Cars are very hard to sell because they need to appeal to a wide range of people. The advertisers make different cars for different people, and advertise them differently. E.g. a 2-seat sports car that had no space, wouldn’t appeal to a large family of 5 because they would need lots of space. For a male driver they would advertise its handling, speed, acceleration and all of its specifications, rather than advertise its designer labels and CD-players, which would appeal more to a female. Cars are luxury items, and are very expensive to buy and manufacture. They are also expensive to advertise. A failed advertising campaign could mean they could have lost a lot of money.
There are several reasons why you might want to but a car, such as: You could want to impress their mates. Or want to have a means of transport, to get to work etc. The ford focus advert is aimed at young females. The advert is set in a spacious modern room. Everything is spaced out and blurred, to give the effect that the car is modern and spacious. The blurred light coloured background makes the dark car stand out from the rest of the advert. There are some tailors dummy’s also light coloured, this is to represent that the car is fashionable. There is a bold heading, its bold to make it stand out from the rest of the advert. It’s a pun on the phrase haute couture. They spell it haute carture, because it’s a car. Haute couture is French for head of fashion. This also implies the car is fashionable.
The advertisers use is formal and punning language. There is a ford logo in the bottom right hand corner of the advert this is also darker so it stands out. And also shows that it is a ford manufactured car. At the bottom of the page they describe the car as individually tailored, and have leather trims and a CD-player all of these things including the fashion, modern and spacious things that were implied in the advert would all appeal to a women. They also say that its JUST 12,995 trying to make it sound cheap. This advert works very well and is very persuasive.
The Toyota advert is a group of family photo’s set against a pale background to make them stand out. Most of them are of the car and only one of them is of their children. The advertisers say that it’s “a car to be proud of”, they play a pun on the sentence because it should be their baby their proud of. This brings comedy into the advert and the pun, are both in bold lettering. There is a dark Toyota logo to make it stand out, and their slogan is a car to be proud of also in bold. Having a picture of a child implies it’s a family car. And so has lots of space. The sentences are short and simple. The advert gives u their e-mail address and telephone number but mentions nothing about the price. I think it appeals to young adults who have families.
The male adverts take a very different approach, in comparison to the female adverts. Firstly there is a picture of the black 4×4 BMW. With a windsurfer on top of the car, this is to show, that the car has dynamic handling. There is a white background to make the picture stand out. Also in the male advert the writing is all about performance and handling not about being tailor made and having leather trims and CD-players. They both have logo’s and slogans but instead of head of fashion it “the ultimate driving machine”. It has a BMW logo. And they give you the details of the price.
The rover letter addresses you in person, to make it feel more personal. “Dear Miss Nickless”. The advertisers put some things in bold text to make it stand out from the rest of the letter. “When did you last travel in style?” This is also a question to get you interested. They put across the idea that life’s better when you have a rover. “Traffic jams aren’t quite so tedious, red lights aren’t such a pain.”
The advertisers are also getting extra publicity from being sponsored by the commonwealth games. This implies that the car is good enough for the commonwealth games to sponsor it. They make it easy to pay for with their new payment program. “Luxury travel usually comes at a price, but not with our new affordable payment plan.” It gives you details of, the address and telephone number. They make it even more personal by adding yours sincerely, and by adding a signature. The letters have their similarities and dissimilarities. They all address you in person, put their address and telephone number in. Have a logo and are accompanied by a slogan, have a special payment program. All of the letters are signed, have bold headlines or quotes. They all asked questions, and all of them are persuasive, and use persuasive words such as “wild” and “luxury”.
