Marketing Communications: Analysis of Two Cigarette Ads - Assignment Example

Marketing Communications” INTRODUCTION: Advertisements have increasingly become the signature for businesses as these very advertisements help to portray the good or bad about the businesses. Nowadays the system of advertisement has expanded to heights as it is adopted by almost every business in the world ranging from the very short businesses to the very large businesses (Kay, 1995, pp. 32-35). Similarly if an advertisement is being made for the adults then it would be made in the same way that the adults are being attracted. It has been seen increasingly that ads in magazines are gaining popularity and many of the products are being sold because of these advertisements in magazines (Newsweek, 2000 & James & Bartram 1999, pp. 23-33). This assignment would further revolve around two ads about Winston and Camel cigarettes respectively. It would do a detailed study on one of the ads by these companies to promote their products and would discuss these ads in relation to the theories of marketing communication. It would further provide with ethical dimensions relating to both the ads and would put forward a rational view as to which ad is unethical and which one is not. Marketing Communications is a broad subject and advertisements compose a great sector of this subject (Backer, 1993 pp. 60-67). Thus it is through these advertisements that companies are able to communicate with the consumers and are able to tell them how their product is. Comparative Semiotic Analysis of Two ads: The aim of semiotic analysis is to analyze the advertisements on the basis of their credibility in terms of graphics and illustrations. The visual and textual use of advertisements provides an understanding to the viewers about the product or service. Pictures and graphical illustrations are more prominent to the readers than textual data. People believe what they see and promote what they experience. They try a dress which looks good but purchase it only if it suits them. Similarly, the advertisement of a new product in McDonalds or some other restaurant or fast food chain would attract them towards it and they will be motivated to try that product. However, the repeated purchase of that new product would depend on the taste and quality of that food. Advertisements involve a number of techniques to attract consumers. Some advertisers focus on a particular age group and design the advertisement on their perception about what the people of that age group would like to see(Haase, 1931 pp 67-80). On the other hand, other advertisers use a different approach to target their customers. They make up a plan to target their customers by dividing them in the gender groups. Some also target the customers using a cultural diversification approach and target people belonging to a particular culture. There is a wide range of techniques which are used to target audience for different products. The common theme of those advertisements is the use of texts and visuals to attract the customers. Designing an advertisement campaign for children would require the marketers to use cartoon characters, colourful pictures and creative art work to attract them, whereas, such an advertisement would fail to grab the attention of professional people to sale machinery or equipments (Macleod, 2009 pp. 23-45; Phillips, 1986 pp15-20). Hence, the use of symbols, language and illustrations is of immense importance in targeting audience and increasing sales. The semiotic analysis is helpful in evaluating the success of advertisements in capturing the attention of consumers by the use of symbolic and textual information. The symbolic features of an advertisement also give some information about the product. The two advertisements under consideration carry many features that worth an in depth semiotic analysis. Firstly both advertisements contain eye-catching pictures and excellent colour contacts to grab the attention of the consumers. Both advertisements have made use of different font styles and sizes to make it look more unique. The use of font sizes and styles greatly depend on what the advertiser really wants to tell the customer and what is necessary or obligatory to include but not desired by the advertiser. The main message that the advertiser of Camel cigarette wants to deliver is the different flavours available for the season. This advertising campaign seems to be for a limited season. It states that “There’s only one season to indulge in both” and further names the season with the flavour it has “"Camel Winter MochaMint, a chilly blast of peppermint and Mocha [or] Camel Warm Winter Toffee, a swirl of sweet indulgence, cool and minty or warm & toasty.” On the other hand, the second advertisement is designed for the marketing of Winston, a cigarette brand. This advertisement involves more textual features than Camel advertisement. However, the textual features of semiotics are used more creatively than the other. It contains a number of creative and clever sentences that provide a sense of winning and uniqueness. Underneath the product image in this advertisement are the words “Additive free – Naturally smooth”. These tricky words do not mean that it is safe to smoke these cigarettes or they are not harmful as other cigarettes are. Here comes the