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HJEMMEOPGAVER, PROJEKTER, SYNOPSER U/ MUNDTLIGT FORSVAR
Home Assignments, Project Reports, Synopses without oral defence
INSTITUT FOR ERHVERVSKOMMUNIKATION Department of Business Communication
STUDIENUMMER Student No.
Ts93113
EKSAMENSNR. (6 cifret nummer på studiekortet kaldet Kortnr. eller eksamensnr.) Student Exam No.: (6 digit No at your Student ID-card called either Kortnr. or Eksamensnr.)
413064
HOLD NR.: Class No. Ex.: U02
FAGETS NAVN: Course/Exam Title
Bachelor Thesis Eso-BA-1/4120510073//bachelor’s thesis
VEJLEDER: Name of Supervisor
Bo Laursen
ANTAL TYPEENHEDER I DIN BESVARELSE (ekskl. blanktegn): Number of Characters in your Assignment (exclusive of blanks):
53,695
2
MMC 2011-2014
BA
“Narratives and Statistics – An In-depth Analysis of Colgate
Time Control”
By: Tim Steinbrenner (ts93113)
Supervisor: Bo Laursen
53,695 characters
3
Summary A clutter of persuasive messages has become a constant presence in the modern
Western world. Now more than ever it is important for corporations to create effective
and persuasive advertisement. Many advertisers choose to persuade their viewers
through the use of evidence, more precisely through narratives or statistics. This
thesis aims to shed some light on the advertorial intentions of Colgate – one of the
world’s biggest health and hygiene companies – when deciding to include both a
narrative and statistics in their advertisement for Colgate Time Control.
Using a theoretical background based on persuasion literature, more precisely, within
evidence in persuasion, a discussion is made on the advertisement with regards to
central and peripheral processing. Statistics have indeed been found to be more
persuasive if viewers have high involvement and engage in central processing,
whereas narratives serve as a peripheral cue, along with other aspects such as speaker
credibility. The thesis’ research question concerns itself with just that:
Why has Colgate chosen to include both narratives and statistics in the “Colgate
Time Control” advertisement?
When answering this question, the advertisement is analysed based on the
methodology of Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics in order to uncover the true intentions
of the sender. The Colgate Time Control brand, in itself a sub-brand, is analysed, as
well as the text itself in a brand- and a discourse analysis. Sharing a name with the
mother brand, Colgate Time Control carries the same associations typically made
with Colgate, such as reliability and high functionality. Knowing that the toothpaste
does not directly appeal to everyone exposed to the advertisement, Colgate markets
their toothpaste as a shopping good – a good that consumers spend some time
thinking about before purchasing, in order to increase consideration of the product
and to justify the higher price compared to other toothpastes.
In the advertisement Colgate presents product features as well as personal
characteristics as both product features and product functionality make up the core
identity of Colgate Time Control. The main focus of the brand is set onto the
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functionality and the practical application of the toothpaste to avoid gum decay. The
core identity is also supported by the personal attributes provided by the female
speaker, who makes the brand seem caring and friendly, and by the voiceover
providing credibility presenting statistics based on clinical trials.
The discourse analysis goes on to show that the advertorial text is separated into two
different discoursive messages: The woman as a relatable character speaking about
her personal situation and the influence the product had on her life and the voiceover
providing factual information about the product. The Burkean Rhetoric analysis
shows a strong use of pathos from the female speaker and a strong use of ethos in the
voiceover.
These findings, in relation to persuasion theory, confirm that Colgate chooses to use
both a narrative and a statistical part in the advertisement to target different sets of
audiences that are exposed to the Colgate Time Control brand. People with low
involvement, at a certain age, are targeted through the advertisement’s narrative,
which serves as a peripheral cue, also supported by the credibility that is attributed to
Colgate with the presentation of test results by experts. People with high involvement
are given strong statistical evidence to support their central processing of the issue so
as to be persuaded into choosing the product to prevent gum and tooth decay.
Finally, both narrative and statistics do not only target different audiences, but also
work together to create a campaign that firstly evokes attention, creates interest, and
finally carries conviction to purchase the Colgate Time Control toothpaste.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 6
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8
METHOD AND METHODOLOGY 13
BRAND ANALYSIS 16
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 19 GENRE AND SENDER-RECEIVER RELATIONSHIP 19 IDEATIONAL RESOURCES 20 INTERPERSONAL RESOURCES 22 TEXTUAL RESOURCES 24 PREVAILING DISCOURSES 26 BURKEAN RHETORIC 28
RESULTS 29
DISCUSSION 30
REFERENCES 34
APPENDICES 36 ADVERTISEMENT TRANSCRIPT 36
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Introduction In the modern Western World, persuasion is everywhere. Not a day goes by without
somebody trying to influence us. According to Gass and Seiter (2011) the average
person is exposed to 300 to 3,000 persuasive messages each day. These messages may
come from friends or family, or even strangers or big corporations. Due to the sheer
amount of influential messages that people are confronted with, many of these
messages go undetected or fail to fulfil their purpose. This provides an immense
challenge to corporations that aim to persuade consumers to notice and eventually
purchase their products. In order to be as persuasive as possible, these advertisements
need to be as relevant as possible to reach their customers. The message(s) within an
advertisement have therefore to be built up very carefully. More often than not, not
only product information is given, but also a means to support the product
information, in form of a story – a narrative – or in form of statistical proof.
“One issue within the persuasion literature is a comparison of the persuasiveness of two
forms (statistical or narrative) of available evidence. Should a communicator concentrate on
finding and using narrative examples or statistical conclusions?” (Allen & Preiss, 1997, p.
125)
Exemplifying the much-discussed issue among persuasion theorists, Allen and Preiss
(1997) raise the question of whether narratives or statistics are the most persuasive.
Researchers on this subject have come to various conclusions depending on context,
the nature of the audience and the persuasive message itself. That being said, does it
have to be a one-off decision? In fact, many advertisers combine both narratives to
evoke listener and viewer interest and statistical evidence to demonstrate that the
narrative is not an isolated case.
One organisation, which often combines these two aspects in order to create a
compelling persuasive message, is also one of the world’s largest personal care
corporations, namely the Colgate-Palmolive Company. In advertisements for Colgate
products, such as toothpaste and mouth wash in particular, statistics are often
accompanied by narratives. Consumers who have tested the product are often featured
in the commercial to attest for its effects.
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Traditionally, Colgate television advertisements were based on expert evaluations and
product functionality, often with a dentist or person in a laboratory coat arguing the
benefits of using Colgate toothpaste. In recent years, however, Colgate advertisements
are making use of consumers offering their opinions about the product. A recent case,
where both a narrative and statistics are combined, is the television advertisement
“Colgate Time Control”; a brand of toothpastes said to prevent receding gums. With
Colgate’s recent persuasive strategy in mind, I thus set out to answer the following
research question:
Why has Colgate chosen to include both narratives and statistics in the “Colgate
Time Control” advertisement?
