Piece One
Chosen Service: Net-A-Porter, an online luxury fashion retailer (Net-A-Porter 2013).
Target Audience: Online female customers, 18-55 years old. These women belong to the middle and upper-middle social classes, the customers are employed, and they have little time for shopping. The potential and existing female customers pay much attention to their look and appearance. The proposed piece is the 1-page advertisement which can be published in the magazines for women.
Visuals: The provided visual is the high-quality photograph. The young woman worn the luxurious evening dress, a hat with feathers, and long gloves is depicted lying on a white sofa and looking directly into the lens. The woman is smiling. The colors and tones of the dress, hat, and gloves are purple.
The background is dark, with the focus on using dark-red and dark-purple colours, but it is possible to notice the elements of luxury in the room’s interior. On the right, there is a window. The white snow can be observed through the window.
It is also possible to notice a laptop on the low table near the sofa because this modern laptop disharmonises with the whole picture and its style. The company’s logo is in the upper left corner of the page; the headline is centred on the page top. The body copy is presented in columns at the foot of the page.
Copy: Headline: “Luxury is the must-have for your winter”.
Body copy: “Net-A-Porter is the world-leading online fashion retailer which makes your days full of comfort and luxury because it is the first online retailer which combines the elements of luxury with the idea of comfort for women.
Serving for women’s interests in the industry more than ten years, we know what women want to emphasise their elegance and to save their time. While visiting the Net-A-Porter website, the world of style and high fashion becomes closer, and luxury becomes your must-have with one click. Take a chance to make your winter warmer and more luxurious!”
Explanation of Persuasive Techniques: The persuasive character of the piece is based on appealing to the target audience’s emotions. Thus, the main rhetoric appeal used in this form of the marketing communication is the pathos. The advertisement is effective to influence the female desire to receive the access to luxury in relation to fashion and style.
The visual serves to develop the image of a successful woman for whom luxury related to clothing and style is something usual and available with the help of the Internet resources. The contrast in presenting the luxurious interior and dress along with the modern laptop emphasises the idea of the fashion’s availability for each woman with the help of one click, as it is accentuated in the body copy.
The observed contrast adds to appealing to the female customers’ emotions because they are expected to choose the online retailer as their source for high fashion items. The representatives of the target audience are expected to become interested in the high-quality photograph and to determine the connections between the idea of luxury and Net-A-Porter as the online luxury fashion retailer (Dahlen, Lange, & Smith 2010, p. 103).
The next step to affect the target audience’s behaviour is the manipulation of the notions typical for the fashion industry and observed in the magazines to develop associations. Thus, the headline states that “Luxury is the must-have for your winter”.
‘The must-have’ is associated with items which are discussed as fashionable during the certain season. The headline uses the pathos to appeal to the women’s emotions and to make them believe that ‘luxury’ available with the help of Net-A-Porter resources is rather fashionable and popular during this winter.
The combination of the pathos, ethos, and logos appeals is observed in the body copy of the advertisement. The logos and ethos appeals are used together to support each other in such a sentence as “Serving for women’s interests in the industry more than ten years, we know what women want to emphasise their elegance and to save their time”.
The appeal to credibility depends on describing the company’s experience with the help of providing the years of working within the industry. Moreover, this appeal serves as the argument for the next part of the sentence to appeal to the reason and logic. Thus, the company has the great experience in the industry and can satisfy the women’s needs appropriately.
The phrase that “we know what women want to emphasise their elegance and to save their time” sounds confidently and assertively while contributing to the idea of the company’s credibility and expertise in relation to retailing high-quality products online.
The open call to action based on the pathos is provided in the final sentence where the potential customers are asked to take a chance and make their winter warmer and more luxurious with references to the central idea of combining luxury and comfort aspects.
Piece Two
Chosen Service: Samsung (Smart TV) (Samsung Smart TV 2013).
Target Audience: The existing customers who choose Samsung technologies and potential female and male customers who orient to choosing innovation, 21-50 years old. The customers are interested in new technologies and innovations in the sphere of television and Internet.
The customers are also interested in Samsung products and the company’s research and development’s base. The proposed piece is the street billboard which can be copied as the advertisement for newspapers and magazines.
Visuals: The background of the billboard is the cosmic space with sparkling stars and vivid meteors presented in dark-blue tones. The logo of the company is provided in the upper left corner. The headline is provided in bold caps at the top of the page.
The body copy is presented in a bullet form at the foot of the page, on the left. Multiple colourful images of modern TV sets are depicted as making a powerful space hopper. The image is located at the center of the billboard.
Copy: Headline: “Power is in smartness: Widening the horizons with Samsung Smart TV”.
Body copy:
“- Samsung Smart TV is the new remarkable stage in the development of television and Internet technologies.
- Samsung Smart TV is based on knowledge and innovation.
- Samsung Smart TV is the source of power for you.
- Samsung Smart TV is your opportunity to widen the horizons and focus on new perspectives”.
Explanation of Persuasive Techniques: The billboard works to persuade the target audience to choose Samsung products because the message is based on the AIDCA principle.
The target audience consisting of men and women of 21-50 years old is expected to pay attention to the large and rather vivid billboard with the well-known company’s logo and bright image demonstrating the space hopper. The attention to the image of the space hopper made from TV sets using Samsung Smart TV is based on its unrealistic character.
The next stage to persuade the target audience is in evoking the interest to the product. The headline works to provoke the customers’ interest with references to the ideas of power, smartness, and widened horizons.
These concepts are closely associated with the people’s interests, needs, and desires. At this stage, the advertisement depends on the pathos because of appealing to the customers’ emotions and desires to become smarter, more powerful, and to learn more without being restricted by external forces.
Furthermore, the target audience becomes more convinced that Samsung technologies can provide people with extreme opportunities in relation to power, knowledge, and smartness because the word ‘smartness’ is associated with the technologies’ name, Samsung Smart TV.
This stylistic tautology serves to emphasise the meaning of Samsung Smart TV for creating the customers’ knowledge base and for widening their horizons with the help of these technologies.
According to the AIDCA principle, the next stages are the stimulation of the customers’ desire to purchase the product and the call to action. Following the format of the billboard, the body copy information is provided in the bullet form in order to draw the target audience’s attention to the most important benefits and advantages of the product.
In this case, the repetition of the product’s name at the beginning of the sentences as the anaphora also serves to draw the audience’s attention to the list of product’s advantages.
The ideas listed in the bullet form reflect the idea presented in the headline while intensifying the persuasive effect (Yadin 2001, p. 38-42). From this point, all the rhetorical devices and communication techniques are combined to capture the attention and to produce the strong effect on the target audience.
Reference List
Dahlen, M, Lange, F, & Smith, T 2010, Marketing communications: a brand narrative approach, John Wiley & Sons, USA.
Net-A-Porter 2013. Web.
Samsung Smart TV 2013. Web.
Yadin, D 2001, Creative marketing communications, Kogan Page Publishers, USA.