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Application Paper

Alessia Sanchez

Salt Lake Community College

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Application Paper

The topic I have chosen for my application paper is target audience. The reason this topic

interests me is because I watch television all the time but, I had never realized that channels,

shows, and commercials work together to favor or appeal to a specific audience. In my paper I

will be discussing the characteristics of whom I believe are the target audience for the shows I

chose to watch and the reasons behind my thoughts.

The purpose of research for the first article was to find out whether brand linkage is

stronger when a commercial uses high-complexity humor and related humor, as oppose to

commercials that use low-complexity humor and unrelated humor (Van Kuilenburg, De Jong &

Van Rompay, 2011).

In this study there were 77 males and 73 females. Ages ranged from 18 to 75 years of

age and all educational levels were included (Van Kuilenburg, De Jong & Van Rompay, 2011).

The research design used was a field study. The researchers designed a digital test that

would randomly select 20 out of 100 commercials to show to each participant. The brand names

and any brand identification cues for each commercial were blacked out and removed from the

audio. Each participant was given headphones and a laptop that had the program set up on it, as

well as instructions on how to use it. After seeing each commercial each participant was asked if

they remembered watching the commercial before and if they did not, they would move on to the

next one. If the commercial was remembered, the participant would be asked whether they found

the commercial to be very funny, or not funny at all and whether they thought it was very

original or not original at all (Van Kuilenburg, De Jong & Van Rompay, 2011).
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The findings of the study were that humor complexity and relatedness are important to

identify brand linkage but the interaction of the two is even more important and stronger. (Van

Kuilenburg, De Jong & Van Rompay, 2011).

The purpose of research for the second article was to find out what type of impact

television advertising has on childrens diets (Kelly et al., 2016).

In this study the participants were Australian children from ages 10 to 16 (Kelly et al.,

2016).

The research was conducted with an online survey, parents who were panel members of a

market research company were asked to have their children participate in the study. The survey

had a series of questions regarding television viewing habits and the frequency of consumption

for unhealthy advertised foods. The participants were given points for each unhealthy food

consumed weekly in order to keep consumption scores and television viewing was grouped on a

data spread. Children were separated into two groups, depending on if they watch advertisements

or skip them (Kelly et al., 2016).

The findings of the study demonstrated that the children who watched more

advertisements also consumed more unhealthy foods as opposed to children who did not watch

advertisements (Kelly et al., 2016).

The purpose of the last study was to find out whether its true that an advertisement with

a positive frame and sad tone is more persuasive than an advertisement with a negative frame

and a sad tone (Veer, Pervan 2008).

Participants who volunteered for this study were from an undergraduate marketing class

in New Zealand (Veer, Pervan 2008).

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Researchers told participants that the purpose of the study was to find out how television

programs and commercials are evaluated by different people. Participants watched an episode

from a series, followed by a commercial and were then told to fill out a questionnaire. Some of

the participants were shown a commercial that portrayed a positive tone and the others a

commercial that portrayed a negative tone (Veer, Pervan 2008).

The findings of this study concluded that ads with a positive affective tone and a negative

frame, produce a better attitude and is more persuasive (Veer, Pervan 2008)

The first show I decided to watch was Here Comes Honey Boo Boo which is a reality

show that is shown on the TLC channel. I believe that the commercials played during this show

are targeted towards a woman that could be in her late 20s or early 30s and she is most likely a

new mother or has very young children. She is probably a stay at home mother so she takes care

of the children as well as the home. She enjoys cooking and having a healthy diet, she enjoys

making crafts and family is one of the most important things to her. The reason I believe that this

is the targeted audience is because the commercials shown would appeal a lot to a younger

mother who worries about her family. There were commercials for cleaning supplies, laundry

detergents and healthy snacks, not only for adults but also for children. The people in the

commercials were also mainly women and most of them had young children running around the

house.