This thesis aims to shed light on Colgate’s intent in using two very different
persuasive strategies, to deliver their message, and also to clarify what they as a
sender expect to achieve in this particular advertisement.
The theoretical background and framework of this paper is built on persuasion
literature, more specifically the use of evidence in persuasion. Gass and Seiter (2011)
provide insight into what defines persuasion in general, describing interaction
between the two parties necessary for the persuasive process, whereas Petty and
Cacioppo (1986) contribute with two different modes of processing information,
central processing (high involvement) and peripheral processing (low involvement),
as described in their paper on the Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Following a general introduction to persuasion theory, a further elaboration on the
persuasiveness of narratives and statistics will be given. Allen and Preiss (1997) offer
an overview of the success of each persuasive means, while Braverman (2008) and
Reinard (1998) offer their explanations as to when each mode of persuasion is the
more effective, in relation to the Elaboration Likelihood model. Theories by Dickson
(1982), Brosius and Barthelt (1994), also in support of Braverman’s findings, aim to
offer an explanation of why different modes are more persuasive. Finally, theories by
O’Keefe (1998), Reinard (1998), Gass and Seiter (2011) account for the importance
of the quality of evidence and the characteristics in terms of strengthening persuasive
messages.
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As the aim of this paper is to identify the sender’s intention when developing the
advertisement, the analysis is based on methodological hermeneutics. The first part of
the analysis consists of a brand analysis of “Colgate Time Control”, based on Aaker’s
(2010) “Brand Identity System”, a modern business equivalent to Schleiermacher’s
psychological interpretation of a text. A discourse analysis, based on the writings of
Halliday (1978, 1994, in Stillar, 1998) makes up the second part of the analysis, with
an expansion of Burke’s rhetoric. Thus, the analysis represents Schleiermacher’s
second dimension in finding the author’s intentions, namely the analysis of the text’s
language.
My findings are based on both the discourse and brand analysis and the subsequent
discussion sets the results in relation to the theoretical background presented earlier.
The analysis is limited to one advertisement for “Colgate Time Control” and only to
the spoken words in the campaign. These limitations are a result of both spatial
constraints and relevance, in order to fully answer the research question proposed
above. As such, this paper only offers brief insight into Colgate’s general persuasion
strategy. A more in depth analysis into further Colgate campaigns would have to be
made in order to make generalisations about their persuasive strategy.
Theoretical Framework According to Gass and Seiter (2011), “persuasion involves one or more persons who
are engaged in the activity of creating, reinforcing, modifying, or extinguishing
beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, and/or behaviors, within the constraints of a
given communication context” (p. 33). Persuasion is an interaction between people; it
is two-directional, from sender to receiver and from receiver to sender. The
distinction between sender and receiver is not necessarily made, as persuasion also
appears in discussions where no initial sender or receiver existed, only two parties
discussing an issue. In which case, both parties intend on persuading the other party.
When the functions of persuasion are considered, one of the most cited models in
persuasion literature is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) by Petty and
Cacioppo (1986). The ELM has been described as a so-called dual process model
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(Chaiken & Trope, 1999), as it suggests that persuasion operates via two paths. The
first path has been named “central processing” and involves, according to Petty and
Cacioppo (1986), “cognitive elaboration”. The second path, referred to as “peripheral
processing”, is concerned with cues that are not necessarily cognitively perceived and
that are not directly related to the main message. Thus, when engaging in central
processing, the content of the message itself is elaborated on and the ideas presented
in the message are reflected. When engaging in peripheral processing however, the
focus is not on the content of the message, but on cues taken from aspects
surrounding the message, e.g. “the sheer quantity of arguments or a catchy jingle”
(Gass & Seiter, 2011, p. 34), which then serve as a basis for decision making.
According to Petty, Rucker, Bizer, and Cacioppo (2004), these two means of
processing represent two different ends of the elaboration continuum: At the one end
a person engages in little or no elaboration, at the other end he or she engages in high
elaboration. Whether a person engages in central or peripheral processing is
dependent on their motivation and ability to process the information. People that are
highly motivated to elaborate on a given issue show high involvement and thus
engage in central processing. This is usually the case when a topic affects somebody
personally. When a person shows low involvement, it is more likely that he or she
engages in peripheral processing. Furthermore, a person can only engage in central
processing when he or she has the ability to do so, meaning the necessary knowledge
and understanding to process information. If there is a lack in ability, people tend to
engage in peripheral processing.
Petty, Haugtvedt, and Smith (1995) argue that persuasion via the central route tends to
have a more long-lasting effect, whereas persuasion through the peripheral route is
more short-lived. As they argue, when people consider ideas and spend time thinking
about them, they are more likely to be absorbed. This has also lead Gass and Seiter
(2011) to the conclusion that “to make persuasion last, you’ve got to make people
think” (p. 36).
Despite having brought forward two opposing means of processing, Petty and
Cacioppo acknowledge the possibility of using both routes at once, which they have
named “parallel processing” (Petty et al, 2004). They do however suggest that there
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often is a trade-off between options, meaning that people tend to favour either central
processing or peripheral processing. Stiff (1986) is in agreement, and says that
“humans are capable of parallel processing and are apparently able to divide their
attention between processing central message cues and peripheral ones” (Stiff, 1986,
p. 87). As such, he argues, parallel processing is also likely to be used at moderate
levels of involvement.
In the aforementioned levels of involvement, either narrative or evidential persuasion
can prove more effective. In a 1997 study, using meta-analysis to compare the
persuasiveness of both narrative and statistical evidence, Allen and Preiss found that
45 per cent of individuals were persuaded through the use of a narrative, whereas 55
per cent were persuaded through the use of statistics. They concluded that: “the
persuader is slightly more effective with a message that uses statistical proof as
opposed to examples or narratives” (Allen & Preiss, 1997, p. 128).
Going beyond the broad comparison of the persuasiveness of narratives and statistics
respectively, Braverman (2008) finds that “informational messages are more
persuasive when perceived by individuals characterised by high rather than low
involvement and high rather than low need for cognition” (p. 666). He has conducted
three experiments that confirm this statement to the extent that “testimonial or
storytelling is more effective than expository or informational messages for those
individuals who are not motivated to scrutinize the message, either because they are
initially not concerned about their current state or because they are low in NC [need
for cognition]” (Braverman, 2008, p. 688).
