AS2:Task 1: Target Audience Research

What is the scenario? 

We were asked by a metaphorical company to produce a 30 second long television advertisement for an existing or new product. This means responsibility of pre and post production work, including planning, pitching and creating the product and its ad. 

First we have to plan an idea to pitch to the client involving what our product is and how the advertisement created will be effective in presenting and selling it.With their approval, we must come together as a crew to produce a high quality product to present, recording this process in the form of an online production blog.

Our blogs must be designed to demonstrate the process young film makers go through in order to be successful in the advertisement industry. 

However, initially we will have to figure out who our target audience are, and how our product would benefit them. We will do this using a range of methods, including quantitative and qualitative research and focus groups. From the information we receive here, we will be able to formulate what our key buyers like, dislike and when our product would be of use. Without this information, the advertisement and product itself may not appeal to them, thus resulting in less sells. 

The Product

As a group, we decided to focus on the beverage industry as our main aim. We then discussed which section of this industry we wanted to expand on, whether it be soft drinks, juices, milkshake, hot drinks and smoothies. We avoided alcohol as it wouldn't be suitable for our age group. After considering the quantity of each category, we decided that there is room in milkshake to create a new and unique product:

• Soft Drinks: 
• All Coca Cola products e.g: Cherry coke/Appletiser/Fanta
  All Pepsi products e.g: Mountain Dew/Diet Pepsi/Mug Root Beer
  All citrus sodas e.g: Tango/Cariba/Squirt
  All waters e.g: Volvic/Evian/Fiji
  Others: Monster/Lucozade/Irn Bru
• Hot Drinks: 
   All tea brands e.g: Tetley/PG Tips/Yorkshire Tea
  All coffee brands e.g: Nescafe/Alcafe
  Others: Ovaltine/Horlicks/Galaxy

• Milk/Milkshakes: 
  Milk: Cravendale/Alpro Soya/Country Fresh
  Milkshake: Yazoo/Frijj/Crusha
• Smoothies/Juices:Smoothies: Innocent/Naked/Zero Belly
  Juices: Robinsons/J2O/Minute Maid/Ribena
  
  So, our final product is... The Syrup Waffle Milkshake. Our aim is to create the delicious taste of waffles and syrup without the mess and cutlery!

The Survey

We will then have to carry out market research in order to ensure that we stand out from potential competitors. This will involve looking at a range of existing advertisements, analysing the pros and cons of products, exploring which forms and styles are most effective and what products the audience already like. 

This is the survey powered by Survey Monkey which is part of our market research: 
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NZXGW28 

The survey i have created is a qualitative survey, as it takes into consideration overall factors like money, preferences and general buying views. Each option that is selected for each question will then result in a quantitate estimate of who our target is based on how many times each option is chosen. 
The results so far:

Competition

In order for our product to stand out from others, our advertisement must also stand out. This means that i must now watch advertisements for existing and similar products and see how each is similar and different. From here, our competition will be evident, and we can devise as a group what to do similarly or different to create a good quality advertisement. 

First, i looked at advertisements from leading milkshake brand Yazoo. This brand has been around for over 30 years, with over 80 million bottles sold in the UK every year, meaning it is a huge competitor in the industry. They have 4 flavours, including chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and banana and a small range of smoothie drinks which were a more recent addition. Although these flavours are very basic, they are clearly successful in sells. 

This particular Yazoo advertisement was released in 2009 and finishes with their popular slogan of 'Milk Shaken Up'. Here, the company have used a mixture of surrealism and humour, as well as well edited animation to create a unique stand alone advertisement. By showing a cow in the advertisement, it also makes the product appear more fresh and appealing to parents who try to avoid giving their children artificial food and drink. However, i feel as though this advertisement would only appeal to a young child, or an adult with a very strange sense of humour. It isn't necessarily memorable, but i do feel as though something so ridiculous may circulate a few times before being lost under thousands of new and more catchy advertisements. Overall, the concept is unique, and makes the product appear fun and natural, which is a good mixture for both young and old.

After Yazoo, i looked at a more recent milkshake brand launched in 1993, Frijj. Although younger, Frijj offer a more unique and gourmet milkshake. As well as the 4 flavours sold by Yazoo, Frijj also offer flavours such as Cookies and Cream, Honeycomb, Raspberry and Chocolate brownie, for a more indulgent experience. 

In this short advertisement, the use of repetition and animation is used to promote the product by offering some kind of prize through the purchase. This is effective as it will increase sales, however it gives very little insight to the uniqueness of the product. The animation is funny however, and would appeal to small children with wide imaginations and the parents saving money. It is short and simple. 