The second show I decided to watch was a movie (cartoon) called Strange Magic that was

shown on Disney Channel. I believe that the target audience for this show is a boy ranging

between the ages of 6 and 13. He likes spending time with his family, he enjoys super heroes,

cars, music and having or spending time with his friends. The reason I believe that this is the
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target audience for this show is because a lot of the commercials were for other shows or movies

that would appeal more to boys than girls. The commercials were about Guardians of the Galaxy,

the movie Cars, and some other shows that I have never heard of but it looked like the genre for

them would be action. The kids shown on the commercial were mainly boys and the reason I

chose 6 and 13 as the age range is because a lot of the commercials also showed families and

they talked a lot about imagination which made me think that the kids were still very young and

innocent.

The third show I chose was a soap opera called La Mujer del Vendaval. This soap opera

was in Spanish and it was shown on a channel called Univision. From the commercials I saw

during this show, I believe that the target audience for this show is a Latin middle aged mother of

young adults and she ranges between the ages of 40 to 60. She likes drama, likes to cook, spend

time with her family and she enjoys dancing. Other than the reason my mother watches this

channel, I also believe that this would be the target audience because the channel is in Spanish.

A lot of the commercials dealt with either women or family matters such as shampoo, lotions

used as anti-aging products and cleaning supplies. There were also a lot of commercials that

talked about food and they showed women cooking or serving the family. There were quite a few

commercials for other soap operas and also music.

The fourth show I chose to watch was the game between the Clippers and the Jazz shown

on NBATV. The target audience for this game is a man ranging between the age of 25 and 40. He

likes cars, video games, and barbecuing. He owns a car, his own house, he likes to spend time

with his family but he also enjoys watching a lot of sports. He likes to be healthy but also eats

greasy foods every now and then, he also enjoys having a drink with his friends. The reason I
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believe that this is the target audience is because the commercials showed a lot of male related

products such as barbecues, male sports clothing and alien killing video games. There were also

a lot of commercials for cars, car insurance and home insurance. A lot of the commercials dealt

with sports and the rest of the commercials were for alcoholic beverages and they showed men

drinking, there were very few women, if any, in all of the commercials.

The last show I chose to watch was the Fresh Prince of Bel Air which is a sitcom during

prime time. The target audience for this show is a young adult ranging in the ages between 18

and 30, it could also be a woman or man. This individual likes music, food, comedy and

watching movies. They still live with their parents and are most likely going to college or are

thinking about the future. They worry a lot about their health, they like spending time with their

friends and like to travel. The reason I believe that this is the target audience is because the

commercials were focused a lot on things younger audience would enjoy. Most of the

commercials were uni-sex and they showed just as many women as men so it was not bias

towards a specific gender. A lot of the commercials were for clothing that this people in this age

range usually wear, such as hoodies, t-shirts and sneakers. There were commercials that talked

about the future and college programs so this makes me think that this target audience would be

recently getting out of high school or maybe they are in college, this can also mean that they are

most likely still living with their parents because college can be pricy. There were also a lot of

commercials that dealt a lot with health like water bottles and low calorie foods, many of them

were also focused a lot on fitness.

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References

van Kuilenburg, P., de Jong, M. T., & van Rompay, T. L. (2011). 'That was funny but what was
the brand again?' Humorous television commercials and brand linkage. International Journal Of
Advertising: The Quarterly Review Of Marketing Communications, 30(5), 795-814. doi:10.2501/
IJA-30-5-795-814

Kelly, B., Freeman, B., King, L., Chapman, K., Baur, L. A., & Gill, T. (2016). Television
advertising, not viewing, is associated with negative dietary patterns in children. Pediatric
Obesity, 11(2), 158-160. doi:10.1111/ijpo.12057

Veer, E., & Pervan, S. (2008). How the tone and wording of advertisements interact.
International Journal Of Advertising: The Quarterly Review Of Marketing Communications,
27(2), 191-207.