This post concludes my series on types of advertising appeals. If you want to read the entire series, you can access each of the first post below. Then each post links to the next:

Types of Advertising Appeals 1 – Fear and Humor

This final post on types of advertising appeals covers scarcity.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Scarcity

As people, we are more inclined to want what’s in limited supply. We are also more inclined to take immediate action if we have limited time to act. Limited supply and time provide scarcity appeals.

The trick in using scarcity appeals is that the time or supply has to really be limited.
Let me give you an example of each type of scarcity appeal.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Time Scarcity

But first some context. I usually work a split shift in my business. I work from around 8 a.m. until 3 or 5 p.m. depending on what time my husband gets home from his job and what else I have to do that day. Then after he goes to bed around 9 p.m. I work again until midnight or so.

One night while I was working late, I went to a membership site that I considering joining. The sales page offered a number of free days membership if I registered within six hours of first opening the sales page. I was tired and decided to wait until the next morning.

I slept about seven hours then went back. The free days were no longer available to me. I even tried on another computer, but I still couldn’t get the free days. So I had to register for a full 30 days and pay for them all.

The owner of this site was serious about scarcity of time to make a decision about joining his membership site. And he had tracking in place to support it.

That is not always the case. I’ve also gone to sales pages that say I have until midnight to purchase at a discount, but when I go back the next day I’m offered the same discount and again told that I have until midnight to purchase at the discount.

The first example used real scarcity of time. The second example only tried to make visitors think there’s a time scarcity when there really wasn’t. Visitors will tell others when scarcity is real and when it’s fake. So don’t try to fake scarcity. It backfires.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Supply Scarcity

Now let me give you an example of supply scarcity. I’ve sold a textbook through university stores since 2000. The second edition of that book was published in 2006. One of my adopting professors wanted to continue using the first edition, but I only had a few of the first edition left.

I explained this to him, but he’s stuck with the first edition. For last fall’s order, I had to send a couple of books that weren’t in mint condition, but they were the best that I had left. Now all I have are returns that are in even worse condition. The professor will either have to adopt the second edition, adopt another book, or his students will have to buy blemished books. That’s real scarcity because I won’t print anymore of the first edition.

But I’ve seen sales pages that promote a limited number of an e-book. Now e-books aren’t printed, they are digital. So there is no limit to them unless the author decides to sell only a certain number. Some authors do.

But many times when people advertise a limited number of e-books, they are trying to create scarcity when it doesn’t actually exist. If scarcity is faked, it doesn’t work. Instead it causes customers and target market members to loose trust in the publisher.

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Posted 8-28-08: Types of Advertising Appeals 4 - Scarcity

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This third post on types of advertising appeals covers rational and emotional appeals.

If you missed the first two posts in this series, you can access them below:

Types of Advertising Appeals 1 - Fear And Humor
Types of Advertising Appeals 2 - Sex And Music

People don’t buy based on rational thought. They buy for emotional reasons. Then they justify their purchasing decisions with rational thought. However, both are important types of advertising appeals.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Rational

Rationality is an important advertising appeal because advertisements should provide enough information for people to rational justify what they want emotionally.

But with the Internet, many advertisements only hint at rational reasons for buying. Then they send perspective customers to a Web site to get more information. People who need more justification will go to the site and get it.

When people decide to buy a product because they want it, they will often then seek information to decide which brand to buy. Many will also check reviews of products online.

For example, I have several analog cameras so I put off buying a digital one for some time. I finally decided to buy one because I wanted one. But I justified it by telling myself it would be easier to use in my online business.

Once I decided to buy a digital camera, I went online to check reviews and read many. Then I found a site that convinced me to buy a Canon. It showed multiple photos of the same image taken by different cameras. So I was able to actually see the differences in camera quality.

I made the decision based on emotion, justified it with logic, and then sought information to determine the best camera to buy. What you can learn from my experience is that rational thought is a type of advertising appeal. But it’s most effectively used to justify an emotional desire for the product and to provide information that positions your brand.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Emotional

Most types of advertising appeals are based on emotions. For example, of the appeals covered in my first and second posts on “types of advertising appeals”, all four are emotional:

Fear is an emotion. We all fear something and spend time and money to lesson our fears.

Humor relates to the emotional need to have fun and to enjoy life. Laughing is more than physiological. It’s an emotional release that we all need in order to stay healthy.

Sex is a basic physiological and emotional need. It involves many emotions from the need for love and intimacy to self-esteem.

