Persuasion skills

“A brand is worthless if it doesn’t CONNECT with the right audience in a relevant way.”

The great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, argued that there were three main ways to persuade audience: ethos, pathos, and logos.

The short explanation for the three are:

Ethos: an appeal to ethics, the trustworthiness of the speaker. (服之以德)

Pathos: an appeal to emotion, often associated with feelings. (動之以情)

Logos: an appeal to logic, a way to persuade people by reasons. (說之以理)

When companies make ads, they basically follow these rules to persuade the audience. However, it’s not necessarily to use the all three to be persuasive. Sometimes one or two being used is enough.

Let’s take two commercials for example.

Miller 64

Ethos: If you are an athlete, drink this!

Pathos: Miller 64 is a great drink to have with friends and brings you happiness.

Logos: Miller 64 is a low-calory drink, so it’s worth drinking for people who want to keep their shapes

Bud Light

Pathos: A clever dog with a special name and reacts cute

As you can see, the story of the commercial doesn’t need have be associated with the product to be successful. Take the Bud Light ad for instance. Though there was nothing to do between puppies and alcohols, the commercial still made more than 10,000 hits. As long as the commercial is interesting enough and makes audience react, it’s successful.

Brand Narrative

What are brand narratives?

They are “meaningful storylines that makes people easily to understand who you are.” Good narratives need to be specific, special, and outstanding. That is, they need to convey your business purpose and personality precisely.

Brand narratives are similar to personas. They usually use simple sentences with easy grammar, vocabularies and metaphor. By these, people can read and realize what companies want to express. Then, companies can build their unique brand image to stand out from the others.

Brand narratives are often shown in commercials. However, the ads themselves won’t just show sentences. The narratives are hide in the ads metaphorically. Let’s take two Coca Cola’s commercial for example.

The young man yawns and puts money into a Coke machine. The world in the machine works then energetically. Finally, the man drinks and feels happy.

A sleeping students is about to miss his finals. The creatures in the books pop opened a coke and wakes the boy up.

So, the persona that Coca Cola wants to tell is, “Coca Cola brings you energy and happiness.” It’s quite near to average people’s impression on coke. Undoubtedly, this is one of the main reason why people drinks coke.  

4Ps

What is marketing? There is an interesting explanation shown on the internet, “Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.”

Sounds simple, isn’t it? Theoretically, it’s true, but the reality isn’t that easy. Companies need a lot of statistics and calculation to know what customers like, where they shop, and to balance the cost and price of products. Therefore, they came up with idea named the 4Ps, or called marketing mix, to maximize their benefit.

The 4Ps are abbreviations of four words that starts with letter P. They are product, price, promotion, and place.

The meanings of them are:

Product: the features and appearance of goods and services

Price: how much customers pay for a product

Promotion: how customers are informed about products

Place: the point where products can be sold to customers

Shortly speaking, if companies make good use of the 4Ps, they can benefit easier. However, they usually don’t utilize them equally. Let’s take some brands for example.

Luxury jewelry (Rolex):

Product: high quality, that stands out from the others

Place: urban areas, where people who can afford it live in

Promotion: in tennis games, where rich people go

Beverage (Coca Cola):

Place: everywhere, so it’s convenient to buy

Promotion: unique ads and slogan to attract customers

Brand Image and Marketing

What are brand images?

When seeing these notable logos, most of us can tell what they represent immediately, since the characteristics of them are strong enough. Their brand image are deeply rooted in our mind.

Think first. What images of the three brands will come into your mind?

7-11: convenient, everywhere, 24hr, cheap

Nike: fashionable, customized, expensive, athletes as spokespeople

Mercedes-Benz: German, safe, huge, expensive

In conclusion, brand image is the impression of a brand’s personality in customers’ mind.

Why are brand image important?

Brand image is essential for companies to set up a unique identity that stands out from the others. This enables the customers to recognize and expect what they will purchase and what the services are.

Companies often build brand images to target certain groups of customers. They know what buyers want and what they need. It’ll be easier for the companies to create ads that will appeal them. Ultimately, the companies win the loyalty of customers.

Think. When you are going for a bite, what will you choose? McDonald or Burger King. Why? The answer may be the brand image that the company want to represents!