One Last Note...

People are perpetually attempting to make sense of their surroundings. Narratives act as a platform for this sense making to take off, giving people context and meaning. This is why narrative is such a popular communication tool when parents communicate to their children. The morals and values imparted seem to make more sense when told with a context.

This is not too different when it comes to sales. With the amount of exposure to advertisements an individual is forced to deal with every day, it is no wonder that selling a product on basis of its value proposition is a tactic that is no longer effective. Instead, the audience needs to be engaged, needs to feel, and needs to want the product in order for a the product to stand a chance in the markets today.

What better way to do this than through the power of a narrative?

Steve Job's Revolutionary Story that took the World by Storm: the iPhone

So here we are, at the last week of our blog entries and we've decided to round it up with a bang. Over the past few weeks, we have introduced to you a number of advertisements and dissected their narrative elements to show how these elements have helped in the selling of products. However, the reality of the situation is that narrative tools may be employed outside of advertisements. After all, a sales pitch can take place at any point in time! So here it is, the story that Steve Jobs took that led to the entry of a product into an industry which was already wracked with intense rivalry, bought by 1.389 million customers within 1 year of its launch, and had snatched away 8.9% of the market with 24.89 million units sold by the end of 2008 - a mere 2 years after its launch: Apple's iPhone.

In order to fully appreciate the impact of the sales pitch, you must bring yourself to the time where smart phones were cumbersome and difficult to manage. A time where there was no touchscreen, where MP3 players were separate entities from their phone counterparts, and where phones were still just phones.

Now, Steve Jobs could have taken a different approach from the one he did. Like the countless number of sales executives that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, he could have simply cited the value proposition and benefits of the iPhone. If that were the case, the iPhone would not have succeeded in the manner that it had. Sales would have been slow.

Why? Well, how many potential customers would ask the following questions: "Why would I need a touchscreen? The stylus and keyboard on my current phone suits me fine!" and "Why would I need an MP3 player on my phone? My current MP3 player suits me perfectly"? Almost all of them would - Steve Jobs had created a phone that was unlike any other available at that point in time. It was something that was completely revolutionary, leading us to our next point: potential customers for new product categories do not know why they need a product.

It is precisely for this reason, that Steve Jobs had to employ the narrative tools that he did. He used the audience - us - as the characters of his story. At the beginning, he told a story about how we have been enslaved by the antagonists: the Motorolla Q, the Blackberry, the Palm Treo, the Nokia E62. "Smart phones that aren't all that smart". He begins to analyze the various antagonists and slowly, we begin to slowly realize how truly bad these smart phones are. As this dissecting occurs, the tension in the plot builds up. The audience agrees with Steve Jobs. Yes, those smart phones truly are horrendous. And then they ask the crucial question, bringing the story to the climax: Who can come down and save us poor damsels in distress from the evil that is the current smart phones?

POW! The revolutionary iPhone.

The plot truly was fairly simple:

1) Setting - Current Situation;

2) Characters - Us (Protagonists) and Available Smart Phones (Antagonists);

3) Plot - How available smart phones are inadequate;

4) Climax - So available smart phones are horrible, what choice do we have?;

5) Resolution - iPhone.

What follows the introduction was the happily ever after of how the iPhone resolves all the above-mentioned problems that smart phones were unable to address.

The story that Steve Jobs had presented was an introduction to his pitch. It was necessary for the audience to understand the context in which the iPhone is entering, so that we would see why we need the benefits that the iPhone provides. Moreover, Steve Jobs interacted with the audience with an engaging plot, motivating them to here out the salvation he provides.

Narratives are powerful. In this case, Steve Jobs' narrative had moved 24.89million people and counting. Earlier this year, Steve Jobs had recently presented his keynote on the Apple iPad. How many more people will he be moving?

Mac Vs PC

In this particular ad, you can see that the computers Mac and PC take on a human role. As we have discussed in class a few weeks ago, this allows the audience to relate to the characters in the ad. The ad, although has no proper setting and "climax", we are still able to see that there is some story going on in the ad. As we have mentioned in previous posts, this way of personifying an inanimate object is a great way for a brand to become associated with human traits and therefore seen as more personal to the audience watching the ad.

These computers, with their human traits, allow the audience to feel the same emotions that the computers feel. In this case, we feel sympathetic towards PC since he has to go for a major surgery to change his OS. We all know that the OS change is the biggest thing for a computer and alot of Windows users were very bothered by the fact that it takes so much to change just one operating system. AND. its fear of "death" is also one of the biggest fears for windows users when they change their OS as there is a possibility that they may have to get a whole new PC. Mac plays on that fear and makes fun of it.

Mac also uses humour to make sure that the audience remembers the ad. For many of the previous ads that we have shown, it is clear that humour really helps brand recall. In fact, this ad has been so popular that many people parody the ad and post them up on Youtube.

Story telling like that using just two characters that represent one of the most important inanimate objects creates a really interestingly new combination for the audience. It not only makes them laugh at the ad, but think about how we treat the computers. The humanization is definitely a big part of how this ad works and next time i change computer, i will make sure that my mac doesn't suffer.

The Truth About Cosmetics Ads

Everyone loves parodies. Here’s one for you to enjoy!

