Advertising techniques have been evolved keeping in mind the demands of the modern media like the TV and the internet. However the basic guiding principles and strategies for advertising are universally followed irrespective of the media. Discussing a few fundamental advertising techniques is essential for a clear perspective of the subject.
It is often suggested in advertising that a particular product is so modern that it would carry the user far ahead of his time giving the user a special status. This technique is normally used by the producers of electronic gadgets. Some advertising projects their product as superior through objective information and comparative statistics. For example a motorbike manufacturer can highlight the fast deceleration of their bikes from a level of high speed to give the buyer a feeling of security. The image of a known personality and his corroborative statements are often used as advertising techniques as is the case with a sportsman promoting a sports shoe or a health drink as his testimonials and endorsement of the product would be valued by people.
Highlighting a special feature of the product that makes it distinctly better than similar products is another advertising ploy. A mosquito repellant manufacturer may claim presence of a unique chemical in their product that makes it extra effective. Love of people for their home country is often exploited in advertising campaigns. Some companies boast that their products are made in America by the American workers to stir up patriotic sentiment of people.
The verbal and non-verbal messages in advertising may be deliberately made different. For example an advertisement by a tobacco company may caution against harms from tobacco but at the same time prominently displaying visuals of a guy smoking happily and looking refreshed. If the advertising is for a summer cool dress, the visual has to be a person wearing that dress on a sunny sea beach. Products targeted at ordinary mass portray their products being enjoyed by an ordinary family to highlight the practical value of their product and mass appeal. Opposite is the case where the advertising intends to project the product as sophisticated and meant for elitist consumption. The aristocracy would be shown through the unusual setting and dresses of the people in the advertisement.
The advertisement for an expensive liquor for example would show people dressed in costly suits sipping wine sitting in an exquisitely designed room with decorative furniture. A common technique in advertising is luring people with freebies like buy two soaps and get one free. People are tempted with such bribes. Intelligent and humorous use of words and visuals without any direct mention of the product or its features and advantages is a modern advertising technique. The viewers are drawn by the elements of laughter or entertainment in the advertisement and attraction for the product spontaneously follows.
A boy coming late to a class but still managing to hoodwink his teacher with his presence of mind is shown to be chewing a particular brand of chewing gum. This is a good example of an advertising not directly harping on the product. Sometimes apparently unrelated combined benefits are shown to be accrued by using a product like use of a perfume making the user popular, charming and happy. Such generalities in advertising are used for different products like a shaving cream making one look younger, a car giving the driver a bohemian look or a newspaper making its reader a leader, etc. Riding the popular wave is the theme of the advertising that says that the product should be used as it is used by most others.
