Evaluation

On my recent project, I was asked to create a print advert and a radio advert for a chosen brand.   I decided to go for the brand “Bella Me”, a local make up brand looking for a way to be recognised by many and grow into a bigger brand, aimed towards an expanding worldwide audience. I decided that this was the best idea as I had plenty of research to go off from previous units of researching into make – up brands such as MAC or BENEFIT.

I had done this for my previous units, helping my client create a local brand with a logo, slogan and colour scheme. Due to doing this beforehand, I’d already found out a lot about make-up brands, the most popular being MAC, and because of this I did aspire to go for something like MAC, using simplistic text and making sure the colour scheme wasn’t too complex because less is more.

My end products meet expectations and original intentions, following codes and conventions such as (print) slogans and fonts, also colours and my logo. Here is my finished print advertisement. My company is called Bella Me, aimed towards everyone, mainly those within the 15-26 age range, and predominantly females. I got my target audience through both primary and secondary research, finding out through my own research that it’s women who have more of a passion to use make up, seeing it as a type of art. I used codes and conventions such as using the logo to show a label of who we are at Bella Me. Not only this but the logo is memorable, simply initials of the company, yet people appeal to this due to it being so different and exclusive. Not only this but by adding a slogan of “Come for £5 off your first purchase at…” makes the advert a lot more attractive due to people loving having money off of their items. However, the real point of this is because if people go into Bella Me to buy something, they may end up finding it to be better than the rest and changing to become brand loyal to Bella Me instead of the typically used brands.

By using my own photo in my advert I was able to get the image I was wanting, by using different angles and different lightings. This helped when coming to edit the final thing because I then knew exactly what I wanted to do with the final picture, and how I was going to do it.

I used the AIDA advertising model when doing my print advert, attention being from the difference in this advert and other ones, the bright colours attracting people and then leading to interest due to the deal used of getting money off, and then followed by desire of people wanting to try the product to see how it is, and finally then action being buying the product. I used this method because using my own research it was shown that the AIDA model is the most used within marketing (http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/offer-and-message-development/aida-model/ ),  and “a poll recently done by this researcher showed many marketers find it useful too, perhaps since we apply it daily whether consciously or subconsciously when we're thinking how to make our marketing communications effective.” So by using this method I know that people will be used to this, making it easier for them to relate to the format. I would use this method again, purely because it meets its purpose of grabbing people’s attention and eventually leading to them buying the product, however if I was to do it again I would possibly try out the EHRENBERG model because people love to have free trials, and if they were to test my product before buying it then they may feel like it’s an easily trusted product. Not only this but many make up companies take people’s emails to be able to send them deals, and so Bella Me could do the same, sending out different offers such as 50% off when you spend £60 or more in store or even online.

When getting feedback from peers, I was told that my print advert was “well edited” and “will definitely turn heads due to it being different, like no other print advert out there”. However, if I was to improve on anything, I was told to add my slogan to it to link with my radio advert a bit more.

Not only this but we had to create a radio advert as well for our brand. I used many codes and conventions to make it a successful advert. I used Yorkshire accents so people can relate to it as it’s a local brand. Not only this but my advert complies to the 15-60 seconds’ rule, just so people aren’t bored of it going on forever. It has background music also. Background music is used mainly to be passively listened to, not wanting to be the focus for an advert, yet by using it for a radio advert it gives a sense of entertainment and people will be more intrigued to know what the ad’s about if they’re interested by it. Not only this, but the song is popular, Seinabo Sey Hard Times. By using this song I’m showing that my brand is powerful, unique and dominant. This song is popular, and so people will associate the connotations of the song to the brand, and therefore think of Bella Me as original and influential.  As well as this, I added a slogan to the radio ad. This then becomes memorable to people listening, and so every time they hear the slogan they’ll think about the brand and automatically know the advert. I got good feedback for this from peers, telling me “the slogan works well and will definitely be memorable” and “it confides to the codes and conventions so has worked successfully”. If I was to do it again I would improve the way some of the recordings went, as at points it did sound quite echoed, as well as being able to hear sighs after every word. However other than that I feel as though it went well for me.

