Advertising Communication System: Elements and Functions
Advertising: Social Communication System
Advertising is a social communication system that utilizes all means of mass communication and applies a set of techniques to create messages with the intent to persuade an audience to carry out an action (e.g., purchasing).
Classification of Advertising
Advertising can be classified into three types using similar techniques but with different purposes:
- Commercial advertising
- Publicity
- Constitutional/Political propaganda
Elements of Marketing Communication
The key components involved in marketing communication include:
- Issuer: The advertiser or an agency commissioned by the advertising company. This entity usually makes a significant investment, initiates the process, and maintains control.
- Receiver: Aimed at the product or service; plays a passive role and is the target of the public statement.
- Message: The advertisement itself.
- Referent: The product or service becomes a second-level element when the publication acts as a symbol for something else.
- Channel: Each of the mass media channels, in addition to billboards, etc.
- Code: It is mixed, employing multiple language codes: visual, auditory, and visual (referring to visual elements).
Functions of Publicity (Jakobson’s Model Applied)
The functions related to the message structure are:
- Conative or Appellate (Master): Aims to subtly and attractively persuade the receiver.
- Phatic: The purpose is to capture the recipient’s attention.
- Referential: Information about the product or service (brand) appears.
- Poetic: Enhances connotative values added to the product, facilitating message recall.
Types of Advertising
Classification According to Media Choice
This classification includes:
- Newspapers
- Television (TV)
- Radio
- Outdoor
- Direct mail
- Diverse media
Classification According to Product Handling
- Direct Advertising: Predominantly objective and rational, aiming for direct purchase (e.g., “Try it and compare”).
- Indirect Advertising: Suggests or implies action; aims to seduce (e.g., appealing to charming people or brands).
Other Forms
- Surreptitious Advertising: Occurs when certain objects appear in various programs or movies or are used by public figures.
- Subliminal Advertising: Messages that the human ear or eye perceives, but the brain does not consciously register; these are prohibited.
The AIDA Model
The four essential functions that advertisers must meet are summarized by the acronym AIDA:
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
Relationships Between Image and Word
The interplay between visual and textual elements is crucial:
- Identifying: The text merely identifies the image, as seen in brand logos.
- Anchor: The text states or sets the meaning of the image, or vice versa, identifying the reality it represents or providing clues to decode the connotative meaning.
- Complementary: The text provides a connotative or denotative meaning that is absent in the picture.
Other features include plot development and repetition.
The Image in Advertising
The image is the universal, efficient, and direct language. Beyond its denotative plane, it suggests connotative values. Its visual impact is produced through the expressive manipulation of its components: light and color, volume or size, angle, and focus.
The image also employs rhetorical devices such as repetition, ellipsis, and contrast.
The Language of Advertising: Style and Structure
Advertising language is short, concise, and innovative. The message is repetitive, with repetitions abundant at all levels (phonetic, semantic, etc.). Innovation occurs through a wide margin of freedom in language use.
The typology features arguments and, to a lesser extent, description. The structure is very free and typically comprises three parts:
- Headline
- Body text
- Closing sentence
Textual Components in an Ad
An advertisement may feature three distinct textual elements:
- The brand
- The slogan
- The body text