“The language of advertising”.

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“The language of advertising”

In order to be successful, an advert should not only be seen (or heard - depending on your target market etc), catch and hold your attention, and should not only inform, but it should persuade or influence people along a certain course of action, or to purchase the commodity being advertised.   The process may be briefly and simply summarised by the AIDCA formula as described by Friedrich Lund:

  1. Catching, focusing and diverting Attention to a particular message;
  2. developing Interest in the product, ie a wish to find out more;
  3. creating a Desire for the product (ie the benefit the product will accrue); and a
  4. Conviction that replaces desire, with a belief in the necessity to possess the product;
  5. Action: eg visit the showroom (class notes and lecture: 04/11/03).

A variety of means and presentation,  are used by advertisers as tools in order to achieve the above, some of which include the size and position of an advert; use of colour; novelty and contrast; humour; status; fear; parent and family life.  Much of this is done through the use of pictures and images, however words and language remove any ambiguity which these, left to themselves, might portray.  Language has a powerful influence over people and their behaviour.  This is especially true in the fields of marketing and advertising.  The choice of language to convey specific messages with the intention of influencing people is vitally important.  Copywriting, which is regarded as “ salesmanship in print” (class notes: 04/11/03), is the art of persuasion and selling messages through literary devices.

Generally speaking however, honesty, decency and truthfulness in advertising is the most fundamental concept in all applicable guidelines, standards, statutory law, rules and regulations (eg. the Code of Advertising Standards and the Code of Sales Promotion Practice – administered by the ASAI; EU Directive 97/55/EC; The Consumer Information Act, 1978).

The language used in Property advertising

A distinction may be drawn between the bulk of advertising business and property advertising, in that whereas advertising  is chiefly the endless pursuit of brand properties (ie the pursuit of unique and innovative solutions in intensely competitive environments), some of the euphemism associated with place and distance in estate agency advertising, are elements that have historically been considered unattractive and to challenge the best practice of commercial advocacy.  A good example of this was demonstrated by the ASAI inquiry into a property advertisement that advertised a housing estate development, located at Ballcanew Court (approximately four miles from Gorey, Co. Wexford), as being within “easy commuting distance” of Dublin (www.archives.tcm.ie/businesspost2002/03/

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03).  

As with general commercial advertising, property advertising is often presented by appealing to your emotions.  Different mechanisms are used to arouse feelings of fear, love, pleasure, or vanity.  Scarcity is another tool used where a fear that you may miss an opportunity to purchase a property is used as the marketing tool. Similarly phrases such as “ For a limited time only” or “Limited supply” are common uses of this technique.  This is well illustrated in the advertisement attached at appendix 1, which makes a point of stating that 32  units have already been sold, with only ...

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