 

When doing this project, I was always doing my own research, finding out what people wanted to see and what they were attracted to. Not only this but also finding out the rights and wrongs in the way to compose a radio advert. I took part in group discussions, asking them what they’d like to see and what they’d like to hear so I could then take into consideration what people want. I had several different attempts at making a print advert, shown below, and so I asked peers which they would be more drawn to, and in result, I was told to go for the one I chose in the end. The reason for this is because it “stands out”, and is “aesthetically pleasing”, as well as being “nice to look at”. By going for the print advert that other people see to be the best I’m therefore making sure I will attract my target audience so it’ll then get a lot more attention as oppose to getting none. I wanted to exceed expectations, which is why I decided to take the photos myself. By taking the photos myself I knew what angles I wanted, what effect I wanted and what I wanted it to look like, making it easier to edit on Photoshop.

I believe I had issues using the microphone technology. I was new to this and so didn’t quite know how to work it completely. However, most of my recordings went well, yet a couple could be improved as I know I need to hold the mic further away from the person talking rather than having it close to them, as that’s why you could hear the heavy breathing. Another issue I faced was putting the audio clips together. Due to this software being new to me I wasn’t quite sure on how to work it, however I got a tutorial, and researched how to work it and how to do certain things such as raising the volume and lowering the volume, which therefore helped me overcome the struggle I initially had.

To meet the deadlines and organise myself I’d go home and do more of my work to keep on top of it, trying to get it to the best it could be. By doing this I wasn’t panicking about work I hadn’t done because I knew I’d have done it at either college or work. I also managed my time well, making sure I was giving enough time for doing my blog, print and radio adverts, sharing it out equally between them all.

I was contacting my client a lot throughout the unit, asking her what she wanted the print ad and radio ad to look like so I knew she’d like it for her brand. She told me how she wanted them, wanting them to be edgy and using the same colours (red, black and white) so that I was consistent. I was professional in my approach, keeping in contact with her and always asking her what she wanted, as well as giving my own suggestions.

I believe a strength of my final product is how they both link in together. Although one is a radio and one is a print, you can link them together easily for their sophistication and power. Not only this but I feel a strength I also had was communicating with both my client and my peers to make sure I was giving them what they wanted. If I was to improve anything I think I’d improve my radio advert, making it a bit shorter and re-recording certain audios to make sure they’re perfect.

Radio script

Here are my two radio advert scripts, both being different from one another. The first is a conversation between 4 people, complimenting one girls make up due to her using Bella Me. The second script however is 3 people using certain words to describe Bella Me, but not declaring what the product is until later on in the radio advert. I ended up going for the second one, just due to it being unique. Not only this but it's uses the codes and conventions needed, such as having a track playing in the background and it being 15-60 seconds long. Not only this, but it uses persuasive language by using words that make people want to buy a product.

I preferred this one over a conversation as conversations are quite common within advertisements, and so by mine being different it makes it stand out, leading people to listen to see what it's all about. As well as this, it fits into the song in the background, making it easy to fit the words to the lyrics. Choosing a song to fit the words was quite difficult as I wanted a strong song, which is why I chose "Hard times" because it's a dominating song, sang by a strong, independent woman, which links into how I want my company to be seen.

Mock up

 These are my mock ups of Bella Me, all demonstrating what my print advertisement would look like if they were to be on a billboard. By doing this I can see whether or not my poster will stand out and be easily noticed by the public eye.

By doing these, I noticed how my poster is unique, linking to how I want to portray my beauty product. I also used the same colours (red, black, white) which are my theme colours for the product so it all links in.

The print advert is aesthetically pleasing as well as noticeable so people are going to look at it and read the deal we have on offer, therefore leading to them wanting to buy from Bella Me.


The whole purpose of a billboard is to get a brand noticed and make people want to buy from it, so by testing my brand out on a mock up it just shows how it will look to bypasses.

  This is my print advert, using layering and different opacity levels to create an edgy, unique looking poster. I layered the text as well, using my original theme colours of red, black and white to make my title clear. I also included a deal of £5 off your first purchase. People may be drawn to this as they'd be saving money, and if they buy my products they could then end up recommending it to other people, therefore making my brand grow and become more popular every day.


This poster follows the codes and conventions, such as having the logo and an offer on the page, as well as it having contact details and different colours, as well as typography. If I was to do the poster again I would add in more photos of different make up skills rather than just focus in on an individual photo, just to show a variety of make up skills. By taking the picture myself I feel as though I could've included more of the face as well just to show as much variety as possible, however I am happy with it how it is and feel as though it is effective and achieves its true purpose.