Advertisement evaluation. What makes a good advertisement

Advertisement evaluation. What makes a good advertisement Advertising is the non-personal transfer of information, usually paid for and is persuasive about products services and ideas by sponsors on behalf of a firm or company. Non-personal meaning there is no direct contact between the seller and the buyer or receiver of the product. An advertisement is meant to be persuasive so as to catch the eye of the intended party and this whole service of advertising involves paying of the advertisement firms.

The ultimate goal of advertising is to make the consumer buy or use the good or service being advertised. For an advert to be effective it must have the right message and proper means of delivering the message is required. The attributes to an effective advertising are divided into three categories and features relating to: consumer, message and the advertising copy.

One should have a complete idea and knowledge of the target group, their personality, income, age etc. An advertisement should be created in accordance to the characteristics of the targeted group.

Using of the appropriate media, this allows the message to effectively reach the targeted audience. Knowing level of education of the intended group and the accessibility t media like computer and television.

Repetition is the number of times an advert is aired. This can determine whether the message will remain in the memory of the targeted group or it will be a disinterest to them. The time gap should be appropriate (Griffin, 2006).

Timeline, this refers to the time an advert appears or is placed in the T.V or daily paper respectively. This allows the advert to be viewed by the highest number of people.

The message should be understandable and readable to all in the public. The language used should be simple and easy to understand. The message should be clear and consistent to the brand or item being advertised.

Highlight special features of the product, it should say something exclusive about the product which other brands do not have. The customers should feel the product or service is better than its competitors.

The message should be easy to recall, the words used must be easy to memorise and recall. Whenever customers go for shopping the words should ring in their minds.

The advert should be educational, i.e. it should educate the user on how to use a certain product. Location from which the product comes from (Gupta, 2009).

The first advertisement is about Johnsons Baby milk lotion. An oil product that takes care of babies’ skin softens the delicate skin of the baby and lives it moist. Johnson’s body skin care company is the firm that heads for this commercial, it’s accompany that deals and specializes in the manufacture of body ointment products both for adults and children.

Purpose for setting up this advert is to show what the product is .i.e. its name, it also shows to whom the product, in this case the baby body lotion, is intended for and how it is used. The commercial shows a woman applying the cream, which is white in colour and the colour itself makes the product seem ‘pure’. White is a colour that in itself symbolizes or gives one the notion of purity. As she is doing it on herself, she applies it on the baby smoothly and tenderly. The commercial shows how the skin becomes smooth and moist. The advert also shows the packaging of the product which is attractive, a well designed bottle with an easy to pop up lead. The company also tries to make it interesting by showing the woman playing with the little boy; this creates an affectionate mood to the commercial creating that ‘bond’.

The targeted audience in the advert is mostly those with small children, parents mostly. Since the theme of the advertisement is to take care and protect babies’ skin and the narrator mentions the use of the product on baby skin, it would be okay to come to the conclusion that the intended party is mothers with children.

The advertisement shows for a baby to have a healthy lifestyle .i.e. proper development of the skin, free from rushes, lacerations and keep it moist. The advert tries to show the best way to take care of the baby’s skin and what to use.

Many people earn profit or make money from this advertisement. First the advertising firm or agent that was given the task, to create a commercial that will feature the Johnson’s product and how it will be done. The second benefiter of this advert is the company itself. Through advertising, the company markets its product making it known to the public. Depending on how much people are willing to buy the product sales increase which leads to profit acquirement. Retailers and other distributors also gain from the sales they make.

However the advert leaves out certain aspects such as can men to use the product? Since the advert shows the mother and her baby using it. The reason maybe, why the advert rules out men, is because the product is not made for their kind of skin. People share different opinions about things and not all may agree on the adverts message. Some may prefer or find another product better to use; however I do agree on the message being delivered by the advertisement because I have used the product and can strongly say that it takes care of your skin as well as the baby’s.

The other advertisement is a Gillette advert, done by a company that deals with men’s shaving blade. The intention of putting this commercial is to show how effective the new brand of Gillette shaving blade is. The advertisement shows how the blade has been improved to give a better clean shave. The creators of the advertisement give an animation of how the blade shaves, and later show the look after the shave comparing it to before. Men are the intended group to whom the commercial is produced for. The advertisement tries to show, to be a respected clean man one has to use Gillette; makes one look presentable and neat both at work and outside work. The advertising firm, the company, retailers, wholesalers all make money from the advertisement. Marketing of the product increases sales hence they all make a profit from sales of the product.

The biased bit about the advertisement is that it rules out the fact that not all like shaving completely; it does not show, for the people who love it to a certain level, if they too can use the product. The advertisers wanted to mainly show the larger group for whom the product is made for are men who love to keep their chin n cheeks smooth. Not all men would agree to the quality of the blade and they would still prefer other brands to it. Maybe some may prefer not to shave at all or just trim their beard. The advert is very persuasive and convincing since it shows the outcome of using the blade.

Both adverts have that persuasive convincing feature but they both give a different message and do not target the same audience. Advertisements are useful to give information about a product and give consumers the ability to judge if it good or not. How an advert is done the input and features in it determine how good and attractive it is.

Gupta, M. (2009). Principles of management. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Griffin, R. W., & Ebert, R. J. (2006). Business (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall