Cognitive and Emotional Responses of Consumers Regarding Advertisements - Example

Cognitive and Emotional Responses of Consumers Regarding Advertisements Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction: 3 Advertisement No. 1 3 The Product: 4 Target Audience and their Characteristics: 4 Impact on Consumers: 4 Advertisement No. 2 5 The Product: 5 Target Audience and their Characteristics: 5 Impact on Consumers: 5 Advertisement No. 3 6 The Product: 6 Target Audience and their Characteristics: 6 Impact on Consumers: 6 Conclusion: 7 References 8 Cognitive and Emotional Response Paper Introduction: Advertisements and commercials have remained to be crucial elements that help business organizations to promote their products or services. Thus the modern day marketing strategies all incorporate various methods of advertising and also select different advertising appeals in order to communicate their messages in a better way to the consumers. Although, the effectiveness of a particular advertisement is largely dependent on the advertising appeal adopted, it is also influenced by the personality of the consumer watching the ad. This paper aims to analyze six ads and discuss how it impacts consumers and their buying behaviors. It also discusses the emotional or cognitive responses consumers may have upon seeing the ads in addition to identifying which specific ethnic, religious or other types of audience is targeted by the commercials. Advertisement No. 1 Cadbury Bournville Commercial showcases a chocolate produced by the Cadbury company. As portrayed in the image below, one of the agents from the company goes to Ghana to select the best quality cocoa beans in order to produce the chocolate. However, it is to be noted that while he sits, rest of them are made to stand, although the elders are seated. This advertisement makes subtle hints to slavery, which used to happen in the earlier times, where the African people were forced to work, and produce raw materials, whereas the British used these to make profit out of it. Even now the top decision maker is the white person as opposed to the African people, thus portraying the age-old racist stereotype where whites are dominant of black people. (Blogspot.in, 2012, p. 1) The Product: The product is dark chocolate made by Cadbury and this commercial was largely shown on television as well as published as advertisement on newspapers. Bournville always comes with the tagline “You have to earn it,” or the question “Have you earned it?” Target Audience and their Characteristics: Although traditionally chocolate is targeted at children, Bournville is targets the adults as well. In my opinion the target audience are adults, as the ad is serious and not quite colorful. Since it is has a racist stereotype vibe, it can be said that it targets the African American consumers mostly, as it is made out of cocoa from Ghana. Impact on Consumers: This ad actually sparked controversies as firstly it deftly portrays the chocolate’s premium quality, thus making the consumers think if they really earned it or not. Therefore, consumers are forced to buy it as in their mind they get a feeling of being elite, and in case of children who are eager to grow up and start working, the term ‘earn’ may connote to them being same as adults, and they may feel strongly to buy the chocolate. However, on the other hand, due to its racial hinting, some consumers may feel offended and disappointed in the ad, thus they might not want to buy the product. I believe that the ad is effective to influence audience to buy the product as long as the consumers do not understand the subtle portrayal of stereotype and only notice the premium quality of the product. Link to advertisement- Advertisement No. 2 Intel, “Its what inside that counts,” is a commercial which advertises Intel’s microprocessors. The Product: The product is basically the microprocessor, thus, the commercial is completely based on what is inside. The advertisement was shown on television and other forms of media such as newspapers. Target Audience and their Characteristics: The ad shows people of all age, race and status in the society. In terms of ethnicity, Asians, African Americans and white people are all showed, and in terms of age, young couples, children as well as old people are shown. Thus it becomes clear that there is no specific target audience, and that through this ad, Intel tries to reach to all customers irrespective of their age, race and ethnicity. Impact on Consumers: The advertisement has a very good song and furthermore, the important phrases are displayed throughout the commercial, such as “The inside, It’s the heart and soul, Its special” etc, thus emphasizing the importance of the element that is inside. The ad is quite colorful and happy, thus creating happy mood in the audience in addition to giving them information about the fact that the inside matters a lot. I believe that the happy song and the happy video go in hand and would inspire the audiences to choose to prefer products that have the Intel microprocessor inside them. Thus, I believe this advertisement is very effective indeed. Link to advertisement- Advertisement No. 3 Coca Cola Super Bowl ‘The Chase’ commercial was created for the Super Bowl and as the name suggests, is an advertisement for the drink called Coca Cola. The Product: Coca Cola has long since remained one of the favorite drinks among youngsters and adults alike. In this particular ad, there is a chase for Coca Cola between an Arab, the cowboys, showgirls etc. The advertisement was shown on television and it was mainly during the 2013 Super Bowl. Target Audience and their Characteristics: The ad takes place in a desert and the first character to be shown is an Arab, thus, it can be seen that it targets the people of Middle East. However, since there are African and American cowboys, it can be seen that it also targets the Americans. Impact on Consumers: (Strauss, 2013, p. 1) Consider the above image from the commercial, here the Arab is pulling the camel so that he can get to the bottle of Coke. Whereas the showgirls drive a bus and the Americans have horses, the Arab is depicted with a camel that is not obeying him. Thus, this may hint that Arabs have always been slow when compared to others, and thus it was offending to some of the audience. Here the stereotype is that Arabs are not fast or as advanced as the Americans, thus this generated controversy among the audience. However, since Coca Cola is a well loved brand, I do not think that this ad has impacted their sales in any way, although it might have been a little bad for their reputation and image. Link to advertisement- Conclusion: Advertisements are the medium through which organizations communicate their message about products and services to the masses. There are different appeals such as informative appeal, or emotional appeal adopted by advertisers. This paper has thus analyzed six advertisements and discussed its effectiveness and impact on people and their perceptions. The elements of stereotypes have also been addressed. References Blogspot.in (2012, January). Advertising Opinions: My Favourite 2011 Ads. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://adopinions.blogspot.in/2012/01/my-favourite-2011-ads.html Strauss, G. (2013). Coke Defuses Racism Allegations Over Super Bowl Ad Showing An Arab Pulling A Camel - Business Insider. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/coke-defuses-racism-allegations-over-super-bowl-ad-showing-an-arab-pulling-a-camel-2013-2?IR=T Read More