Music fills an aesthetic and emotional need for beauty and pleasure. The type of music that we prefer relates to the emotion of belonging.

Scarcity, which I’ll cover in tomorrow’s post, appeals to our emotional need to be included and not to miss out on something good.

So most types of advertising appeals are emotional.

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Posted 8-28-08: Types of Advertising Appeals 3 - Rational And Emotional Appeals

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This second post on types of advertising appeals covers sex and music. But if you want to read the first post in this series first, you can access it by clicking the link below:

Types of Advertising Appeals 1- Fear And Humor

Types of Advertising Appeals 3: Sex

Sex sells, but it can also offend. So whether sex is effective in an advertising campaign depends much upon whether it is blatant, suggestive, or symbolic.

A scantily clad model stroking an automobile a good example of blatant sex in advertising. Such an advertisement is designed to appeal to men.

But women buy as many automobiles as men. And many women consider such commercials offensive. “Feminist women consider any advertisement demeaning if it portrays women as sex objects. Women and men, with strong religious ties, consider such advertising sinful.

So blatant sexual advertising may appeal to a target market while turning off others, who are not in the target market. For this to work, you have to deliver the message through a medium that reaches the target market, rather than through mass media.

Suggestive advertising doesn’t actually show scantily clad men or women, but leaves a sexual feeling that many people recognize. For instance, shots of a woman gently touching or stroking a man’s hand, or vice versa, is suggestive. A margarine company used this very effectively a few years ago.

Symbolic advertising uses symbols to suggest sex. Phallic symbols are the most popular. Have you seen the liquor commercial where everyone is dancing as the bartender grinds herbs in a glass. When he stops grinding, they stop dancing. When he starts again, they do too. This advertisement uses symbolic advertising effectively.

Types of Advertising Appeals 4: Music

Different types of people prefer different types of music. So if you choose to use music as a type of advertising appeal, you need to know the music preferred by your target market. Choose wrong, and you can destroy your advertising campaign.

You need to consider the generation, social class and lifestyle of your target market. Each provides insights into your potential customers’ music preferences. You can get information on these demographics and many more in my e-book : Know ‘em Sell ‘em: How To Discover The Best Appeals For Your Target Market.

If you are creating a radio advertisement, most radio sales people can provide demographic characteristics of their listeners. Talk to one for each radio format and ask for this information. Select the format that best reaches your target market. Then use that kind of music in your advertisement and run your advertisement on stations with that music format.

Another choice is to use generic music or music that crosses radio formats. This can be a good choice for advertisements intended for mass audiences. But it’s not as effective as catering to your target market’s music preference.

The next post in this series covers two more types of advertising appeals – rational and emotional. You can link to it below:
Types of Advertising Appeals 3

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Posted 8-27-08: Types of Advertising Appeals 2 - Sex And Music

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Types of advertising appeals include appeals based on fear and humor. I’ll cover fear and humor in this first of four posts on types of advertising appeals.

Remaining posts in this series will cover sex, music, rational, emotional, and scarcity appeals. I’ll cover each with a brief definition. Then I’ll present my thoughts or experiences regarding each type of advertising appeal.

Advertising appeals build from human needs, persuasion theories, and psychological research. Although types of advertising appeals vary as much as human needs, advertisers primarily organize advertising appeals into the seven types covered in this series.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Fear

Fear ranks low as a type of advertising appeal. However, many Internet marketing gurus contend that fear is effective.

If you agree with the gurus, choose your fear appeals carefully. This appeal works best when it’s related to lesser fears like having bad breath or losing out on a money-making opportunity.

When it relates to the big fears like dying or loosing a loved one, people are more inclined to block the advertising message. They move into denial mode and ignore the rest of the message.

Types of Advertising Appeals: Humor

Humor proves to be a more effective type of advertising appeal, but it too must be used carefully. What one person finds funny, another considers appalling.

For example, the people who create most advertising campaigns for television are creatives at large marketing agencies. The burn-out in those positions is great. So advertising employees in these positions tend to be young – Generation Yers and Xers.

As a Boomer, most of their humor totally leaves me cold. Of course, I’m frequently not in the target market for the advertisement, but sometimes I am. I’ve discussed the problems of trying to market across generations before in this blog. Those problems increase when using humor.

To read my next post on types of advertising appeals, click the link below:

Types of Advertising Appeals 2

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Posted 8-26-08: Types of Advertising Appeals 1 - Fear And Humor

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