Benefits & Target Audiences

What's in it for me? ... TV ads are"stupid"!

Kids often dismiss some ads as"stupid" because they haven't been taught some key concepts about (1) persuasion (2) benefits (3) target audience. Many ads kids call "stupid" are simply not targeted at them, not offering benefits to fit their desires. Many other "stupid" ads, which don't make sense rationally, are using indirect, nonrational techniques. Below, a useful way to start analyzing ads, is to focus first on our own benefit-seeking, and on ourselves as a target audience -- often as OPM dependents.

1. Persuasion is a transaction between benefit-promisers and benefit-seekers.

Ads are "units of persuasion." Professional persuaders (advertisers, politicians) are benefit-promisers, but we are benefit-seekers.
We seek to keep the good we have (Protection); to get rid of the bad we have (Relief);
to avoid the bad we do not have (Prevention); to get the good we do not have (Acquisition).

Protection ads

to maintain, or care for, an existing "good" include: house care, car care, lawn care, home repairs, pet care, body care, food care, some "money care" (savings, bonds), some business services (phone services, computers).

Relief ads

to get rid of an existing "bad" include: medicines, pain killers, most over-the-counter (OTC) & prescription (Rx) drugs, diet plans; pesticides, deodorants; 2nd mortgages, "payday" loans, refinancing (debt relief.)

Acquisition ads

to get more benefits: Most ads simply urge us to acquire more "goods"-- to make their product our priority: cosmetics, clothes, foods, cigarettes, cars, electronics, toys, games, books, movies, concerts, phone services, pleasure travel, lottery tickets; local stores, credit cards (as a means to acquire more "goods" conveniently, quickly),

Prevention ads

to avoid a future "bad" include: automobile parts (brakes, tires); security devices (locks, alarms); insurance; preventative medicines (vitamins, sunscreen); seasonal clothing (heavy coats, rain gear) and home repairs (furnace, roofing)

2. Benefits (as in the chart above) offered in any ad can be multiple and simultaneous; commonly in tandem (relief & acquisition; protection & prevention) and have variations. For example, some ads (Relief, Protection, Prevention) often use a "scare-and-sell"technique, emphasizing a problem, then offering a solution. Don't try to force an ad into one category. (Overlaps are common.) But get used to viewing ads by the benefits that they offer to a specific target audience.

3. Target Audience. Although ads may be broadcast on TV, they target only a part of the viewers. Thus, advertisers try to spend their money efficiently, by using demographic research, to put their ads into the programs (or cable channels, magazines, etc.) watched by their target audience. Although there will always be an extra "spillover" audience, advertisers try to narrowcast by carefully selecting the context (program, location, time) which attracts their intended audience. TV programs are lures, designed to "deliver audiences to advertisers."

As viewers, we are often able to infer (or guess?) the audience by the content, the kind of benefits offered in the ads, and the context (where?when?). Network news, for example, have a lot of relief ads (medicines) because many older adults watch the early evening news; MTV has a lot of acquisition ads (for movies, music, clothes, cosmetics) and Channel One (for sodas, snacks, candy); sports programs not only have beer ads, but also many protection and prevention ads (house care, car care, lawn care, life insurance) targeting middle-aged married men; afternoon "soap operas" have many protection and prevention ads (house care, body care, baby care) targeting adults, especially women, as family caregivers, homemakers.

4. OPM Dependents. As dependents on "other peoples' money" -- kids often have more available money, more "disposable income" for "discretionary spending" than the adults who support them. Kids get their money from gifts (birthdays, holidays), allowances, outside work (babysitting), part-time jobs, student loans. Often, parents are caught between the rising costs of necessities (food, clothing, housing, electricity, gas, water, phone bills; car payments, insurance, repairs, gas; medical care,school costs, credit card debts, and taxes) and the increasing desires stimulated by ads specifically targeted at kids. Most kids spend their money on "luxuries" (non-necessities) such as entertainments (movies, videogames, music downloads MP3, CDs, DVDs, concerts, toys, games, electronics -- iPods, collectible cards); foods (snacks, candy, colas, pizza, burgers); fads and fashion cosmetics and clothes. Advertisers also know kids not only have their own spending money, but also exert great influence - "pester power" - on their parents' money (asking, begging) to buy something for them, and in selecting other household products.

Observe a set of TV ads, then categorize each one into these 4 basic benefits offered. Overlaps are common (e.g. Protection, Prevention) , but write your "dominant impression." Create 4 vertical columns to identify the (1) specific product (2) basic benefit offered (3) context (where? when?) (4) probable target audience.