In one of his two perspectives on persuasion, Reinard (1998) argues “that audiences
that follow the central route will be more influenced by evidence than (...) audiences
that follow the peripheral route” (p. 7). This has led him to the same conclusion as
Braverman: In order to persuade people that are highly involved in an issue, statistical
evidence proves more persuasive, whereas people with little involvement in a topic
are more likely to be persuaded by a narrative.
As to why this is the case, theorists offer different explanations. Dickson (1982) finds
that generally “case-history information is claimed to have a greater impact on
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judgements because it is more vivid, personal, and concrete than remote, pallid, and
abstract statistics” (p. 398). As he goes on to argue, a “case information’s
characteristics make it easier to understand, easier to encode into memory, and more
available to memory” (Dickson, 1982, p. 398). That being said, his study does not
confirm this statement. In fact, “case information was found not to be more vivid or
interesting per se”. It should however be noted, that though his findings suggest that
case information is not necessarily more vivid and easier to grasp, the personal
characteristics of narratives, compared to that of statistics, are not easily ignored.
In a 1994 study, Brosius and Bathelt found that “contrary to their validity, the
vividness of general statements is quite low” (p. 49). The problem, they argue, is that
“base-rate information, despite its validity, does not affect recipients’ perceptions or
judgements about a problem” (p. 73).
At first sight, the two aforementioned studies suggest opposite conclusions.
Nevertheless, there is one important factor missing in their evaluations, namely the
audiences’ states of mind. As Reinard and Braverman suggest, the persuasiveness of
either narratives or statistics depend on the degree of audience involvement.
In Dickson’s study, the subjects, women from PTA and church groups, were
presented with two problem tasks that affected them directly. In the first scenario they
were asked to imagine that their refrigerator broke down and how they might react to
it; what actions they would take. The women thus faced a problem, which personally
affected them, and as such had the ability and the motivation to be highly involved
with the issue; their processing was likely to be central. In the second scenario, the
women were given a description of the breakdown rate of a brand of refrigerators and
asked to read it through carefully. As they were already in an imagined state, in which
they had a failed fridge at home, reading this information again increased the
likelihood of using central processing, especially as they were told to read the manual
through carefully.
In Brosius and Bathelt’s study however, students were indirectly encouraged to use
peripheral processing to answer the researchers questions. Telling the students that
they were to judge news stories created by other students, in terms of quality, the
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researchers put the main emphasis onto the way the news story was made, rather than
its content. The students thus had their main focus on how well the story was made
and structured and engaged in central processing, in terms of inspecting the story’s
quality. The researchers, however, presented the students with questions on content
details, rather than the questions that they had announced at the start of the study.
Having focused on build-up, rather than content, the students only registered the
content through peripheral processing, as they thought it not directly relevant to them;
proving low involvement. When the researchers conclude that base-rate information
does not affect recipients’ perceptions, there is a high possibility that the fact that
students used peripheral processing to come to their judgements, was left out.
Similarly, the consideration that central processing lead to the judgements of the
women in Dickson’s study is not made.
Considering that the subjects of Dickson’s study most probably used central
processing to come to a conclusion, his finding that a narrative does not prove more
vivid or interesting, is in light of Braverman’s findings not surprising. Similarly, when
Braverman’s findings is taken into account, as well as the probability that the students
in Brosius and Bathelt’s study used peripheral processing, their finding that base-rate
information does not affect recipient’s perceptions gives evidence to the fact that
statistical evidence is unlikely to be very persuasive when peripheral processing is
used.
O’Keefe (1998) outlines another aspect of the effectiveness of persuasive narratives
or statistics, describing how the quality of the supporting information affects
persuasion. He argues that “two advocates who are equally explicit about their
supporting materials might find different effects if one has closely-reasoned
arguments with high-quality supporting information and opinions where the other has
shoddy arguments with information of dubious relevance or provenance” (p. 68).
Thus, the use of evidence in itself might not necessarily be persuasive; the quality of
the evidence plays a role in the message’s persuasiveness. It is also not only the
quality of the evidence itself that has an impact on persuasiveness, the quality of the
source – namely the speaker’s characteristics, also play an important role. As Reinard
(1998) argues, “when an advocate starts out with credibility and high-quality evidence,
persuasive effects should be maximised. On the other hand, if the topic does not
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involve individuals personally, even good evidence is not likely to enhance a highly
respected advocate’s credibility” (p. 41). Thus, speaker credibility may also influence
persuasiveness.
According to Gass and Seiter (2011) there are three main dimensions to credibility:
Expertise, trustworthiness and goodwill; expertise being the most important of the
three. As Gass and Seiter argue, a speaker, who shows expertise, who seems
trustworthy and who shows care for the audience’s position receives high credibility.
In connection with the elaboration likelihood model, Gass and Seiter characterise
credibility as a peripheral cue, as “receivers with low-involvement are more likely to
defer to sources, because doing so requires less mental effort than concentrating on
the substance of a message” (p. 81). Having only limited interest in concentrating on
the persuasive message, the receiver who uses peripheral processing is likely to
consider a high-credibility speaker.
Method and Methodology As the analysis in the following is concerned with the reasoning behind using both a
narrative and a statistical part in a Colgate advertisement, the research methodology
has to be suitable for identifying the persuader’s intentions and the reason for the
message’s construction. The focus lies not on explaining a certain phenomenon, but in
understanding intentions. This can be done through interpretation or as
Schleiermacher in the early 1800s termed it: Methodological hermeneutics.
At the time when Schleiermacher introduced his model of hermeneutics, no generally
accepted model of interpretation had been established (Sherratt, 2005), and the
established natural science methods were not appropriate for human sciences.
Opposed to natural science methods that were established with the intention of
finding the truth, or to come to an explanation for a phenomenon, the study of
methodological hermeneutics as described by Schleiermacher, is concerned with the
interpretation of a text; focusing on the author’s thoughts and objectives especially.
As Schleiermacher argues, in order to understand the true meaning of a text, the
author’s intentions need to be established (Sherratt, 2005). Thus, hermeneutics,
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instead of searching for an absolute truth, is concerned with finding meaning in a text
as it was intended.
To uncover the true meaning of a text, Schleiermacher proposes two key elements:
The grammatical and the psychological (Sherratt, 2005, p. 59). The grammatical
dimension consists of the language and genre of a given text, whereas the
psychological dimension is established for “reconstructing an author’s original
experiences and intentions and then psychologically identifying or emphasising with
them” (Sherratt, 2005, p. 61). The language is analysed in terms of choice of words
and grammar, whereas the genre works in two dimensions: The discourses and
literary genre in which it is written, and the historical context in which the text is
composed. According to Schleiermacher, the grammatical and the psychological
dimension are equally important: “these two hermeneutical tasks are completely equal,
and it would be incorrect to label grammatical interpretation the “lower” and
psychological interpretation the “higher” task” (Schleiermacher in Sherratt, 2005, p.
