What are the various types of appeals used in advertising?
There are many, the main ones being emotional, humorous, rational, and brand loyalty focused. Emotional appeal encompasses everything from sappy commercials to those capitalizing on the drive to be socially accepted. Humorous ads make us remember them and associate good feelings with them. Rational advertisement explains the benefits of a product or service using statistics and clearly presented facts. Brand loyalty ads attempt to capitalize on the brand’s reputation, rather than the specific benefits of the individual product. There are other types of appeal, but most fall into these categories. Hope that helps!
In my opinion, there’s no universal appeal that works or is used across all product categories. On a very basic level, the appeal of a product (as it’s conveyed in advertising) is often based around the aspirational end-goals of the product rather than the product specific details. To coin an overused term, it’s about selling the ‘sizzle’ rather than the ‘sausage’. So a Gucci fragrance will be advertised as an avenue to make you appear stylish and sophisticated rather than telling you about the chemicals used in its production. You might have heard people say something like ‘sex sells’. Not quite true. Try using that for a McDonalds Happy Meal. The appeal can vary pretty dramatically depending on the product and target audience.