part the marketer needed to add in this advertisement to abide by the laws. The advertisement then states “No additive in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette”. It must be noted that the font size and text place of these different messages vary dramatically (Arnett 114, 1994). One is placed in a prominent place with more prominent colours and notable place than the other. The message that would be most prominent to the viewer or reader of the magazine is “The only additive is the fire you light them with”. This constitutes a rather diplomatic approach. Of course, the reader of a magazine or a smoker would assume that it is less harmful than other brands if not perfectly harmless. Being the most prominent message, it carries some importance to the reader or viewer (Armstrong & Yu, 1996 pp. 29-40). The main thing observed from the two advertisements is the fact that textual feature of semiotics help in increasing the sales of the product. A successful advertiser may include such textual messages to make the brand most trustworthy and show that it benefits the consumer. However, the legal and ethical implications must be viewed. The advertisements carrying messages or illustrations that prove cigarettes or alcohol as healthy are not much popular among the public because of their probable results on death and disease rate. It must be kept in view that these are not the only factors that require advertisers to be creative and diplomatic. They must have some evidence or response to the criticisms against their advertisements. The use of the caution in the advertisement and the explanation of main message in relatively smaller fonts does provide a supportive argument to the advertiser and the brand owners. The use of images is different in both advertisements. The Camel advertisement features a female with a good physical appearance. On the other hand Winston captures a strong bodied male character for its advertisement. These characters basically point towards the targeted audience. The picture of that female character with slim body and distinct style separating the two flavours of the cigarette by her leg is more likely to attract teenagers and age groups between 20 and 30. Similarly the passion to win “leave the bull behind” and the strong bodied person is also more likely to be adopted to capture the same age groups. It is however clear that Winston advertisement is more inclined towards targeting male group and Camel’s advertisement is more likely to gather female consumers for the brand. The colour scheme of Camel’s advertisement and the icons used are more motivated to target teenagers. The smile and the way the girl is depicted while smoking seems more like a fashionable and pleasurable practice. Teenagers may want to try it once, especially girls, to look trendy, fashionable and modern. On the other hand, Winston provides a message of freedom, independence and physically power, which is more probable to gather profits from the teenage boys. The male model shows his independence and freedom by standing stranded in a calm place lighting cigarette. The use of a beautiful but cut off place in the background is also giving a sense of self and personal choice in the Winston’s advertisement. There is a balance between textual and imagery message in the Winston’s advertisement as compared to the Camel’s advertisement where more emphasis is placed on the use of pictures, colours and symbols. The Winston’s advertisement is, however, placing a wrong image of the product being advertised. Cigarettes are known for their devastating effects on people’s health and Winston’s advertisement shows a strong built and autonomous person hence, creative negative image of its effects. Hence the comparative semiotic analysis of the two advertisements reveals that although both advertisements are aimed to promote sales of a product of the same category, the way of advertisement differs greatly. The target audience is of the same age group but of different gender group. Both advertisements have their powerful influence on the readers yet lack in some aspects. Effectiveness of the Ads in Relation to Theories of Marketing Communication: Advertisements are made in such a way that they become effective enough so as to attract the customers. They are made in a way that they should specifically communicate with the consumers and urge them to buy the products which are being advertised (Grimaldi, 2003, p. 23). For an advertisement to be effective several factors should be kept in mind, which are related to the field of marketing communications. All these factors together would help the advertisement to be effective enough to grasp the attention of the consumers (S.I., 2007). Cigarettes have increasingly become famous in the world today and to keep the flow of purchases in this world the manufacturers have to advertise their products. The advertisements of cigarettes are hard to make which is only because of the fact that cigarettes are supposed to be harmful to human life. In this case the manufacturers have to be very careful when advertising for their products. Such an example of cigarette advertisement can be viewed in the advertisement of Camel. The manufacturers have been very careful when advertising for the cigarette as they have chosen the right techniques to emphasize on