Advertising Appeals

Advertising Appeals refers to the approach used to attract

the attention of customers and/or to influence their
feelings towards a product or service.
An appeal is the central idea of an advertisement. It can be
a plea, request or anything arising human interest.
Advertising appeals can be categorized into Informational
or Rational Appeals and Emotional Appeals.
Emotional Advertising Appeals
Informational/Rational Appeals focus on the consumers practical,
functional need and utility for the product or service. It emphasizes on:
(a) Features of a product or service and/or
(b) The benefits of owning or using a particular brand
(c) Problem removal or problem avoidance attribute of a product.
Rational advertising appeals tend to be informative and advertisers using
them generally attempt to convince customers that their product or
service has a particular attribute(s) or provides a specific benefit that
satisfies their needs. Their objective is to persuade the target audience to
buy the brand because it is the best available or does a better job at
meeting consumer needs.
Some of the rational motives used as the basis for advertising appeals
include comfort, convenience, economy, health, sensory benefits such as
touch, taste, smell. Other rational motives used include quality,
dependability, durability, efficiency and performance.
The particular attributes of a product that are important to consumers and
can serve as the basis of informational or rational appeals vary from one
product category to another as well as among various market segments.
Some of the advertising appeals that fall under the category of rational
■ Personal Appeal: Appealing to
a person’s emotions. The goal of
the personal appeal is to make a
consumer feel sad, angry,
excited, jealous, fearful, proud,
nostalgic, or any other emotion
enough to encourage them to
buy, donate, or act.

■ Social Appeal: Appealing to a

person’s sense of belonging or
feeling of inclusion. The goal of
the social appeal is to cause
people to make purchases and
take action based on whether it
will make them feel accepted,
recgonized, respected, affiliated
with, or even rejected by a
certain group, organization, or
people. It’s all about status and
fitting in.
■ Humor Appeal: Appealing to
a person’s sense of humor.
Because most human beings
like to laugh, humor is an
effective appeal for grabbing
attention and helping people
remember and share
information about a product or
idea. The goal with humor is to
help build a positive
association with a product,
service, or idea.
■ Fear Appeal: the fear appeal
specifically appeals to a
person’s fears in order to
encourage them to buy or act.
The goal of the feal appeal is
to cause someone to fear an
outcome or response if they
don’t buy a product or act in
such a way as to reduce risk.
■ Sexual Appeal: Appealing to
the natural sexual desires of
men and women. The goal of
the sex appeal is to grab and
increase attention toward a
product or service by making
people feel attracted to or
desirous of the people using
the product.

■ Romantic Appeal: Appealing

to a person’s natural desire to
experience romance and
appeal to others romantically.
The goal of the romantic appeal
is to make people feel like they
will be more attractive, more
desirable, and more likely to
get the person of their dreams
if they use a certain product or
take certain actions.
■ Endorsement Appeal:
Appealing to people by using a
celebrity they admire and
recognize. The goal of the
endoresment appeal is to
encourage people to buy a
product or service or act a
certain way because people
they know, respect, admire,
and recognize also use that
product or service. Trust is built
by using recognizable people.
■ Youth Appeal: Appealing to a
person’s desire to feel younger.
The goal of the youth appeal is
to make people who may
otherwise feel old, out of
shape, and less physically able
than they were as youth to buy
a product or service that will
help rejuvenate their physical
and emotional selves.
■ Popularity Appeal: Appealing
to people by making them feel
like everyone else is doing it.
The goal of the bandwagon
appeal is to make people feel
like since everyone else is
doing something, they should
to. It’s a persuasion-by-
numbers tactic. 

■ Musical Appeal: Appealing to

a person’s tastes in sounds
and music. The goal of the
music appeal to help increase
recall (as in jingles or
mnemonics) and to encourage
people to feel an emotion
toward a product that they feel
while hearing a particular song
or sound.
■ Adventure Appeal:
Appealing to a person’s sense
of adventure and excitement.
The goal of the adventure
appeal is to make people feel
like the excitement, action,
entertainment, and sense of
adventure will be enhanced if
they purchase or use a
product or service.
■ Empathy Appeal: Getting a
message across may depend
on your ability to get someone
to identify with a problem
they’ve never actually had to
deal with. Some brands and
most public service
advertisements depend on the
ability to evoke the emotion of
empathy and understanding
in those they need to care
about their cause.
■ Potential Appeal: This type
of advertising appeal
communicates a sense of
empowerment to turn dreams
into a reality. This was part of a
campaign that included
fireman and rockstar images in
ads that were placed at
strategic schools, playgrounds
and museums where parents
frequently take children.

■ Brand Appeal: Appealing to

people who are brand-
conscious and have certain
proclivities towards brands.
The goal of the brand appeal is
to make people buy a product
because the brand itself is a
statement that the person
hopes to associate with.
Rational Advertising Appeals
Emotional appeals relate to the consumers social and/or
psychological needs for purchasing a product or service. Many
consumers motive for their purchase decisions are emotional and
their feelings about a brand can be more important than
knowledge of its features or attributes. Advertisers for many
products and services view rational/information based appeals as
dull. Many advertisers believe that appeals to consumers
emotions, work better at selling brands than rational appeals.
Such an appeal promises a bonus which may be emotional
satisfaction or social approval. It may also serve as a status
symbol for the consumer.
Emotional appeals focuses on the experience of using a brand.
The customer must depict the ad as experiencing some emotional
or transformational benefit from using the product such that they
cannot recall the brand without the experience generated.
Some of the advertising appeals that fall under the category of
rational appeals:
■ Pain Solution: People are
most strongly motivated when
they have a problem that
needs to be solved that causes
them regular and noticeable
pain. Often, people have
already identified and
expressed a desire to solve the
pains most apparent in their
lives or workplaces.

■ Scarcity Appeal: Appealing

to people by making them feel
that something will run out
soon or is about to end. The
goal of the scarcity appeal to
make people feel that they
need to hurry or they will be
left out. Everyone else is doing
it and you may lose your
chance.
■ Testimonial Appeal: When
you think of testimonials, you
probably think of the
traditional video of people
talking highly of your brand or
products. While this is great
and can be incredibly effective
on social media, there are
ways to think outside of the
box with this advertising
appeal.

■ Contrasting Appeal: You can

also highlight what sets your
brand apart with a stark
comparison between your
product and the competition or
how life would be without your
products.
■ Status Appeal: Apartments,
furniture stores, fashion brands
and many other companies
also lean on a level of status to
appeal to consumers
concerned about where they
are at, how they are viewed,
and where they are headed.

■ Statistics Appeal: Appealing

to people’s obsession of and
trust in numbers. The goal of
the statistics appeal is to use
numbers and data to persuade
people that what you have to
say or what your product does
is accurate, and research-
based.
■ Beauty Appeal: Appealing to
people by making them feel
like they will experience
luxury, elegance, or superior
quality. The goal of the snob
appeal is to make people feel
like their purchases or actions
will put them in a position to
experience the highest of
qualities and luxuries.
■ Transparent Appeal:
Appealing to people through
creative word choice and
figures of speech. The goal of
the play on words appeal is to
help people remember a
product or service or to be
intrigued (sometimes through
humor) by the phrasing of
something.
■ Natural Appeal: Appealing to
a person’s natural tendency to
think they are less-than-perfect
and that they need something
to improve themselves. The
goal of the less-than-perfect
appeal is to make people feel
as though they need a product
or service to enhance their
personal selves and that,
without it, they will always be
less than perfect.