Living in a house with four other girls means that there are plenty of magazines lying around for leisurely reading. Over the past month I have flipped through the pages of three different magazines, read articles and skimmed through advertisements. Last week I was reading the third of these magazines when I came across an advertisement for Maybelline's new Color Sensational lipstick. There was something very familiar about this particular advertisement. It finally dawned on me that this lipstick advertisement had been present in all three magazines.
Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications provides insights into why marketers use several forms of the same channel for reaching audiences and use variations of an advertisement. Herbert Krugman's Three Exposures Theory relates that a consumer only has to be exposed to an advertisement three times for it to capture his/her attention. Once this attention has been captured the advertisement is considered effective. This theory is based on intrusion value, or the ability of an advertisement to capture the attention of the viewer without his/her voluntary effort. The Three Exposure Theory explains my reaction to the lipstick ad. It wasn't until the third time I viewed the ad that I fully recalled it from my memory. I am not particularly interested in lipstick, so I would say I involuntarily paid attention to the advertisement after my third exposure to it.
Marketers rely on impressions, or the the total number of exposures of the audience to an advertisement, to reach their target market. Magazines reach specific audiences, so magazines are a great tool for reaching target markets. I came across this Maybelline Ad in Shape, Cosmopolitan, and HGTV Magazine. The magazines have the following circulations: Cosmopolitan 3.0 million, Shape 2.5 million, and HGTV 1.3 million. Therefore, this advertisement has made 6.8 million impressions by using these three magazines. In other words this advertisement has reached at least 6.8 million individuals. The 6.8 million impression doesn't take into account the additional number of viewers who see a magazine in communal settings such as patients in a doctor's waiting room. The more an individual times an individual views an advertisement the higher the brand recall will be or that individual.
The size and placement of advertisements also influences effectiveness. The Mabelline Ad is the same size in each magazine, but it was found on page 13 in HGTV, page 23 in Shape, and page 79 in Cosmopolitan. In addition to placement, consumer brand recognition requires an emphasis on the visual presentation of the product. The Mabelline Ad uses bold colors to catch the readers eye and represent the bold colors of its new line of lipstick. Each model in the advertisement is touching her lips to draw the consumers attention to her mouth displaying the new lipstick product. It's interesting that each advertisement has a different model. Varying models help make it interesting and keeps the consumer engaged. Using the same advertisement may lead to the consumer quickly ignoring it. The different women in these advertisements caught my attention, making me remember all my previous experiences with the advertisement.
This is so interesting, I wonder if the different models are also used to comply with a particular target audience of the magazine? It would be interesting to know some reader demographics for each publication.
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