a particular segment of the society to buy these cigarettes. It is clearly seen in the advertisement that the manufacturers have been very careful in making sure that their message reaches their segment (Gardner, 2005 pp. 10-29). They have used the correct source of media while trying to get their message through to the consumers. The advertisement being done by Camel Cigarettes is a mass marketing strategy as they have chosen to attract all the potential consumers of cigarette. If viewed rationally the ad is also attracting people who do not smoke as from the ad it can be seen that cigarette smoking is supposedly cool. The advertisement is clearly raising awareness about the cigarettes to the general public and is telling them about the new cigarettes which are being launched by them. It is also telling about the different flavours in which they are being launched this time so that the consumers are more tempted to try these new flavours. The ad used by Camel is also using the theory of social responsibility which is stated in the marketing communications. It is making sure that the individuals who are consuming cigarette know about what they are doing. In other words it is informing all the individuals who are being targeted that smoking cigarette is injurious to health as recommended by a surgeon. Here it can be seen that they are using the phenomena of social responsibility and informing the general public about the problems which one might face because of smoking. On the other hand they are also taking the benefit by informing the general public about the problems by cigarette smoking because if somebody does get hurt because of smoking he/she cannot blame the company. Thus the company is fulfilling the realms of social responsibility. Camel Cigarettes is using a Sales response model to sell their cigarettes by showing a lady in their advertisement who is smoking and is showing the general public that it smoking Camel cigarettes is a new experience. The message being used by Cigarettes is a direct message which is directly urging the consumers to consume cigarettes. The Camel advertisement uses a segmented marketing communication strategy as well as the Winston’s. Both of these advertisements are targeting a particular age group and gender. The other advertisements of these two brands also target a particular audience with similar age group or gender etc. (Peter & Olson, 2002 pp. 65-75) The Winston’s advertisement is based on the elaboration likelihood model of decision making (Petty et al., 1983). The marketers of this brand believe that there is likelihood that the consumers would not pay any heed to the health factors involved in using their product. In other words, the marketers believe that the consumers have little knowledge about the health risking factors involved with smoking. For this reason they use the peripheral route of elaboration likelihood model to communicate their message. The advertisement of Winston exposes the product as less lethal by asserting that “The only additive is the fire you light them with” and “Additive free – Naturally Smooth”. The exposure of this product as being pure and additive free makes the consumer more confident about its use. A less aware consumer may rely on this information and shift to this brand from any other brand as he will perceive it to be less dangerous. Such statements on the advertisement lead to psychological satisfaction of the consumer and they perceive that they are using a less unhealthy product. They satisfy their mind and thoughts by the very notion that they are using a better product. Since smoking is highly addictive in line with other such products as alcoholic beverages, the marketers need to attract the consumer for the first consumption practice. Once they experience the taste and outcomes of the product they are more likely to consume it again (Ehrenberg, 1988). The peripheral route of elaboration likelihood model in the Winston’s advertisement is used to satisfy that psychological distress of consumers who cannot leave smoking but want to minimize the risks associated with this addiction. On the other hand, the Winston’s advertisement used a central route approach for the consumers who are thoughtful because of the nature of the product. The explanation of their own statement about non additive nature of the cigarettes is an example of this approach in the advertisement. On the other hand the Camel advertisement uses the cognitive paradigm to approach consumers. This advertisement includes the caution to avoid any misrepresentation about the harmful effects of it on health. The advertisement involves symbols to attract the consumers but does not state any such statement which would create an overwhelming impression on people. The use of flavour information is helpful for the consumers to compare it with other available consumers. Moreover, this advertisement is designed for a particular weather and hence this advertising campaign is not approaching consumers for a long run sale increase. The flavours and uniqueness of the brand may, however, help in developing the brand image and customer loyalty. Since, advertisements are normally designed to attract consumers to use the product for the first time and the rest of the burden lies on the quality and continuous reminders to the consumers about