This longer advertisement focuses more on the product itself by showing the strawberry flavour and introducing the products slogan of 'The Thicker, Slower, Better'. By using surrealism and a parody of what appears to be of the horror film 'The Stuff', Frijj have created a unique and entertaining advertisement that would appeal to all due to it's overall weirdness. It also encourages people to buy it by claiming it's 'better', which is a creative way of overthrowing the competition. Repetition is also shown here, with a variety of people being chased by the milkshake.The only complaint i have about this advertisement is it is too long, and after about 30 seconds the ludicrous screams tend to get irritating. 

After watching these advertisements, our group will take in the pros and cons of each to create our own for the Waffles and Syrup Milkshake.

AS2: Introduction Task: The language of advertising

There are various types of magazines for different types of interests and hobbies. These include:  

• Sport magazines/fitness: Fitness mag/Running life
• Fashion/lifestyle: Vogue/Glamour
• Teen/girl: Go girl
• Holiday/Moving: Holiday mag/ British airways mag
• Music: Kerrang!/ Rocksound
• Gaming: PC Gamer

There are a variety of language techniques used on the cover and throughout the magazine to attract a specific audience, and to offer a set voice:

• Mode of Address: The way in which the media 'speaks to the audience'
• Alliteration: A literary device that is identified by repeated sounds in a series of words.
• Rule of three: Suggests that things that come as a three are more satisfying to read.
• Colloquial Language: Informal Language (SLANG)
• Emotive Language: Used to have greater emotional impact. Positive or negative mood.
• Monosyllabic: One syllable words. Sharp and snappy.
• Personal Pronouns: A set that shows contrasts of persons, gender, number and case.
• Abbreviation: A shortened word of phrase. Group of letters taken from word or phrase. 
• Rhetorical Questions: A question asked with no intention/obvious answer.
• Exclamation Mark:Used to display urgent or strong feeling.
• Repetition: Phrases/words/ideas repeated to emphasise it.
• Rhyme: Words with similar sounding endings. Used at end of sentence or in sentence.

The magazine aside above shows examples of all the language techniques in order to attract it's audience. Judging by the colour scheme of pink and black, the female cover model and what the magazine has to offer, i would assume that it is aimed mostly at a female audience. 'Look' magazine uses directness and first person, as well as personal pronouns such as 'my life' and 'are you a..?' to seem more as one with it's audience, as though having a chat with a friend.

 A lot of abbreviation, colloquial language and rhyme is used to bring informality in a more fun and attractive way. For example, instead of saying it's 'Little Black Dress' season, it is both quicker and more appealing to use 'LBD', as it's a frequently used piece of female slang. Also, colloquial language is used in rhymes, for example 'frock drop' and 'rinsta or a finsta?' to make the pleasure of reading more interesting and to create snappy sayings which can be recognised form the magazine. These both increase popularity, as young audiences are commonly attracted to a voice they can relate to, which Look offers. 

However, the use of rhetorical questions, the main story of Ellie Gouldings 'health scare' and other lifestyle stories may attract a younger female audience, as they would be interested in those aspects. For example, 'sun damage: can you really reverse it' might also appeal to a sun worshipper of any age, and 'are you a rinsta...' could also interest a more mature audience, as they may want to update themselves on modern slang and situations. 

Although it is not a language device, Look have also offered a free voucher, which might encourage a bargain hunter to purchase the magazine. Also, the magazine itself isn't overly expensive considering the content, meaning it's available for all. 

Overall, Look magazine have nailed this particular cover, as it uses every language device effectively to attract a variety of female audiences. 

The front cover aside is from Kerrang! magazine, which is a more gender shared read. This magazine focuses mainly on music and the lives of bands and band members, as well as offering free weekly posters and chances to win items and tickets.  

The mode of address for Kerrang! is very much informal, with the editors making it similar to Look in the sense that it's like talking to a friend. Exclamation and a famous cover star are used to first attract an audience, with 'Clown' from band Slipknot explaining his experience of creating an album using hyperbole.

The offering of free posters and the chance to win 'Motörhead' wine would draw in someone with a collective nature, such as myself, who wants cover their wall in posters/ have cool nick-nacks of their favourite band.

The rule of three is also used when advertising a 'world exclusive' of the bands shown in a circle in the top left hand corner. This is used again as abbreviation and rule of three where 'AAA' is shown mid right of the cover. Abbreviation which could only be understood by someone interested in the genres Kerrang! cover is used when presenting '30STM' cookies. This stands for 30 Seconds to Mars, an alternative band fronted by Jared Leto.

Overall, Kerrang! is very much a music gossip magazine and informative look into what's going on in the rock world. It can appeal to everyone in the particular genre, even if they have no interest in the main story, as it contains so many other reads, gig lists, merchandise pages and free posters, as shown by the front cover. 

Personally, i've been buying Kerrang! on and off since 2011, and not yet have i been disappointed.