The Understanding of the Target Market: Communication Technique - Research Paper Example

In this paper, an analysis is done of a one-minute commercial advertisement for the Evian water-bottling company in order to synthesize the information intended. This allows for comprehensive understanding of the importance and the reasons behind the selection of these commercial. The advert features a famous movie superstar, Spider Man. It is a continuation of the Evian babies dance tradition. Spider man and baby spider man are invited to dance a long to an old musical tune. The theme of the commercial is featuring spider man who is all alone doing rounds in the city then encounters baby spider man – the baby spider man in the clip is merely a reflection of him in the mirror thus repeats everything Spider Man does. This text analyses this video clip trying to identify the main elements of communication that are featured in it and relate it with the intended meaning the connoted meaning and the meaning that is directly denoted from it. As a communication tool to advertise the Evian bottling water company, an overview of the aspects of the movie excerpt that affect the social, political, economic, cultural and aesthetic values of the society is incorporated. The message is interpreted and the synthesized information put to analysis using various critical thinking tools learnt from previous lessons (Michael, 21). From the clip, we can discern that the commercial was chosen because of its popularity especially being that the movie ‘Spider Man’ attracts a lot of attention from school going children. Just the same, way the Evian baby dance is designed to attract the attention especially of the school going age; the company decides to incorporate Spider Man as a baby in order to be in line with the connoted meaning from the Evian baby dance clip (James, Gurevitch, and Woollacott, 43) The fact that the Evian babies series is one of the best commercial adverts, and that the Spider Man clip has been added to it makes it a successful decision by the Evian water bottling company. In advertising. Moreover, it is a successful precursor for the movie ‘The Amazing Spider Man II’ since the clip was released just before the movie entered the screen of the market. The theme portrayed by the Evian babies dance is a well know concept to the people. The featuring of spider man is very specific to ensure that the super hero aspect of the movie make it more of an established concept that cannot be disputed hence allows the public to believe that the message is real and cannot just be disputed. This communication can be related in various ways to the social, economic, political, cultural and aesthetic phenomena. Used as an example, it creates a positive social impression to the people. The essence that spider man is a grown up and ends up seeing his reflection in the mirror as a small baby implies that even babies can be heroes. This is designed to prove marketing belief connoted from the clip that even babies can be heroes in the society if they use the Evian products (Richard, 11). Furthermore, it tries to explain the reasons behind the economic growth of the Evian companies, which are attributed to the love, the audience of these commercials have for the movie. In the cultural view of Spider Man, he is a hero thus children are encouraged to be the same. This fascinates the children and keeps them attached to the message the clip has. The message is for the companies to advertise their products, which they get successful. Aesthetically, the clip depicts the popular super hero Spider Man who helps people in the society hence the communicated message is that the company tries to show to the world that they care about the welfare of the people by recognizing the good that Spider Man does to the fictional society. This form of communication is simple but with a heavy connoted meaning rather than the denoted meaning. Usually, other communication forms use a lot of clear and direct expression of their intended messages. This commercial clip employs a rather different approach capitalizing on the concept that the initial movie had driven into the minds of their audience. As a result, the connoted meaning in relation to the previous movie has a very long-term impact to the people. Furthermore, as a welcoming shows for the second release of the Spider Man series, the clip simply triggers the minds of its audience to the past events in the movie. When the real movie, “The Amazing Spider Man II” hits the market, the audience is inclined to remembering the concept of the clip they watched about spider man meeting baby spider man. As a result, the effect of the commercial is long lived as it draws a direct relation to the movie that is very popular especially among the teens and school-going children (Richard, 11). Other forms of communication usually have their message denoted directly from the communication they present. It is also important to note that the commercials employ a lot of bias in the way they represent their message. They tend to favor the aspect of marketing and target only a specific group they believe form their intended market. This leads to distortion of the details by the audience, which is not targeted. Broder (26) in the text the Sociology of News tries to explain that distortion of information received is due to personal reasons. This is very true, as the message intended for a specific group cannot be interpreted the same way by a group of different characteristics. For instance in the clip, the use of Spider Man to publicize the products of the Evian Company is mainly a target for the teens and school going children. As a result, the elderly cannot connote the same meaning and the effect would not take a longer time as compared to the younger audience. Just like in any decision one makes, there are limits that determine the interpretation of a given message for instance the one represented above. This is caused by the challenges in understanding the various issues presented, which could be very much related to the environment, the social setting or the way the information is presented. In this text, interpretation is mainly because there is knowledge that the video clip is used to foster the advertisement of the products of the Evian Company (David, 23). It is linked to the Evian baby dance hence allows easier interpretation. However, were it not for the help of this background information then even the connoted meaning would not have been possible to discern. The challenge in the interpretation was relating the events of the clip to it being a commercial. Using the knowledge of critical thinking in the previous lessons, connotation as a tool for analyzing communication can be used to decipher the implied meanings hence help solve the problems. Theodore Adorno (24) claims that the triumph of any commercial is that the customers are compelled to purchase the products of the advertising company even though they are able to see the flaws in the adverts. This way the commercial is an excellent show of the value the people attribute to the communicated message. This is very critical when choosing the right commercial to use in advertising. As a result, designing commercials has reached levels that imply use of connotation rather than just being plain for everyone to understand. A connotation message is meant to stay for longer periods in the minds of the customers. Commercials employing this communication technique are usually very good in targeting a specific niche in their market (David, 23). They create triggers in the mind that allow the intended message to sink into the understanding of the target market. As a result, they are able to achieve greater results compared to any other forms of communications. Works Cited Curran, James, Michael Gurevitch, and Janet Woollacott. Mass Communication and Society. Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage, 1979. Print. Miller, David L. George Herbert Mead: Self, Language, and the World. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973. Print. Schudson, Michael. The Sociology of News. New York: Norton, 2003. Print. Worth, Richard. Communication Skills. Chicago, Ill: Ferguson Pub, 1998. 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