Target market of Herbal Essences
The printed Herbal Essences advert has tried to create a natural yet casual image with the use of appropriate colours and words. It also suggests that the shampoo is exciting, fun, and sensual. This is achieved by the usage of slogans, which appeal to the modern and self-conscious women. The mixture of appealing factors in the ad increases the threshold that the shampoo will attract. Some people will buy it because it is ‘organic’ and some people will buy it because they want to feel pleasures such as those suggested through the advertisements innuendos and the woman’s expression.
The television version of Clairol Herbal essences appeared in a commercial break during Footballers Wives, which is a program watched mostly by people aged between 15 plus. This therefore identifies Clairol’s target market as being younger people, i.e. older teenagers and young adults, who are very mindful of the way they appear to themselves and to other people. It appeared between nine and ten o’clock, which is then time when teenagers are usually watching television after have completed their school work. By putting the advert there, it is likely to be seen by the largest number of people from within the Herbal Essences target market.
Again, the promoters have not used famous people in the advert, which shows that the shampoo can be used by anyone. It also makes the advert seem less formal and more personal. There is again no specific colour scheme used in the television advert. This advert is set in a typical bathroom, allowing the viewer to relate to the situation, as it will be an everyday scenario for most people. The first shot is of a normal looking man cleaning his teeth. The image of the man is cropped to just include his torso upwards, allowing the viewer to clearly see his changing emotions. This is also the case for the woman in the shower, whose image is also cropped to allow the viewer to concentrate on her changing emotion, and on the bottle of Herbal Essences. The background is slightly out of focus allowing the viewer to concentrate on the man, rather than his surroundings.
In the first section of the advert, each shot lasts no more than 2 seconds, showing how quickly the Herbal Essences will change your shampooing experience and the emotions you feel. This is further illustrated from when the man’s expression changes from one of satisfaction to one of utter shock within four seconds. The speed of the editing creates the effect that the Herbal Essences is such a sensual and enjoyable shampoo that it works immediately to give you a pleasurable shampooing experience.
Just as in the printed advert, the link between the relationship between the woman and the shampoo, and real-life relationships is clearly shown. The relationship between the woman and the man is breaking down as quickly as the relationship between the woman and Herbal Essences is being built up. The man believes that the woman is talking to him, when she describes having found something new, but in fact the viewer of the advert is aware that she it talking to her shampoo bottles.
When the advert shows just the bottle of Herbal Essences, the camera shots are longer, which makes the Herbal Essences bottle most prominent feature of the advert. The centring of the Herbal Essences bottle makes it the most prominent image in the frame, just as it was in the printed advert. This bottle of Herbal Essences has small water droplets running down it, making it look as though it has been used, and the lather droplets trickling down it indicate that Herbal Essences is used frequently. In this particular shot, the background is completely out of focus so that the viewer’s attention is not diverted away from the bottle in those vital few seconds in which the Herbal Essences bottle is the only thing on the screen.
The shots are neatly cut, and fit neatly into one another. In this first section of the advert, the only camera movement occurs when the woman picks up the bottle of Herbal Essences. Here the camera zooms in a little towards the woman’s face, so the viewer can see the effect the shampoo is having on the woman already. When the man spits out, the camera zooms in to emphasize the shocked look on his face. Whilst the woman is holding the Herbal Essences, the camera also moves around so that the bottle is viewed from two different angles. This draws attention to the Herbal Essences bottle, so that its image sticks in the viewers mind.
The woman never looks directly into the camera, instead looking at the shampoo bottles. A voice-over begins after the man spits out. The voice over is of a young female, possibly in her early twenties. This voice-over fits in with the target market of Clairol Herbal Essences. The voice does not have a strong accent, which opens up the target market of the shampoo to include people from any region or class. The voice-over uses formal language to describe the shampoo. This usage of formal language creates the belief in the viewer, that whilst Herbal Essences is a shampoo that is sensual and satisfying, it is formulated using natural herbs that really improve the condition of the hair.
