Research Paper on Beauty of Imagery in Marketing and Advertising

Introduction

Beauty is an abstract word whose definition troubles people. However, the same people can tell what is beautiful if and when they see it and are actively in search of beauty. That simple statement means that it is important to add beauty in whatever advertising campaign as it makes it more appealing and easier to find. Human beings are conditioned to look for beauty in all aspects of life (Kaminis 7). Making an advertisement beautiful not only makes it easier for people but gives the advertised product or service an undue advantage over its competitors in the industry. In the end, it is all about increasing recognition which affects the volume of sales and the final profitability (Englis et al. 52-61). This paper aims at explaining why advertising, marketing, and all media outlets present particular images as being beautiful.

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Advertisement and marketing are tools of communication found within the sales element of an organization. Indeed, they involve the use of all forms of communication to make known about particular products or services that they are selling and promoting (Mann 12). Their main aim is to inform consumers (both existing and potential) about an organization's products and services and to some extent, enhance the image of the company. They point out and create a need for their particular products and services and give demonstrations about their usage. They are also the outlet through which new products and services are announced and marketed (Stephens 144). Advertising and marketing are also aimed at giving an undue advantage of a company's products and services over the competition and make a name for itself in the market. It is, therefore, important that the advertisement is able to capture the market and the use of imagery has been identified as one of the most effective techniques of marketing and advertisement (Mann 13-17).

It is important to explain the use of imagery in advertising before delving into the beauty aspect of the same. Indeed, in this generation we live in, society has been inclined over the years to expect the use of visuals in advertising and marketing (Bower 6). This expectation means that every advertisement campaign or any marketing campaign that is in existence right now has some element of imagery used to depict their products or services. These run on all media outlets that are present in the world. Imagery has been used since the existence of man (Bayer 3). Indeed, the first human beings (our ancestors), according to science used images to communicate with each other. These have evidence of carved images of animals in caves where they used to live. It means that even before manfully evolved, they understood the simplicity of conveying a message using images and this simplicity is what advertising and media campaigns aim at achieving (STEPHENS 138-144).

Research at 3M Corporation established that visuals or images have a way of communicating an image 60,000 times faster than any written text (Mann 54). This is because the human mind can decipher a message in an image simultaneously while looking at the image. However, if the image is presented in the written word, the brain decodes it in a linear sequential way that takes a bit more time to process the message (Beyer 5). It was, therefore, important to consider the use of imagery in advertising to pass the message fast. Furthermore, a survey conducted at the Wharton School of Business about the use of visual imagery in presentations established that two-thirds of the audience resonated more and were persuaded by a presentation that involved the use of both imagery and written text than those that utilized written words only (Mann 61-88): indeed, words are processed and stay in the short term memory space in our minds, whereas, images are directly taken into our long-term memory sphere where they remain for an indefinite period of time.

Having established image advertising as the best and simplest way of communicating a product, it became clear that there needed a way of making these advertisements not only communicate the product but also make the product appeal to the potential consumer or the potential user of the commodity (Kamins 10). Herein lies the element of making images more appealing through especially, the addition of beauty to the advertisements. As stated at the beginning of this paper, beauty particularly in advertisement and marketing is abstract and differentiates according to situations, products and services and most importantly, the viewer of the advertisement (Englis 49-64). Of particular importance especially in the advertisement is that advertisements only have a few seconds of grabbing a customer's attention. It is, therefore, clear that an advertisement needs to be powerful and capture the audience fast. It is why visual advertising is the best form of advertising as it does not require any more input from the product or advertising agency, but it can sell itself to the existing consumers as well as the potential consumers (STEPHENS 147).

The simplest power that an image can have is a beauty. Beautiful images are the easiest and most powerful way of holding an individual's attention particularly in the use of visuals (Bower 11). Beauty has a way of striking a chord in an individual's mentality and leave the same individual wanting more. The beauty about beauty in marketing and advertising is that it not only makes a good presentation of a product, but it is also that it leaves the potential viewer with the desire to see the image again and again. The more he/she sees the particular image, the more it is ingrained in his/her mind, and when he/she desires to have a product in that particular line, the first image that his/her mind will present will be of that particular product that is beautiful. It is also important for advertisers and marketers to realize and take into account that beauty being abstract means that a particular segment of the society will see it be beautiful whereas another segment does not see the beauty in the advertisement (Mann 43-78). This is especially true for products and services that have particular negative attributes such as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.

Historically, the biggest depiction of beauty in advertising and marketing that is still inexistent today is women. Women have been viewed as the essence of beauty in society and have been used in the presentation and advertising of all forms of products and services (STEPHENS 139). This is a depiction of how beauty and sex go hand in hand, particularly in advertising and marketing. Men have been programmed through these advertisements that if they use the advertised product with the beautiful (sexy) woman, they would probably end up with such a woman (Kaminis 4-13). On the other hand, women desiring to be more beautiful are programmed to note that after using particular products and services, they could also resemble particular women or be more beautiful than them. Even though the discussion on the objectification of women particularly in advertising has gained momentum, more advertisements are being churned out depicting beautiful women using particular products and services. Indeed, it is clear that women are a major element of advertising and even though society may want to have the use of women particularly in derogatory advertising, women will still play a role in advertising now and in the future. It is in the same regard that good looking men are used to advertise particular products and services. Simply put, sex sells (Bayer 2).

Conclusion

In conclusion, beauty is an important element of advertising and marketing that has been in existent since the advent of advertising. Imagery communicates messages way faster than any other type of advertisement and is the best form of advertising because they do not necessarily require any more convincing as the viewer determines whether the advertisement has sold he/she. Making an advertisement more beautiful not only appeals to the consumers (both existing and potential), but it also makes the company's product rival the competition. Beauty is also abstract, and one should conduct prior research to identify what the market determines as beautiful so as to have the best effects from the advertisement. Indeed, women have been described as the definition of beauty and have been used since time immemorial in the advertisement of particular products and services. Even though the debate has been rife about the same, more advertisements depicting beautiful women are still being churned out daily. It is clear how much beauty is important in advertisements and will remain an important element of advertising today and in the future.

Works Cited

Beyer, Alisa M. "Beauty Advertising That Gets Results." Global Cosmetic Industry, Feb. 2006, pp. 2-3.

Bower, Amanda B., and Stacy Landreth. "Is Beauty Best? Highly versus Normally Attractive Models in Advertising." Journal of Advertising, vol. 30, no. 1, 2001, pp. 1-12.

Englis, Basil G., et al. "Beauty Before the Eyes of Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music Television." Journal of Advertising, vol. 23, no. 2, 1994, pp. 49-64.

Kamins, Michael A. "An Investigation into the "Match-up" Hypothesis in Celebrity Advertising: When Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep." Journal of Advertising, vol. 19, no. 1, 1990, pp. 4-13.

Mann, Evelyn P. Advertising: Types, Trends and Controversies. Nova Science Publ, 2012.

STEPHENS, DEBRA L., et al. "The Beauty Myth and Female Consumers: The Controversial Role of Advertising." Journal of Consumer Affairs, vol. 28, no. 1, 1994, pp. 137-153.