its uniqueness via different marketing strategies. The theories of social responsibility of marketing communications are also being followed by the ads of Winston Cigarettes. This is because Winston, like Camel, is also informing its consumers that consumption of cigarette can prove to be harmful to their lives. The way the message is being delivered to the consumers is almost the same like the Camel as they are advertising in magazines and the middle conveyer is the magazine itself. Thus they are kind of dependent on the image of the magazine to get their cigarettes promoted. (Ehrenberg, 2000 pp. 29-38). The Role of the Media Used: Both of these advertisements are published in Times magazine. Magazines are a great source of profit for the companies as they help in gaining and retaining customers. People like reading magazines in their spare time and go through the creative advertisements and try to avail the best product in the available resources. Moreover the promotional campaigns make the most of magazine advertisements which allow the consumers to avail their desired product with favourable packages or discounts. Magazine advertisements further help in directly targeting the target groups. For instance, if a business requires a marketing plan which is mostly encountered by children, children magazines and books may be successful in achieving this goal. Hence we can say that magazine advertisements are highly targeted to the desired population and may reduce the likelihood of being unsuccessful. If the advertisement is not creative enough to capture a large population it is still safe as it will reach to the targets view. The next advertisement may help reducing the losses of the existing marketing campaign. The advertisements by media are very important to get the message of the manufacturer to the consumers. The magazines being used here are promoting the product in a fashion that consumers are forced to try it. Some magazines may be of a high stature and advertising in these magazines would prove to be very fruitful for the company who is advertising their product. Media is being greatly used by these manufacturers so that their original message is brought forward to the consumers. Magazines are putting forward these advertisements towards the real consumers of the product in a way that helps in making the advertisement effective enough. These magazines try to put these advertisements at places where they would be more attractive and effective in pursuing individuals to buy that particular product. Magazines are a type of media which are being viewed all over the world as they reach places where they are not even known about. These magazines can also reach third world countries where otherwise other types of media might not reach. Thus it can be said that the medium used for these advertisements has been effective enough to ensure that the people are getting to know about the products (Reynolds 1960). Times magazine is popular among public and people like its content for years now. The marketers chose it for an effective outcomes and marvellous response from the consumers. The more this magazine is sold, the more are the chances of advertisements’ success. If the marketers would have used some other magazine which is less famous among general public, the response would have been slower and inefficient. The advertisements are used to spread the product’s name and description to the larger population. Magazines, television, internet and banners are the most useful advertising mediums for cigarette and related products (Kahle & Kim, 2006 pp. 5-10). Hence, the medium used by the marketers is undoubtedly an excellent and efficient choice. However, criticisms against the marketing of unhealthy and life risking products were raised against Times magazine. The advertisements are approaching younger generation and women who are somehow responsible for the future of this world (Arnett BMJ) The Ethical Dimensions of the Ads: Ethical dimensions are very important to be considered when talking about advertisements. Ethics form one of the most important aspects about the advertisements which should be closely analyzed by the manufacturer before advertising their product. Ethical dimensions can put the advertisement and the product to the top or can destruct the advertisement or the product. Ethical dimensions of advertisements are considered while making the advertisement. They have to be made suitable for all the segments of the society so that the customers do not feel bad about the advertisement in any way (Marlow 2001 443-449). The ad made by the Camel cigarettes can be viewed by different ethical dimensions. It is seen that the ad has a woman on it who is smoking and two packs of cigarettes are seen in the ad. The ad clearly states that cigarettes are harmful for one’s health and it should be avoided. Thus it can be said that the ad made by Camel is clearly fulfilling the ethical dimension of informing the consumers about the possible cause of smoking. The ad does not have anything which might seem offensive to a particular sect of individuals in this society. The women shown in the ad although can be viewed as an obstruction in the fulfilment of a perfect ethical dimension. It is seen that the clothes that the woman is wearing are a little bit exposing and this just