62).
The following analysis is based on Schleiermacher’s concept of hermeneutics and
divided into two main parts: the analysis of the language of the text and the analysis
of the sender of the message in relation to the audience. In order to retrieve
information on the characteristics of the sender himself, a short brand analysis, based
on Aaker’s “Brand Identity System” (Aaker, 2010, p. 79), will be presented. As the
sender in this instance is not a singular person, e.g. an author, an analysis of the
author’s life and experiences, as suggested by Schleiermacher, is no applicable. The
channel, through which the message is received, is also not a book or any other form
of writing, but television. The message belongs to the advertising genre and as such
the focus lies rather on what the brand represents rather than one individual. The
brand, “Colgate Time Control”, represents the intentions that the corporation had for
this line of products, as it is constructed in order to appeal to a certain target group.
The brand analysis is conducted with the characteristics of the audience in mind, and
as such, it serves as a commercial application of Schleiermacher’s concept of
psychological interpretation.
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Discourse analysis, categorising language into three functions, as introduced by
Halliday (1978, 1994, in Stillar, 1998), provides a further basis for the textual analysis.
The first function, ideational, concerns itself with the “language’s resources for
constructing content” (Stillar, 1998, p. 20). The focus here lies on the text in terms of
concepts, relations, and events in connection with their circumstances. The second
function, the interpersonal function, “concerns [the] language’s resources for shaping
interaction” (Stillar, 1998, p. 20). Socially constructed relations between participants
in different contexts and situations, created through language, can be assigned through
the use of the language’s interpersonal resources. With these means, addressees can
be assigned a certain role and attitudes towards the addressee and the content can be
given. In the third and final function, the textual is used to create cohesion throughout
the text, in order to set parts of the text into the foreground to increase its prominence,
while other parts of the text are supportive to create contextual coherence. The
abovementioned functions, though analysed separately, are not to be seen
independently. In order to identify the intended meaning by the addresser, the
interdependence of these three functions must be kept in mind.
An expansion of Burke’s rhetoric will also be presented. Burke’s rhetoric functions,
as an expansion to Halliday’s discourse analysis, provide another way of analysing
rhetorical process of a linguistic message (Stillar, 1998). In his analytical system there
are three overall classifications: Grammar, rhetoric and logology.
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Brand Analysis Within the brand analysis and the discourse analysis several quotations of the
advertisement text are made. The transcribed text can be found in the appendix.
Toothpaste is usually a product that is bought habitually, rather than with serious
consideration. Kotler and others (2012, p. 508) classify toothpaste as a typical
convenience good, a good that consumers buy “frequently, immediately, and with a
minimum effort” (Kotler et al, 2012, p. 508). For Colgate, this might prove a problem,
as it is not the cheapest product on the market, but generally marketed as one of high
quality. If consumers just go and buy any toothpaste without much consideration, low
price could prove to be the decisive factor when making the purchase. Colgate also
does not market the sub-brand Colgate Time Control as a convenience good, but as a
product that is purchased with quality and suitability in mind. Kotler and others
(2012) classify such products as shopping goods. Consumers characteristically
evaluate shopping goods before they make the purchasing decision, based on criteria
such as “suitability, quality, price, and style” (Kotler et al, 2012, p. 508). Most often,
shopping goods have a higher price than convenience goods, making customers
consider their choices more intensively.
Gass and Seiter (2008) describe this type of consideration for a product, in connection
with persuasion, as “involvement”. In a situation where dental hygiene is not a main
priority in a person’s daily life, e.g. in a situation where a person has perfectly healthy
teeth and does not – or never did – experience any problems with their teeth or gums,
a he or she is more likely to have low involvement with a product such as toothpaste.
Priorities simply lie on other aspects of the daily routine. As brushing teeth is
considered a regular activity, much consideration to which toothbrush or toothpaste to
use is not made. As soon as problems with the teeth or gums occur however, people
are likely to increase their focus on dental health, as they are constantly reminded of
them e.g. when experiencing pain or an uncomfortable feeling of the mouth.
It is apparent that Colgate’s Time Control sub-brand targets mainly the latter group of
people, who notice possible teeth issues. The woman in the advertisement, a person
who has “decided” to try the product, speaks of change that comes with age, which in
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itself does not impose a problem to her. It is the accompanying changes in her dental
hygiene, “my gums starting to recede”, that worry her. This reflects the previously
mentioned situation of first showing low involvement, as long as the teeth and gums
are healthy, but increased involvement as soon as there is a problem with either. In
order to target people who have increased or high involvement with issues of dental
control as their age increases, Colgate thus created a specific sub-brand to their
toothpastes, called “Colgate Time “Control”.
At the core identity of the Colgate Time Control sub-brand, representing “the timeless
essence of a brand” (Aaker, 2010, p. 85), is the notion of high-quality toothpaste that
protects against dental hygiene issues arising with age. The core identity represents
the most important aspects of the brand, what consumer will connect with and which
aspects of the brand that the creators wish to be remembered. The slogan provided by
Colgate Time Control, “everyday protection against time”, represents the core identity
and also serves as an umbrella under which the core elements of the brand are
sheltered, though it cannot in itself capture the full essence of the brand (Aaker, 2010,
p. 87). Instead, it serves as a memorable combination of words that create associations
with Colgate Time Control’s core identity.
The core identity is furthermore supported within the advertisement itself, by the
information given in the voiceover. In the first sentence “clinical trials show that
Colgate Time Control’s formula penetrates gums and makes them up to 73% healthier,
helping prevent them from receding further”, the advertisement proves a clear focus
on the product’s features and attributes. This is also supported in the subsequent
sentence: “Colgate Time Control also contains Vitamin E”. Such aspects are typical
for a brand that is represented by product-related associations (Aaker, 2010, p. 78).
The Colgate Time Control brand can thus be described as a brand that is signified
largely through product associations, seeing as the product features play a large role
in the advertisement. In itself it plays a vital role in the promotion for Colgate Time
Control, as it is the only television spot made for the Colgate sub-brand. The Colgate
Time Control advertisement also provides the typical association for the occasion of
which the product would be used, as well as the typical Colgate Time Control user,
both associated with a brand that is largely based on product attributes.
