Cosmetic products

Cosmetic products1. IntroductionCosmetic products argon very important in human bread and butter payable to the improve custodyt of the living standards. And by speech the products to potential customers, cosmetic advertise custodyts atomic number 18 quite favourite in all means of media. Actually, cosmetic advertisers bring the products to customers in incompatible ways which depend more(prenominal) often than not on who the customers argon. In other words, they design different advertisements of the similar product to posterior different groups of viewers, namely men and women. The differences among much(prenominal) advertisements motivate me to do a small-scaled research on one of the factors that lead to such different features the quarrels calld in those advertisements. In more details, this es conjecture aims to examine if any gender-based linguistic differences go off be utilized in cosmetic advertisements with the purpose of physical objecting and influencing viewers of different genders by answering the following research questions Why do advertisers need more than one advertisement for ONE same product? Is language one of the near important differences (among other differences like characters, language, other ad techniques ) between the devil kinds of advertisements? Then why and how important is it in making such difference?2.Theoretical backgroundIn this section, a general view of advertising and gender differences pull up stakes be introduced in order to provide a basic background to answer the very first research question before the main nidus of the essay is discussed close further details of language work in advertisements. A special tending is paid on the guess of gender differences in language use in advertisements, which will be examined in septette different advertisements for Clear Shampoo in the later agency of the essay.2.1. An overview of advertisingNowadays, businesses and manufacturers be actually aw ar of the great importance of advertising their products or services since a successful advertisement can bring them great profits whereas an ill commercial can lead them to bankruptcy (Sadek-Endrawes, 2008). Thus, businesses and manufactures always try their best to find out ways to design the best advertisements for their products and services with the utilization of useful techniques. Those techniques then are employ as tools to attract attention, engage minds, trigger emotions and change what people think (adcracker.com a famous website for tips, tools and techniques to create world-class advertising ideas). Among them are special metaphors (a symbolic representation for the product), promises of benefit or problem solving, offers of give up samples, features of human-like and life-like, features of eye candy, etc. Writers from adcracker.com also believe that it might be useful to choose or create their own characters who are put in somewhat special situations, for example confl icts, which can be exaggerated. But the most and foremost important techniques that all advertisement designers need to know are the techniques of choosing the target viewers and language wisely and correspondingly. That is the reason why there are sometimes more than one advertisements designed for alone one single product.2.1.1. Language use as a powerful advertising techniqueIt is unambiguous that language plays a vital role in the society in general and in bothones life in particular. We use language of all kinds every day, if it is not to say, every moment to communicate with other people, to get ourselves and our own opinions expressed and vice versa to get the same things from others (Gyllgard, 2006). Mastering that communicative power of language, sure advertisers seem to always try their best to utilize language as a powerful tool to influence the viewers. More specifically, they often try to use language quite distinctively in order to catch viewers attention (adcracke r.com). For example, they sometimes play with words, use them out of context, and create new ones in order to help viewers remember a certain brand. Sometimes, those words become the famous slogan for the brand like Moving Forward for Toyota cars or Malaysia Truly Asia for Tourism in Malaysia. Language in advertisements is also used as internationalized (Sadek-Endrawes, 2008), which is expected to be beneficial in order to create same response from viewers of different countries in case the product comes into the global market. Another observation which is recorded by French researchers slightly language use in advertisements is that 50 percent of all words are supposed to be nouns and verbs. In closure, with the wise pickaxe of language, advertisers can make outstanding cause on advertisement viewers.2.1.2. Viewers targeted as an influential advertising techniqueMost advertisers know that advertising techniques have persuasive energy and that the strength of such persuasive ene rgy is measured in several ways, but most importantly in relation to a target audience (adkracker.com). It is explained by adcracker.com that different target audience have different lifestyles, different attitudes, different feelings and emotions, which is consequently resulted in different behaviors. Thus, successful advertisers are often sensible in construction adverts that can get people to take action or plant a belief in the minds of their prospective buyers by closely associating their adverts with the targeted viewers. It is also concur by itvdictionary.com that the personalization to a group of target audience can lead to greater awareness. More specifically, in a ChoiceStream survey, they noted that 38% of respondents say that they are more willing to pay attention pay attention to such individually focused advertising. 