Entry 5: A battle between right brain and left brain.

When we first landing on this world, we are irrational, emotional creature. Start from baby, we feel everything without any verbal communication. We start give the response based on our emotion. We feel comfort, when daddy mummy smile toward us; we cry, when daddy mummy scold at us. That’s simple. Life is simple. We only train to become a rational thinking human being by incubating 10 or more years of education. Thus, we know that emotion is instinctive-oriented, personal and it might derived different based on individual whereas rational is incubated to make us more logic and rational thinking is trained to become as our habit.

In advertising, advertisers also start up their execution and strategics based on this. Mostly, advertisement is emotional-oriented as emotional appeal has better and effective communication which connects at a visceral level compared to rational or persuasion-based advertisement.

From consumer insight

What I mention before, we born as an emotional creature and the response is instinctive. We will easier dominated by emotion especially purchasing something. From a research, it showed that 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections. It make us feels right when purchase.

So, from this fact, it is clear to show the emotion and rational affect our decision making.

The table below is showing the different between emotional appeal and rational appeal:

Emotional Appeal	Rational Appeal
Right hemisphere of brain.	Left hemisphere of brain.
Soft sell	Hard sell
Feeling, pleasure, mood	Information, Fact
Heart (feeling-oriented)	Head (think-oriented)
Visually	Verbally
Appeal to fear, empathy, sympathy, happiness and other human emotions.	Prove the product’s quality and usefulness to the consumer. State the product’s benefits, performing a product demonstration or citing facts or statistics.
Conduct the consumer love the brands, not just buy them. (Fame)	Persuade the consumer to choose the result it desires. (Persuasion- based communication)
Emphasize a personal story that relates to the product.	Show the product being used, rather than discussed.
Emphasize the benefit of a product, service to the consumer.	Emphasize the benefits of the product, service itself.
Primal Tongue (through design, color, motion stagecraft, music and tonality)	Logical relationship, the primal mind seeks symbolic relationship.
Hard to execute.	Easy to execute.

Next, I would like to show two videos which selling same product (toothpaste) but they are using different appeals (Emotional and Rational).

Rational Appeal

Emotional Appeal

After viewing these two videos, we know that although we getting an abundance of information of the benefit the products and get surprised and persuaded on the specialty functions, we might forget the contents easier if compared to the emotion-based advertising. From the emotion-based advertising, it might make us to feel empathy and think and rehear what the problems and remembers the product due to the "eye-catchy" story.

However, from my opinion, the overuse or misuse of emotional appeal advertising will lead the audiences feel confused between the storyline and products. It is because some of storyline is totally unrelated to the products and the consumers will feel like what the helX. This will be annoying. At last, consumers will only remember and overly focus on the story instead of the products.

References

Dooley, R (2009) Emotional ads work best. [Online] Available at: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm [Accessed at: 23rd January, 2014]

E.M. Rawes (N.D.) Difference in rational and emotional marketing. [Online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-rational-emotional-marketing-23661.html [Accessed at: 19th January, 2014]

Orwing, K (N.D.) Rational appeal vs. emotional appeals in advertising and marketing communication. [Online] Available at: http://www.orwig.net/articles/rational_emotl/rational_emotl.html [Accessed at: 19th January, 2014]

Entry 4: The reasons of choosing family value as my topic

Without any doubt, one of the reasons which I choose this family value which examine in advertising is after the lesson given by my lecture, Chiat. After having the lecturers and discussion with her, I decided to choose this topic instead of others topic that I proposed before which are the influence of Kpop and study on digital media versus traditional media.

Before doing any in-depth researches on this family value, I had watched some documentation and TVC and any poster about extended family. The connection is after Chiat showing the on the “Tanishq Wedding Film” which a commercial jewellery advertising. What make this advertising stand out and remind me the previous documentation which I watched?

This popular jewellery brand Tanishq TVC is breaking the social norms and created the storyline based on re-marriage issues instead of showing those stereotype storyline and execution, an Indian’s woman body and fair skin or husband gift wife anniversary present and so on.

In India’s culture, losing a husband and becoming widow can twist many women’s life into begging and destitution. The widow might immediately abandon and ostracized to the ‘village of widows.’ The widows will forfeit everything include her right, her state, her economic, her family. This is because the social will consider them as bad, sinister woman. They even treated as untouchable “object” and can’t expose to the society. They are struggling to survive and their only hope is waiting to death.