Commercials are used to convince consumers to buy a company’s product. This parody, though not a real advertisement, shows exactly how they are used to tell STORIES to entice viewers. The video itself is more of an exposition than a narrative, but I think it is relevant to our topic as it is cleverly used to show how commercials (narratives) make use of tools of narrative to sell a product. The fact that it is a parody of commercials makes it more of a narrative than it actually is.

The narrators used in this video are average-looking girls who are nobodies. This deliberate selection of characters convinces the audience that they are speaking for them and like them. We compare them to the celebrities who hog our TV screens and we are likely to trust them more. Here, we see that advertisements for cosmetics use characters who are epitomes of beauty so that they themselves can be a proof of the product. Interestingly, ‘heroes’ used in this video are different from the ‘heroes’ used in commercials because they advocate different messages – truth, as compared to skin-deep beauty.

Sardonicism is evident – the ‘characters’ talk in an upbeat tone (like in commercials) which mocks at the too-honest information they are relating to the audience. A stark contrast is also brought about when we see that they imitate the narrators in commercials we see on TV every day, but this time they speak the truth.

The fake settings used in the video may be a reflection of the low budget, but it can also be a subtle reflection of how commercials use settings which seem more real, but convey messages which are less truthful than what the video says.

One thing that builds up the impact of the message of the video is the compilation of micro events. It talks about different kinds of cosmetics, including mascara, shampoo, perfume and facial solutions. Rising action builds up to the climax, which is when we find out that beauty companies which appear to campaign for a cause (breast cancer awareness) are actually actively using toxic ingredients in their products. The horror is doubled when we realise that on top of exaggeration, cosmetics companies blatantly lie to us.

MOON FACE :(

Firstly, almost half of the commercial is narrated by a narrator. Due to the language barrier, it is difficult for us to determine if the narrator is of first or third person. However, no matter which narrator it is, it leads us to wonder why there is a need for a narrator when the commercial is actually self-explanatory.

1) If the narrator is first person with the girl with the “moon head” being the narrator, the incorporation of her narration would serve to illustrate what she actually felt over her skin problem.
2) If the narrator is the friend of the “moon head” girl, the reason for narration would be to express the friend’s (first-person) point of view of the situation and her concern towards the “moon head” girl.
3) If the narrator is a third person, the reason for narration would be to either explain the transition between scenes or to give a more objective view of what is happening.

Secondly, the commercial is able to portray the character trait of the “moon head” girl within a short period of time. The fact that a “moon head” is used illustrated that the girl has low self confidence because she does not even see herself as having a normal human face anymore. This is emphasized by the repeated scenes where the “moon head” girl starts screaming and gets dejected after she sees objects with craters (which remind her of her face condition). The portrayal of low self-esteem is commonly used in cosmetic commercials to entice audience with similar problems to buy and use the products to look better, hence boosting their confidence.
At 0.10, the point-of-view shot is employed to demonstrate the idea of the “moon head” girl being mesmerized by the boy at the seaside. Through the point-of-view shot, the audience is being put into her situation, allowing them to understand how she feels when she cannot master enough courage to approach the boy.

The element of suspense is also evident in this commercial. This is illustrated by how the audience does not get to see the boy’s face until the last few seconds of the commercial. It creates suspense and anticipation to a certain extent as audience would be curious to know what kind of boy would kindle the girl’s love and admiration. However, the suspense is dissolved by humour when the commercial reveals that the boy actually has the same problem as the “moon head” girl.

Not to forget, a stereotypical setting of the seaside is used to create a romantic air for the commercial. However, this romantic air dissolves into disappointment, illustrating the irony between the romantic setting and the disappointment (which is unromantic) that the “moon head” girl felt.

Thai Cosmetics Ad

This commercial depicts a setting that is not typical of a cosmetics ad. A cosmetic ad usually features models and the plot of the narrative is quite predictable- women feeling unconfident and having problems with portraying the best side of them. However, this ad seeks to be different from the rest and uses vampires as the main characters. The idea of using horror in promoting cosmetics is really innovative. We see that after the vampires’ attack in the car, a group of men appeared shortly, and they are probably vampire slayers. This is also not typical of a cosmetics ad as male figures seldom appear in them. There is conflict as the vampire slayers first meet the old lady and the audience may think that the old lady will kill the men. However, much to the audience’s surprise, the old lady was killed instead (and perhaps in an amusing way).

A greater conflict appears next, as we see the men barging into a room where the female vampires are. Suspense is created momentarily as we see the female vampires ‘disappearing’. Up till this scene, the ad is still very much like a horror movie and the audience are unable to realise that it is a cosmetics ad. It is only when sunlight is shone on the vampires and one of the vampires “survived” by applying make-up that the audience realise the objective of the ad- To promote Mistine double powder that has high SPF (therefore protecting the vampires) and whitening effect (making the vampires look white/pale/whatever).

Various filming techniques are also used in this short commercial- use of long shorts and close ups (especially the close ups on the vampires as sunlight is shone on them), appropriate camera movement such as panning, and the music used also helps to enhance suspense and action. The use of colours like red and green reinforces the idea of blood and evil.