Branding
In my B.Tech Year, I did a research project on the effective communication of images in advertisements without the help of words. This included Outdoor ads such as Billboards, Posters, Magazines, and Branding at sports events.
The product I chose to work with was the Coca-Cola brand - Seeing that it is a popular brand among consumers.
Keywords: Semiotics, images with Messages, advertising and promotion, visual persuasion, the role of images in advertisements, visual communication.
Service
Branding
Client
B.Tech
Year
2013
Research Question:
The aim of the research was to determine if images could communicate effectively without the help of words.
Communicating a clear advertising message to consumers is of the utmost importance to marketers, but barriers often exist that can distort the message at any point in the communication process ( McPheat, 2010:10).
How was it solved?
Results were obtained through the use of questionnaires with follow-up questions that were handed out to young male and female students at the CUT and UFS.
Three ads were shown to the students where they had to indicate whether or not they understood the message that the ads were conveying.
Further questions were asked regarding the use of effective or appropriated imagery, word preference, color use, who the target markets of the ads were and the feeling the ads evoked.
Findings
The findings proved that with the use of appropriate visual metaphors (Semiotics) imagery can communicate effectively without the help of words - (Anderson et al., 2006; Martin, 2006).
On the other hand words and images, when used together, can be equally effective ( Lester, 2000).
Further results showed that the success of the ad also depends on how the whole ad is constructed out of the different design elements such as the color, the logo, the imagery, and the product displayed (Belch & Belch, 2012).
Furthermore, the ads evoked a certain feeling in the viewers and set them thinking as to what the message of the ad was, thus drawing them deeper into the ad (Lester, 2000).
Another finding was that the simpler the ad, the more effective it was, for example, using only one metaphor in each ad or through a range of ads.
In Conclusion:
This paper had a positive outcome with regard to the effective use of imagery in ads and also provided more insight into what makes advertisements supremely effective.
