Air France advertised their airline
with a full-page print ad in the New Yorker, a New York City based magazine.
The ad portrayed a sentimental portrait of a man and a woman nostalgically
staring into the distance while the Eiffel Tower rises in the background. The purpose of this ad is to convince
consumers that have already heard of Air France, but either don’t use it or
don’t commonly use it, to use it more frequently. This goal is successfully
achieved through the use of a romanticized emotional appeal reaching an
appropriate demographic of middle-aged women.
Air
France targets a group of liberal, middle-aged women without kids that love the
adventure of travel. Most importantly, the sentimental nature of the
advertisement attracts women. Everything from the tender moment shared with
one’s spouse to the very location of travel, Paris appeals, to more basic
feminine tendencies. Both men and women are highly responsive to emotional
advertising, however there is a significant difference within specific
emotional appeals. For example men are more receptive to humorous and
lighthearted ads, while women enjoy serious non-humorous ads. Men also
appreciate creative ads, while females enjoy ads that depict a “slice of life”
(WPP, Millard and Brown). Therefore, this ad engages those women that seek ads
with a “slice of life.” Further, the target age is late 20s to mid 30s. These
are women and couples that can afford to take a trip to Paris, enjoy traveling,
and are still relatively mobile. Part of this mobility may stem from the fact
that they do not have kids. Additionally, the ad is sophisticated, but also very
simple. There is relatively little going on in the background and both
characters are dressed modestly. This simplicity makes it relevant to middle
class fliers who may even aspire to the classy stereotype of upper class.
Air
France uses an emotional appeal to reach these targeted young to middle aged
women. Because Air France is a well-established airline, founded in 1933, it has
already done the necessary advertising to build public awareness. Therefore, advertisements can become more
creative, focusing on branding their service with an emotional message, while
worrying less about being informative. Moreover, Air France successfully
creates a refined and romantic tone for their ad. Within the ad, the man and
the woman hold each other in a sweet embrace. The man incredulously examines
the world with a new sense of victory and awe, while the woman is overcome with
nostalgia and satisfaction. This younger couple has just taken a trip that will
forever hold a sentimental spot in their heart, let alone impact their
perceptions of the world. Air France
profits by selling that “perfect trip” as an emblem for its flights. All these emotional elements additionally
appeal to the ambitions we hold and the way we aspire to see ourselves. This
emotional appeal is also necessary because taking a vacation is a high
involvement purchase. Tickets to Paris are expensive, and taking a vacation takes
lots of planning- when to take of work and who will look after for pets and
plants. In many ways this level of involvement dictates the entire tone for the
strategy. If Air France can plant the idea of traveling to Paris, their goal is
already half achieved.
Because
of the geographical location and psychographics of its audience, The New Yorker
is an excellent medium for Air France to reach is target audience. Air France
is an international airline with its biggest hubs at Charles de Gaulle Airport,
Orly Airport, and Lyon-Saint Exupery Airport. New York’s J.F.K. airport happens
to be the largest international airport in North America. Therefore, most of
the people traveling internationally from New York would be highly likely to be
affected by the ad. Since The New Yorker is based out of New York City, not
only will the advertisement be seen by most of the people living in New York
City but also people from all over the world will likely see it as it appears
on stands at J.F.K. This makes it a great location for reaching those that like
to travel or travel a lot.
Additionally,
the people reached by the magazine are compatible with Air France’s target
audience. According to the magazine, 53% of its circulation occurs in the top
ten United States Metropolitan areas. Because most metropolitan areas lean
liberal, this fits Air France’s target female whose young and spirited, wanting
to experience the world. More specifically within the boroughs of New York,
computer software, known as PRIZM, allows advertisers to analyze psychographics
of particular groups. One of the most common psychographics within Bronx,
Brooklyn, and Manhattan is the urban achiever. This group of people is often
young and without kids. They have a college education and many are foreign born.
Valuable to Air France, these urban achievers are already very worldly, with
different nationalities and languages, making them more likely to fly
internationally. While using PRIZM can be very beneficial to capturing a target
audience, it possesses key limitations. Most significantly, it offers a
reductionist approach to complex human emotions, habits, and behaviors. Most
people cannot be put into categories, and as a result the psychographics are
correct only to the extent that people fit into these predetermined categories.
Overall,
Air France effectively utilized the romanticized image of a vacation to target
young women that are already predisposed to travel. This target audience is
influenced by the strong sentimental appeals. While the magazine provides a
great medium for displaying this emotion through visualization and persistence,
future ads could consider television as an extremely powerful way of appealing
to emotions through multisensory, and longer ads.
Bibliography:
Brown, M. Do Men and Women Respond
Differently to Ads? WWP. Retrieved from http://www.wpp.com/wpp/marketing/advertising/do-men-and-women-respond- differently-to-ads/ (accessed 11/5/13)
Nielson Market Place. Prizm. Retrieved
from http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=0&menuOption=home& pageName=Home# (accessed 11/5/13)
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