Psychographics Appeal

Brainstorming Ideas of Products:
- Hair straighteners
- Exfoliating Scrub
- Hair Dryer
- Washing-up Liquid
- Shower Gel
- Perfume
- Moisturizer
- Hair Conditioner
- Deodorant
- Cat/Dog Food
- Shaving Gel
- Shampoo
- Trainers
- Toothpaste

I narrowed my brainstorm down to 4 products that I researched. These products were hair conditioner, shampoo, toothpaste and moisturizer.

SHAMPOO: Shampoo cleans hair by stripping away sebum which is an oil secreted by hair follicles to protect hair from damage, however it is prone to collecting dirt, scalp flakes and styling products. Shampoo is not needed by the hair to keep it healthy, however it does keep hair temporarily clean and healthy-looking. Amino-acids, pro-vitamins etc have no permanent effect on the health of the hair strand, however, contrary to popular belief, hair cannot absorb them so if they are allowed to absorb into the scalp, they can make the growth of new hair healthier and will have a visible effect if used for long-periods of time.

TOOTHPASTE: Toothpaste, when used in conjunction with a toothbrush is shown to be effective in maintaining healthy teeth and gums and use after meals is encoouraged in most or all developed countries. Striping of toothpaste has no functional benefit to the consumer and is simply used as an alternative appearance to the toothpaste. Fluoride is proven to prevent cavaties in the teeth and is used in most, if not all, toothpastes.

CONDITIONER: Conditioner is not needed by the hair. It is made with ingredients such as light-reflecting chemical, thermal protectors, detanglers, acidifiers and lubricants to make hair more glossy, soft and managable.

MOISTURIZER: Moisturizer is not needed by the skin and beauty experts simply recomment it to improve skin tone, mask imperfections, protect sensitive skin and prevent and treat dry skin. Used solely for cosmetic reasons.


I then made a short narrative for an advert for the product, "Star's Conditioner". It started with a woman with unruly, messy hair, looking grumpy and unattractive. You then see a man with a disgusted expression on his face because of the womans unruly and out-of-control hair. The product, the conditioner, then appears on screen with the sound of a "BING!" and a woman is shown washing her hair in the shower with the conditioner and strategically placed steam!! The top of her head is then shown with the conditioner being poured onto her head and the ingredients such as light-reflecting chemicals and moisturizers are shown. An image of hair without the conditioner vs the hair with conditioner comes up with the hair with the conditioner being shown in much better condition than the hair without. The woman is then shown brushing, drying and styling her hair with ease and a happy expression on her face and once her hair is finished, she is portrayed looking a lot better than she previously did at the beginning of the advert. The end shows the backs of the woman and a man holding hands and the long-luscious hair of the woman is shown cascading down her back. The conditoner bottle is in the bottom right corner of the screen with the slogan, "GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT"


My advert suggests getting exactly what you want with effortless styling and managability of the hair but also getting the man you want also. My target audience for this was single, heterosexual women in their early 20's to early 40's and my line of appeal is the suggestive sexual success of using the conditioner.

The 4th Wall Of Advertising

I think the "4th Wall Of Advertising" is making the audience feel as if you are letting them in on a secret by telling them the product's disadvatages and then turning that around and telling them their advantages and letting the audience make a decision for themselves. Branbach employs this with the Volkswagen ad by telling the audience what the car doesn't and then telling them what it does have. It lets the audience make a decision for themselves and makes them think about why he is telling them the bad things about the car. It's made more effective by the huge amount of white space around the car.

4th Wall Of Advertising = Not going to treat the consumers as idiots, creating advertising that makes them think and make a decision for themselves rather than telling them what to do. Branbach believed you had to start with the product, investigate the product before anything else. Apple subverted this 4th wall concept by taking the PC's shortcomings and comparing them with that of the Macs.

Even more research...

Again, just recording stuff because I haven't got my notebook!


