Summary of the Selected Marketing Communication - Paper Example

The advert is about appealing to the emotional side of the audience by encouraging and motivating them through a repetitive message of possibilities. To this end, the advertisers chose a disabled athlete who is evidently struggling to be successful in her career. She is distressed and on the verge of giving up. The practice, mainly done on prosthetic legs, is quite difficult possibly because she is not used to the new legs. She tumbles and falls on several instances. The narrator also alludes to the saddening aspect of the economic meltdown that led to the loss of jobs and that apparently drove the main character to destitution and desperation. Despite the tribulations, she pushes on without the thoughts of ever losing hope.

The advert then takes a sudden twist when a car, Toyota Camry, is introduced, which then portends endless possibilities. The struggling athlete is then able to adapt to the use of the prosthetic legs and even practice on top of a mountain giving credence to the notion that using a Toyota has the propensity of opening doors and opportunities even in the darkest of hours. The introduction of the car evidently lights up the entire scene with the featured athlete showing great signs of happiness and a deep sense of self-belief. The narrator then uses outrageous phrases such as wrestling with and killing a rock at some point, as a means of stressing the endless possibilities of owning the mentioned car model. It is worth noting that the advert has various unbelievable and extraordinary lines all packaged as possibilities. The deliberate use of hyperbolic expressions serves to make the advert unique and memorable to the audience. Additionally, the articulate and meticulous use of the smooth red car definitely makes the advert phenomenon. The storyline that pitches Toyota Camry as the source of hope to a disabled, despairing athlete resonates with the global audience since every one struggles at some point in life and the emergence of success afterwards is a noble idea.

Communication Concepts and Theories on Persuasion

The advert seeks to influence the audiences behavior and action by presenting Toyota as the last viable hope for a struggling or an individual on the verge of despair. As mentioned earlier, the main persuasive idea in the advert is the storyline since it resonates with many people across the globe (Sparks & Buckley, 2013, 8). First, the use of the disabled athlete draws attention as such represents the endless possibilities. It emphasizes the fact that disability is not inability. Secondly, a message of hope is highly relevant because at the time of the designing of the advert the world had just experienced the gruesome financial crisis that took away homes, other property, and savings. The timeliness of the message is convincing to most people. Thirdly, the transition of from sad to instant happiness after the appearance of the red Toyota Camry appeals to the audience in that it appeals to the emotions. Psychologically, it serves to associate the car brand to happiness thereby appealing to many (Xiang, 2015, 244). It means that the car model portend happiness just as it did to the professional athlete used in the advert.

It is imperative to note that being persuasive is not the same as being factual. In this regard, the advert used popular belief rather than logical argument to convince the audience. People love success, happiness, and a degree of control as depicted by the ownership of the car. The implied claim in the advert is that owning the car will make your life easier, happier, and full of success. The ration idea of persuasion is based on the fact that people tend to behave in a predictable fashion or way consistent with the values and beliefs. The latter reason is predicated on the notion that a person ahs about the world in general. For example, comfort guarantees a degree of happiness and control, the then advertising company will associate such beliefs and values with the product in question as evident from the commercial. Such means that the only rational or acceptable behavior for people in quest of happiness and comfort is purchasing or owning the car, Toyota Camry.

As stated, people make decisions or judge the content of a message based on personal anchors or stance on a particular topic. Such an assertion is consistent with the Social Judgment Theory. To this end, three is the classification of anchors into three categories namely the latitude of acceptance, he latitude of rejection and the latitude of non-commitment (Xiang, 2015, 251). The latitude of acceptance, which represents the ideas that the individuals find acceptable, is present in the advert since people tend to lean towards success, comfort, and a given degree of control or power. The fact that Toyota Camry accords the user a matchless degree of control, comfort, and power on the road will persuade most customers to choose it over the alternative brands in the market.