So, from this “Tanishq wedding Film”, it reminds me a Singapore’s documentation on revealing and covering this widow issue in India. (Sorry, I couldn’t remember and find out the name of this documentation) From this documentation, it ended up quite touching and shocking fact as this topic is not a common topic which always portrayed, but it reflects the real world. This video raises the attention on the extended family especially the tragic topic, death.

Thus, because of these reasons, I have numerous questions on this family value topic and I hope to have in-depth researches on examining the role of family value (nuclear family and extended family) in advertising. Or, maybe can write and researches on the comparison the family value portrayed between western and eastern. Or, maybe how about the open minded of Asia in this family value topic. Or, maybe how the reaction on the social and audiences on this extended family in advertisement and is it works? How success is it?

The researches will be continued to decide which direction I will go on writing family value and advetrtising.

Entry 3: Understanding on the Family Structure

Take out a piece of paper and color pencils, and draw about “my family” as the topic.

Done?

I think your drawing is mostly turn up something like this, consisting of daddy, mummy, brother and sister. 

Actually, this family structure can be called as traditional nuclear family, known as conjugal or elementary family. Usually, nuclear family is a two-generation-family which a married man and woman and their biological children.

In my essay, it will cover about the role of family values in advertising, what and how are these values and attitudes being portrayed and is it reflects reality? So in this blog entry, it will focus and understanding on the type of family structure.

Apart from the nuclear family, there are vary of modern family structure are emerged.

Adoptive Family

Consisting of one or more of the adopted, not biologically related children. This family comprised of two of the adoption triad members, adoptees and adoptive parents.

Bi-racial or Multi-racial Family

Consisting of different racial identity groups of parents. The children will be called as half-breed.

Blended Family

Consisting of members from two or more previous families and have varying connections with extended family members.

Childless Family

Consisting of a husband and wife living and working together without any child. It considers as ‘forgotten family’ as it does not meet the traditional standards set by society. Many childless families take on a substitute of own children by adoption of pet or have extensive contact with their relative’s children.

Co-custody Family

An arrangement where divorced parents both have legal responsibility for their children.

Cohabiting Family

Consisting of unmarried man and woman but living together. If there are children, at least one of the adults is a biological or adoptive parent.

Commuter / Conditionally separated Family

Consisting a parent is separated from the rest of the family. This may be due to live and work in different towns or states, military service, incarceration or hospitalization. One parent provides the primary residence and the other parent comes home for short periods of time such as weekends and holidays.

Extended Family

Consisting of two or more adults who are related, either by blood or marriage, living in the same house. These family members may be in addition to the child’s parents or instead of the child’s parents.

Foster Family

A family where one or more of the children is legally a temporary member of the household. Kinship care families are foster families where there is a legal arrangement for the child to be cared for by relatives of one of the parents.

Gay or Lesbian Family

Raising and rearing by a gay or lesbian single or two parent(s). Children can bring from either a heterosexual relationship or reproductive technologies (intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization)

Grandparent-led Family

Raising and rearing by grandparents when their biological parents have died or can no longer take care of them.

Single parent family

Consisting of one parent either a father or a mother who is singly responsible for the raising one or more children. The children can be by birth or adoption.

Stepfamily

Consisting two separate families remarriage and merging into one new unit. Usually, these families are generally created by divorce and remarriage.

Although there has a lot of family structures are emerged due to growing of individualization and industrialization, nuclear family still remain the predominant family arrangement especially in Asia and the Middle East, which compared with other regions of the world. Most the information which I found, I can summarize them as extend family also appears to be common in Asia, the Middle East and South America, whereas marriage rates and childbearing rate are gradually declining worldwide which boosters the growing of the childless family, cohabiting family as well as individual. In Asian countries, the number of individuals is around upwards of 30%.

The reasons that I assumed are because of the high-income and high-standard world which lead to encourage everyone neither men nor women focus on seeking for and earning money. Poverty also changes the family patterns interact with changes in childbearing. This is because larger families need more income to foot the bill. Due to high-standard and competitive social, it creates a social whom pickier especially women about marriage as result. And they end up with unmarried status. Thus, family structure, social and living lifestyle are correlate each other that create nowadays scenario.  (This topic I will bring out in-depth in another entry)

Reference

Edwards, J. O. (2009) The many kinds of family structures in our communities. [Online] Available at: http://www.scoe.org/files/ccpc-family-structures.pdf [Accessed at: 19th January, 2014]