- Sound of television advertisements tend to be a lot higher than that of the program. This, along with the continual repeating of the same advertisements add to the annoyance factor that make people change channel when advertisements come on.

- Since the 1970s, cigarette advertisements and advertisements featuring cigarettes have been banned. Alcohol advertising is still allowed, however, there are a lot of restrictions such as how the ad cannot portray the fact that consuming the alcoholic drink involved will result in social or sexual success.

- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is funded by a licence fee and does not screen adverts.

TYPES OF TV ADVERTISEMENTS:
- Political TV advertising = made by an organization/institution to influence the decision making process eg. elections.
- Infomercials = run for over one minute or as long as a television program and are usually on in the early hours of the morning. Also known as teleshopping.
- Product placement = promotional advertisements made by marketers using real commercial products and services in media.
- Sponsorship = something to support an event, activity, person or campaign which is funded financially through the provision of other products or services.

- Development of digital video recorder (TiVo, Sky+) means people can record television programs directly onto a hard drive, allowing them to "fast-forward" or "skip" through the advertisements. As a result of this, many speculate that TV advertisements will be eliminated altogether and replaced by product placement advertising such as how in the TV program, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", they only use certain brands of products when building the houses. By showing these products being used on a program, it immediately provides that brand with promotion and advertising.

More Research...

Just using this post to record some more research on advertising, forgot my notebook! (Also thought it could help other people if they're stuck for extra little bits of info on TV advertising)


- First television advert was broadcast in the United States on July 1st 1941 when the Bulova Watch Company paid $9 on New York City NBC for a 20second spot before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. It simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S with a voice-over of the company's slogan, "America runs on Bulova time!"

- Codes and conventions of television include: catchy jingles, catch-phrases, animation, element of surprise.

- Animation (drawn or computer generated) can give a certain appeal which would be difficult to achieve with actors etc. Notable advert: Kellog's Rice Krispies, combining the characters, Snap, Crackle & Pop with real actors. ANIMATION APPEALING TO CHILDREN.

- TV advertising takes airtime away from programs. Typical hour-long American show in 1960s would be 51mins of the show and 9mins advertising, split up through the show. Today, a similar program would be only 42mins of the show and 18mins of advertising. A typical 30min block of time on a TV station today would include 22mins of the show with 6mins of national advertising and 2mins of local advertising.

- TV adverts today appear between shows but also interrupt the show at intervals. This method of interrupting shows was used grab the attention of the viewers because they were already focused on the TV show and would not change channel during the adverts because they would not want to miss any of the show. However, with the development of remote controls, it has made it a lot easier for people to change channel during the advertisements, meaning advertisers are having to come up with ideas to keep the audience interested enough to sit through the advertisements.


I'll probably keep posting more of this stuff up throughout the day.

Final Baked Bean Ad!

After all the trials, I finally made a (half) decent animation and here it is!

Update...

Nearly finished (I think!) my Heinz Baked Bean ad on Flash animation. Overcame the problem of the shape tween not working by making a bean simply transform into the outline of the can with no detailing. I then slowly added the detailing and the label of the can frame by frame so it gradually appears on screen. I also added a line across the background to make it look like the bean and the can are actually on something rather than just floating in the air. I made the slogan, "BEANZ MEANZ HEINZ" gradually flash up with pauses and I am going to add some music and someone saying, "BEANZ MEANZ HEINZ" so, anyone want to volunteer to do the voice-over?

Third attempt at Flash!

This is my third attempt at Flash, thinking about my project to make a short advert for Heinz Baked Beans. Here I learnt that tweens cannot be used when going from a simple object to a complex object, such as a baked bean to a baked bean can. To overcome this, I had to simplify the shape down through stages by deleting different parts of my bean can drawing and playing them in reverse so that they appeared to gradually flash up in my animation.

Second attempt at Flash!

This is my second attempt at using Flash. Here I learned how to use a tween.

First attempt at Flash!

Considering doing animation in my coursework, this is my first attempt at using Flash.