“Tapping Into a New Zeitgeist: Women Consumers, Lifestyle Trends and the Red Experience”
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Communication through advertising depends upon the product and the target market. UK women’s magazine RED used the emotional appeal in its advertising. Since the target market is women of all ages, the advertisers have used sex appeal, freedom and the concept of women rising above the traditional roles to appeal to the sentiments of women. The advertisers wanted to explore the sex appeal of women in consumer culture. The editorial team at RED was right in not focusing on women in their 30s and 40s alone because demographics and age are no more critical in segmentation variables that marketers use (Thomas & Peters, 2009). The concept of self and larger lifestyle issues is more relevant, especially in advertising for women. Lifestyle and identity are well recognized psychographic segmentation variables. The advertising campaign of the magazine RED is to appeal to women who have the concept of the self, who like to indulge in themselves and who would like to have time for them. For the past three decades, the concept of the self among women has become pronounced. The self-concept is influenced by the cultural context in which the women live (Peters, Shelton, Thomas, 2011). The magazine is not a utilitarian product and, hence, rational appeal has not been used. Emotional appeal aims to positively or negatively influence the emotions of the consumer that should result in the purchase of the product. Some cultures support exhibiting emotions (AlbersMiller & Stafford, 1999a), and this magazine is meant for women in the UK where equality between the sexes exists. Moreover, UK scores high on the Individualism score as per Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Geert-Hofstede) and, hence, the advertising has been rightly aimed at appealing to the emotions of the UK’s women. The people in the UK are highly individualistic and carry their own unique self-image.
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Consumers are known to prefer certain colors for specific products. For instance, automobiles are
Communication through advertising depends upon the product and the target market. UK women’s magazine RED used the emotional appeal in its advertising. Since the target market is women of all ages, the advertisers have used sex appeal, freedom and the concept of women rising above the traditional roles to appeal to the sentiments of women. The advertisers wanted to explore the sex appeal of women in consumer culture. The editorial team at RED was right in not focusing on women in their 30s and 40s alone because demographics and age are no more critical in segmentation variables that marketers use (Thomas & Peters, 2009). The concept of self and larger lifestyle issues is more relevant, especially in advertising for women. Lifestyle and identity are well recognized psychographic segmentation variables. The advertising campaign of the magazine RED is to appeal to women who have the concept of the self, who like to indulge in themselves and who would like to have time for them. For the past three decades, the concept of the self among women has become pronounced. The self-concept is influenced by the cultural context in which the women live (Peters, Shelton, Thomas, 2011). The magazine is not a utilitarian product and, hence, rational appeal has not been used. Emotional appeal aims to positively or negatively influence the emotions of the consumer that should result in the purchase of the product. Some cultures support exhibiting emotions (AlbersMiller & Stafford, 1999a), and this magazine is meant for women in the UK where equality between the sexes exists. Moreover, UK scores high on the Individualism score as per Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Geert-Hofstede) and, hence, the advertising has been rightly aimed at appealing to the emotions of the UK’s women. The people in the UK are highly individualistic and carry their own unique self-image.
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Consumers are known to prefer certain colors for specific products. For instance, automobiles are
References: Albers-Miller, N.D. and Stafford, M.R., 1999. International services advertising: an examination of variation in appeal use for experiential and utilitarian services. Journal of services marketing, 13 (4/5), pp. 390-406. Albers-Miller, N.D. and Stafford, M.R., 1999a. An international analysis of emotional and rational appeals in services vs goods advertising. Journal of consumer marketing 16 (1), pp. 4257. Geert-Hofstede. United Kingdom. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 4 Feb 2012] Ger, G. The Delights and Discontents of Shopping. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 4 Feb 2012] Grossman, R.P. and Wisenbilt, J.Z., 1999. What we know about consumers’ color choices. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science 5 (3), pp. 78-88. Kates, S.M. and Shaw-Garlock, G., 1999. The Ever Entangling Web: A Study of Ideologies and Discourses in Advertising to Women. Journal of Advertising 28 (2), pp. 33. Mattila, A. S., 2000. The role of narratives in the advertising of experiential services. Journal of Service Research 3 (1), PP. 35. Peters, C., Shelton, J.A. and Thomas, J.B., 2011. Self-concept and the fashion behavior of women over 50. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 15 (3), pp. 291-305. Thomas, J.B. and Peters, C.L.O., 2009. Silver seniors Exploring the self-concept, lifestyles, and apparel consumption of women over age 65. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 37 (12), pp. 1018-1040.