Advertisements bombard consumers left and right touting products. Selling stuff requires an effective marketing team, a pleasing advertisement and a quality product. Targeting your ad techniques to specific demographics increases the likelihood that your advertisements will motivate consumers to buy your merchandise.
Slogan
Advertisements use catchy slogans to capture the attention of their target audience. This technique involves a short sentence or phrase designed to stick in the audience's mind. The phrase can be meaningful or nonsensical. Slogans that sell products are catchy and usually contain just a few words. A spin-off of this tactic is turning the slogan into a rhetorical question, causing the audience to stop and think about your product.
Rational Appeal
A rational appeal is a logical argument intended to convince consumers that a specific product is the best choice for them. This advertising technique often employs facts and figures from scientific studies or research to back up these claims. Sometimes, the manufacturers of the product conduct the research. When the ad relies almost entirely on scientific research or statistics, advertisers hope potential customers will feel it's rational or logical to purchase the product.
Emotional Appeal
Emotional appeals aim to appeal to your emotions. An ad might feature a happy couple smiling while strolling in the park or a warm cup of tea in a large, sunny kitchen. This technique can backfire if you go overboard. It's important to do your research to ensure the ad will appeal to the target audience.
Endorsement
Endorsements use a local or national celebrity to promote a product. You match your product with a celebrity whose image fits your brand. For example, manufacturers of an energy sports drink might ask a popular athlete to market their product. Weight loss programs often use endorsements as an advertising technique. These ads rely on endorsements from famous people who used the program and achieved their goal weight.
Targeted Lifestyle
The targeted lifestyle technique can be used on its own or in conjunction with other methods. This advertising strategy pinpoints a particular group -- or "lifestyle" -- and tailors the advertising and marketing to appeal to the targeted audience. For example, the University of Minnesota describes one group as the "belonger lifestyle group." These consumers tend to be older and more conservative. A marketing strategy for products geared toward this audience wouldn't feature abstract photography and models wearing jeans. By showing the target audience that the brand fits their lifestyle, marketers bet on consumers being more likely to buy their products.
