Advertisements designed to set off some thought in the unconscious of human beings
In Several instances, advertisers aim at attractive emotionally to the consumers. Each day, the consumer is confronted by means of adverts of all types with most of them intention at attracting the attention of the consumer. The ones that entice the attention of the customers mostly do so via appealing to the thoughts of persons by using getting into the mindset of individuals. Adverts when desirable designed are mainly eye-opener to the customer to help them deduce the deeper which means of the product. In this paper, the focus will be on evaluation of adverts and the different techniques that are used by the advertisers to persuade the consumers to purchase their products. There are different strategies employed by companies to reach the various demographics in the society. The paper specifically focuses on the different adverts by shoe companies in for different demographics with a focus on strategies used on kids, males, and females in the society.
Advertising strategies for Kids Shoes
The shoes worn by kids consist of up to 20 percent of the total footwear sales that are made in the United States and the second largest segment within the shoe market. In this industry, the demand based on the rising need to replace drives a large portion of sales even though there are also other factors that determine the particular pair of shoes that the customer purchases. For a marketing strategy for the kids' shoes, the advertiser mainly concentrates on the reasons that make parents purchase the shoes.
When advertising shoes for the kids
the advertiser has to check on the aesthetic and general appeal that the advert presents. Some of the commercial adverts that are done to target the kids are characterized by lively action, sound effects, and loud music. There is animation involved in their shoe adverts. Having this kind of adverts attracts the attention of the kids especially the preschoolers so much (Bakir and Palan 42).
The use of visuals is a strategy
to help in recognition and retention among the consumers, who are kids. The advertisers take advantage of the visual and auditory production techniques and repetition to boost the memory and content of the children. According to Calvert (212), advertising the products in form of visuals make the kids remember every other product and repetition boost the remembrance in the child audiences. The advertisers also take advantage of song lyrics which often replay in the heads of children and boost their memory content. For the advertisers in stores, they have the shoes advertised with displays of characters that are attractive to the children's eye put close to the shoes. Even if the branded and advertised slippers, sandals are not purchased in the first case, calling attention to the items help in boosting the chances of the next purchase. Often, when children are exposed to the commercial on several occasions, they stand higher chances of remembering the product that is being advertised. Often, repetition, when used in adverts, facilitates the undermining process of children's defense against the product messages. A case in point of such an advert is shown in the picture below.
This is an advert by Metro shoes and the caption is that happy feet make happy people. The message here works as children have to everyday step out of their houses to go play with other, despite the status of the children if the shoes are not comfortable then they may end up not enjoying their games such as the slides. Uncomfortable shoes make the children cry. One of the unique qualities that make this advertisement to be memorable is the surrealistic shoe forms. The advert captures the manner in which the shoes easily transforms to a rollercoaster that showcases the fun part of the shoes, owing to the fact that it seeks to capture the attention of the minors. The advertisement also shows the manner in which kids are having fun in the playground background which ultimately gives their parents the idea that the shoes are specifically designed to make the children run and be comfortable while at the same time active. The advertiser has ensured that there is a brand logo which helps them know the kind of brands that they should go for. The two types of shoes that are shown in the advert, for instance, are meant for boys and girls and their colorful nature also shown (Cuneen and Sidwell 46). In this advert, there is the concept of art and exaggeration that is applied to stress on the fun side and safety of the shoes. The kids that are shown in the advert are indeed happy hence affirming the creative and catchy slogan that is part of the advert.
Advertising Strategies for Female Shoes
Women remain to be a critical lot in the buying process in any segment of the economy given that they make up the majority of the entire home and business expenditure. In fact, the females are no longer a niche market that one can simply target by adding certain pink and red colors to the campaign. This means that every other advert that is meant to target women has to be properly thought out and be designed specifically for the women. It is documented that women make up at least 85% of all the consumer purchases including the cars and health care. Additionally, 75% of all the women are responsible for shopping in the households and moms are known to spend nearly 6 hours each day online. Comparing the men to women, 40% of the women spend more time on social media as compared to the men.
