Advertisement Techniques Used in a Nivea Visage DNAge Cell Renewal Cream Print Ad - Essay Example

?Advertisement Techniques used in a Nivea Visage DNAge Cell Renewal Cream Print Ad: A Contextual Analysis Advertisements play an important role in ensuring the success of a certain product. Different types of media are utilized by companies in order to secure a significant market share that will make the product profitable for the company. Typically, advertisements are catered to the consumers through TV commercial, radio, magazines, newspapers, and the internet. Some advertisements are even used in movies through the form of covert advertisements. Current trends in product lines are leaning towards skin care and health products that claim to offer its consumers the technological and innovative breakthrough in science that is capable of maintaining youthfulness and eliminating the signs of aging. Several anti-ageing products are available in the market, each of which employs different advertising strategies to pursued consumers to try their products. This paper will mainly focus on a print ad released by the Nivea for the advertising campaign of its brand of anti-ageing cream, the Nivea DNAge cell renewal cream. The paper will employ a contextual analysis of the advertisement aiming to examine the techniques used and discuss the textual and visual arguments that are implied by the ad. Analysis on how the ad creates meaning through language, typography, colour and image will be observed. The target market of the product, as well as its representation of gender, class, race and age will also be determined. Language techniques are used in advertisements to target a specific sector of consumers. Skin care products, specifically anti-aging products, tend to capture western and oriental consumers through the use of specific keywords that can gain the interests of individuals. By analysing the details of the Nivea Visage DNAge cell renewal cream, shown in Figure 1, it can be inferred that the language techniques of using personal pronoun, jargon, and repetition was used (Lapsanska 2006). The large text in the advertisement, presented as OUR REVOLUTION IN ANTI-AGEING, uses the personal pronoun Our. Pronouns such as I, me, my, you, yours, your, we, us, our, they, them and their are commonly used in advertisements to address the reader. This technique has the effect of placing the readers in a particle position that they are part of the product, encouraging them to purchase and try the product. Using personal pronouns exploits the fact that skin care products are personal items and by associating them with the readers, a relationship is built between that can result to a higher chance of persuasion. For instance, the use of Our in the DNAge advertisement establishes a relationship to readers that suggests an affirmation of trust with the product (Lapsanska 2006). In addition, personal pronouns can also be used as a conjunction to other language techniques including imperatives, emotive words and slogans. This is shown in Figure 1 as the bulleted texts in the lower part of the image. Emotive words and slogans tend to suggest to the readers that they have the power against aging and can also be used to reinforce the fear of aging by suggesting words such as Firms and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and Reduces damage caused by external influences. The success of this type of technique is that the readers’ emotional appeals are being directly involved with the language of the advertisement (Lapsanska 2006). Jargons are mainly used in advertisement to generate supporting details for the product that is associated with logic and evidence. This technique provides the readers a notion that the product has scientific backing. The brand name Nivea’s anti-aging cream uses an approach of neologism, by combining the terms DNA for Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Age. This suggests to readers that the formulation of the product is highly scientific and that it offers treatment for problems related to aging. By using the term DNA, the product projects a tone of professionalism and thus making it seem more reliable to consumers. Looking closely at the lower part of the product label, the terms folic acid and SPF 15 can be noticed as well as the term Creatine in the bulleted texts. folic acid, SPF 15 and Creatine are used to provide a direct view on the properties of the product, which is gains the interest of consumers that are more particular with the scientific view of the product. The addition of technical and academic words also makes the product look more professional (Lapsanska 2006). Taking a closer look at the texts written in the advertisement, it can be noticed that some words and phrases were used a few times. This includes words such as NiveaVisage, DNAge and cell renewal. Product advertisements are not only focused in getting the attention the interest of consumers but also it develops name or word recall, thus when a consumer buys a skin care product and sees the brand name, they can easily recognize the product and associate some of its key features. This technique is called repetition (Lapsanska 2006). Typography plays an important role in creating a good advertisement. It is said that a good advertisement can be done with poor typography, but not great adverts (White 2007). The typography used in the print advert is plain and simple, using a font face that looks clean and professional. By using bold face for the word revolution suggests to readers that the product is serious with its claim of revolutionizing the anti-aging product industry. However, this claim is somehow questionable and misleading since there is no clear scientific support to the claims of the Nivea DNAge cell renewal cream. The choice of brand colour is usually provides a strong statement regarding the product as well as the strategy and philosophy of a company. According to the Institute for Color Research, the consumers make initial judgments within 90 seconds of its interaction with the product or advertisement. In addition, around 62% to 90% of the consumers’ assessment is based mainly on colour (4imprint, 2008). Figure 1 shows