The first impression gathered in both advertisements is that the promotions are just tools to communicate brand message and are focused directly at the consumers. There is no evidence of any suggestions to wholesalers or retailers in the marketing chain. Thus it is very much a pull strategy (Bovee et at., 1995). Mini and Smart are products that are already well known in the market and the effectiveness of this strategy will depend on the objectives the respective companies in initiating the advertisements.

If the objectives include the motivation of people to make a purchase then the adverts are not likely going to be very effective. However if they are designed to trigger an interest in the consumer to make a search for further information  or to test drive then it seems more relevant even though there is no contact address or description of possible sources of information.

In both cases, there is a direct appeal to possible needs of the potential customer that will place the product in a class of its own. The Smart advert talks about 90 degrees parking while the Mini advert is concerned with rounding corners. The similarity in both tactics also includes the use of photographic tricks to attract the attention of the reader. This, although effective in reinforcing a customer attitude, is hardly enough to obtain a customer persuasion. There is no other visible effort to link the products to the target audience. Jones (1992) suggested that an effective advert should have one or both of the two types of appeals namely logical and emotional appeals. Although I believe the advertisements are trying to use communication techniques, clearly there is no logical appeal and emotional appeal is present but needs enhancement. It is difficult from the advert to place value or quality or to relate to any human emotions or senses.

There are five well established strategies for creative messages, according to Tuckwell (1998).  These include the use of Testimonials, Endorsements, Product demonstration, Product-as –a-hero, Torture test and Product comparison. In addition Petty and Cacioppo (1986) stated that advertisement of products such as vehicles are best approached using the central route process of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) while Healy (2007) showed that a vast majority of advertisements in many industries are founded on emotional appeals. In the case of the adverts in question, the emotional appeal is on the shapes of the cars. This could be enhanced by appealing expressly to the prestige that is attached to the ownership of the cars.

 The ELM is a model that is being used here and is an attempt to affect attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty using low vs. high-involvement conditions. The fundamental concept is to appeal to the audience by demonstrating why the potential customer should act favorably. The advertisers therefore have to choose between transformational and informational appeals. The emotional appeals can be of two types; either positive or negative. Positive emotions include things like pride and happiness while negative emotions include fear. Thus the two adverts are using positive emotions to influence the potential consumers in their attitude towards the vehicles. Aaker et al (1992) stated that in using ELM adverts often rely on the stirring up of emotions based on perceived effectiveness.

The elaboration likelihood of the advertisement is the critical factor in its effectiveness. When it is high the central route is very effective and when it is low the peripheral route method is more effective (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). This is because the central route consists mainly of ideas and concepts that are to be digested and scrutinized. Advertisements that use this route must be able to present to the audience material to get them involved in some logical thinking. (Benoit et al., 2001).

One of the main disadvantages of using the central route is that it requires the audience to be affected in one way or the other by the idea being put forward and in addition must have the interest and capacity to analyze this However when these conditions are satisfied, the effects last longer and are therefore more permanent than the peripheral route. It is more effective in seeking for brand loyalty for instance.

The peripheral route of persuasion on the other hand is more relevant to the two advertisements. It uses the method of attracting the audience with factors that are irrelevant to the actual contents of the adverts. It employs a mix of marketing and public relations. Although peripheral persuasions are able to produce behavioral changes they need to be repeated over and over again in order to have a long lasting effect (Moore, 2001).

References

Asker, David A., Rajeev Batra, and John G. Myers (1992), Advertising Management, 4th ed.,

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc

Benoit, William L., Stephenson, Michael T., and Tschida, David A. (2001, Winter):

Communication Studies 52.4. Retrieved May 20, 2003 from the Academic

Search database.

Bovee, Courtland, John Thill, George Dovel, and Marian Wood (1995), “Advertising

Excellence”, McGraw Hill, New York, NY.

Jones, John, (1986), “What’s in a Name: Advertising and the Concepts of Brands”,

Lexington Books, New York.

Moore, Charlie. (2001, Fall). Elaboration Likelihood Model. Retrieved May 20, 2003

www.ciaadvertising.org/student_account/fall_01.

Petty, R. E., and Cacioppo, J. T. (1986), Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral

routes to persuasion. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Tuckwell, Keith, (1998), “Canadian Advertising in Action”, Prentice Hall, Scarborough, On.