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The typical product user, as shown in the advertisement, speaks both about her
increasing age as well as the accompanying challenges. She does not only serve as a
demonstration of a typical user of the brand, she also gives the brand a personality
and serves as one herself. While product features provide the users of a brand with
functional benefits, meaning benefits relating to the “functional utility to the customer”
(Aaker, 2010, p. 95), personal characteristics go beyond and provide a self-expressive
benefit to the brand user. Self-expressive benefits contribute to the self-image of
which the user aims to portray, to himself and to other people, when using a specific
brand. In the case of Colgate Time Control the female speaker, Tracey Bailey does
this prototypically. She emphasises her concern for good dental hygiene and healthy
gums, and as a consequence presents herself as a considerate, sensible and caring
personality. As she is a Colgate Time Control customer, and illustrative for the Time
Control brand, she transfers her personality to the brand; at the same time
encouraging consumers, who see themselves as considerate and sensitive, to try the
product.
A further aspect of a brand as a person is found in the voiceover. Presenting scientific
evidence for the product’s functionality and providing information on the product’s
components, the voiceover establishes an expert-to-customer relationship.
Colgate Time Control’s brand personality is also supported by its mother brand
“Colgate”, in itself associated as a sensible choice, and for people concerned with
dental hygiene. As Colgate Time Control carries the name of the mother brand,
consumers will relate to Colgate whenever hearing or seeing the name Colgate Time
Control, providing a direct link to associations with the Colgate brand. In order to
separate Colgate Time Control from the mother brand, a specific segment of the
market has been targeted. Market segmentation is based on UK geographics,
demographics and psychographics.
Demographic segmentation is based on general consumer characteristics, such as age,
gender, occupation and income (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). As Tracey Bailey is
presented as a typical Colgate Time Control customer, the demographic segmentation
is shown in terms of age, lifestage and possible education. The archetype buyer of
Colgate Time Control has, according to the advertisement, reached an age where
receding gums are a common issue, as well as an educated opinion about dental
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hygiene and the challenges that come with age. This is supported in the
advertisement’s first sentences where she states that to her “change is normal: a little
grey here and a new wrinkle there. But when I noticed my gums starting to recede, I
was concerned.”
Psychographic segmentation, based on psychological dimensions such as lifestyle,
opinions, interests, and attitudes (Pickton & Broderick, 2005, p. 377), is often used
when consumer lifestyle or personality impacts purchasing behaviour. Choosing to
show the brand’s personality traits, Colgate is targeting consumers according to
psychographic as well as demographic and geographic aspects. In the advertisement
Colgate’s target group show personality traits such as a consciousness for a healthy
lifestyle, concern for their general hygiene and an aspiration for a positive self-image.
Tracey Bailey depicts all these traits, as she is concerned with her receding gums, her
decision to act upon it and the resulting satisfaction about her smile, as she says, she
hasn’t “felt this good about [it] […] in years” (ad text).
Summing up, the Colgate Time Control brand is focused on its functionality, as well
as the benefits it provides to its customers. People that are highly involved with dental
hygiene and that are of a certain age are targeted, and are likely to be generally
invested in their health and wellbeing.
Discourse Analysis Genre and Sender-Receiver Relationship Colgate’s “Time Control” advertisement deals specifically with age-related tooth
decay and appeared on television so as to promote the product. Typically for
advertisements, the overall communicative goal of the sender is to persuade the
receiver, in this case the individual watching television, to purchase their product. The
sender is Colgate, or to be more precise the publically owned Colgate-Palmolive
company, who aim to address the stakeholder group of their own customers, as well
as potential future customers with their campaign.
Though Colgate is the actual sender of the message, a differentiation needs to be
made within the advertisement itself. The campaign has two speakers – Tracey Bailey,
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a horse trainer, presumably above the age of 40, and a male voiceover. Whether
Tracey Bailey is a fictional character invented by Colgate or actually gives her own
opinion about the product is cannot be determined, but nonetheless, she serves as
second sender to that of the male voiceover. While Tracey Bailey speaks of her
ageing and her worry about tooth decay, the voiceover presents facts about the
product at hand. As such, the following analysis of ideational and interpersonal
structural resources will analyse Tracey Bailey’s transcribed speak and the transcribed
voiceover separately. In the textual analysis both texts will be analysed together, in
order to establish a connection throughout.
Ideational Resources
As the woman in the advertisement represents a member of the public, who has
reached a certain age and is therefore concerned with her health, both mental and
actional process types are to be expected. Mental process involves a processor and
phenomenon, where the subject of the sentence represents the processor and the direct
object represents the phenomenon (Stillar, 1998). In the exemplary text, the second
sentence provides a relationship between the processor and the phenomenon with a
perceptive process, where the woman speaking is also the person perceiving: (“I”),
the phenomenon is “my gums starting to recede” and the verb indicating the mental
process is “noticed”.
This process is followed by a further mental process, this time in a combination with
an action process. The sentence “I decided to use the new Colgate Time Control”
represents a mental process, in particular, a reactive process focusing on the decision
to use Colgate Time Control. Within this mental process, there is an embedded action
process, expressed by “to use the new Colgate Time Control”. This sentence
represents an affective action process, where the agent is missing, but is implied to be
“I”, i.e. Tracey Bailey, and the patient is “the new Colgate Time Control”. This
combination of sensing as a mental process (Stillar, 1998, p. 25) and the
consequential action represents a logical sequence of processes that typically lead to
actions. A further perceptive mental process follows the action process: “I haven’t felt
this good about my smile in years”, and serves as a consequence to the action that was
previously taken.
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The timeline-setup of Tracy Bailey’s speak is supported by circumstantials, time and
perspective. Her expression, “when I noticed my gums starting to recede” serves as an
adverbial of time, to set the time frame of the departure of Tracey Bailey’s mental and
actional processes. This is supported by the time expressed through the tenses of the
verbs. All verbs previous to her trying Colgate Time Control (“noticed”, “was”,
“decided”) are set in past tense, representing the completed time before-now (Stillar,
1998, p. 27). The sentence representing the time after the trial of Colgate Time
Control, however, is constructed with the past perfect (“haven’t felt”), indicating a
process that has started before-now and which has just finished. In combination with
the process types and the circumstantials, the time frame establishes a clear timeline:
the time previous to Tracy Bailey’s trial, the decision to try the product and the phase
past her trial.
As opposed to the Tracey Bailey text, the voiceover text does not contain mental
processes, but is instead built up of action and relational processes. For the most part
of the text, the subject, the agent in an action process, is Colgate Time Control or its
formula. In the first example, it “penetrates gums” and “makes them up to 73%
healthier”; showing a direct relation between the product and the effect it will have
through these action processes. The product’s functionality is explained through a
more tangible process, an action process, rather than through abstract themes.
A possessional relational process, with Colgate as the possessor, can be identified in
the next sentence, where it is stated, that “Colgate Time Control also contains Vitamin
E”. Despite being more abstract than an actional process, this possessional process
outlines the extra ingredient in Colgate Time Control toothpaste in one clear
formulation. As opposed to the actional process previous to this example, the
relational process expresses that only one participant is involved – the product.