that the colours used for the print ad consists of white and blue. The model in the advert wearing a white top which suggests to readers a sense of goodness and purity; it also shows to consumers that there is an essence of perfection to those who uses the product (Sells and Gonzalez 2002). Blue was used for the product label as well as the majority of the print ad space. Based on a simplified interpretation of the colour theory, invented by Sir Charles Lemieiux, blue suggests a sense of safety and security to people. It also signifies technology and leadership. Blue is usually used by banks and businesses in order to gain trust among its customers, which may also be the reason why the Nivea DNAge cell renewal cream was labelled in blue colour (Reliable Networks 2010). Figure 1 shows an image of a woman that is in the mid-adult age. According to McConatha et al. (2003), “gender differences indicated that women . . . were more concerned with age-related changes in their physical appearance than were men.” This is mainly the primary reason that skin care products have been increasing throughout the years. Several product lines were introduced to the market and provide different form of solution to aging related problems. Advertisements for these products are also operating in the same manner. All the anti-aging products out in the market today use models that are in their middle adulthood (McConatha et al. 2003). Anti-aging products has a very broad target market and its market is even increasing globally. The reason for this is because the generation of the Baby Boomers are now in the late 40s and 60s and the target market can even extend to younger generations at ages between late 20s and early 40s (World Health 2009) . This means that the target market of anti-aging products is mostly women. Anti-aging products greatly represents differences in gender and to how different men and women see aging. Women begin their obsession in fighting aging at the age of 29 and goes on until old age. On the other hand, men tend not to let on to aging. It is more common that men embrace aging rather fight the sign of it. The argument in gender of skin care products can be an effect of evolution since men that are aging looks wise and strong while women that are young are healthy, attractive and fertile. Nivea DNAge targets women that are among the higher socioeconomic status. Women that are within this social class are more dissatisfied and concerned with their physical appearance and weight thus they tend to do invest more on weight loss treatments, skin care products and anti-aging products. According to Clark (2011), studies have shown that women belonging in the upper class society associate a stronger relationship between the shape of their and their level of self-esteem as compared to women in the lower class. Studies also show that working women are less concerned with their physical appearance than old upper class women. This is due to financial reason. Even more, old upper class women tend to spend a lot in trying several kinds of appearance enhancing methods (Clark 2011). According to Clark (2011), the need for anti-aging products encompasses any cultural race. Women among different races and cultures have a common fear against the signs of aging. The primary needs of women are anti-wrinkle products. Thus the DNAge cell renewal cream is placed in a position that any cultural race will have the same enthusiasm of trying the product. The advertisement of Nivea Visage DNAge cell renewal cream contains several strategies that are essential for the brand to take a market share in today’s ever growing skin care and health related products. Though some of the product’s claim may be questionable, the methodologies and techniques that were used in the print advert is exceptional and well thought off. The language techniques used includes the use of personal pronoun, jargons and repetition. Attention was also given in creating a good typography for the advertisement providing a simple yet appealing look. It can also be observed that the advertisement was targeting a specific sector in the society, represented by model in the ad that is around her middle age. The gender representation is also clear depicting the differences among the approach of men and women with ageing. Though anti-aging products typically hire models that are white for their commercials and other types of advertisement, it is still clear that woman regardless of cultural race has similar needs in skin care products. Finally, the age group represented by the advertisement are women that are in their early 30s to late 40s. Bibliography 4imprint. (2008). Color Choices Matter [Internet]. Available from < http://info.4imprint.com/wp-content/uploads/Blue%20Paper%20Color.pdf> [Accessed 12 April 2012] Clark, L.H. (2011). Facing Age: Women Growing Older in Anti-Aging Culture. United Kingdom, Rowman & Littlefield publishers Lapsanska, J. (2006). The Language of Advertising with the Concentration on the Linguistic Means and the Analysis of Advertising Slogans. Comenius University in Bratislava [Internet]. Available from < http://diplomovka.sme.sk/zdroj/3091.pdf> [Accessed 12 April 2012]. McConatha, J. T., Schnell, F., Volkwein, K., Riley, L., Leach, E. (2003). A Comparative Analysis of Young Adults from the United States and Germany. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 57(3), pp. 203-215 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF YOUNG ADULTS FROM THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY Reliable Networks. (2010). Do Colors Matter in Web Design [Internet]. Available from [Accessed 12 April 2012]. Sells, P. & Gonzalez, S. (2002). The Language of Advertising [Internet]. Available from < http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_11/index.htm> [Accessed 12 April 2012]. White, A. W. (2007). Advertising: Design and Typography. New York, Alworth Press. World Health. (2009). Global Anti-Aging Products Market to Reach $291.9 Billion by 2015, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts [Internet]. Available from < http://www.worldhealth.net/news/global_anti-aging_products_market_to_rea/> [Accessed 12 April 2012] Read More