Advertising Appeal

Definition: Advertising Appeal means the approach of the advertiser to pull the attention of the customers towards the product or service, or influence their feelings and change their attitude towards it. It aims at prompting a response from the customer, concerning the item being advertised.

An appeal can be a request, plea or anything else that arises in the interest of the human being. It is tailored as per the target audience. Also, they talk about their interest. These are developed to activate human needs and wants and present how the brand can satisfy those needs and wants. In simple words, an advertising appeal is a statement that induces a person to act in a certain way. These appeals often focus on the consumer’s buying motives.

More precisely, advertising appeal is the invisible relatable persuasive strategy that instigates a person to purchase a product or service. The purpose of an advertisement is to persuade customers and the appeal provides the right link to facilitate persuasion. It either provides proof or brings about an emotional response, which helps in persuading the target audience, to buy specific products or services.

Essentials of a Good Advertising Appeal

• Communicative: It should be such that it conveys exactly what it wishes. More precisely, the message must be communicated in an easily understandable language.
• Good Theme: A good theme presents a message to the target audience. For this, the advertiser can use meaningful words to effectively communicate the message.
• Distinctive: When an advertising appeal is distinctive, it presents the message in a very unique manner.
• Interesting: A good advertising appeal arouses interest in the readers, viewers or listeners.
• Believable and Relatable: People often act upon the message when the story that the advertiser uses is believable and relatable. A message that creates doubts can’t be effective.
• Complete: When the appeal is complete and clear, it gets the desired response easily, as it does not confuse the prospects.

Types of Advertising Appeal

Emotional Appeal

Emotional Appeals are meant to trigger the initial interest and develop an interest in the advertised product. They tend to ignite the social and physiological needs of the consumer. You might have seen advertisements for baby diapers and baby food. They use such appeals.

For Example Ads of Pampers, Bournvita, Complain, etc uses this appeal.

Humour Appeal

Ads that make you laugh have a great impact on the viewer. In fact, it is one of the highly effective forms of appeal which advertisers use to draw the attention of the target audience. When the consumer finds something full of humour, he not just watches it but also remembers it for a long time. The biggest challenge here is to keep the brand in the humour so that the viewer can easily associate it with your brand.

For Example Ads of 5 star, mentos and Fevicol often uses humour appeal.

Musical Appeal

Just like humour, music also has a great recall value. And it easily makes the brands stand out from the crowd and get the desired attention from the public. Also, it develops positive memories, when someone listens to a catchy tune in the advertisement. Further, it makes people associate the music with that particular brand.

For Example Airtel jingle, Nima, Vicco, etc. uses this appeal.

Rational Appeal

This appeal makes use of logic, facts and data to persuade consumers, to buy products. These are used in the ads for cookware, or medical supplies. Such ads focus on product features or functional use.

For Example Dettol, Harpic, etc use such an appeal.

Intellectual Appeal

This appeal is based on intelligence and rational thinking. It is used for selling expensive industrial items.

For Example: You might have seen advertisements for five-star rating air conditioners and LED lights.

Positive Appeal

Appeals that use a positive approach come under this category. In this, the advertising agency develops such ads where after using the product the prospect is likely to get success, happiness or peace.

For example, Ads for fairness creams often use such appeal, to associate the role of appearance with the success of the person.

Negative Appeal

Unlike a positive appeal, such appeals follow a negative approach. Hence, feelings of jealousy, anger, pain and fear are used. For instance, fear appeal uses negative outcomes that may take place of any action or inaction. Think it another way, one more tactic is the fear of isolation. People start using the product if they want to avoid isolation due to bad hygiene or body odour.

For Example Insurance Companies, Toothpaste or deodorant brands generally use this appeal.

Scarcity Appeal

These appeals are often used to increase the sale of specific products so that you don’t miss out on the deal and discount. Such appeals often use the words ‘limited period offer’ or ‘hurry’, etc.

For example E-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart or Nykaa use this appeal.

Bandwagon Appeal

It uses the fear of missing out or FOMO, to ignite the consumer’s interest in the product. They do so by making the person feel that everyone else in the world is using this product except you. They use the words like “India’s most trusted brand” or “India’s no. 1”, etc.

A word from Business Jargons

Advertising Appeal is the kindling force that encourages customers’ mindset towards the product or service. These are designed in such a manner that creates a positive image of the company’s products in the minds of customers. Generally, advertising agencies use different advertising appeals to influence the buying decisions of the target audience.

The essence of an advertising message is the advertising appeal. The objective of an advertising appeal is to communicate to the prospective buyers, what the product offers and why the product is appealing to them.