Product Advertisement – Paralanguage and Representation

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After handing in and successfully achieving a 2:1 in our market research-based report (coursework) for our chosen product (tea), we were asked to individually create a print advertisement for the product (see below). Most elements of the product we decided as a group such as the target audience, however brand name was to be developed individually to fit within our own adverts. Our product, tea, we chose to aim at women aged 18 – 25 which we justified with our research.

Using this age group, it can be assumed that a lot of the consumers that fall into this category are likely to be at University. With this in mind, the initial decision I established was to have actors/actresses who represent this age group with their appearance and location etc. The main idea I had for this product is for it to be seen as a product to drink the morning/day after a night out in either a club or a bar. I contemplated the idea of selling the tea as a body detox method and that it helps clear skin as this would appeal to the target audience’s lifestyle as well as creating a potential USP. However as there is no proof the product actually does what is being claimed it would be seen by regulations as false advertising and therefore took off air. Despite this, I knew with previous knowledge that advertisers find many ways to avoid the regulations and instead ‘imply’ a product having particular effects rather than ‘claim’ it has in their advertisements. This successfully misleads the consumer into thinking what is being implied is true, e.g. ‘this tea can help clear skin’ as oppose to ‘this tea will help clear skin’. Clearly, the language choice used in advertisements can be the difference between a lucrative and successful advertising campaign and one that won’t even get aired.

For the scene, I wanted to portray either a couple or friends looking through photos of the previous night when they went out (appealing to the stereotypical lifestyle of students which is more than likely a fair representation of the majority). I wanted to use a couple as this would trigger feelings within the target audience, showing that if using this product the audience can be in a happy relationship just like this image. I think this idea would’ve worked, however with the target audience being just women I then thought a group of female friends together would be even better. I chose to have three women in my advert because as well as using the Power of Three, it would give me the opportunity of having the product or the main focus with the actress in the middle. Using my age and access to University Halls to my advantage, I was able to use my friend’s lounge area of her accommodation to take the photo for my advertisement. Ideally I wanted it to be photographed in the daylight, however due to uncontrollable circumstances, the whole process was delayed. With more lighting options this could’ve been prevented, but for visual rhetoric elements like this I had limited resources.

The people I chose to take part in my advertisement were close University friends, so directing them was difficult as they had not done anything similar before. Despite being happy with this choice, I feel that the three students I chose are not a fair representation; ideally Tokenism would need to be employed for it to be improved, such as representing an ethnic minority or a different hair colour etc. This aside, I feel the appearance of each of them were varied enough and the advert plausible.

Keeping the idea of them looking at photos from the night before, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use Product Placement. Initially and ideally I wanted to have an iPad in the photo, but with having a restricted budget and knowing no-one who has one, this was not possible. However, I personally know a lot of students who have HTC phones now and their popularity seem to be increasing, so I opted to use this product. To make sure the focus was not solely on the phone in the advertisement, I made sure it was held in the background in comparison to the mugs of tea to make sure the actual product being sold was known. To help this, after taking the photo and editing it on Adobe Photoshop, I edited the colours of the mugs and the logo (as well as inserting logo) to have a brighter contrast so consumer’s eyes would be drawn to this at first when observing. As well as this, I airbrushed the women in the image as this is necessary in order to conform and contend with every other advertisement within any market.

The tagline, ‘Recover. Recall. Relax.’ I decided before the brand name just because I had minimal ideas for the brand name and I thought the tagline may give me inspiration. Before I chose the actual words, I aimed to use rhetoric techniques such as the Power of Three and, in this case, repetition and the same grapho-phonemic sounds. The words I chose I feel explains what the tea does as well as justifying the image and informing the audience of the concept of the product and why University students would want to drink this tea – to Recover from potential alcohol consumption, Recall particular events and Relax while looking through the photos.

From this, it seemed only right that the brand name should begin with the letter ‘R’, and after creating multiple mind maps, I chose Refreshed. I found it difficult as I had limited myself to words beginning with ‘R’ that also reflect the product, but Refreshed seemed to work well with the already existent tagline. I knew the logo would have to include an ‘R’ somehow, but I also wanted to make sure the logo would portray the product in some way. After looking at other tea brands and their logos, I came to the conclusion that a leaf is a common choice as it has positive connotations and links to tea being herbal etc. Keeping it simple, I found an artistic font to use for the ‘R’ while finding a suitable leaf image to have behind it. From this, I used the same font for the ‘R’’s in the tagline, which I think made the advert come together more as well as helping the consumer to associate the tagline with the brand/logo and vice versa.  I placed the logo in the bottom right-hand corner (as with all print advertisements), leaving room around it for the slogan. In all honesty, I didn’t think the advert needed a slogan, but as with all products I know I needed one. I ended up keeping to the simplistic approach as this has the potential of making it easier to remember for consumers, so I chose ‘Get Refreshed’ as my slogan. I thought it has potential to be weak though as it includes the actual brand name and consumers may think the brand name is ‘Get Refreshed’ as oppose to just ‘Refreshed’. However, as long as the brand name gets across to the target audience, I think it has the ability to be successful as a product.