might not be perfect for young individuals who would see this ad. Moreover the woman is also smoking and this will portray a wrong image about woman living in the society to the general public (Burton 1936 23-26). Because of the ad the woman may be viewed as a sexual object in the society and her personality would be affected in real life. The general view about woman in this world is changed only because of these advertisements as they tend to show woman as sexual objects which can be used and thrown away. As she is smoking she might pose a bad effect on children’s thoughts and behaviours. Children might consider smoking as a fashion and many of the young ones can get addicted to the habit of smoking. The ad seems to be somewhat colourful and may attract young individuals towards it which can further attract them towards smoking. If viewed from a rationalistic perspective it can be said that the ad is wholly unethical because promoting a life taking and unhealthy practice can cause the whole society to suffer in the wrong way. It can lead many individuals to fall sick as cigarette is injurious to health. The woman being used in the ad by Camel is a good looking woman who has an excellent physique and this can portray a wrong image about smoking amongst the general public. In other words it is unethical of the manufacturers to tell the general public that smoking is a healthy practice as even the women nowadays are smoking (Berger 2007 45-49). On the other hand another ad is also discussed in this report which is made by Winston Cigarettes. The ethical dimensions of the ad made by Winston can be seen from different views. It can be seen in this ad that in a way it is promoting its product in a much better way. It is informing the consumers or general public that no additives are added in this cigarette and it should be tried as it is made by the finest raw materials. But here again if the ethical point of view of harming the life of human beings is considered then this promoting of cigarette is considered to be wrong. But here again Winston has made it clear to its consumers and general public that even if no additives are added in the cigarette it does not mean that it is not harmful. So here it follows the ethical dimension of informing consumers that it may be harmful to their life (Pierce et al 1998, 511-515). And then they have also given the surgeons warning as given by the Camel Cigarettes. The ad shows a man smoking on his bike that has a perfect physique and thus shows that smoking might be a healthy practice. This can again be considered to be an unethical practice as the consumers might think the other way and consume the cigarette to look cool like the person who is smoking in the picture. Another aspect which can be considered here is about promoting smoking as it is quite unethical to promote something which takes lives or is harmful to life. The ad given by Winston shows a muscular man standing right besides a motorbike in a desert area which is almost remote. Here the company is trying to signify that cigarette can be useful in such a situation to relieve tension when a person does not have any other option. But such an ad if viewed ethically can clearly be proved to be wrong as cigeratte is believed to relieve tension temporarily but cause several other diseases later onwards. Not only this the heat in which the ad is being made is another negative aspect of the ad as in such hot weather cigarette can be even more harmful to a person. This ad if viewed by children can portray negative thoughts and the endorser used in it might be a celebrity for someone. Seeing this celebrity in such a pose many children might want to become the way he is and this again poses an ethical threat to the whole ad. With all the ethical threats the ad still becomes successful only because it gives prior notices in written that cigarette can be harmful to anyone who uses it. (Arnett 114, 1994 & Fox et al 1999 50-57). Conclusion: Marketing is undoubtedly of crucial importance for the successful running of the business. Advertising and other marketing techniques help in making the products and services known to the consumers. The marketing strategies for different products and services, however, need to be different. The marketing of a car in children’s magazine won’t be as effective as its results after advertising it in a businessmen’s magazine or others. Similarly advertising women’s cosmetics in the men’s magazine would not generate much profit. Hence, t must be understood before advertising that the costs related must be fully utilized and not wasted. There is a need to pay full attention towards the targeted population (Moran, 1988). For the products which are widely used by people of all age groups and cultures like coke, Pepsi etc. a relatively general and wide approach must be used. The costs of marketing can easily be recovered if the marketing technique is wisely chosen (Britt, 1978, 67-89). In conclusion, we can say that although there are many marketing techniques, the choice of marketing technique depends on the targeted audience and nature of the product (Turley & Kelly, 1997). The analyses of the two advertisements reveal the competition in the market and explain how different advertisements affect the audience. 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