Advertising appeal is the method used to draw the attention of consumers and/or to influence their feelings toward the product, service, or cause. There are hundreds of different appeals that can be used as the foundation for advertising messages. Generally advertising appeals are broken into two categories: rational appeals and emotional appeals.

Examples

Appeal to Authority
The selling device depends on a television star, an athlete or other personality to endorse an item.

Snob Appeal
The underlying message from the marketer is, the customer will join the ranks of the elite.

Plain folks appeal
Reverse snob appeal applied here, the intent is to appeal to the average person.

Bandwagon appeal
This appeal works especially well for trends and their followers.

Sex appeal
The use of sexual interest as a tool of persuasion to draw interest to a particular product, for purpose of sale, generally using attractive models. Nudity in advertising often falls in this category.
Sex appeal is the most common form of advertising is Western cultures.

Superior Quality Appeal
The use of enhanced quality in comparison with existing substitutes or close substitutes. As in "this detergent washes whiter than any other".

Low Price Appeal
This is a rational appeal based on the premise that the said product is priced lower than any other similar product.

Performance Appeal
This takes in to account product performance like "a pen that writes really smooth", "wrinkle free fabric", " a hair color that covers all your gray hair and conditions your hair too".

Ease of use Appeal
The product is simple to use and time saving like "3 easy steps make a gourmet meal".

Economy Appeal
like low consumption of electricity by electronic products or fuel efficiency of cars and automobiles.



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Rational appeals

Also known as informational appeals are appeals that target the customer's need for the product or service and highlight the features of a product or service and/or the benefits for owning or using a particular brand. Rational appeals tend to be informative and are used to convince consumers that the advertiser's product or service has attributes or gives a benefit that satisfies their needs.

Emotional appeals

Emotional appeals are the consumers' psychological and/or social needs for purchasing a certain product or service. Such appeals are not preceded by careful deliberation and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of a product. Such appeals are designed to stir up either positive or negative emotions that will arouse interest in the product or purchase or conversely discourage it. Various appeals are important from advertising point of view. Emotional appeals may be classified as "Positive" and "Negative" appeals.

Positive Emotional Appeals:
These appeals highlight product benefits as well as emotions like the joy and the thrill of using certain products. They also use humour with the intention of influencing consumer behaviour. Some other positive emotional appeals that are commonly used are love, pride and prestige. For example mothers use a baby shampoo that guarantees "no tears" out of love for their babies.

Negative Emotional Appeals:
As opposed to positive emotional appeals, negative emotional appeals are designed to stress the negative aspects of not purchasing the advertised product or service. Such appeals are commonly used to sell insurance. Fear appeals are one type of negative emotional appeal. They are often used in advertising messages like "anti smoking campaigns" with the intent of getting people to stop doing things that will cause them harm. Advertisers however should resist the temptation of going overboard with the amount of fear content they use in an advertisement. Moderation is the key, and over-doing the triggers for such emotions such as sympathy and fear can be uncomfortable and overwhelming. Some uses of these appeals have been seen as guilt-trip scams.

References