Companies appeal to consumers in many different ways to persuade them to buy their products3. Advertisements are written according to a straightforward “master formula” which consists of four steps.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 - Advertising – Wikipedia (2004) [online] at
2 – Cyberganda Advertising – Jeanell Bertels (2005) [online] at
3 – Media Awareness – Advertising Techniques (2003) [online] at http://www.entrenet.com/~groedmed/namedu/adtech.htm
They are, attract the ATTENTON of your prospect; INTEREST your prospect in the product; cause your prospect to DESIRE the product and finally demand ACTION from the prospect4.
There are also numerous advertising techniques used to grab the human intelligence and to guide them into paying for a product or service.
Avant garde is a technique suggesting that using this product puts the user ahead of times e.g. a toy manufacturer encourages kids to be the first on their block to have the new toy. Bandwagon suggests that everybody in using the product and that you should too in order to be part of the group e.g. a credit card company quotes the number of millions of people who use their card. Another technique is by using facts and figures in their advertisements. Statistic and objective factual information is used to prove the superiority of the product e.g. a car manufacturer quotes the amount of time it takes their car to get from 0 to 100 km/h. An alternative method used is through patriotism where it advocates purchasing this product show your love of your company e.g. a company boasts about its products being made in Australia and employing Australian workers, Plain folks suggests that he product is a practical item of good value for ordinary people where it shows an ordinary family sitting down at a table for breakfast and enjoying their product & the other is the Snob appeal where it shows the product being used by an elite group of customers with a luxurious and glamorous lifestyle e.g. a coffee manufacturer shows people dressed in formal clothing drinking their brand at an art gallery. Testimonials are another great way to sell items for consumption and a famous personality is used to endorse the product e.g. a famous NBA player recommends a particular brand of shoes. Last but not least is the technique through wit and humor. Customers are attracted to products that divert the audience by giving viewers a reason to laugh or to be entertained by cleaver use of visuals or language.
The approach to take them extra dollars from the consumer pockets is on an all time high. With the fast food industries there has been a lot of controversy about the freshness and the health issue.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 – Advertising Campaign – About.com (2004) [online] at
The fast food outlets came up with a new strategy to get rid of the negative stereotypes surrounding their companies. To overcome these problems, fast food outlets such as McDonalds came up with a new fresh and healthy menu for their customers. McDonalds issued out a campaign to start a Deli Choice menu for their consumers (see appendix 1). This was therefore due to the number of obesity levels and the criticism surrounding McDonalds through the film ‘Supersize Me’. McDonalds then introduced this to get a message to the public that their food isn’t all fattening and unhealthy. They also started to put the nutrition details on every burger meal for their customers. The Salads Plus was also inserted into the menu to make the image give the impression of being healthy. “We’ve developed the range by adding new items and making improvements to some of the existing ones to ensure the Salads Plus menu range will leave you feeling great” (see appendix 2). Through this manner, McDonalds are trying to make a statement to say that their products are healthy and that they have made a change from the past. McDonalds uses the technique of patriotism where they also tell their customer that their meat is all 100% Australian and that it’s endured to be of the highest quality5.
With the fast food competition, McDonalds and Subway always were big rivals. They both used adverting techniques to make the other opponent look ghastly. With all the debate about the health issues, communication is a big part in it all. Without the communication, no one in the public will know the truth about all the good and bad things that happen in any class of advertisement. Advertising is used to grab out emotion in whichever sort of way and it will make us rethink about what we need to satisfy our needs. Ads can make us come back to something be decided to leave but through different viewpoint each time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 – Beef Story – McDonalds (2005) [online] at