Therefore, when advertising for the female
the first strategy that most companies use is comprehension of the target group. There has to be an indication of knowing the individuals for them to be marketed. Most of the advert seek to showcase whether the target female group is Generation Y or Baby Boomers or both. For instance, most of the women who are old enough and above 40 years of age prefer checking the computers and TV first thing in the morning.
The other strategy that shoe manufacturing companies use
is talking to the women and not talking at them. For women, one that they clearly understand is the building of relationships and expecting to be treated just like friends. Most shoes manufacturing companies are increasingly understanding this trait and are using the social media campaign to ensure that it is achieved. Having a conversation with the target market, in this case, the females, remains to be very beneficial in comparison to just having a monologue focus. The feedback that the companies get when advertising through the Facebook ensured that there is an improvement in the development stage as well as sales perspective too. The conversation turns into sales as well.
To reach the females, the companies also learn and speak their language
In fact, this is a no-brainer. When a shoe is meant for those who are working and are just below the age of 25 years or thereabout, then there is the use of someone who is in their shoes and can talk to their language. For instance, the types of shoes that fancy the younger women are not in any way good looking and awesome to the aged women. Thus, particular talks and behaviors that are associated with a given shoe type are only definite to a particular group of people. For instance, when seeking to advertise shoes to younger females then one can seek to target the forums, blogs, and reviews and set up.
The other strategy that companies use to market the shoes
is adding a "hot guy" to the campaign. There are companies that have been courting females in their adverts in regards to the design products for women and using even more targeted marketing messages. For instance, the advert that was run by Nike with an intent of reaching the female athletes remained to be one of the largest. The advert was tailored in a way that it had a theme, known as, #betterforit. The theme was to encourage women to share the fitness goals and other athletic pursuits on social media (Hollreiser 9).
Another strategy used by shoes manufacturing companies
is recognition of real women. The other strategy that shoe companies use is adapting to the needs of a particular group of females that they are targeting. One of the ways is conquering the new mediums given that those are where the customers are. One such way is advertising so much on a social platform such as the Instagram. Most of the females like the use if Instagram and hence it makes so much sense for the companies to use the brand to maintain the presence in the place (Roncha and Radclyffe-Thomas 309). Hence every other thing that has to be posted must make a lot of sense. Apart from interrupting the flow of the follower's feeds with flagrant sales pitches, they also share motivational messaging.
A case in point is the above post where one has to integrate the history of the brand while at the same time directing the users to interest-specific Nike sub-accounts on Instagram. For instance, they could just have a caption like, "Check out the women's footwear and apparel profile, and the general running product profile." Interestingly, for this case, they go the extra mile and come up with something memorable and entertaining while at the same time stay relevant to the things that the female group wants to see.
Conclusion
From the discussions, it has emerged that there are different ways and strategies employed by companies to reach the various demographics in the society in their adverts. The paper has specifically focused on the different adverts by shoe companies in different demographics with a focus on strategies used on kids and females in the society. For the kids, it has emerged that most of their adverts are full of graphics and visuals while for the females, the adverts have deep accompanying meaning that influences the thinking of individuals.
Works Cited
Bakir, Aysen, and Kay M. Palan. "How are children's attitudes toward ads and brands affected by gender-related content in advertising?." Journal of advertising 039.1 (2010): 35-48. Print.
Calvert, Sandra L. "Children as consumers: Advertising and marketing." The future of children 018.1 (2008): 205-234. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ795864.pdf on 29th May, 2017. Web.
Cuneen, Jacquelyn, and M. Joy Sidwell. "Gender portrayals in Sports Illustrated for Kids advertisements: A content analysis of prominent and supporting models." Journal of Sport Management 012.1 (1998): 39-50. Retrieved from http://naspspa.org/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/515.pdf on 29th May, 2017. Web.
Hollreiser, E. "Nike veers to women, away from sport-specific ads." Brandweek 036.7 (1995): 9-9. Print.
Petracca, Michael, and Madeleine Sorapure. "Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture." (2004). Print.
Roncha, Ana, and Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas. "How TOMS’ ‘one day without shoes’ campaign brings stakeholders together and co-creates value for the brand using Instagram as a platform." Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 020.3 (2016): 300-321. Print.