Whereas the focus previously was on the product’s interaction with a person’s gums,
now Colgate Time Control’s attribute is in the foreground in order to illustrate another
positive side.
Also unlike the first text are the lack of circumstantials and the exclusive use of
present tense. The perspective in all sentences is completed, which is indicated by the
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use of the simple present tense. Furthermore, the present tense establishes a timeframe
in the present – now – showing that the statements are currently valid.
The validity and the helpfulness of these statements are supported by the use of
taxonomies revolving around the health theme. A meronomy, a part-whole
relationship, can be found in the sense that “healthier” is the whole, implying that
health is the conceptual field, and parts of it are, “prevent them [gums] from receding
further”, “vitamin E”, and “protection against time”. The way they are presented
creates an implied relationship of their contribution to the overall health and their
function as individual parts within the whole health theme.
Establishing an expository text with narrative elements with a health theme, Colgate
makes sure to point out the contribution of their product to dental health. Considering
the overall communicative goal, the voiceover serves to outline the positive
characteristics of Colgate Time Control in order to make the product more appealing,
ultimately making the advertisement more persuasive.
Interpersonal Resources
As the text presented by Tracey Bailey revolves around actional and mental processes
and is built up to show a narrative, its construction of exclusively declarative
sentences is appropriate. The use of the declaratives in the form of statements imposes
an authority on the listener and establishes the statements as factual (Stillar, 1998).
The use of declarative sentences indicates that the grammatical mood “performs a
relational function” (Stillar, 1998, p. 34), meaning that it shows the way the speaker
relates to the listener. That being said, despite the exclusive use of declarative
sentences, a positional resource in the form of a constructed attitude and evaluation is
also identified. Expressing “you can’t control time, but you can control its effects”,
the speaker shows her attitude towards the concept of time. Through the change of the
subject in this sentence compared to previous sentences, from the first person to the
second person, a change in perspective is made. The speaker still presents what is said
as factual, but directly addresses her audience instead of speaking of her own
experience. Conversely, the concept of “you” can also express a generalisation rather
than addressing a person or a group of people in particular. It is likely that the use of
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“you”, as a generalisation, is intended in this sentence. Nevertheless, both uses of the
second person indicate the speaker’s attitude.
Whether “you” is seen as a generalisation or addresses the listener directly impacts
the use of modality. Depending on its use, modality can express both a positional and
a relational function (Stillar, 1998). If the second person is seen as directly addressing
the listener, the modality assigns permission and the lack of ability to the addressee.
The fragment “you can control its effects” serves as permission to the listener to take
control of his or her own situation. If the use of the second person is to represent a
generalisation, the modality has a positional function, to construct the speaker’s
orientation to reality. Saying, “you can’t control time”, the speaker shows her
understanding of time and the fact that individuals have no influence on the concept
of time. Both interpretations provide different views to the function that the modality
fulfils in this context. Nevertheless, it can be said, that both functions are likely to be
intended in this sentence, so that the modality carries both a positional and a relational
function within the same sentence.
Through the use of attitudinal lexis, the speaker presents her attitudes within the text.
Qualitative adjectives, such as “normal” and “good” are found, as well as a degree
adverb “this good”. These adjectives and adverbs show the position of the speaker
and therefore have a positional function.
The declarative text structure, establishing the speaker’s authority, together with
positional use of modality and positional function of attitudinal lexis create a text that
determines the woman speaking as a credible speaker, whose attitudes are relevant.
Similar to the first text, the voiceover in the second text only speaks in declarative
sentences, establishing authority towards the listener. The speaker presents the
information given to the audience as facts. This relational function is, other than in the
first text, not accompanied by any positional functions, such as positional modality,
attitudinal lexis, or sentence adjuncts. However, this fulfils a certain purpose. In the
first text the relationship between the speaker and the listener is established as one
party – the woman speaking – narrating her experiences. The intention is to
sympathise with her and to follow her story and ultimately her argumentation based
24
on her personal experience. In the second text, the speaker does not act as a person,
who has tried the product, but as a neutral voice speaking of the qualities of the
product. In order to appear factual, positional terms are left out of this text, and
instead neutral wording is used to describe the effects and qualities of Colgate Time
Control. The relationship with the listener is not based on sympathy, but on the
listener’s intention to learn more about the qualities of the product.
Considering the overall communicative purpose, the first text creates a different
relation between the audience and the speaker than the second. The first text
establishes a more personal relation, where the woman tells a story about her personal
situation, and the second text represents a professional relation, where the speaker
educates the listener of the product’s features.
Textual Resources
The textual message, set up in order to present how the ideational and interpersonal
functions are organised in terms of their linguistics message (Stillar, 1998), is based
on themes and cohesion in relation to the text’s medium and channel.
Through the use of a communicative channel that is exclusively one-way without the
possibility of instant feedback or responses, an atmosphere in which the listener only
has the possibility to accept or decline information is created, without the possibility
for the listener to negotiate or discuss with the speaker. As the message is mainly
spoken with some of the statements supported by a written version of the points made
(“Time Control”, “Up to 73% healthier”, “Everyday protection against time”), the
listener is encouraged to only retain information that is made out to be important.
These aspects have to be considered when analysing themes and cohesion in the text.
In the first text the voice is consistently active. No passive sentences are used and
within the active sentences, three different unmarked themes are detected.
Represented by the subject in an active sentence (Stillar, 1998), the unmarked theme
in the opening sentence is “change”. In the following three sentences the theme is the
speaker (“I”) and in the last sentence, the second person, “you. In the second text the
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themes revolve around the product, “clinical trials”, “Colgate Time Control”, and
“new Colgate Time Control” being the respective unmarked themes.
The second text especially, shows logical coherence through the use of related themes,
making it easy to follow the argumentation. The first text seems more unorganised
with the changing of themes throughout the text. As the unmarked theme in the first
sentence spoken is “change”, rather than the person speaking, as it is in the following
sentences, a change in subject could be assumed. That being said, the “change” theme
and the person speaking are directly connected in this part, as the woman speaking
represents the change that people go through, as they grow older. Thus, the themes of
change and the person speaking are interrelated and a logical coherence is created. In
the final sentence where the unmarked theme is the second person, “you”, the theme
of change is applied to the listener. Telling the listener “you can’t control time, but
you can control its effects”, the speaker establishes the theme of change to the listener
and conveys the same application of change through time to the person seeing the
advertisement. The logical coherence that can be seen through the use of these
interrelated themes is firstly the notion of change in general, secondly, the change for
the woman speaking in the advertisement and lastly the change that affects everybody,
represented by the person seeing the advertisement.
