Analysis of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Advertisement

Companies that need to market their products with the aim of making maximum profits usually opt to use advertisements. This mode of marketing needs the company in question to lay down strategies depending on the type of product to be advertised in order to assured of harvesting the projected profits.  In advertisements, such strategies should be evaluated keenly and implemented in order to persuade the targeted customer successfully to use the products or services and more importantly to gain a broad customer base. Samsung has created an advertisement for its product, Samsung Galaxy S4, in a skilled modus that uses impressive rhetoric language. The company has used different approaches to persuade people to purchase Samsung Galaxy S4. This paper will show techniques used to convince us to buy their product. It will also discuss how the element of rhetoric has been incorporated in the advertisement.

Use of appeals

The writer has used both Pathos and Logos synergistically in this advertisement. The use of Pathos appeal is evident in several occasions. This method is used by advertisers to create an emotional feeling of attraction towards the product. Both the consumer and the product become more of united. It skillfully creates the emotional responsibility towards the product. In this piece of advertisement, we see numerous occasions where Pathos appeal has been used.

First, we are shown a group of family members and friends at a graduation party; participants are swimming, enjoying nice food, and they are all having fun. This is meant to tell the viewers that those who own Samsung Galaxy S4 are happy. This scenario depicts the implications of a glamorous lifestyle, and the advertiser is telling the audience if they want to have a glamorous life, they should have a Galaxy S4 mobile phone.

When a young graduate takes a photograph of the roasted ribs and asks his father to smell it from the phone. The father smells the ribs on the photo and acknowledges, which creates the feeling of amusement in the audience. This action initiates conflicting thoughts within the mind of the audience. The viewers believe that they can do extraordinary things if they have Galaxy S4.It lures them into owning one of their own.

A young graduate has a new Galaxy S4 Smartphone. It implies that smart educated individuals should have this Smartphone. All the individuals who own the Galaxy S4 Smartphone are young and energetic. Therefore, the young audience is expected to have a Galaxy S4 because that’s what defines their youthfulness and energy.

The advertiser has also used Logos appeal by giving facts about the phone to persuade the audience to buy their product. Use of Logos appeal is first evident when a young lady takes a photo of two elderly couple and a young man. She then shares it instantly with a young man (who owns a Samsung Galaxy S4) through physical contact of their phones. The elderly lady is not able to share a photo using the feature because her phone doesn’t have that capability. The husband comments sarcastically “some Smartphone’s are smarter than other smart phones”. This is meant to tell the customer that they need to have Samsung Galaxy S4 in order to use that feature.

While eating, the graduate receives a call just by waving across the screen from above. His father tries to receive a call from his phone using the same method, but he cannot. Also, the ladies applying lotion on their bodies beside the pool   receive the texts by swapping her finger over the screen without touching it. Therefore, the customer is told that the GalaxyS4 phones are convenient as they make it easy to receive calls and text messages when their hands are dirty.

The viewer is told of the Galaxy S4’s ability to function as a television remote control. The phone also gives the user suggestions of the channels he can watch. Hence, the viewer is persuaded to prefer Galaxy S4 over the other types of smart phones because it can function as a TV remote control.

The entire clip shows the characters taking photographs and recording video clips of the memorable moments at the party. The advertiser is informing the audience about the Galaxy S4 video and photographic features.  This strategy is meant to give the viewer evidence that confirms the quality camera abilities of the Galaxy S4, hence a Logos appeal.

Rhetoric

The advertiser has used several technics verbally and visually to persuade us to buy their product. The use of pathos and logos appeal constitutes the methods used to convey rhetoric in the advertisement. The advertisement depicts young people having fun in what is considered as an element of visual rhetoric, that tells the audience having a Galaxy S4 is an automatic subscription to a certain higher social class. Towards the end of the advert, the narrator says “the next big thing is here” meaning that one should buy their product to be part of the next big thing.