2.2. An overview of gender difference2.2.1. Gender difference in generalMen and women are different in various aspects which can mainly be categorized in to biological and social factors. Consequently, different monetary value are coined to show such differences, for example sex and gender.Sex is defined by Eckert and McConnell-Ginnet (200310) as a biological categorization which is based primarily on reproductive potential and gender is the social elaboration of biological sex. This means that sex is something fixed before birth (Thomas, 2004) with while gender is something that the social life shapes on us continuously in every pace of our life (Graddol and Swann, 19948). And it is believed and proved by many researches (Coates, 1993 Tannen, 1993 and Trudgill, 2000) that gender has a major influence on language use by a process named socialization (Tannen 199384)2.2.2. Gender difference in language useAs afore-mentioned, language is an important part of an individuals life which helps to form his/ her social identity (Gyllgard, 20061) by different linguistic habits which reflect different individual biographies and experiences (Gr addol and Swann, 19945). Coates (1993144) also claims that when children adopt linguistic behavior considered take into account to their gender they perpetuate the social order which creates gender distinctions This means that language is among the most significant factors, bedsides social roles and social positions, that make great distinctions between men and women. Actually, it is observed that men and women use language differently in a gender-appropriate manner (Tannen, 199385) since they are small. In the following part of the paper, that different use of language by different genders will be discussed in three main aspects (1) point choices, (2) word choices and (3) manner of speaking Topic choicesIn terms of topic choices, men are believed to blather more about sports or other physical activities when they are small (Poynton, 1989) and about current concerns, about their strength and their authorisation (Coulmas, 2005) when they grow up. Meanwhile, women are believed to spend time talking more on home activities, romance and fantasy worlds. Later in their life, they are considered to choose to talk about nonsense and unimportant personal topics (Gyllgard, 2006). Consequently, mens language is often considered as serious and important while womens is seen as trivial and easy to ignore (Coates, 1993). countersignature choicesIt is believed that women seem to be more careful about choosing words than men. And it is explained that this results from the different roles of the two genders in the society. Women are considered to have their first and foremost roles as pity the families and bringing up children. Consequently, they need to be careful with the words they use or otherwise they may set bad examples for their children. Also regarding word choices, in their works (Poyton, 1989 and Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 2003), researchers find that women use more intensifies (such as so and very), words of approximation (such as about and around), or iness ential qualifiers (like really or so) than men. Women are also claimed to use more adjectives (including empty adjectives like cute and evaluative adjectives like wonderful) and adverbs. Furthermore, hedges and tag questions are found more in women language sort of than mens in order to require confirmation or signal uncertainty respectively (Lakoff, 1989). Manner of speakingWith the same reasons of different social roles, in terms of manner of speaking, women seem to be more polite in speaking. Therefore, it seems that taboo language like slang or swear words are belike to be created and used by men rather than by women (Poyton, 1989). Lakoff (1989) also agrees with this by giving an example that women choose to use weaker expletives like oh dear or goodness instead of words like shit or damn. Meanwhile, Coates (1993) believes that the language used by women is collaboration-oriented with supportive comments to create and maintain relationship of closeness and comparability whil e that used by men is competition-oriented in order to assert their positions of dominance. There are differences between men and womens language in other aspects, however, due to the limit of this essay, only three above-mentioned are chosen to be discussed in this section and to be examined in the later one.3. Methodology and DataThis reflect focuses on the difference between the languages used by men and women in different advertisements for one same product, namely Clear Shampoo, a very popular shampoo in Vietnam. Secondly, it will test whether the advertisers are successful in utilizing the difference between men and women language in order to target viewers of different genders by checking whether viewers of different genders can recognize which advertisement is for them or not. First of all, English versions of seven Clear Shampoo advertisements are selected to be the data for analyzing and those advertisements are chosen for several reasons. Firstly, shampoo is now an essen tial cosmetic product that people, regardless of their age, their social or financial status and sure their gender, have to use in their daily life. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate the advertisements of such product. Secondly, it is found that there are several different advertisements of Clear Shampoo on television as closely as on Youtube at the same time and it is presumed by the author that it may result from the advertisers purpose of targeting viewers of different genders. Consequently, with the help of Google search and Youtube website, seven advertisements of Clear Shampoo are collected and transcribed in the appendices of this essay for being analyzed. Differences among those advertisements will then be judge out by checking the above-mentioned theory and later used to group the seven advertisements into 3 groups for men, for women and for both men and women.To make the research more reliable, the seven selected advertisements for Clear Shampoo are shown to 20 view ers of both genders who are non-native speakers of English but gain sufficient proficiency to understand the advertisements. Actually, they are Vietnamese t distributivelyers of English and students of some M.A. programs for English Linguistics or English Teaching Methodology. The viewers are asked to watch the seven advertisements and answer four following questions Who does each advertisement target, men or women? What features of the advertisement specialise you about its target viewers? Does language used in the advertisement one of those features? How