Apart from a text’s theme, coherence is established through reference, ellipsis,
conjunction and lexicality (Stillar, 1998). Coherence in the form of reference, ellipsis
or conjunction is almost not to be found in these texts. Only one instance of coherence
through the use of a conjunction can be found in the use of the adversative “but”.
Seeing both texts as one, as they appear within the advertisement, the observation that
they do not speak one after another can be made. Firstly, the female tells part of her
story, which is stopped at the point where she outlines that she decided to use the
product advertised. The voiceover outlines the product’s features in the next part. In
the following the woman tells of the positive effect the product has had on her and
what she has learned from using the product. Finally, the voiceover presents the name
of the product together with a product slogan.
Having these four parts by two different speakers in the advertisement, cohesion
through repetition, ellipsis or conjunction becomes nearly impossible, as the speakers
26
only present very few sentences before being superseded by the other speaker. Instead,
lexical cohesion is predominant throughout the advertisement.
Within this text, themed around both changes that comes with age and the product
Colgate Time Control, which has the purpose to stop hurtful changes to teeth and
gums, several lexical choices are found. “Grey hair” and “wrinkle” are typical terms
associated with change that comes with age, while “prevent them from receding
further” is aligned with the topic of stopping decay in teeth and gum quality.
Repetition is another cohesive choice found within text. The term “control” especially,
appears often when the length of the text is considered. Within the term “Colgate
Time Control” as well as otherwise in the text, “control” appears six times, creating
repetitional cohesion. The word combination “Colgate Time Control” appears four
times, emphasising the term throughout the advertisement and making it more
memorable.
Through the use of themes involving ageing, change and people’s ability to have an
effect on this change, the sender of the message evokes attention from a particular
group of people, who are able to identify with these issues. With the limitation of
providing a one-way channel through which the message is sent, where immediate
feedback is also not possible, the overall communicative purpose of arousing interest
to possibly encourage people to try the product can be achieved, though with the risk
that the message is not completely understood. In order to ensure this understanding,
repetition is used throughout, especially a regards product name.
Prevailing Discourses Two main discourses are to be found in the advertisement text. The first and most
prominent discourse is a health discourse. As previously mentioned, “Time Control”
carries the Colgate name, and with it Colgate’s brand associations. As Colgate is one
of the biggest brands within dental hygiene and health, and has been a prominent
brand for many years, its name is vastly associated with dental health. The Colgate
brand is also mentioned four times within the relatively short text, highlighting its
importance throughout.
27
The health discourse is further emphasised by both the female speaker and the
voiceover. In the first part of the text, the female speaker outlines: “when I noticed my
gums starting to recede, I was concerned”, showcasing how important oral health is to
her, compared to changes in physical appearance, which she argues to be normal. As a
result, health is given a higher importance compared to the other issues appearing in
the text. Te health discourse is furthermore underlined by the voiceover, stating that
“clinical trials show that Colgate Time Control’s formula penetrates gums and makes
them up to 73% healthier, helping them from receding further”. Terms such as
“clinical trials”, “penetrates gums” and “healthier” are also typically associated with
health and hygiene. The next sentence describes the ingredient Vitamin E, which is
vastly linked with being healthy and preventing diseases, more precisely gum decay,
as lack of Vitamin E was made out to be a cause of diseases, such as scurvy.
Throughout the majority of the text, the health discourse is highlighted and oral
hygiene specifically is often made the subject of elaboration.
A second discourse that is strongly represented in the advertisement is the ageing
discourse. Already in the first sentence, the female speaker says “change is normal: a
little grey here and a new wrinkle there”. With this, she describes the typical changes
in physical appearance that come with increasing age. The name of the product,
Colgate Time Control, also implies ageing, especially in connection with the last two
sentences of the text: “you can’t control time, but you can control its effects” and
“Colgate Time Control – everyday protection against time”. Here, “time” does not
describe the abstract concept of time, but serves as an analogy for increasing age. The
discourse attempts to show that despite the inevitability of age, the product can have a
positive influence on the effects brought upon by age.
Together the two discourses form a connection throughout the text that directly links
people’s general health and increasing age. By establishing this connection, the
authors are able to create discourses where Colgate Time Control is seen as a means
to improve oral health as opposed to not using the product which would have a direct
negative effect on teeth and gums.
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Burkean Rhetoric Burke’s first classification, grammar, is concerned with how patterns in the discourse
index construct motives. He proposes a dramatistic pentadic model consisting of five
elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. Burke states that when attributing
motives to others, people rely on ratios between these elements. By identifying how
each element is construed in a text, it is possible to get a picture of its construction of
reality (Stillar, 1998).
In the first sentence of the voiceover “clinical trials show that Colgate Time Control’s
formula penetrates gums…” shows an agent:act ratio. The agent is “clinical trials”
and the attributed verb is “show”. Using “clinical trials” as the agent rather than the
product itself, which is the main focus of the advertisement, Colgate sets the motive
in order to display how experts conducting clinical trials see the product. The subject
in this first sentence is not Colgate itself, but another group of experts, allowing
Colgate to portray neutrality in assessing the product and to increase believability
towards the audience.
A purpose:act ratio is found in both the woman’s and the voiceover’s text. In the first
text, the sentences “But when I noticed my gums starting to recede, I was concerned. I
decided to try the new Colgate Time Control” create a prupose:act ratio with the first
sentence serving as the purpose and the second sentence as the resulting action. A
similar relation is noticeable in the subordinate clause “that Colgate Time Control’s
formula penetrates gums and makes them up to 73% healthier, helping prevent them
from receding further”. In this sentence the purpose is stated in the second part,
whereas the first part serves as the act. With this purpose:act ratio Colgate established
a logical connection between health benefits and the use of their product in order to
create such an association in the viewer.
The purpose:act ratio, with the implied motive along the lines of “by using Colgate
Time Control you are preserving your dental health”, makes the listener identify with
the message. Using a woman who outlines her experience with the product in relation
to her health, the creators of the advertisement appeal to the audience’s pathos. The
person seeing the advertisement may identify with the issues presented by the woman,
29
despite not being addressed directly, creating a feeling of empathy and thus reducing
emotional distance. In emphasising the importance of good dental health in the text, a
conviction that is shared in most of the Western World, Colgate convinces the
audience that they share “substance” with the sender.
In the second ratio, the agent:act ratio, a form of social order marked by hierarchy is
established. As previously mentioned, the sentence is constructed in a declarative,
meaning that no direct orders are given to the addressee. However, a hierarchy is
established through the use of the term “clinical trials”, implying a panel of experts
analysing the products. Mentioning the experts’ assessment of the product enhances
the credibility of the campaign and influences the viewer through ethos, as
knowledgeable people in the field find it effective.
