2004:195 SHU BACHELOR’S THESIS Developing Advertising Messages Examples from the Swedish print media Eva-Lina Sandin Nadja Äkäslompolo Social Science and Business Administration Programmes Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Division of Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROGRAMME Supervisor: Tim Foster 2004:195 SHU • ISSN: 1404 - 5508 • ISRN: LTU - SHU - - 04/195 - - SE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We have now reached our goal. This thesis is written as our bachelor’s thesis in the Program of International Business at the Division of Industrial Marketing at Luleå University of Technology. The hard work during ten weeks of the spring semester in 2004 has been very interesting and provided us with a deeper knowledge and experience within the interesting area of advertising messages in the Swedish print media. The thesis has also increased our skills regarding academic and scientific writing. We would like to give our honest appreciation and thanks to those who have helped us during the practice of writing and making this thesis possible. First of all, we would like to thank our supervisor Mr. Tim Foster Ph.D. candidate at the Department for Industrial Marketing at Luleå University of Technology, for his constant support and assistance during this time. Furthermore, he has helped us to keep our motivation up with excellent guidance on our way to complete the thesis. Finally, we would like to thank our families for putting up with us, and always showing their support whenever needed. We hope that this thesis will be interesting and useful reading material for other students, researchers, and people interested in getting a better insight in the subject area. Luleå University of Technology, June 2004 Eva-Lina Sandin Nadja Äkäslompolo ABSTRACT The importance of creating attention in print advertising is becoming a more essential ingredient in today’s society. Print advertising is still one of the most commonly used medium to bring out the message to the consumer, although the vast innovation of technology and the Internet. The messages within advertising have to be taken into careful consideration and be formed in the right way to be competitive and attract the audience. Moreover, the use of non-verbal essence has a greater meaning that indirect creates interest in consumers’ minds. In order for companies to survive, the message has to be adapted to current trends and interests to attract and be as compelling as possible. This is especially noticeable in today’s fashion industry, which is an increasing sector. Beauty and welfare belong to the two most common elements and are reflecting the print media to a great extent, in particular among female lifestyle/fashion magazines. The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the elements used in print advertising messages within the Swedish print media. Our research explores, describes and tries to explain how print advertising use the elements; color, text and appeal in advertisements. We have conducted a case study on the two lifestyle/fashion magazines Elle and Cosmopolitan, by thoroughly observing fragrance advertisements. Our main findings concerning color, text and appeal are that; color is associated with feelings and evokes emotions that affect and form the message, the headline is most often the brand name or the name of the fragrance, and the use of emotional appeals is the most common in fragrance advertisements. However, our core finding is that all these three elements, color, text and appeal, tend to relate to each other and together be a powerful strength. Finally, implications for managers, theory, and future research are provided. SAMMANFATTNING Vikten av att skapa tryck annonsering som drar till sig uppmärksamhet har en tendens att bli mer och mer viktig i dagens samhälle. Tryck annonsering är fortfarande en av de vanligaste medium att frambringa budskapet till kunden trots den snabba utvecklingen av teknologi och Internet. Budskapen inom annonsering måste noggrant tas i beaktning och bli formade på rätt sätt för att bli konkurrenskraftiga och dra till sig läsarna. Fortsättningsvis så har användningen av icke-verbal annonsering en större betydelse som indirekt skapar intresse hos kunden. För att företag ska kunna överleva så måste budskapen bli anpassade till nuvarande trender och intressen för att attrahera och vara så lockande som möjligt. Detta är speciellt märkbart i dagens mode industri, som i sig är en ökande sektor. Skönhet och välfärd hör till de två mest vanliga elementen och reflekterar och påverkar tryckt media till en stor del; speciellt bland livsstil/mode tidningar för kvinnor. Syftet med denna uppsats är att erhålla en bättre förståelse för användningen av de olika elementen i budskapen inom svensk tryck annonsering. Våran studie utforskar, beskriver och försöker förklara hur elementen färg, text och appeal används i tryck annonsering. Vi har utfört en fallstudie på de två livsstil/mode tidningarna Elle och Cosmopolitan genom att noggrant observera parfym reklam. Våra huvudsakliga resultat beträffande färg, text och appeal är att; färg väcker känslor som påverkar och formar budskapet, huvudrubriken är oftast själva varumärket eller namnet på parfymen, samt emotionella appeal är vanligast i parfym reklam. En viktig slutsats vi kan dra är dock att all dessa tre elementen, färg, text och appeal, tenderar att relatera till varandra och tillsammans bidra till en betydelsefull styrka. Slutligen, presenteras rekommendationer för ledare, teori och framtida forskning. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................1 1.1 BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................1 1.1.1 Advertising as a Communication ..................................................................................................1 1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................2 1.3 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................4 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................................4 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................................................................5 2.1 COLOR IN PRINT ADVERTISING ....................................................................................................5 2.1.1 Color as a Communication Message ............................................................................................5 2.1.2 Color versus Black-and-White ......................................................................................................6 2.1.3 Color Preference...........................................................................................................................8 2.1.4 Emotions and Physical Responses to Color..................................................................................9 2.2 TEXT IN PRINT ADVERTISING .....................................................................................................12 2.2.1 Display Copy...............................................................................................................................12 2.2.2 Body Copy...................................................................................................................................15 2.3 APPEALS IN ADVERTISING...........................................................................................................18 2.3.1 Emotional Appeals ......................................................................................................................19 2.3.2 Rational Appeals.........................................................................................................................25 2.3.3 Emotional versus Rational Appeal..............................................................................................27 2.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK........................................................................................................29 2.4.1 Color in Print Advertising...........................................................................................................29 2.4.2 The Use of Text in Print Advertising...........................................................................................30 2.4.3 Appeals in Print Advertising .......................................................................................................31 3 METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................................................32 3.1 RESEARCH PURPOSE .....................................................................................................................32 3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH..................................................................................................................33 3.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY ..................................................................................................................34 3.4 DATA COLLECTION METHOD......................................................................................................34 3.5 SAMPLE SELECTION ......................................................................................................................35