Bandwagon

The advertisement tells the audience that if they don’t use Galaxy S4 they are left out. The advertisement shows all the young people having Galaxy S4 and the older folks struggling with their other brands. It tells the young people who don’t have their product yet that they should purchase one in order not to be left out among the old folks. The statement at the end of the advertisement tells the viewers that they should buy Galaxy S4 to be part of the next big thing.

Claims

The advertiser informs the viewers about the things that the Galaxy S4 can do and expectations. The advert shows how one can receive calls without touching the screen and its ability to act as a TV remote controller. Use of subtle statement such as “the next big thing is here” is just hype with no significant relevance to the consumer.

Sexual appeal

Sexual appeal has also been used in the advertisement to entice the audience to buy Galaxy S4 phone. Ladies in a bikini are shown having a good time at the side of the pool. To make it more appealing, they own a Galaxy phone too. This tells the audience that owning a Galaxy S4 phone enhances a persons’ sexuality.

 

Assumptions

The advertiser assumes that all young people desire smartphones. This is so because of the fact that the compositions of those who own Galaxy smart phone in the advertisement are all young people. It tells us that any young person is supposed to have a smart phone and for that reason the best smartphone to own is a Galaxy S4.

Comparison and contrast of Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhone six adverts

While Samsung has used both Logos and Pathos in their advertising, iPhone six advertisements has almost entirely used the logos appeal method only. Both Samsung and iPhone target the same market, but they use different concepts to reach their customers. iPhone dwells on the engineering structure of the phone ranging from the screen resolution, camera, and video capabilities, processing speed, structure of its casing and the embedded services (Apple). Unlike Samsung, iPhone uses figures, numeric percentages, and structural confab to entice the viewers into buying their product. Considering the large market that the iPhone gadgets command, one can argue that Logos is the most appropriate method of advertising products with technological background. This is because the Logos Appeal creates a long time trust between the customer and the brand.

Ethical Considerations

Looking at the pace at which the mobile industry is evolving, sustainability of the purported superior features of the Galaxy S4 smart phones is futile. For this reason, the same company will develop new products that have superior features even before the market value of the previous versions in circulation to diminish (Lee 173).  The same consumer will be bombarded with appealing advertisements that discredit the “older” phones, which were once better than all other gadgets. The created ingenious advert will convince the target consumer to abandon the previous gadgets and acquire the new ones.

Advertising is supposed to be morally neutral. Its influence on the decision of the buyer and the role it plays in shaping trends in any economy cannot be undermined. Advertisements are used globally by various companies in promoting their businesses. Various factors determine how well the advertisement is carried out. The use of better strategies and attractive methods is what makes a company become prominent or rather sell its product to consumers distinctively from other sellers. Besides, the advertisement is damaging to the society because it proposes that certain technological advancements belong to a specified group of individuals in the society.

Effectiveness of the advertisement on Galaxy S4 Smartphone

This advertisement is greatly effective because of the way it has made use of both emotional and logical appeal to get the attention of the target audience and to persuade them to buy the product. On the contrary, there are some noticeable loopholes that, according to my opinion should have been considered.

First, the viewer is left to speculate how some of the amazing functions operate. These features are demonstrated within a flash of a moment. The audience has no time to internalize and interpret how the functions are executed, and might, therefore, create wrong exaggerated expectations about the functionality of the gadgets.  It becomes hard for the audience to try and figure out how such functions work.

The second loophole concerns the trust that the advertisement creates in the prospect customer. The quantification of the Logos and Pathos appeal features can be exaggerated by the prospect buyer, creating expectations that will be thwarted upon the purchase of the gadgets. This might be a negative reinforcement for the customers who are disappointed upon finding out that the Galaxy S4 isn’t as it was depicted on the advertisement. Customers’ trust reduces on the brand that will be released in the future by the same company. Reducing trust among buyers is critical. Customers may look for other Smart phones instead of the Samsung galaxy S4. In order to avoid customer dissatisfaction; the company should develop superior performing gadgets.

 Works Cited

Apple, YouTube-Apple-Introducing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. 9 September 2014. Video. 16 December 2014.

Lee, In. Handbook of Research on Telecomunications Planning and Management for Bussiness. NewYork: IGI Global, 2009.