Results The brand analysis of Colgate’s sub-brand Colgate Time Control has revealed that
Colgate markets the product as a shopping good rather than as a convenience good,
making it possible for them to charge a higher price. In order to have consumers
choose their product over a cheaper alternative, the Time Control branding is set up to
increase consumer involvement with the issue of dental hygiene, especially those
consumers already concerned with such issues. The core identity of the Colgate Time
Control brand is defined by its functional aspects, toothpaste that protects against
ageing gum decay. This core identity is supported by more functional aspects of the
brand and a personalisation in the form of the typical product user, represented by the
woman Tracey Bailey. She attaches personal characteristics to the brand, such as
trustworthiness, functionality and expertise; characteristics that are also carried by the
Colgate mother-brand, when lending its name to the Time Control sub-brand. A
distinction between these two is made through the establishment of a narrow target
group for Colgate Time Control; people of increasing age.
In the discourse analysis, a separation of the advertisement into two different
linguistic and discursive messages was identified. On the one hand, the woman
speaking in the advertisement is a character that the viewer of the advertisement is to
empathise with. She speaks about her personal situation in order to make viewers
30
identify with her situation, arguing that Colgate Time Control helped her overcome
her difficulties. Through the use of narrative language, sentence structure, and the
build-up of a timeline, she becomes a relatable person. The voiceover on the other
hand provides factual information on the product through the use of simple language
in the present tense without any circumstantials or other deflective language.
The analysis based on Burkean rhetoric adds to the finding, as it suggests that the part
of the advertisement with the female speaker contains language that creates an appeal
through pathos, whereas the text of the voiceover represents an appeal through ethos,
expertise is given through the use of expert status and factual information. Despite the
separateness of these parts, the advertisement is connected as one, through the use of
a consistent theme of the change that comes with age and the use of Colgate Time
Control to battle this change. Cohesiveness throughout the advertisement is created
with repetition of the product’s name and the prevailing discourse of dental hygiene.
Discussion Looking at the results in light of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, it becomes
apparent that viewers are targeted both through the central and the peripheral route.
Central processing is encouraged by the factual information provided by the
voiceover. The information is not particularly tangible, but here the strongest
arguments are given. When engaging in central processing, viewers typically assess
information given with regards to quality, provided by strong arguments.
People, who are conscious about personal dental hygiene, be it of a preventative
nature or as a result of problems will show high involvement and can therefore be
described as using central processing.
Peripheral processing is supported by the inclusion of the female speaker in the
advertisement. As her text does not contain any statistical information, but is based on
her personal experience, viewers who might not otherwise be interested in the product,
e.g. they already have good tooth hygiene or are in another age group than that
identified by the advert, are given the opportunity to favour the Colgate Time Control
toothpaste; sympathising with the woman for elaborating on her personal situation.
This is a type of identification that happens through a less cognitive process than
31
through statistical evaluation. The identification without high involvement is
supported by the simple structure of her narrative that enable viewers to follow her
arguments without much concentration.
It is thus possible to conclude that the findings support the hypothesis by Braverman
(2008) and Reinard (1998): Narratives are used to persuade people with low
involvement whereas statistics are targeted at people with higher involvement.
As was also identified in the brand analysis, Colgate is fully aware of the fact that the
sub-brand Colgate Time Control is not relevant to everyone. With its specific
characteristics, through which it is also defined, Colgate Time Control appeals
through both high functionality and personal brand associations, reinforcing their
target group as people of a certain age. Knowing that their product has only limited
relevance to most of those exposed to the advertisement, as segmentation into
different target groups is nearly impossible within television, Colgate conducts the
message in a way that people for which the product has limited relevance are
addressed, as well as people for whom it is highly relevant.
In order to target the people not particularly interested in toothpaste, Colgate needed
to create a message that appeals without demanding too much attention and
elaboration from the viewer. With a simple narrative, Colgate offers a message that is
easy to follow as well as a sympathetic character, i.e. Tracey Bailey. Colgate thus
manages to evoke some attention without needing too much attention from the viewer
to bring their message across.
The narrative is however unable to persuade people with high involvement in itself,
and as such, statistical evidence is equally presented in the advertisement. As viewers,
who fit the target group – people with gum problems or of increasing age – are likely
to look for strong evidence to support their involvement with the issue, Colgate
provides little, but strong statistical evidence in the advertisement.
The two parts of the advertisement aimed at two different kinds of audiences also
work together as a whole. As previously mentioned, Petty and Cacioppo (Petty, 2004)
acknowledge the possibility of parallel processing, using both central and peripheral
32
processing at once. In this case, involvement might be described as lying somewhere
in between high and low involvement so that the viewer collects both central and
peripheral cues to come to a decision. By providing both a narrative and statistical
evidence, Colgate targets people with moderate involvement as well as people with
high and low involvement.
Finally, both the narrative and the statistical part of the advertisement offer different
kinds of information to different viewers, thought they also interact to form a
common persuasive message. The first part of the advertisement, where the woman is
talking about change and her own personal change, has the function to create attention
and to provide an identifiable narrative. A further peripheral means of persuasion is
used in the first sentence, where clinical trials are referenced, adding to the product’s
credibility. These elements serve as peripheral cues, but help add more substance to
the message. The second part of the advertisement provides statistics in order to show
that the given narrative is not an isolated case, but rather a typical development. As
such, the two parts work together to form a collective persuasive message, in order to
create long-term persuasion with consumers with both high and low involvement.
In conclusion, there are two main reasons why Colgate uses both a narrative and a
statistical part in this particular advertisement. On the one hand, the senders look to
address people with high, moderate, and low involvement, to persuade each of them
with the same advertisement, knowing that all of these groups exist in the consumer
group for Colgate products. On the other hand, the message is set up in a way that the
advertisement first evokes attention from people who might not have been very
interested through a narrative and then facilitates long-term persuasion, firstly through
further peripheral cues of credibility, and then through the use of concise statistical
evidence.
That being said, the scope of this paper only provides insight into why Colgate chose
this setup for this particular advertisement. In order to say something substantial about
why Colgate aims to persuade their target audiences in general, further investigation
into different Colgate advertisements will need to be made. To answer why
companies combine narratives with statistics in general, an extensive analysis of
various other advertisements, containing both elements, need also be conducted.
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While this analysis provides an insight into some of the reasons why a combination of
both elements is used by an organisation, no general claims can be made about the
reasoning for all persuaders to combine narratives and statistics in their persuasive
message. It is however interesting to note that a further investigation into this
phenomenon might provide valuable insight into the correlated benefits of narrative
and statistical persuasion as opposed to the majority research’s focus on the
persuasive elements individual characteristics.
34
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This text was directly transcribed from the advertisement and can be found at:
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• http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA2353