Persuasion and Types of Advertising appeal
Persuasion Technique
- The Carrot and The Stick
- The Scarcity Principle
- One Message Per Advertisement
- Write In the Second Person
- Give Your Audience a Sense of Control
- Use a Call-to-Value Instead of a Call-to-Action
1. The Carrot and The Stick
Humans are hardwired to move towards pleasure, like a horse towards a carrot, and away from pain, like a donkey avoids a stick. When people read or watch your advertisements, “carrots”, or promises of gain, can fill your prospects with hope and compel them to pursue that potential feeling of pleasure. “Sticks”, possibilities of loss, evoke fear in your prospects, which will compel them to flee from that potential feeling of pain.
Both tactics can pull your prospects into a narrative and evoke emotions that inspire your desired action. Carrots, like a product’s benefit, entice people to take a desired action. Sticks, on the other hand, like anti-smoking campaigns, evoke fear in people to stop doing a certain action and start doing the alternative.
2. The Scarcity Principle
People value objects and experiences that are rare having something that most people want, but can’t have, boosts our sense of self-worth and power. If you use words and phrases that imply scarcity and evoke a sense of urgency, like “Exclusive offer” or “Limited availability”, you can skyrocket your product’s perceived scarcity and consumer demand.
3. One Message Per Advertisement
To immediately hook people and persuade them to read or watch the rest of your advertisement, try sticking to only one message. Spotlighting your product or offer’s main benefit or feature will make it easy for your customers to understand its value and increase the likelihood of their conversion because you’re only conveying one message to your audience: your product’s main feature will benefit your customer’s life somehow, someway.
4. Write in the Second Person
Since your prospects primarily care about how you can help them, and pronouns like “you” and “your” can engage them on a personal level and help them insert themselves in the narrative you’re creating, writing advertisements in the second person can instantly grip their attention and help them imagine a future with your product or service bettering their lives.
5. Give Your Audience a Sense of Control
According to a research study conducted by three psychology professors at Rutgers University, the need for control is a biological and psychological necessity. People have to feel like they have control over their lives.
If you want to give your audience a sense of control, you need to give them the ability to choose. In other words, after reading or watching your advertisement, they must feel like they can choose between the option you suggest or another path. If they feel like you’re trying to force them to buy your product, they’ll get annoyed and disengage from your message.
To give your audience the ability to choose, and in turn, a sense of control, use phrases like “Feel free” or “No pressure” in your advertisements, like this example from Hotwire.com below.
6. Use a Call-to-Value Instead of a Call-to-Action
A “Download Now” or “Call Now” CTA won’t always persuade the more dubious prospects to perform your desired action. Call-to-actions are essential for encouraging prospects to take the next step. Make sure the last line of content or joke in your advertisement is the finest one yet.
Writing a call-to-action that clearly communicates the value of your offer and provides a glimpse into your prospects’ potential life if they take your desired action is therefore preferable to writing an uninspiring, final line of copy like “Download Now.” For example, this call-to-value encouraging readers to download a blogging eBook reads: “Click today and be a blogger tomorrow.”
Types of Advertising appeal
Emotional appeals. Emotional appeals are designed to make an audience associate positive feelings with your brand. These appeals generally focus on trust, joy, love, loyalty and happiness, which you can leverage through the use of powerful music and imagery. Think of GE’s “We bring good things to life.”
Fear appeals. Fear can appeal to people when a product or service is needed to help reduce risk in someone’s life such as risk of financial failure, poor health issues, security of losing a home and even political choices. The emotion of fear can be used effectively as long as it is not to extreme or harsh which may ultimately effect your brand. Therefore caution is in order. Think of BCAA Life Insurance’s “How would they get by without you?” campaign.
Humor appeals. Humor is often used in advertising. Why not? Who doesn’t like something that’s funny? Appealing to the comic sense in people can build brands sometimes overnight. The challenge with humor however is to keep the brand in the humor so your market associates the humor with your brand. Often it’s the humor that is remembered more than the product! Done right, making an audience laugh can lead to huge sales. How about Chikfila’s beef cows holding up their signs “Eat More Chicken.”
Musical appeals. Like humor, music is a great way for brands to get noticed and make an audience remember their products. In addition, musical appeals can bring up positive memories whenever someone hears a catchy tune in an ad, which goes a long way toward making them feel good about the product being presented. And don’t forget the options of licensing some great tunes from the past. Apple’s iPod got a huge lift with Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” (As did Jet!)
Rational appeals. While some products can effectively persuade consumers with tugs to the heart strings, other products demand a more rational approach, especially if the ad is used in a print medium. Rational appeals use logic, facts, and data to convince consumers to buy products, and are often found in advertisements for medications, cookware, and cleaning products. Fujii Golf’s new club, the RMX driver, uses much technical information to describe how it will get you longer shots.
Sexual appeals. From jeans to cars to cologne to hamburgers, appeals that rely on sex and romance are found in ads for numerous products. Although history has shown that sex does indeed sell or at least gets attention sexual appeals have been used so often that in some cases, using them may not pack the punch that marketers may expect. Although, the recent Old Spice deodorant’s “Smell Like A Man, Man” campaign lifted the dated brand to new levels probably for years.
Scarcity appeals. Scarcity appeals tap into people’s fear of missing out, so they’re a great way to convince people to take advantage of a sale or a limited-edition product. However, make sure that scarcity actually applies to what you’re selling: If you’re advertising a limited time offer, customers will notice if it goes on longer than advertised and they may lose trust in your company’s promotions. Make sure a “sale’ is truly a “sale.”
Finally, certain appeals will only work for certain products so remember what your brand stands for and whether the strategy truly fits your brand’s characteristics.