007) Advertising the technical product. McGraw Hill Book Co. Read More