What’s common between Paper Boat, Metlife, and Amazon? While these brands serve different purposes, yes, there is one thing that brings these brands under one roof. It’s the way they communicate. Rewind to a memory of watching ads created by these brands and you will realise that all of these ads have successfully made us feel something. Paper Boat makes you nostalgic, Metlife kicks in a sense of responsibility and peace on fulfilling the same, and Amazon talks to you about spreading joy with their deliveries. Despite communicating in different formats, languages, or with a different audience, all three brands are harping on one point - an emotion.
Every brand has a distinct communication tonality that sets them apart. However, this distinct tonality clubbed with the right messaging can also fall short at times. But brands always have an ace hidden up their sleeves, their appeal. It is a communication technique that’s used to create an impact on your audience, helping you bond with them better by giving them a way to relate to your communication. Thus, an appeal is considered one of the most useful strategies to build a connection with your audience. All it takes is an understanding of who your audience is and what triggers them.
Many content marketers understand the importance of having a brand appeal and incorporating that into their marketing and communications. For instance, at the beginning of the article, we spoke about emotion being the driving factor in communication created by brands like Paper Boat and Amazon. That is an example of how brands have used emotion to lead their communication. However, it is one of the many popular appeals that brands and marketers have utilised for a long time. Here are a few more examples that would help you understand the various types of appeals that are used in content marketing.
Emotional Appeal
One of the most commonly used and widely accepted appeals is emotional appeal. Brands are often known to pick an emotion that resonates with their target audience and craft their communication revolving around it. Besides the ones mentioned above, some of the other popular brands that replicate an emotional appeal are - Dabur Vatika, Fortune, and Coca-Cola.
The #ShareACoke campaign launched by Coca-Cola is a major example of this. By allowing the audience to share their feelings, the brand was successful in creating a new kind of impact with the help of their content. Besides the offline branding, they took their campaign online with a UGC on social media along with customised stickers on Zalo chat, coverage on various blogs, sharing digital Coke, and a storytelling content approach.
Humour Appeal
Brands taking up the route of comedy and light-hearted content to give their content a twist are applying Humor Appeal. Besides evoking an emotion, this appeal is primarily used to show the fun and lighter side of a brand. That’s an approach applied by Cred, Tinder, Center Fresh, Skittles, and Fevikwik. These brands base their communication on humour and have fun with their content, indirectly pitching their products or services.
When Cred released their advertisement with Neeraj Chopra, they followed it up with a social media content strategy. From encouraging memes to continuing conversations, the brand leveraged every kind of chatter around the advertisement, all in a humorous way.
Musical Appeal
From Airtel launching the song Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai, the Paas Aao music of Colgate and Mero Gaam by Amul are some classic examples of what a music appeal can do to your brand. These ads along with their follow-up marketing campaigns were released years ago, yet are etched in the memories of the generation’s memories. Be it songs, jingles, or just instrumental music, brands have understood the trick to using musical appeal in their favour to build significant recall.
Rational Appeal
For brands like LG, Garnier, and Tide, the audience looks for an assurance that the product is apt for their needs. The brands hence focus on the features of the products/ services, USP, and other factors that highlight the product. The idea is to rationalise the audiences’ urge to buy the showcased product.
Scarcity appeal
What’s your first reaction when you know a product you like is a limited edition? you would want to avail it at the earliest, right? This urgency created by a brand is the scarcity appeal. Some of the most common ways a brand creates the notion of scarcity are by using terms like - limited edition offer lasts till, stock running out fast, etc. In some cases, the scarcity appeal is built through time and every product of the brand gets recognition as a must-have scarce product. Spotify, Booking.com, Starbucks, and Zara.
When it’s the season to launch their ‘Season Special Drink’ Starbucks creates content dominated by that particular product. Their social communication is driven to create a FOMO amongst the audience, convincing them to try the product before it runs out of stock, or the season ends.
Thus, every appeal serves a different target audience, purpose and is implemented differently, however, the trick is to use them effectively to captivate your audience’s attention and thereby pushing your brand’s image further ahead. If you wish to bond better with your audience, adding an appeal to your communication is sure to take up your content strategies higher.