A critical look at the advert also reveals the latitude of rejection, which mainly depict the values, anchors, or that a person may find objectionable or unacceptable. The latitude of rejection dominates the advert, especially at the beginning where the professional athlete used faces a lot of frustrations, possible rejection, and is on the brink of despair. Such a psychological strategy convince people through highlighting what they find nauseating or unseating, which then prompts them to act in a manner that changes their situation. Its persuasive power is consistent with the contrast effect in which it highlights the negatives to discourage (Jenkins & Bowers, 2014, 287). In this particular case, the most viable option that instantly changes tribulations to joy and happiness is owning Toyota Camry, as it accords the owner supernatural powers such winning a wrestling match against a rock. The first step to predict an individuals reaction towards a persuasive message is to determine their reaction towards the issue at hand. Essentially, the first step in social judgment is to map the receivers attitudes towards the topic. Arguably, Toyota or the advertisement company that designed the commercial understood the effects that a message of hope to the audience and that is why the entire advert is predicated on hope and a successful life story as opposed to failure. Therefore, the message triggered the assimilation effect, which means that most people identified with it.

The moist dominant theory that the advertisers used is the Elaboration Cognitive Model, which views the art of persuasion as a cognitive event meaning that the message should use mental processes as a tool of reasoning and persuasion (Ashley & Tuten, 2015, 22). To this end, rejecting or accepting the massage contained in the advert is purely a matter of perception. The main routes that the message follows are distinct namely peripherally or centrally routed messages. The basis is always to understand the audience before coming up with the message in question. It is important to note that the advert used the slow and steady or the central route of persuasion to reach out to the audience. The success of the message normally depends in the audiences reception to the massage. A message of happiness and success always receives positive response from the audience.

The slow and steady unfolding of the events from the time the main character, the disabled athlete is seen struggling to the time, she purchases a Toyota Camry and then life changed. The centrally routed messages tend to include a great deal of information, evidence, and rational arguments. Rationally, a car is faster that running and more comfortable. The contrast or the comparison between the moving on foot and using a new model car brings out the intended message in matchless fashion even without an accompanying narration. It looks simple, but is quite effective since the message reaches the audience through a mere glance or observation. The logical arguments is that having or using a car for transportation is advantageous in terms of the time used, the distance covered, and the terrain since the car has features that enable it to navigate even the toughest of road conditions such as the snow. The narration that accompanies the advert also takes a direct route since it is filled with rational and well-elaborated information regarding the companys opinion on the performance of car and some bit of history of the model and the company in general.

The fact that the advert mostly took a direct approach means that it is more likely to have long-term effect on the customers or the intended recipients. The ELM theory stipulates that a message achieve its target when it is passed cognitively to the recipients (Ashley & Tuten, 2015, 24). The advert achieved the cognitive aspects through the visual comparison of the athletes sate of happiness before and after acquiring the Toyota Camry. She is visibly happier after acquiring the car. Another cognitive effect is the use of the bright colored red car in the video. The use of bright colors triggers visual excitement in that the audience will yearn to watch it severally thereby internalizing the message in the process. Such a technique or strategy motivates the audience to watch the video thereby processing the intended information. Finally, the use of the hyperbolic or exaggerated phrases like I handcuffed lighting and I wrestled with an alligator, serves to assert the unique nature of the advert and excite the audience into processing the message further. In a sense, such phrases create the entertainment value needed to make the advert exciting and more palatable to the recipient.

Evaluation of the Advertisement

It is safe to infer that the advert was relatively successful judging by the website traffic. The fact that the company was introducing a new product means that the traffic t the website should increase significantly. The most interesting aspect of the advert is the audio part in which the narrator uses unusual and impractical phrases. It is practically impossible to wrestle with the alligator, but the use of such a phrase entertains the audience and keeps their imagination alive. The narration also o served to give insight to the history of the model as well as the information on the performance and operation. In most cases, the recipients in car advert are interested in the performance since there are various manufacturers in the industry. The performance therefore differentiates the products and arouses the interest in the product. Moreover, the illustration that pitched the struggling athlete on prosthetics against the splendid of Toyota Camry is quite simple and effective. It is easy for the audience to compare and contrast the human abilities vis-a-vis that of the car. Deciphering such information and making a decision is quite easy. Another illustration that worked was the cars performance in at the snow-parked road. The recipients will easily understand that car is all-terrain.

Evidently, the narrator failed in the approved approach to advertising. The exaggerated phrases such as I make medicine sick are quite entertaining but offer no particular information of the performance or the special features of the car. The purpose of any commercial is to inform the recipients on the existence of a product and highlight some of the special features in order to create interest. The final goal of any marketing campaign is normally to get the customers to purchase the product. Offering information about the product differentiates it form the available ones in the market. The advert offers great entertainment and illustration on the product, but fails to offer information on the s...