Source - ATTRACTIVENESS

Source characteristic-ATTRACTIVENESS

In the ad world, 'Attractiveness' characteristic of source is very important. The three elements of source attractiveness are :

• Similarity

• Familiarity

• Likability

Similarity implies to the fact of resemblance between the source and receiver. How much the receiver finds itself similar to the source? Similarity can be in terms of lifestyle, habits, beliefs, needs and goals. The idea here is that people tend to get persuaded more when they see or hear something similar to their own characteristics’.

Example: Airtel ad “Har ek friend jaroori hota hai”

This very ad of airtel has modified and re-established itself as brand for youth. Message was completely on lines of friendship as it wanted to leverage on emotional aspect “friendship” and physical aspect “mobile phones”, which at the end connect all of them. The message appeal is perfect blend of various shades of friendship which help the audience to associate more with the ad.

Learning: Importance of product and promotion is directly associated with the third P, people. It is righty said that its through promotional content, strong association can be built between consumer and product. And once the perception of product is created, it’s very difficult to change.

Here, the lifestyle, habits, belief and needs of the characters in the ad are very much similar to today’s youth. And therefore this campaign was a great success.

Next the familiarity implies to the popularity/knowledge of the source. How much the source is known to audience? The companies do spend a lot on celebrity appearance in their ads. The main reason behind this is that they believe that these celebrities have the “stopping power”. The influence of these celebrities can help in changing the perception of product in viewers’ mind or it can instigate a thought towards the product.

Example: Slice:Aamsutra campaign

This ad was designed to position slice as delivering superior mango experience for its consumers. With the tough competition in market from the well established brands maaza and frooti, slice had to come up with something new and highly attractive. Since the drink is mere mango juice that they offered which itself was not new in market, their main focus was on the positioning of the product.

Hiring Katrina Kaif for their ad campaign proved to be the most correct decision as this celebrity had the highest stopping factor among the youth(to be more specific).Further the storyline of ad which makes drinking of slice as act of pleasure in the crouching heat of summer, bags more inclination towards the ad. The ad focus on the concept of indulgence and pleasure to be take a step ahead with excitement. And this could be well executed only with the appearance of celebrity which would arouse all the above mentioned emotions.

Learning: In case of celebrity endorsement, utmost attention is required to maintain the thin line between the sensuality and sexuality. If the blend is not perfect, that is if too much sensuality is there it would make the ad less view-able and overshadowing the product and too less will make the ad boring. And as the image of product has directly linked with the image of celebrity, the future product depends a lot on future image of the celebrity. And finally the most difficult task is to choose the celebrity who will symbolize your product perfectly and at the same time will be equally attractive.

Likability- it implies on the fact of likeness of the audience towards the source. This likeness can be because of many reasons like physical appearance, behavior, personal traits. For this the source may not be known personality. It is just the characteristics of the source is very much likable that attracts audience.

Example: The TATA tea campaign “jaago re”

The very ad in which the lady while making tea describes to her husband the political unrest in the country and suggests how the situation can be handled.The entire conversation revolves around the process of making tea.This ad had very high likability because of the personality of the lady and the inspirational thought process of the lady.These two traits impressed the the audience to great extent.So,an ad can be attractive if the characters or the role of the characters in the ad is highly likable,when though they are not known faces.