does language tell you about the target viewers?4. Data analysis and resultsThe results of the interviews surprise the author when most of interviewees, after answering the first two questions, claim the features that inform them about the target viewers of the advertisements are mainly the models and images of the ads. Most of them only pay attention to the language of the advertisement after the third question. However, they all realize the difference in the language used in the adverts and agree that the language used in adverts by men and women partly tell us about the target viewers.Thus, firstly, this section presents the gender differences in language used in seven Clear Shampoo advertisements which are grouped in differences in (1) choice of topic, (2) choice of word and (3) manner of speaking. Such differences are resulted from the data analysis which is based on the above-mentioned background and the opinions of the interviewees.4.1 Choice of topicIt is revealed by the advertisement analysis that staminate models talk about their confidence and show their strength as well as their dominance to others by facing the problems Black is confident. trustingness means no dandruff. (Appendix 1) Face it. Cover it. I deal with dandruff like man. (Appendix 4)or Rage. Rage against her breath of fear. (Appendix 5)Meanwhile, female models talk about beautyas in some beauty shampoos(Appendix 3)about their daily activities such as combing in appendix 3 or about their emotion and their perception as in I love my hair. Im convinced. (Appendix 2) Convinced. I am. (Appendix 3)They also mention one fact that they often try to avoid the troubles they encounter Hide it Cover it I go for it secret as any woman should. (Appendix 4)4.2 Choice of words4.2.1 Verb choiceAs male models choose to talk about their confidence, their strength as well as their dominance, they use words that help to express perfectly what they mean. Actually, they use strong verbs as breath, move and sweat in appendix 1 or face, solve, and deal with in appendix 4 or verbs that show their activeness as in I trust Clear. (Appendix 1)The verbs utter by male voiceovers also have the same feature remove and prevent the dandruff (appendix 5), or make the dandruff go away and stay away (appendix 7) so that its all settled (appendix 4).All those verbs bring to the audience the active position of the speakers, and thus, revea l their dominant positions. On the other hand, the verbs used by female models are quite different when they seem to display the defensive positions of the women Im convinced. (Appendix 2) Convinced. I am. (Appendix 3)or their avoidance solutions for dandruff by hiding it, covering it or keeping it secret (appendix 4).4.2.2 procedural choiceAs their concerns are different, female and male models choose different adjectives when they speak about their hair. For example, most male models and voiceovers use black to talk about their hair or the hair they want to have I like black. Black is confident. Black looks good. (Appendix 1) From black into darkness and into the dark, the icy blackness follows. (Appendix 5) the seduction of black, the enticement of black. Its the closeness of black that you can only have Be black. (Appendix 6)At the same time, female models talk about the features of soft, foot and beautiful which are just suitable to describe female hair. Clear makes my hair soft and beautiful.Just soft hair. (Appendix 2) Can your shampoo leave your hair soft and clean Clear takes it soft. Just soft hair. (Appendix 3)4.3 Manner of speakingThe last but not least feature that 20 viewers and the author realize as the difference between the two genders is the way they speak. Female models talk with a collaborative orientation. They talk as if they want to share their experience with the audience whereas male models and voiceovers try to assert their positions of dominance by a competitive orientation. They talk about their dealing with dandruff (appendix 4), the collision of sparks and dandruff (appendix 5), their black seduction and temptation when they are dandruff free (appendix 6). The tendency of dominance is also expressed by their short imperative sentences which can be found more frequently in male models or voiceovers speech Face it Solve it (Appendix 4) Rage, rage against her breath of fear. (Appendix 5) Make the season more seductive. Make it a Clear Black Valentines. Be board. Be Black. tend closer anytime. Have Clear Black Valentines. (Appendix 6)The first advertisement with the male model, Bi Rain, also offers another feature of male speech. That is the logic in intellection and speaking Black is confident. Black looks good. Looking good means no dandruff. Confidence means no dandruff. Clear means no dandruff.With his logical speech, Bi Rain tries to convince the audience the close relationship among Clear, black, confident and looking good. And he seems successful with my interviewees.All in all, from the above analysis of the language used in seven adverts, it comes to a conclusion that advertisement No 1, 5 and 6 are targeted at men (although by what the author and the interviewees get from the adverts, 5 and 6 target at both men and women) advertisement No 2 and 3 are for women and the rest are targeted at both men and women.5. ConclusionIt can be seen from the results that the female language and male language u sed in seven Clear Shampoo advertisements follow tightly the theory that are presented in other researches on gender differences in language. However, the interviews with Vietnamese viewers who are non-native speakers of English reveal that what lead such viewers to the conclusion of target audience are not the language but the models and the images of the advertisements.The study also come to another conclusion that the advertisers, who are expected to pay attention to the language of advertising, an effective tool of persuasion, do not actually do so. And the results are the wrong target of the two advertisements number 5 and 6, which advertisers tend to target at both men and women (which can be understood by the images of white Clear for women and black Clear for men) but actually target only at men if only language of the advertisements is analyzed.