Question

What is an advertising appeal? Give some examples of advertising appeals relating to the healthcare field you have observed recently in the media.

Answer 1

Advertising Appeal

Advertising Appeal is the approach used in attracting the attention of potential clients or customers to the service, products or cause. Advertising appeal refers to the methods or ways used for influencing the emotions or feelings of clients towards a particular product or service by stimulating their interest and excitement or by arising the need or desire in their mind. Advertising appeal acts as a persuasive pressure on the customer to buy the product or service.

There are tremendous competitions in the business field and thus each company or business is trying to make their advertisement strategy highly influential in determining the purchasing decisions of the customers. Through advertising appeal, they are creating a positive mindset towards their products or services rather than to their competitor's products or services. There are different types of advertising appeals used for marketing a business. Each type of advertising appeal has a different type of influence on the customer. Common types of advertising appeal include The Fear appeal, The Humor appeal, The Musical appeal, The Sex appeal, the Rational appeal, The Scarcity appeal, and The Emotional appeal.

Variety of media are used for the advertisement. Broadcast media (Eg: TV and radio), Printing media (Eg: newspapers and magazines), Social media (Eg: Facebook and Instagram), Direct marketing, Internet marketing, email marketing etc. are the commonly used media for marketing.

Examples of Advertising Appeal in Health care Industry

Like all other industries, there are many advertising appeals used in the health care industry also. The following are examples of some of the advertising appeals in the health care industry;

Solis Women’s Health, a Texas-based health care institution, recently changed their advertising appeal for the marketing of their mammogram as follows;

"I don't just want a mammogram, I want peace of mind." This advertising appeal which stimulates the positive emotions of clients created a good impact and thus there was a 10% increase in the mammogram within one year of this advertisement. Instead of creating anxiety and fear about the mammogram, this advertising appeal influenced the positive emotions of customers. This was very helpful in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer and thus saved many lives.

Another example is the breathless choir campaign by Philips. For the marketing of their portable mini oxygen concentrator, they used the method of emotional advertising appeal. They made a video which gives the real stories of a number of patients suffering from breathing difficulties due to COPD, cystic fibrosis etc. and then they all came together to learn singing and performed a choir. This advertising was very emotional and created positive appeal like hope among the patients suffering from breathing difficulties. There was a 14% increase in the sales of the product in the quarter of this marketing campaign itself.

GlaxoSmithKline also uses emotional real storytelling appeal for the marketing of their Cold and Flu over the counter product. They used, "What Powers You?" campaign to create a positive influence on their product.

The influence of advertising appeal in the health care industry should be patient-centered and beneficial for both the patients and the companies and should not mislead the patients.